Bobby Ghost, a blogger for Time Magazine, wrote about his conversations with his friend Na’il, who was unconvinced nonviolence could work in Iraq to topple the regime, weeks before the Iraq war in 2003. Na’il told Ghost that these revolutions only work if the regime is reluctant to use violence against his own people.

But Saddam didn’t have a problem with this. “If there were a million Gandhi’s in Iraq,” Na’il said, “Saddam would send the Republican Guard to kill every one of them, and they would do it without any hesitation.”

This is actually happening now in Syria. While in Egypt and Tunisia demonstrations eventually worked, in brutal regimes like Libya and Syria this is almost impossible. The Baath-regime in Syria hit hard against the demonstrations and killed hundreds of civilians with the army and tortured and imprisoned thousands of civilians. Its now still unclear which direction Syria is going, but so far a regime change is unlikely.
At the moment it seems that a regime change in Syria is almost impossible without outside intervention or splits within the Syrian army or government, which is unlikely. The useless proclamations that Assad lost its legitimacy because his use of violence and killing hundreds of Syrians is useless. For legitimacy you need to be elected by your people. The Syrian regime was never build on legitimacy, but on sheer brutal force and military coups.

A Syrian Kurdish friend of mine therefore agreed with me that only outside intervention can get rid of Assad or an armed uprising supported by outside forces. Syria is not a puppet controlled by the West like Egypt or Tunisia and is way more resistant to change than any other Arab states.

Saddam Hussein who had a track record of all-out mass repression against its own civilians, would probable order his army to kill all demonstrators. Just what now has been happening in Syria. Saddam Hussein also didn’t have any problems with crushing the uprising of Kurds and Shia in 1991 and killing thousands of civilians following the Gulf War. Today still mass graves are being uncovered in Iraq.

If Saddam would have the time to build up his military powers since 2003, he could easily suppress any uprising. He easily suppressed uprisings in Kurdistan and the Shia South with only a few Republican Guard units, while a big part of his army was destroyed and weakened after the first Gulf War.

For a regime change in Iraq or in Syria an outside intervention or support for an armed insurgency was and is needed. The opposition in Iraq could never have toppled the regime by its own. No matter if you disagree or agree with the Iraq invasion by the U.S. army and why the U.S. took the decision to overthrow Saddam (oil, human rights, imposing democracy or the threat Saddam posed to the U.S.). To get rid of real authoritarian regimes you need more than only a Ghandian-style approach.

Article originally published in Kurdish on Xendan.org

A lot of people still think I am here for journalism and give me subjects to write about. Like the artist Tanya Idris who has problems with the local government over his business or a poor guy who received money from a high-ranking government official to help his sick children for treatment. For a story you have to hear all sides and this takes a lot of time in Kurdistan. I have a lot of deadlines for my university and I need to find people to help with translating for my research and contacts.

Tuesday I heard a protest was happening in Salahadin University, but by the time I got there, I was already too late. Opposition media claimed some 100 protestors tried to demonstrate, but were stopped by the Asayish (security agency) and two journalists were arrested. A friend of mine who works for Reuters also went there, but also was too late. As a result I wasted my time, while I had a deadline for university.

A lot of people say protests in Erbil are impossible. First, because the KDP don’t allow it. Second, because the people in Erbil care more about their jobs. This while Sulaymaniyah is known for having a history of discontent and protests against the government. The opposition is reluctant to protest in Erbil, although lot of people say they are planning protests and there also rumours of secret student committees planning protests.

It was confirmed by the activist Ali Mahmud that the opposition had some plans for protests. Some opposition people were arrested before when they attempted to protest on the streets. Opposition people came to him and even offered him some financial support, but eventually he says the opposition was too scared and their main people are still in Sulaymaniyah. When he tried to protest on the remembrance of Halabja he was arrested. Some months ago he was arrested for organizing a protest in front of the Iranian consulate.

Recently people were speculating about a demonstration in Erbil on Thursday, but I didn’t expect any demonstrations, so I ignored it. For most events in Iraqi Kurdistan you have to be in Sulaymaniyah. Not in Erbil.

