Iran’s Revolutionary Guards in Iranian Kurdistan, 2016. Photo: MEHR
SINE, Iranian Kurdistan,— In the clashes erupted in Divandarreh region in Iranian Kurdistan (Rojhelat) on Tuesday, a number of Iran’s Islamic revolution Guards Corps (IRGC) forces and some members of an unidentified armed group were killed, Tasnim news agency reported.
Following the clashes with an “anti-revolutionary terrorist” group on Tuesday in Divandarreh region, three of the IRGC forces were killed, an IRGC statement carried by Tasnim read.
In the clashes, a number of the “anti-revolutionary terrorists” were also killed by the IRGC forces, according to the statement.
Iran’s Kurdish-populated region in the west of the country, bordering Iraqi Kurdistan, has been the scene of deadly clashes between the Iranian security forces and the Kurdish rebels over the past decades.
Kurdish armed groups, such as PJAK, Komala and KDPI have been in conflict with the Iranian government for decades, and are seeking greater autonomy in Iranian Kurdistan. These armed Kurdish groups are widely spread across the 60-kilometer border with neighboring Iraqi Kurdistan region.
Since 2004 the PJAK (Partiya Jiyana Azad a Kurdistane) took up arms to establish a semi-autonomous Kurdish regional entities or Kurdish federal states in Iran. The PJAK has more than 3,000 armed militiamen, half the members of PJAK are women.
PJAK, one of the most active Kurdish group in Iranian Kurdistan, is a member of the Kurdistan Democratic Confederation (Koma Civaken Kurdistan or KCK), which is an alliance of Kurdish groups and divisions led by an elected Executive Council.
Ever since its emergence in 1979 the Islamic regime imposed discriminatory rules and laws against the Kurds in all social, political and economic fields.
Iran’s Kurdish minority live mainly in the west and north-west of the country. They experience discrimination in the enjoyment of their religious, economic and cultural rights.
Parents are banned from registering their babies with certain Kurdish names, and religious minorities that are mainly or partially Kurdish are targeted by measures designed to stigmatize and isolate them.
Kurds are also discriminated against in their access to employment, adequate housing and political rights, and so suffer entrenched poverty, which has further marginalized them.
Kurdish human rights defenders, community activists, and journalists often face arbitrary arrest and prosecution. Others – including some political activists – suffer torture, grossly unfair trials before Revolutionary Courts and, in some cases, the death penalty.
Estimate to over 12 million Kurds live in Iranian Kurdistan.
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