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Iranian minority groups seeking US help to
topple regime
1.6.2006
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According to Turkish daily the Iranian Kurd
parties say they want a federal Iran, not secession.
Gathering in Washington, representatives from four
large Iranian minority groups urged the United
States and the Western world to help them overthrow
the Islamic regime in Tehran.
"The peaceful removal of this regime, which is the
world's strongest supporter of terrorism, will help
to stabilize the region, particularly in Iraq," said
Mustafa Hejri, secretary-general of the
Kurdish Democratic Party of Iran (IKDP), one of
the groupstaking part in a conference here.
"To achieve this, the international community,
particularly the West, must be united and speak with
one voice. So far, the regime has gained the most
from the differences in approach between Europe and
America in dealing with Iran," he said. "They must
redirect their support to the democratic opposition
forces both inside and outside Iran."
The Komala Party was another Iranian Kurdish group
at the conference.
The one-day conference, held at a congressional
building on Tuesday, was organized by two groups,
the Kurdish National Congress of North America and
the Kurdish American Committee for Democracy in
Iran; a flag of the
Mahabad Kurdish Republic (which is now an
official flag of Kurdistan Region in Iraq) --
created in western Iran (Kurdistan-Iran)
in 1946 was hanging in front of the speakers.
Accusing the Tehran administration of following
nationalist Persian policies and persecuting ethnic
minorities, all speakers called for joint action
among opposition groups to overthrow the Islamic
regime.
"We need to have a united and democratic coalition
of all opposition groups in Iran, including the
Persians," said Abdullah Muhtadi, a senior
representative of the Kurdish Komala Party. "The
nationalities represented here are ready to be part
of a united coalition."
Afshar said pressure to overthrow the religious
regime should come both from inside and outside,
adding, "Our part in
Azerbaijan has started."
A recent controversial cartoon in a government-run
paper -- in which an Azeri Turk was depicted as a
cockroach -- prompted rioting in Azerbaijani Iran in
the northwest (East Kurdistan), near Turkey's
border, where four people were reported killed and
more than 40 others injured in protests. Other big
cities, including Tehran, have also seen Azeri
rioting.
A recent wave of unrest also has rocked Kurdish
areas, where hardened separatists -- led by the
Pejak group with links to the Kurdistan Workers'
Party (PKK) in Turkey -- have apparently been
encouraged by developments across the border in
Iraq.
The oil-rich southwestern province of Khuzestan,
which has a sizeable ethnic Arab minority, also has
seen a string of bomb attacks and apparent sabotage
activity against oil and gas pipelines.
Some top Iranian officials have blamed the Islamic
republic's foreign "enemies" for the wave of ethnic
unrest. "Provoking ethnic differences is the last
resort by the enemies against the Iranian people and
the Islamic republic," Iran's supreme leader
Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, an ethnic Azeri, said on
Sunday. "There is no doubt that this plot will be
defeated."
Some other Iranian officials explicitly have accused
the United States and Britain of provoking ethnic
violence. Washington and London deny the charges.
Some analysts suggested that ethnic tensions could
crack Iran's firm resolve against the Western world.
"Iran can successfully employ overwhelming force
against geographically isolated groups, but it would
be much more difficult to handle angry Arabs, Azeris,
Baluchis, Kurds and other minorities if they act
against the state simultaneously," said Abbas
William Samii, a regional analyst at Radio Free
Europe/Radio Liberty.
The unrest comes at a time when Iran and the Western
world are involved in a major dispute over the
Islamic republic's nuclear program. The United
States and it allies accuse Tehran of developing
nuclear weapons.
At the Washington conference, Iranian Kurdish
representatives were cautious over their objectives.
"Kurds have a right to self-determination. But Kurds
in Iran are for a federal Iran," said Komala's
Muhtadi. "Iranian and Iraqi Kurds have good
relations, influence each other, but are not
controlled by each other."
Asked to comment on the possibility of U.S. air
strikes against Iran's nuclear and military
facilities, IKDP's Hejri said any military attack
would lead to the Islamic regime's emergence as a
victim of foreign aggression.
The United States so far has not endorsed an
official policy of regime change in Iran at a time
when a diplomatic process still is under way over
Tehran's nuclear program.
Washington also accuses Iran of being the "central
banker" of terrorism, disrupting stability in Iraq
and undermining peace in the Middle East.
Azeris are believed to make up some 25 million of
Iran's 70-million population.
Another 6 million are estimated to be Kurdish.
Source: Turkish daily news com.tr
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