NEWS CENTER – Journalist Barış Nasiryan said the Iranian regime could collapse if peoples act together, stressing that the only thing capable of changing the course of the current war is unity among the peoples.

 

The Iranian regime’s policies of repression against dissidents and citizens with different identities and beliefs continue to intensify. Peoples opposing the regime’s practices are being detained, abducted, imprisoned, executed or sentenced to death. At the same time, the regime is trying to maintain its existence by implementing discriminatory policies among peoples and creating grounds for conflict.

 

Iranian-Azeri journalist and writer Barış Nasiryan shared his views on developments in Iran.

 

Nasiryan said that historically, the roots of Turkish-Kurdish conflict developed alongside the founding of the states in the region, including Turkey, Iran, Iraq, Syria and Afghanistan. He stated that the process initiated by Atatürk in Turkey similarly began in Iran after the Constitutional Revolution. According to Nasiryan, this practice sought to spread a monolithic understanding across Central Asian countries, while the foundations of the modern state were built on assimilation policies.

 

TURKEY AND IRAN

 

Nasiryan said that under the Iranian constitution, being Shiite, male and Persian is considered the norm, and that Turks in Iran were ignored as “savages,” similar to minorities denied during Atatürk’s era in Turkey. He argued that different nations should instead live autonomously in their own regions, but that both Kurds in Turkey and Turks in Iran have been subjected to policies far removed from that principle.

 

“In both states, the supremacy of one nation, one sect and one language was established,” he said.

 

Nasiryan argued that nation-states inherently sow seeds of hostility among peoples, adding that discrimination between communities has been fueled from the Shah era to the present day. He said that in both periods, peoples were even prevented from receiving education in their own languages.

 

Recalling that uprisings against Khomeini were organized under the leadership of Turkish and Kurdish peoples, Nasiryan said the regime carried out major massacres against the peoples, and that the Kurds were the only people who managed to survive politically until today.

 

THE ‘FRONT OF NATIONS’ ALLIANCE

 

Nasiryan stated that the Kurds’ ability to survive until today was based on their organized power.

 

“Khomeini declared jihad in order to break the Kurdish struggle. At that time, while we were seeking a path within our own organizations demanding independence, we turned to the Kurds. During the period of Qasimlo, there was even discussion of a ‘Front of Nations’ led by the Kurds and including Turkmens, Baloch, Persians and Arabs,” he said.

 

Nasiryan recalled that the first attempt to create Turkish-Kurdish conflict in Urmiye (Urmia) took place during the Khomeini era, marking the beginning of a massacre process. He said the same strategy is now being used again to turn peoples against one another.

 

Pointing to the “Jin, Jiyan, Azadî (Woman, life, freedom)” protests that erupted after the killing of Jîna Emînî (Mahsa Jina Amini), Nasiryan said that this perception was completely shattered during that period.

 

Nasiryan said: “At that time, the Azerbaijani people supported the Kurds with the slogan, ‘Azerbaijan is standing, supporting the Kurdish people.’ This was also the slogan of the period when the Shah’s regime was collapsing. We broadcast that slogan on the radio at the time. The Kurdish people responded to us with the same slogan.”

 

‘IF PEOPLES STAND TOGETHER, HOSTILITY WILL END’

 

Nasiryan stressed that the only force capable of changing the current situation is unity among peoples.

 

He concluded: “If all peoples rise up, stand together and establish a federal structure, what could an Arab do to a Kurd, a Kurd to a Persian, or to a Turk? During the ‘Jin, Jiyan, Azadî’ period, peoples believed in this and rose up together. They all chanted this slogan. Some did not even know the slogan before, but it became their rebellion. They demanded justice, freedom and peace through it. If the Iranian regime collapses, then the very concept of the state in the Middle East will also collapse. During the 2022 uprisings, the regime had already collapsed in practice. That became clear during those protests. In reality, the continuation of this war today is part of the insistence on maintaining the concept of statism in the Middle East,” he said.

 

MA / Ceylan Sahinli