Following Israel’s attack: The search for culprits in Iran

In view of the ongoing attacks and counter-attacks between Israel and Iran, the Society for Threatened Peoples (STP) warns that the military escalation could lead to a massive wave of repressive measures by the Islamist regime in Tehran against the democracy and freedom movement in Iran. “Following the attacks, Iran is focusing on the question of how it was possible for Israel to carry out several preparatory operations in the country. In their search for scapegoats, the Mullahs will not look within their own ranks, but will instead target the ethnic and religious minorities in the country,” warned Dr.  Kamal Sido, the STP’s Middle East consultant, in Göttingen today.

For decades, members of the religious community of the Bahá’i, Christian converts, and Kurdish people have been framed as accomplices of Israel. Now, it is especially the Kurds who could be held responsible for the fact that Israel managed to operate in Iran. The Middle East expert fears that Iran will arrest or execute more Kurds in the next days. Further attacks on the peaceful neighbor Iraqi Kurdistan are likely as well.

Radical Shiite groups as well as Turkish nationalists and Islamists are instrumentalizing the attacks in order to sow hatred against Israel. They claim that Israel could attack Turkey next. “Even if the radical Shiites and Sunnis see each other as enemies, what unites them is a shared hatred of Jews, Kurds, and of universal values such as democracy and human rights,” the Middle East expert stated. Iran’s leaders are working towards the establishment of a Shiite-dominated Persian empire, while Turkey is planning a Shiite-dominated Turkish-Osman empire. “Kurds and other minorities – such as the Baluch in Iran, the Alawites in Turkey and in Syria, and the Syrian Druze are seen as an obstacle to the Persian-Shiite and Turkish-Sunni great power ambitions. Now, they could become a target of attacks,” Sido warned.

Meanwhile, voices are being raised calling for a regime change in Iran. “A large majority of the population wants a different, democratic order – not a replacement of one dictatorship with another, as was the case in Syria. The non-Persian and non-Shiite ethnic groups are striving for national, linguistic, and cultural rights – and above all, towards unrestricted freedom of religion and expression. This is only possible in a federal system. Many Iranian women are not willing to let the Mullahs tell them how to dress,” the human rights activist stated.

Iran is a multi-ethnic state in which numerous ethnic groups exist: Persians, Azerbaijanis, Kurds, Arabs, Baluch, Turkmen, Armenians and Assyrians – and religious communities such as the Shiites, Sunnis, Baháʼí, Christians, Zoroastrians, Jews, Ahl-e Haqq, and Sufi dervishes... Unlike in Turkey, their settlement areas often officially carry an ethnic designation of the population group living there.