On Wednesday 23 March 2011 the Iraqi Minister of National Reconciliation Amer al-Khuza’e said that six militant Iraqi armed groups decided to join the political process. The Islamic Army, the 1920 Revolution Brigades, HAMAS – Iraq (a 1920s splinter group), the Mujahideen Army, the Rashidin Army, and the Shariah Commission of Ansar al Sunnah (an Ansar al Sunnah splinter group) are all said to be in reconciliation talks with the Iraqi government. Some people hoped this would decrease violence in Iraq. But the Al Qaeda affiliated group in Iraq “Ansar Al Sunna” (Helpers of Sunna) rejected this statement a few days after and claimed it would continue operations against the ‘occupier’.

One policeman claimed the recent attack which killed between 45-60 people and wounded more than 90 people, could be a message to the Iraqi government from the insurgency. Al Qaida wants to show that the insurgents will continue their operations against the Iraqi security institutions and the American forces, the policeman from Tikrit told by telephone.

Iraqi political analyst Ibrahim al-Sumaidaie agreed with this and told Reuters the same story: “It was expected that al Qaeda would stage a big show to attract attention after a reconciliation between the government and some Sunni armed groups, who were close to al-Qaeda,” Sumaidaie said. “They wanted to say that the reconciliation announced by these groups are baseless

The main suspect remains Al Qaida. The town of Tikrit is known to be a stronghold of the insurgency and the home town of former Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein.

The militants also managed to kill council member Abdullah Hussein Jabara, former governor of Tikrit who received the body of Saddam Hussein from the American army in 2006. His bodyguards managed to jump out of the upper floor of the provincial council building, but he refused, saying ‘I am not a soldier’. When militants reached the third floor of the building, they killed him. Security sources say there was no car bomb, but just the use bomb belts when police tried to approach the building.

The operation was well-planned and looked similar to an earlier hostage of a church in Baghdad in October 2011. Tikrit saw attacks and unrest before. On 13 March 2011 there was a riot in a prison in Tikrit. On January 18 2011, 50 police recruits were killed in Tikrit by a bomb attack claimed by Al Qaida. It’s likely that Al Qaidia is behind the last attack too.

That this attack happens after reconciliation attempts by the Iraqi government is not surprising. Attempts to spoil peace processes often happen. Although people expect violence to decrease during peace talks between insurgents and governments, this is often the opposite.

Conflict expert Stedman defines spoilers as “…leaders and parties who believe the emerging peace threatens their power, world view, and interests and who use violence to undermine attempts to achieve it. Spoilers inside tend to use “strategies of stealth” to undermine the process, while outside spoilers are likely to use overt violence. As for instance in the case of Iraq, Afghanistan, but also in Ireland where the Real IRA tried to spoil the peace process after a ceasefire of the Provisional IRA.

Its likely that more attacks could follow after reconciliation attempts by the Iraqi government and that this could weaken attempts for reconciliation with the Iraqi government. The same happened in Turkey when peace talks attempts between the Kurdish rebels of the PKK and the Turkish government were hampered by attacks.

Pic: Remembrance day for the uprising in Erbil (March 2011)

For instance in Kurdistan Kurdish nationalist parties fought against Saddam Hussein for more cultural rights or autonomy. But despite of this, there are a lot of Kurds who worked with Saddam and they are known as the ‘jash’ (donkeys). Also Iran and Turkey tried to use tribal militias or tribes to suppress Kurdish nationalism.

Even some relatives of the Kurdish president Massoud Barzani worked with Saddam in the past and Kurdish politicians switched sides now and then for political interests, disagreements with their rivals or pure survival when cornered. This is not something which is typical ‘Kurdish’ and also happens in other civil wars and conflicts. When I was drinking some tea in the Majidi supermarket in the Kurdish capital of Iraqi Kurdistan, a rich person walked by, with his family in fashionable clothes. My friend immediately said he used to be a ‘jash’, but that he now works for the ruling party KDP and gets good money.

In the civil war between the ruling parties KDP of the Kurdish president Barzani and PUK of the Iraqi president Jalal Talabani, both parties needed as much people as they could, therefore they accepted Kurds who worked with the Baathists and sometimes even with people who killed fellow Kurds. On the other hand, these ‘jash’ sometimes helped the fighters of the Kurdish parties in the war against Saddam as informants or managed to save some villages during the genocidal Anfal campaign by the Baath-regime. The jash or tribal militias created by the Baath-regime were also involved in the uprising of 1991 against the regime, but the uprising was crushed by leftovers of the Iraqi Republican Guard.

Some people told me a businessman I know was rumoured to be a Baathist in the past. He was always complaining about the Kurdish opposition, while enjoying his good relations with the ruling party KDP. His father used to fight with Mallah Mustafa Barzani, the father of Massoud Barzani. But this differences of loyalty within the family or nothing new.

