By Anahit Khatchikian
Iranian political prisoner Habibollah Golparipour says security forces took him “to the verge of death with physical and psychological torture.”
The International Campaign for Human Rights in Iran reports that Golparipour, a Kurdish political prisoner sentenced to death in Iran, wrote a letter before his recent transfer from Oroumiyeh Prison to Semnan. Continue reading
By: Gary Kent
Are we missing a vital ingredient in the debate about how to deal with Iran? The debate is stuck between supporters and opponents of bombing and those who argue over whether it is possible or not to contain a nuclear Iran. Yet we are consistently failing to understand the position and potential power of the people of Iran in this complex equation. Continue reading
By Geneive Abdo – Special to CNN
The speculation over whether Israel will attack Iran this spring is having an unintended consequence: It’s bringing Iranian opposition groups together.
About 50 activists, including university professors, lawyers and students now living outside Iran, met on February 4th and 5th at a snow-covered retreat outside Stockholm. They were the guests of the Olof Palme International Center, a group associated with Sweden’s Social Democratic party with a long history of supporting opposition groups around the world.
Kurdpa – Kurdish writer and translator Ebrahim Yunesi who was in bed in the last three months died on Wednesday afternoon at 85.
He would be buried in his hometown, northwestern city of Baneh in Kurdistan(Iran), as he had asked in his will.
Yunesi wrote and translated many different books in diverse fields including literature, linguistics, novel, short story, history and politics.
“Springless winter” is his own autobiography that describes his life from childhood to his release from prison.
A militia student with a picture of the Queen taken from the British embassy after it was stormed by hundreds of protesters. Photograph: Abedin Taherkenareh/EPA
November 30, 2011 – Several hundred Iranian militia students, protected by the regime security forces stormed and ransacked the British embassy and residence compounds on Tuesday in Tehran, apparently in response to new economic sanctions over the regime’s nuclear program.
The attack comes after the regime’s Islamic Assembly voted to expel the UK ambassador and reduce diplomatic relations with the United Kingdom following London’s support of recently upgraded Western sanctions on Tehran, The Associated Press reported.
More than 50,000 mourners marched through the streets of Qamishli, a city in Syria’s Kurdish northeast, to mark the funeral of Mish’al Tammo, who was killed on Friday when masked gunmen burst into his flat.
Security forces opened fire on Tammo’s funeral procession on Saturday after it turned into an anti-regime rally, according to activists. At least five people died according to the Associated Press.
‘Federalism is not a recipe for disintegration,’ declares DPIK chief Mostafa Hejri.
As one of the oldest Kurdish political parties in the Middle East, the Democratic Party of Iranian Kurdistan (DPIK, also known as PDKI, KDPI, and PDK-I) has experienced challenges of the sort that have crushed much larger political entities. Born in the throes of the superpowers’ Cold War rivalry after World War II, it was able to establish an indigenous Kurdish government — known as the Mahabad Republic — for a brief period in the northwest corner of Iran. While the party became a model for Iraq’s Kurdistan Democratic Party (its founder, Mustafa Barzani, pictured on homepage, was defense minister in the Mahabad Republic) and several other successful offshoots, with the violent defeat of its forces and ensuing mass reprisals against its followers in 1946, the DPIK led a largely underground existence until the 1979 Revolution. Then, within days of the fall of monarchy, the party was able to quickly assert control over large swaths of Iranian Kurdistan. Most observers credited the memories of the Mahabad Republic for the party’s widespread popularity in the region.
A 7.2 magnitude earthquake struck Turkey’s north east city of Van on Sunday, October 23, 2011 with Its epicenter 35 km in north west of Van province, and shocks being felt as far as Orumieh and Duhok.
According to latest reports, the earthquake has caused massive destructions in several Kurdish cities in Turkey resulting in the death and injury of hundreds and the casualty tolls are even expected to be higher.
On twentieth anniversary of assassination of Vienne Martyrs- Dr. Abdulrahman Ghasemlou, secretary general of Kurdistan Democratic Party of Iran and his comrades, Abdoulah Ghaderi Azar member of central committee and Dr. Fazel Rasoul friend of KDPI, in London a ceremony were held in their memory.
The ceremony has been taken place on 26th of July 2009 and attended representatives of Iranian and Kurdish parties.
Ceremony started by Kurdistan national anthem and one minute silence in memory of all martyrs of party and people of Kurdistan and their leader Dr. Ghasemlou and then a brief article by Ms Yasamin Alikia and Akam Rahimi, regarding life of Dr. Ghasemlou was read in both Farsi and Kurdish.