THE ceasefire agreed between the Iranian government and Kurdish nationalist leaders at the weekend_ The most accurate gauge of Kurdish sentiment came from the two thousand pesh mergas fighters) galnered outside the negotiations.
They shouted: We want an autonomous Kurdistan and a democratic Iran. We are not afraid of dying.' And then, in a play on the Kurdish word for cemetery: 'Kurdistan or kabrestan!"
The pesh mergas in Kurdish capital of Sanandaj had been laying siege to the army garrison for the best part of week. The Kurdish nationalist movement played a central (and ICTECIV UTHC ported) role in the movement w nien brougat down ine suan s As troops were moved from outlying provinces to deal with toupsurge in Tehran the tage of the enemy's weaknesses to attack the occupying army.
The part played oppressed nationalities - half unrecognised by the religious Icaders. Instead since the fall of the Shah the Kurds have had to up Khomeini's unity of the Iranian state and the reinforcement of the hated garrisons.
A group of pesh mergas commented ironically on this last week, the Iranian New Year, as they wandered among a supply of mortar shells destined for the Sanandaj the New Year presents offered by the revolutionary government to the Kurdish people.* The pesh mergas outside the negotiations directed comments against the popular army, which must be destroyed and replaced by a people's army.' As the negotiations were in progress an Iranian air force Phantom flew low over the city. A militia spokesperson went to the Interior Minister: Even if you bomb half Kurdistan, we wont give up the struggle for our legitimate rights? the The government's represenSanandaj moment the Lalegnan - chosen, no douot both because he is a religious leader and because supposedly has record (he used to be known as But any radical pretensions had gone by the time he came to address the Kurdish crowd in Sanandaj. He recognised the Kurds "right to determine their own future' but went on: "If 1 order General Gharani to recall his soldiers would you be able to govern your country on your own. No. don't think so.
Immediately the cry went up: 'Yes, yes we can! We don't want the army here! It should be destroyed!"
A Kurdish militant got hold et a megaphone and interrupted the Ayatollah's speech: We are adults. We want to make our own decisions; we want to elect our own leaders and form a democratic federation; we radio and television and the right to free expression.
their the Ayatollah The left-wing •We have for freedom, but what we have not the treedom wanted. We want a federal state and a federal government for Iran.
These sentiments of most militants and probably the bulk of the Kurdish population too: autonomy within a federal, multinational state.
But the crucial point is that the Kurds, along with all the OLICI should be freely determine their relation to the press, central state.
It also raises the question of treedom Kurdish pesh mergas (militia fighters)
suffered heavily republic' them little. to be the Kurdish the best Iraq, Turkey and Syria oppressca nanonannes able to Kurdish Iraq-based WOrSIP minority religions. Most Kurds are Sunni Muslims, as opposed to the Shi'a majority in Iran, led by Khomeini. The 'Islamic has so far offered The Kurds have tended to be organised of the demands. minorities, primarily because In the Kurdish national movements in the But the Kurdish Democratic Party of Iran (KDPI) has no with the other movements an independence that is jealously guarded since the leaders of the The Kurdish Democratic Party did a deal with the Shah and collaborated Witt Tehran in hunting down those KDPI militants who carried on the armed struggle Stall of the old regime the Kurds have been joined by a clamour of national oil province of Khuzestan 10,000 members of Arab majority demonstrated on 10 March. They were peer demanding a larger share in oil for the province, preferential hiring of Arabs and the adoption of Arabic as the main language. tial following day in Gonbad-e Qabus Turkmeni workers carried out a genera strike! Türkmenis too demand increased status for their language and greater finance for their region And on 12 March 4,000 Baluchis rallied in Zahedan. There were similar meetings in other Baluchi cities The situation in Baluchistan is more complicated. since the population has traditionally sympathetic the Pahlavi But the nationalist movement now seems to be gaining ground The impact on the substan Baluchi minorities neighbouring and Afghanistan could be plosive.