Iranian Kurdish groups warn of "humanitarian catastrophe"

Shafaq News - Tehran

Iran launched mass arrests and executions in the Kurdish regions following the ceasefire with Israel, the spokesperson of the Kurdistan Freedom Party (PAK) revealed on Wednesday.

Khalil Nadri told Shafaq News that Iranian authorities had detained hundreds of Iranian Kurdish citizens under what he described as "fabricated charges," including accusations of espionage for Israel's Mossad.

"Three detainees have already been executed, including a man from the city of Al-Sulaymaniyah [in Iraqi Kurdistan]," he said, urging the international community and human rights organizations to intervene. "The situation of Kurds in Iran must be tied to any future negotiations with Tehran."

Additionally, seven Iranian Kurdish opposition parties issued a statement warning of “intensified repression against Kurds and political dissidents” in the aftermath of the Iran–Israel war.

The statement reported that over 1,000 individuals have been arrested, and three Kurdish porters were executed without a “fair” trial, warning that detainees from the Woman, Life, Freedom Movement face imminent execution. (A protest movement that began in Iran in September 2022, following the death of Mahsa Amini.)

Likening the current campaign to the 1988 mass executions of political prisoners following the end of the Iran–Iraq war, the parties called on the United Nations and the broader international community to take urgent action to prevent what they described as a "new humanitarian catastrophe."

The Kurdish community in Iran, often referred to as Rojhilat or Eastern Kurdistan, is estimated to number between 9 and 12 million people. They primarily inhabit the western and northwestern provinces bordering Iraq and Turkiye, including Kurdistan, Kermanshah, West Azerbaijan, Ilam, Lorestan, and parts of Hamadan.