This can be explained by tribal politics. Often tribes don’t bet on one horse to win and have tribe members on all sides. And political parties know they need the support of big tribes to consolidate their power. Even if they used to work with the Baath-regime they cannot risk their hostility. This was the same in Europe during the days of the Roman empire. The empire used this to divide and rule, replacing hostile tribe leaders by their sons.

Furthermore in non-democratic regimes often people choose for their livelihoods instead of actively opposing the regime. This also happened in the Netherlands, with a big part of the population being passive. My grandfather was shot because he helped Jews and anti-government rebels, but he was betrayed by his fellow citizens. In a lot of countries with regime transitions, the countries faced the problem what to do with the people who worked with the former regime. Often the highest officials were sentenced or trialed, while others kept their positions or lost their former power being shut out of access to political posts.

In autocratic regimes it’s often impossible to punish everyone in a transition, because most of the people were forced to participate. If they like it or not. Therefore it’s hard to press for ‘justice for all’ and for an foreigner without any further knowledge this might seem an unjust situation, but its quite normal in post-conflict regions, where everyone has blood or betrayal on their own hands or within their family. Therefore it’s the task of experts or analysts not to paint black and white pictures and generalize, but to keep the complex situation intact in their articles. This is nicely done by Martin van Bruinessen in his articles about tribes, politics and religion in Kurdistan.

Pic: unchr.org

There are thousands of refugees and workers from Iran in the Kurdistan region of Iraq. Some of them claim of harassment by the Iranian intelligence. Especially if they are working with the Kurdish Iranian parties like Komala or the fragmented KDP-I. These are forbidden in Iran and considered as ‘terrorist organizations’.

Last summer I tried to write a report Iranian Kurdish refugees and Kurdish Iranian rebels for a news agency and interviewed the UNCHR, Iranian consul some Kurds from Iran and Iranian Kurdish parties. Eventually I only used some of the information for an article about PJAK.

The problem is that a limited amount of refugees are accepted by foreign countries and if you can prove you have problems with the Iranian government in the Kurdistan region, there is a possibility you can get a refugee status in a foreign country through the UNCHR. Something which happened to an Iranian Kurd who got threats from Iran after translating something Iran deems offensive for a local Kurdish newspaper. He later asked me when I was talking with a professor how he could get a refugee status. The professor told him he has to get proof, like recorded threats by phone. Now he got a refugee status and he is safe.

There is a number of Iranian Kurdish refugees who are settled in Kurdistan and work there. They are ‘leftovers’ of the Iran-Iraq war. Refugee camps now look like settlements and the KRG build houses for the refugees. The same goes for Turkish Kurds who live in Makhmur. It reminds me of refugee camps in Palestine that look like neighborhoods now with houses and basic services. Most of these Kurds from both Iran and Turkey go to school and work. One of them is my colleague in a local newspaper and there Kurds working for this newspaper from both Iran, Syria and Turkey.

In one shop/restaurant an Iranian Kurd complained that his boss threatened to fire him for having a Kurdish flag, while he fled to Kurdistan to have more freedom as a Kurd in the Kurdistan region. But he didn’t want me to write about it, he was afraid to lose his job, so I don’t give any details.

There are some rumours spread on the Internet that the security authorities in Sulaymaniyah are deporting Iranian Kurds. Supporters of the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) claim Iran is behind recent anti-government demonstrations in Sulaymaniyah out of revenge for allowing a demonstration against Iran in KDP-territory. I don’t know if this is true or exaggerated.

In Suleymaniyah, a deported Iraqi Kurdish refugee (not from Iran) was very aggressive towards me because I wrote a column before for Rudaw saying that political refugees from dangerous regions within in Iraq or other countries are deserving a refugee status more than economical refugees from the Kurdistan region, which is pretty safe.

Despite of this a lot of Iranian Kurds are trying to use the Kurdistan region to get a refugee status or travel eventually to other countries. For instance the Iranian refugee Ribwar Mohammed, who I interviewed last year, lived for some time in Ukraine and claims to have paid money not to be deported to Iran. Later he went to the Kurdistan region of Iraq and joined Komala. Now he wants to go to Europe, but its difficult. Another Kurd from Iran is now in Scandinavia, although he could get a job here in Kurdistan.

