The free world must support Iran's minorities in toppling the Iranian regime - opinion

• Published date: 27 March 2024
• Author: MORDECHAI KEDAR
• Publication title: Jerusalem Post, The: Web Edition Articles (Israel)

Clearly, their reaction to my article highlights how the regime feels threatened by the reality that Kurds, Baloch, Azerbaijanis, Ahwazis, Turkmens, and other ethnic groups in Iran would do anything to bring about the regime's demise and the division of Iran into six ethnic states

In addition, I believe that the free world has a moral duty to help them.

The minorities of Iran constantly demonstrate for their lands to secede from Iran. The Southern Azerbaijanis are the largest ethnic minority in Iran, yet in spite of Turkish being their mother tongue, they are denied the right to name their children with Turkic names or to study in their own language, and the regime has changed the names of many places from their original Turkic names to Farsi ones as a means of oppressing them.

Kurds, Baloch, Turkmens and Ahwazi Arabs face similar discrimination and are likewise protesting for their areas to secede from the mullah regime in Tehran and from the Farsi hegemony. The Ahwazi Arabs call their areas "The Occupied Territories" since the Iranian occupation of their land in 1925.

In his statement, Kan'ani had the chutzpah to condemn Israel over the civilian causalities in Gaza, even though the Iranian regime has been systematically waging a campaign of ethnic cleansing against the Kurds, Baloch, Ahwazis, and South Azerbaijanis of Iran and has committed crimes against these groups that make the war in Gaza look like child's play.

For example, during the Bloody Friday Massacre a couple of years ago, Iran murdered over 100 Baloch who were protesting against the rape of a Baloch teenager. This was not an isolated incident, as Iran is a regime that massacres youngsters, rapes teenagers, poisons school girls, and commits other grave crimes against humanity.

Another issue of contention for South Azerbaijanis is the fate of Lake Urmia. South Azerbaijanis routinely protest against the Iranian regime over the fate of this lake, their most important body of water. According to the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), "one of the largest permanent hypersaline lakes in the world and the largest lake in the Middle East" started drying up in 1995. The reason is believed to be related to "mismanagement" and "drought."

The joint report by the Australian Macquarie University and South Azerbaijan Turkic Democratic Unity came to the same conclusion, adding that together with climate change, the cause of the lake drying up is "incorrect water consumption in agricultural fields"...