Members of Iran’s ethnic minority groups from the Ahwaz, Kurdistan, Khuzestan, Baluchistan and Turkmenistan regions also face increasing intimidation. Large numbers have been detained on charges of endangering national security. The days after the election result saw a series of mass executions in Iran’s border regions, viewed by many as a warning sign to the local populations. On 11 November, Ehsan Fattahian was executed after a ten-year sentence to be served in exile was increased to a death sentence by a higher court. We expressed concern at reports that Fattahian was tortured during detention, as well as irregularities during his trial. Many members of minority groups remain on death row accused of terrorism, treason, or acting against national security.

I came across this video showing how members of Iran’s Basij militia tortures Arab youths in Ahwaz:

This is an older video showing how Revolutionary Guard soldiers abuse a young man detained for having long hair:

Today I am travelling to Geneva to attend the 7th Session of the United Nations Universal Periodic Review Working Group, Iran have submitted its Human Rights Report (read here), which will be reviewed during this session. I will, together with two other members of the PDKI’s leadership, Dr. Miro Aliyar and Abdullah Hicab, represent the Kurdish people in Iranian Kurdistan. Representatives of other nationalities in Iran (Azerbaijan, Balouchistan and Ahwaz) will also be present. Something noteworthy is that out of the 66 individuals currently on death row in Iran, 53 are from Ahwaz, Kurdistan (21 of the 53 are from Kurdistan) and Balochistan.

We will hold meetings with representatives of several Permanent Delegations, Netherlands, Chile, Nigeria, US, Canada, Azerbaijan, Mexico, Bangladesh, France, Greece, Turkey and Bahrain, to attempt to persuade them to putt more pressure on Iran during the review of their Human Rights Report. Our first meeting is with John W. Limbert, who is the Deputy Assistant Secretary for Iran in State Department’s Bureau of Near Eastern Affairs, which I look forward to.

We will also take part in several side events, with the help of the UNPO.

On Friday the 12th of February I will, Dr Alireza Nazmi, Mr. Nasser Boladai and Mr. Adnan Torfi speak about religious Discrimination, representation in political bodies, economic discrimination and expropriation of land, arbitrary arrest, torture, judicial procedure, and execution, Linguistic and cultural discrimination and the media, and Violations of the right to Freedom of Assembly. Representatives of several states have said they will attend and it is likely that an Iranian delegation will be present.

We will also take part in a large demonstration organized to shed more light on the Human Rights situation in Iran, taking place in the Place des Nations, on Monday the 15th of February. Please attend and and show your support if you are nearby .

The Congress of Nationalities for a Federal Iran held its annual meeting in Stockholm on the 4th and 5th of December in Stockholm. Currently, 16 political organizations from Iran’s major nationalities (Ahwazi Arabs, Balouch, Kurds, Azeri Turks, Turkoman and Bahkhtyari/Lor) are members of the Congress.

The congress seeks to attain national rights for Iran’s different nationalities within a federal and democratic Iran. During the annual meeting some amendments were made to the internal statutes, and the power structure of the Congress was changed.

During the meeting a Central Council of 9 parties/persons were elected to lead the Congress. Shaho Husseini, head of PDKI’s international office, was elected to the Central Council.

The annual meeting also discussed a joint strategy to make the struggle against the Islamic Republic more effective. The meeting also issued a statement in support for the demonstrations on the National Students day (16 of Azar).

Furthermore, a series of new policies were adopted and the Central Council was also tasked to approach Iran’s religious minorities on behalf of the Congress to garner more support for the Congress. The meeting also condemned the mass arrests and executions in Kurdistan, Balochistan, Ahwaz and Azerbaijan.

And in another statement Motazeri also urges Iran’s different ethnic groups, in particular the Azeri and Kurdish nations, to demand their rights within the framework of the Islamic Republics constitution.