It seems more Iranian Kurds will try to flee Iran through Kurdistan or try to work in Kurdistan.

A Wikileaks cable in 2004 suggested that the US PRT mission in Erbil was of the opinion that most Kurds accept the Kurdish parties to curb extremist messages from Imams, but that this sometimes can result in a backlash after an Imam who attacked Israel in his speeches, was replaced by an Imam praying for rain. Recent events show that imams refuse to be silent anymore and speak out in favour or against protests against the government.

Out of curiosity I went to recent Suleymaniyah protests to see what the people think about the new role religious clerics play in the protests. In my own country there is a big discussion about the role of Islam in Dutch society, sometimes leading to polarized debates. Religious clerics have been seen leading the prayer and making comments against the government, while pro-government media showed imams calling for calm and tranquility. An article will be published about this in the local Kurdish newspaper Rudaw.

Protestors told me they are pretty happy with the involvement of imams, while being negative about pro-govt imams. One of them, a girl, wearing sunglasses and fashionable clothes, said imams were part of Kurdish society. They don’t fear the involvement of imams nor that their involvement in politics will hurt their message. Something which the recently deceased Kurdish Sheikh Izzedin Husseini from Iran claimed about the involvement of religious clerics in Iran. He feared it could hurt the image of the clerics, suggesting this now happens in Iran.

Someone said imams would be pelted with rocks in the demonstration, if they would be pro-government and slogans could be heard against the Kurdish MP and religious cleric Dr. Basher Khaddam al-Hadad. I interviewed two clerics, Dr. Basher Kh. Al-Hadad from Erbil, who denied being against the protestors and saying he is against violence from all sides and Mohammed Nasrullah from Suleymaniyah. Both have a lot of respect for theologian Dr. Yusuf al-Qaradawi, who is seen as the intellectual force behind the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt and who played a role with his speeches against the rulers of Egypt, Tunisia and Libya. There are some rumours he is coming to the Kurdistan region, but its probable not true.

Dr. Jotiar Mahmood from the Sarenge Centre For Strategic Studies showed me it might be difficult for me to understand, because in the Netherlands religion plays a different role than in Kurdistan. He says Islam is a social phenomena and is part of the local society here in Kurdistan. He emphasizes that all political parties in Kurdistan claim to protect Islam and that Islam has played a historical role in Kurdish nationalist movements, as shown by the uprisings of Sheikh Mahmoud, Sheikh Saeed Pirani and Mulla Mustafa Barzani, the father of the Kurdish president and leader of the KDP.

Although the role imams play in Kurdistan is not something completely new, its clear that the Friday prayers on the square are something new not only for Kurdistan, but also for the rest of Iraq. Its clearly copied from Egypt.

In addition there is also a older traditional political role for Islam. There are also Islamic parties like Komal Islam and the Islamic Union of Kurdistan (Yekirtu). A source in the Kurdish Security Service (Asayish) told me that the Islamic Union follows that ideology of the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt and tries to gradually transform the Kurdish society in an Islamic state. He compared the IUK to the AKP in Turkey and said they have a program of three stages to gradually Islamize the political system.

The Kurdish Security Agency (Asayish) is tasked with monitoring mosques and fighting terrorism, while the police is involved in combating normal crime.

But Dr. Jotiar told me that most Muslims and Muslim parties adhere to Suffi Islam and aren’t not very radical and are in favour of democracy. Although there are also extremist insurgent groups like Ansar al-Sunna. Most of these political movements originate from the Islamic Movement of Kurdistan, which was founded in 1979 right after the Iranian revolution and still exists, but is split.

The leaked cable of the PRT mission in Erbil shows US officials here consider the region to be pro-American and considers Kurdistan to have a tradition of moderate and tolerant Islam.

While gazing towards a huge mosque and its surroundings from the Mount of Olives at the Dominus Flevit Church, a Christian guide told tourists that during his last days of his life, Jesus predicted that Jerusalem would be destroyed for not following the 10 commandments and the Jewish people would be expelled.

The city was destroyed by the Roman general Titus in April, A.D. 70. Currently Jerusalem is still a city of divisions, tensions and diversity.

While I saw Christian pilgrims praying for peace and singing about Jerusalem being a city of love and peace, I was thinking about the words of Jesus and how Jerusalem was destroyed and fought over several times before and now is also contested between Muslims and Jews. For instance Christians tried to conquer the city in the past to establish Christian dominance over the ‘holy lands’. The Dominus Flevit Church was build during the Crusader era, but currently there are not much Christians left, who are trapped in the conflict and pressured both by Israel and Muslim Palestinians.

