In a dramatic letter to the UN Security Council in mid-October, Iran’s delegation to the United Nations accused a terrorist group based on the Iraqi border of inciting peaceful protesters with “vicious terrorist targets”. I wrote that there is
The letter comes after Iran airstrikes four regions in neighboring Iraq and sends more than 70 missiles across the border, making it the largest cross-border attack since the 1990s.
As a result, an estimated 16 locals, including children, were killed in northern Iraq, about 60 injured, and hundreds more displaced.Human Rights Watch condemned the attacksaid Iran had attacked areas with no military activity, including schools and some residential areas.
No protest leader in Iraq
However, it is also true that anti-Iranian militias and political parties exist in Iraq. Do they really have anything to do with the ongoing anti-government demonstrations in Iran?
“Perhaps some of the protesters will sympathize with political parties, but none of the leaders of the protest movement are affiliated with any political party,” Human Rights told DW. “The leaders on the streets have been predominantly the younger generation – women, students and teenagers. There is none.”
This is all part of the Iranian government’s attempt to “export” current political issues, confirmed Kamal Chomani, a Kurdish journalist and fellow of the Kurdish Institute for Peace. They are trying to blame outside influences and Iran’s Kurdish minority, he said.
There are approximately 10 million Kurds in Iran, many of whom live in West Kurdistan. The death of a young Iranian Kurdish woman, Zina Martha Amini, while in police custody in Tehran has sparked ongoing nationwide protests in Iran. The cry of protest actually stems from the Kurdish independence movement.
Hengaw said the security crackdown on protesters has been particularly severe in Kurdish-controlled areas of Iran, where 62 protesters have been killed and 4,000 injured so far.
‘Exporting’ Iranian problems to Iraq
With an estimated total population of about 30 million, the Kurds are one of the world’s largest ethnic groups without a country of their own. Many Kurds hail from the regions bordered by her four countries of Iran, Iraq, Syria and Turkey, and Iranian and Iraqi Kurds share a border, language and culture.
Chomani said what is happening in Kurdish areas of Iran will always affect Iraqi Kurdish areas. “Iraqi Kurdistan is the ideal place if Iran wants to ‘export’ this issue,” he told DW. [Iraqi] The Kurdish government is too weak to express a strong opinion on it and the Iranians already have a lot of influence over the Iraqi federal government [in Baghdad].”
In some respects the problem may lie in the export itself. “We were informed that several Iranian dissidents had fled the country and sought refuge in the Kurdistan region of Iraq,” Henggo’s attorney Firouji confirmed. “We do not know the exact number, but it is estimated that there are dozens of refugees in Iraqi Kurdistan right now.”
Reports from the region show a larger-than-usual military presence at Iraqi Kurdistan border crossings, and anyone not traveling for work is being treated questionably.More dissidents are invading Iraqi Kurdistan, they are likely doing so via a long-established, illegal road between the two countries’ long, porous, and mountainous borders.
decades of exile
In fact, Iran’s Kurds have sought security in Iraq’s Kurdish regions for decades after Iran’s Kurds all but boycotted the 1979 referendum that established the Islamic Republic.
There are more than 10,500 Iranian Kurds in Iraqi Kurdistan, who are registered as refugees with the United Nations refugee agency, but probably many more live there unregistered.
Iranian Kurdish political organizations that oppose the Iranian regime also have offices in Iraqi Kurdistan, and they are tolerated as long as they do not create political problems. These include the Democratic Party of Kurdistan in Iran (KDPI) and his Komala. Both he boycotted the 1979 referendum and promoted Kurdish rights as Iran became more democratic.
These parties also have military branches, some of which carry out missions against the Iranian government on the Iranian side of the border. One of his more militant groups, the Kurdistan Free Life Party (PJAK), reportedly has about 3,000 fighters in the mountains on the Iraqi side of the border.
It was against these groups that Iran said it had launched rockets, drones and charged. But as Chomani of the Kurdish Institute for Peace told DW, “This makes absolutely no sense. How did the Kurdish political party in Iran become so powerful that it could mobilize the entire country?”
As for Iran’s Kurdish dissidents, it is unlikely that their arrival in Iraq would be large enough to have a significant impact on the fighting force.
Most of them don’t even want to stay in Iraq, Firouzi pointed out. Life in Iraqi Kurdistan is often difficult for Iranian Kurds. Security is also an issue. There have been multiple reports of Iranian dissidents being assassinated or kidnapped and brought back across the border.
“The role played by Kurdish opposition groups in Iraq has been exaggerated by the Iranian regime,” Firouji said. [Iranian] Putting out Kurdish protesters at home and sending false messages to neighboring countries about how they are causing instability. “
Overall picture
There may be other reasons for Iran’s accusations and bombing of Iraq, according to Tamer Badawi, an independent analyst who studies Iraqi militias.
“Apart from the protests, there are reasons to understand why the recent Iranian attacks are also linked to Iraq’s internal dynamics,” Badawi told DW.
This would allow the Iranian government to put more pressure on Kurdish politicians in Iraq, he explained. Badawi pointed out.
The recent political standoff in Baghdad, where Iraqi Kurdish politicians backed a local candidate who opposes an Iran-backed party, may also have played a role, analysts added. support the candidate and [them] We are under pressure to ensure compliance with the new rules in Baghdad set by Iran’s allies,” Badawi said.
Iran has followed in Turkey’s footsteps by launching further attacks against a country it claims is an enemy of Iraq.
Turkey has been carrying out illegal airstrikes inside Iraq for decades, but Kurdish militia groups, such as the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), have threatened Turkey’s security, saying they are threatening Turkey’s security. is targeted. By July of this year, Turkey had launched about 190 Turkish military airstrikes in Iraq.
Iran has not fired that many. But observers have warned that Iranian cross-border attacks could continue. Iran has been trying for some time to give Iraqi Kurdish politicians better control over Iran’s Kurdish political parties. Perhaps to gather them in camps, disarm them, or send them to another country.
So far, Iraqi Kurds have refused to expel Iranian dissidents, but this could become a bigger problem as more Iranians start arriving.
“If the bloody crackdown intensifies, more people could move to Iraqi Kurdistan,” Firouji said.
“Given the ongoing protests and their violent suppression, [Iranian] The regime will attack Iraq-based Kurdish opposition groups again,” he warned, “perhaps on a larger scale.”