In the statement he says that, “according to paragraph 15 and 19 of Iran’s constitution, alongside the Persians all other ethnic groups [Kurds, Arabs, Azeris, Baloch and so on] have been granted their full rights” in regard to language and culture.

Motazari, who was the deputy of Ayatollah Khomeini, until a dispute between them led to Motazari being sidelined and eventually forced out of Iran’s power elite, have recently resurfaced as a spiritual symbol of the reformist movement.
His latest statement and the Fatwa he released are perceived as an attempt by the reformist faction of the Islamic Republic to try to rally the support of Iran’s different nations.

The reformist faction, and the Green Movement, is feeling more desperate due to the fact that their protests and demonstrations against the conservative faction, led by Ayatollah Khamenei and Ahmedinejad, have not gone outside of Tehran and other cities that are dominated by the Persians.

These attempts will fail as long as these people emphasize on preserving the Islamic Republic and its constitution. As I have written so many times before, the Kurdish people will not become pawns of any faction of the Islamic Republic. There is a need for real change and the front figures of the reformist faction will not be the ones that will bring about the necessary changes.

The Revolutionary Guard commander is according to several sources going to offer the tribal leaders different kinds of incentives if they accept to carry arms for the regime and patrol different regions together with the Revolutionary Guard.

The revolutionary Guard is currently attempting to arm different tribes in regions dominated by Kurds, Arabs, Baluchs and Azeris. In similar meeting with Baluchi tribes an explosion killed several Revolutionary Guard commanders.

Below are some questions that I have received during the last two weeks:

Q: The U.S. has intensified its efforts to solve the nuclear crises with Iran and, as it seems by media reports, Iran has responded positively. Do you think that the outcome of the negotiations will be positive?

A: Our party has welcomed the efforts by the U.S. and other countries to solve their conflict with Iran through dialogue. We have this position partly due to the fact that we think that conflicts should be solved politically, and partly because this new approach has pushed the regime in Tehran in to a corner.

However, the likelihood of Iran agreeing to halt its attempts to acquire nuclear weapons altogether is very low. This is the case despite the fact that Iran is taking part in the negotiations with P5+1. Iran has its own reasons to negotiate that have nothing to do with its willingness to halt its nuclear program.

There are several explanations for why Iran is taking part in these negotiations. One explanation is naturally that the regime would like to prevent new sanctions. Another explanation is that the regime fears that it could push China and Russia closer to the U.S. if it doesn’t take any steps that would give the Russians and Chinese a pretext to refuse to go along with any hard line against Iran. A third explanation, and the most reasonable one, is that the regime is attempting to defuse internal tensions by preventing the Western powers to lend support its opposition; negotiations is a perfect opportunity to shift both domestic and international focus away from the internal conflicts.

As for the possibility of the negotiations leading to a “positive” outcome, it all depends on what we appraise as a positive outcome. Is it a positive outcome if Iran, hypothetically, agrees to send a large portion of its uranium to Russia and France to be enriched? The natural question that arises is: who will be able to prevent Iran from continuing to secretly develop its nuclear program when it feels strong enough to do so? Even if we disregard this risk, it is highly unlikely that the negotiations will stop Iran from expanding its role as a regional power by waging proxy wars through different terrorist groups. Furthermore, Iran has studied the negotiations between the U.S. and North Korea, and they have learnt all of the tricks to buy time and prolong negotiations. A resent sign of this is Iran’s sudden objection to France being part of the negotiations.

The West needs to realize that the Islamic Republic derives the justification for its existence from an antagonistic and conflictual relationship with the U.S. and the West. The regime needs to portray the U.S. and Israel as external enemies. For that reason, it cannot develop normal relations with the international community.

Iran fears, above all, two things. The first is a military attack, which is highly improbable. The second thing, and its greatest fear, is that the West empowers and supports the democratic and secular opposition, which would lead to an end of the regime. Other “problems” are seen by the regime as only small obstacles to its quest for regional supremacy.