Furthermore the city is much different from other cities in Israel. Unlike the city of Tel Aviv, which is much modern and homogeneous, Jerusalem is more mixed. For students from Tel Aviv, the city is just as foreign as to me. There are a lot more orthodox Jews, Muslim Arabs and Christian tourists in Jerusalem than in Tel Aviv, while in Tel Aviv the city is much more secular with clubs and beaches with almost no orthodox Jews nor Arab Muslims.

When you try to speak with orthodox Jews they avoid any eye contact with you in Jerusalem, since they regard you as impure or as Goyim [Non-Jewish unbeliever]. Some Arab Christians reassured me these orthodox Jews hate Christians as much as Muslims. While the former diplomat Lenny Ben David from the settlement of Efrat argued that Jewish-Christian culture is much more similar than Muslim culture. Which immediately reminded me of to the Dutch politician Geert Wilders who claims we have a Judeo-Christian culture in the Netherlands.

But that Jews don’t like Christian culture much is also understandable. In the Holocaust museum in Jerusalem there is a plaque talking about the historical enmity of Christians against Jews for rejecting Jesus as the Messiah. Sometimes Jews are also blamed for killing Jesus Christ. This hatred contributed to the genocide against Jews during the Second World War. But on the other hand the Israelis use American Christians who think Israeli is promised to the Jews by God for American and outside support.

When I spoke with an Orthodox Christian from Jerusalem he said both Jews and Muslims hate Jesus. He told me this after being convinced I was caring about the suffering of Christians in the Middle East, due to my stories about Christians in Iraq. He only forgot the fact that Muslims also regard Jesus as a prophet, but do not see him as the son of god nor do they believe he died on the cross.

But the stories in Jerusalem stories also have other sides. A Palestinian shop keeper told me that its forbidden according to their religion for Muslims to sell their lands to Jews. He probable didn’t understand that for foreigners these kind of words sound very similar to the rhetoric of the National Socialists in the Second World War.

But despite of his harsh statement, he was selling Israeli army t-shirts. One of the most surprising thing for me was that most souvenir shops are owned by Palestinians, but sell Israeli souvenirs. For instance they sell t-shirts with texts like ‘Don’t worry America, Israel is behind you’. The shop keepers argue that they also have to sell to Jewish tourists to make money. Some shop keepers have to pay 900 shekel (190 Euros) a month to rent the shops, which they think is expensive.

Palestinians claim Jews buy houses of Palestinians which are originally worth 100.000 dollars for 1 million dollars. A Palestinian shop keeper regarded these land sellers as traitors, criminals, and said they are a minority. But it looks like a lot of Palestinians sold their land to Jews.

What I saw again in Jerusalem that people tell you a lot of contradictory things, especially as a foreigner and that its difficult to grasp the reality. That is, if any neutrality exists at all in countries in which everything is painted as black and white, while often there are as many colours as the rainbow.

For instance one can talk about ‘the Christians of Jerusalem’, but there are 13 different Churches in Jerusalem and three patriarchs. They are so divided that a Muslim hold the keys to the Church of the Holy Sepulchre to prevent Armenian and Orthodox priests fighting each other at Easter. Its therefore smarter to embrace Jerusalem in all its contradictions and diversity, instead of making foregone conclusions about its nature.

During my visit to Israel and Palestine, I asked Mikhael Schwartz of the NGO Rabbis for Human Rights, if this is true. His organization works for human rights issues in Israel and the occupied territories, where Israel has a responsibility to uphold human rights according to this NGO.

Schwartz immediately said he agreed with the idea that human rights issues are politicized towards Israel. “This makes our work very difficult,” and added that some Jews tell him that ‘human rights’ are used against Israel. “This is weakening our security,” they say, according to Schwartz. Schwartz, who didn’t shy away from talking about human rights issues, suggested that human rights in other countries are much worse. “I lived in China and there are far worse things happening there.” Schwarz even says the Israeli army acts much better than the American or British army. “See how many civilians they killed in Iraq and Afghanistan.”

Still the peace activist says this doesn’t take away the importance of human rights. “We do this work because we are Israelis, Zionists and Jews. Its our responsibility to do much better and live up to our responsibilities. Its our obligation even to hold higher standards then the universal declaration of human rights based on our own religious theology. This is what guarantees our security and state.”

