The Fate of 8 Iranian Kurds in the Hands of Barzani

Farhand Pirbal, a prominent Iraqi Kurdish writer and intellectual was among a group of Iranian Kurds who was protesting in front of the Mahate prison in Iraq’s Erbil against the continued detention of Iranian Kurds in the custody of the Kurdish provincial authority. Pirbal had threatened that if the detainees were not released he would set himself on fire.

Following this protest which turned into the leading story in Kurdish and online social media, Erbil’s police and the defense attorneys of the detainees that there was a possibility that the prisoners would be released in the next 24 hours.

The eight Iranian Kurdish political and civil activists who lived in Iraq were arrested on November 8 following their protest to the execution of Kurdish political prisoners in Erbil. Iran’s state-run news agencies reported that the detainees were arrested because of their attack on the Iranian consulate in Erbil.

Reports have also indicated that the Iranian consulate is unofficially the complainant in the case and has requested the arrest of those responsible for attacking the consulate building. Among the detainees are members of some Kurdish political parties.  Iraqi Kurdish newspapers had warned against the possible return of the Kurds to Iran.

Members of the campaign for the release of the Kurds say that Iran wants all of those individuals whose images have been video-taped in front of the consulate arrested and sent to Iran. The Kurdish regional government however has till now not heeded to this demand.

Pirbal is not the first Iraqi Kurds to protest the arrests. Others such as Ghobad Jalizadeh, a Kurdish poet, had also condemned the detention of the Iranian Kurds in front of the Iranian consulate and has called for their release.

Illegal Detention

The November demonstration in Erbil by a group of Iranian Kurds living Iraqi Kurdistan was to protest the execution of Iranian Kurdish political prisoners in Iran. As reported by the local media, the protests were peaceful and the participants marched towards the Iranian consulate in the city as they chanted slogans against the death penalty and calling for an end to executions in Iran.

The demonstration is reported to have ended at the gates of the park where it was originally held and that it was other individuals, who have not been detained, who actually attacked the consulate on their own. The family members of the detainees have said that the arrests are illegal and involve the wrong individuals.

Demonstrating against the embassies and consulates of Iran is a tradition by the political opposition outside Iran. During the last 30 years many Iranians outside the country have condemned the policies of Iran, particularly Tehran’s gross violations of human rights, in front of the country’s legations.

In cases where the demonstrations turned violent, the individuals have been arrested and tried by the local courts. In one case in May of 2010 a number of Iranian citizens who were protesting the execution of Farzad Kamangar and four other political prisoners in front of Iran’s embassy in France were arrested. The embassy filed charges against the attackers and a French court ruled the defendants to be not guilty of the charges the embassy had claimed. The proceedings of the court and trial were covered by French media, contrary to the detention details of the 8 Iranian Kurds currently held in Iraqi Kurdistan.

Those who oppose the arrest and detention of the 8 Iranian Kurds in Erbil argue that in addition to the illegality of the arrests, the Kurds had been denied all rights in the first ten days of their detention and had no access to counsel. They have called for a fair and transparent review of their case and the release of the detainees.

Detention for Political Reasons

The Kurdish regional government of Iraq and its political parties have historic ties with the Islamic republic of Iran and because of Iran’s economic and political influence, and its decisive role in Iraq, these relations have strengthened over the years. IN addition to a special relationship with the central government in Baghdad, Iran has also had a special relationship with the Kurdish regional government and holds talks with senior federal authorities in Iraq on a range of issues.

But while the official media on both sides only cover the official visits and talks between the regional government and the Islamic republic, many Iraqi Kurdish dissident media have written about the security and secret arrangements between these political groups and Iran.

Since the 1980s, Iraqi Kurdistan has been the locale for a number of Iraqi political parties opposing the Islamic republic of Iran. According to agreements between the Kurdistan regional government of Iraq and the Islamic republic of Iran, these groups do not have the right to engage in armed operations against Iran from Iraqi Kurdistan. But many of these groups have renounced armed conflict and through separate agreements with the regional Kurdish government do not militarily engage against Iran.

But despite their fulfillment of this arrangement, Iranian Kurdish political parties play an important role in the relations of regional Kurdistan with Iran. They are used as pressure groups by both sides against the other. Many observers view the detention of these 8 Iranian Kurds in Iraq to be part of such games.

The Response of the Iranian Kurdish Parties

While it has been said that a number of the detainees are members of one specific Kurdish group, no Kurdish group has till now officially responded to the detentions. It has been reported that senior officers of some Kurdish political groups have secretly discussed the release of the Kurdish detainees.

Because of the deteriorating economic conditions in the last two years in Iran, a significant number of Iranian Kurds have crossed into Iraqi Kurdistan for jobs. Since 2005, many have gone there for education in the Kurdish Iraqi universities and settled there.

There have been reports of illegal and harsh treatment of Iranian émigrés in Iraqi Kurdistan but the Kurdish political parties have not officially taken any position against such events even though they regularly assert that they are engaged in the improvement of the living conditions of Iranian Kurds in Iraqi Kurdistan.

Regular Iranian Kurds who migrate to Iraq are among the most volatile Kurds. They are not supported by either the Iraqi or Iranian governments or even by the political parties there. The detention of these 8 Iranian Kurds is not the only result of this situation. During recent years many Iranian Kurds in Iraqi Kurdistan have been accused of various crimes and have been kept in prison while there are no specific laws and rules government their status and protecting their rights.

The protests by Iraqi Kurdish writers and intellectuals over these policies and conditions, and particularly over the recent detention of the 8 Iranian Kurds, which have been growing in years, may be a start in challenging current policies and conditions which victimize Iranian Kurds in Iraq. Critics of the Kurdish regional government have argued that if the Kurdish government and its ruling party under the leadership of Barzani heed to Iranian pressures regarding the current 8 detainees, this will result in the continuation and perhaps even intensification of the meddling policies and pressure tactics of the Islamic republic of Iran in Iraqi Kurdistan and can even include Iranian shelling of Kurdish areas across its borders.