Q: Do you think that the Kurdish initiative in Turkey will bring about peace and what is the PDKI’s position on the matter?

A: Our party has expressed cautious optimism about recent developments in Turkey with regard to the Kurdish issue. The mere fact that the current government in Turkey has presented what they now call the “Democratic initiative” (which they called the Kurdish initiative at first) is in itself a positive move. But whether this initiative will lead to peace depends on several factors, and no one should expect peace to be achieved over night.

First and foremost the Turkish government needs to prepare the Turkish public for the necessary compromises that needs to be made for peace to be possible. One important point in this regard is to change the mentality of large parts of the Turkish people regarding their perception of the Kurdish people and the Kurdish political parties, especially the PKK (which is the dominant party in the Turkish part of Kurdistan.) Successive Turkish governments have worked hard to make “terrorism” synonymous with organized struggle for Kurdish rights.

Changing attitudes like these will be hard but pivotal to achieve lasting peace and a just settlement. Furthermore, the Turkish government needs to accept the Kurdish political parties as their counterpart and take their demands seriously and be ready to make necessary compromises.

I believe that the Kurdish political parties, especially the PKK, have shown that they are ready to end this conflict and that they are ready to make compromises. It is now up to the government of Turkey to respond in an appropriate manner and resist the pressure from radical nationalist groups. These groups, if given to much space, will endanger the long-term interests of Turkey. And the Kurdish nation, in all parts of Kurdistan, follows the developments in Turkey and is expecting democratic change and peace.

Q: Following the killing of several Revolutionary Guard members by Jundullah, Western media outlets have written about the situation in Sistan- Balouchistan. Does an ethnic conflict exist in Iran or is it a conflict between Sunnis a Shiites?

A: One cannot speak of the existence of “ethnic conflict” in Iran in the sense that the country’s national and religious groups are antagonistic toward each other as in some other parts of the world where there are “ethnic conflicts.” However, in spite of the fact that Iran is a multinational country, one ethnic group or nation, the Persians, are privileged in the sense that only the Persian language is the official language of the country, only Persian history is thought in the schools and their religion is state religion etc.

At the same time, Kurds, Arabs, Turks, Baluchs and so on are discriminated and systematically oppressed by the state. So the Islamic Republic is actually engaged in undeclared “ethnic conflicts” with Iran’s non-Persian nations and religious groups. For example, Jundullah said in a statement that the bombing attack against the Revolutionary Guards was a response to the “crimes of the Iranian regime against the Baluchi people; the unarmed and oppressed, who everyday loses a number of its children to the crimes of this regime, which just during the last year murdered hundreds of young [Baluchi] men […] These crimes left the Baluchi people no other choice except resistance and to use the same methods as the Iranian regime.”

Thus, the incident in Baluchistan is a result of the policies that the Islamic Republic pursues against Iran’s different nations and religious groups. Our party believes that Iran’s nations and religious groups don’t have “conflicts” with each other. However, the Islamic regime is systematically working to bring about “ethnic conflicts” in Iran. Even if the regime succeeds in creating ethnic conflicts in Iran, we believe that the only solution to such conflicts is democracy and federal arrangements, not war.

But according to different sources in Baluchistan, the real reason for the presence of the commanders of the Revolutionary Guard was to arm different Baluchi tribes. Last month the Iranian parliament “Majlis” decided that in order to prevent armed groups from attacking the regime, different tribes loyal to the regime should be armed so that they can fight the insurgents.

This policy has been in affect in Iranian Kurdistan during several decades, a policy that the first Pahlevi Shah introduced. In Kurdistan they are called “Jash”, but the regime calls these armed Kurds that fight the Kurdish liberation movement Muslim Peshmergas.

At least five commanders of Iran’s elite Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps were killed and dozens of others left dead and injured in two terrorist bombings in the restive region of the nation’s southeastern frontier with Pakistan, according to multiple Iranian state news agencies.