When I spoke with Palestinians, some of them told me the Israelis see both Christians and Muslims as Goyim (non-jews), and therefore Israelis are racist. He didn’t deny there are orthodox Jews who think in this way, citing as example, a ruling of Rabbis suggesting Jews shouldn’t rent their homes to Jews. But he claimed the Thora can be used both in favour of human rights and against human rights.

But he emphasized there is a ruling about stealing. The question was asked to Rabbis if its worse to steal from Jews or non-Jews. The answer was that its worse to steal from non-Jews, because this could result in the non-Jews saying the stealing resulted from Jewish religion and doubting the validity of Jewish religion. While if Jews showed a good example, other non-Jews would praise the Thora and the Jewish religion.

More info about Rabbis for Human Rights can be found here.

*Wladimir van Wilgenburg is a freelance journalist and a student, who is currently visiting Israel/Palestine for a week with the NGO Pax Christi.

The violence in Baghdad was not forgotten during the opening of the Kurdish parliament and the recently elected Kurdish president Massoud Barzani promised to do everything they can to help the victims of the attacks. Despite of the Kurdish-Arabic dispute, economics is more important then nationalism in Kurdistan and Kurds benefit from Arabic tourism. A lot of Arabic tourists visit the Kurdish regions, play Arabic music and try to forgot their problems. Also Iraqi soldiers and generals come here to take a rest.

In Kurdistan it’s also not strange to hear Arabic, Kurdish or Turkish music. It’s not rare to hear people singing Turkish songs of Ibrahim Tatlises (who is of partially Kurdish decent). There is also a big minority of Turkmen in the city, who have their own political parties and education and recently there was a Turkish fashion show.

Off course there are problems like nepotism and corruption. There are politicians of all political lists that have huge villa’s and drive around in big land cruisers (also called monica’s). A lot of young people also always tell me they want to go to Europe. Just like in Turkey, but there are also a number of Kurds who return from Europe to rejoin the political struggle (like for instance Safin Malakara of the Kurdish opposition list Change) or to just get a job.

Despite of this, it seems that in the supermarkets, bazaars and entertainment parks are secure and people try to have fun. It’s also not rare to see couples holding each other’s hands. The police chief Abdulkaliq visited family fun with his family without much problems. Especially during Ramazan the number of people in the streets will not decrease in the evenings, because people will eat late at night.

*Wladimir van Wilgenburg is currently busy with an university internship at the Kurdish newspaper Rudaw.net in Northern Iraq. He also writes freelance articles for Today’s Zaman, Jamestown and other media.

Iranian Kurdish soldiers with Kurdish clothes in Iran’s army (Fars agency)

But he says other parties that boycotted the elections do not support the demonstrations. Kurds also demonstrated in several Kurdish cities. “Including Urmiye, Sena, Saqez, Kermanshah and other cities. But in Kurdistan it’s more difficult to protest, because Kurdistan is totally militarized and the regime always strikes harder in Kurdistan.”

But why don’t we hear anything about unrest in ethnic minority area’s? Shalmashi says that the focus is especially on Teheran due to lack of interest of the foreign media and pan-iranism. He says ‘already 5 people were killed in Kermanshah. There were also big protests in Urmiye and Sinne.” Shalmashi also criticized the decision of the Iranian branch of the PKK, PJAK, to boycott the elections at the last moment and doesn’t think they are support by America. Still the KDP-I official hopes Kurdish nationalist parties get more united and worked together as a front. Still this seems unlikely, due to the huge ideological differences.

On Twitter there were rumours spread that Kurdish organizations will organize strikes coming Tuesday. But @Tehranbureau tweeted that in ‘Kurdistan they don’t want to fuel regime’s fire so they are staying home’. The PKK-general Duran Kalkan said that Iranian Kurds are on the verge on ‘explosion’ due to resentment to the governments ‘terror’. But according to Iranian Ayatollah Khamenei the Kurds are loyal to the Islamic republic and America is trying to set up conspiracies against the Iranian state.

The Iranian-Kurdish PJAK released a press statement supporting civil disobedience. There haven’t been many news items about unrest in Kurdish cities. This could also be the result of limited PR efforts by Kurdish political parties and the lack of interest of journalists in the region. Organized attacks on Iranian targets by Kurdish parties could be used by the Iranian government to crack down on opposition members.