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KurdistanObserver.com
Rioting Erupts In Iranian Hotbed of Kurdish Nationalism
TEHRAN, June 15 (AFP) Hundreds of Iranian Kurds
have clashed violently with police in the northwestern Iranian town of Mahabad,
an historical centre of Kurdish nationalism, the official news agency IRNA said
Wednesday.
The rioting, which came just days before Iran is due to elect a new
president, was sparked by news from across the border in Iraq that former rebel
leader Massoud Barzani was sworn in as the first president of Iraqi Kurdistan.
IRNA said a number of vehicles and shopfronts were damaged "when a group of
excited people" -- numbering around 300 -- took to the streets of the town "on
the pretext of joy because Massoud Barzani got elected".
"In response to a police request to disperse, the crowd burned tyres and
inflicted damage to election campaign posters and threw stones and bricks at
police," IRNA said.
IRNA said the unrest died down shortly before midnight, but said Mahabad's
main street was littered with stones, bricks, shattered mosaics and destroyed
election campaign posters.
Iran's presidential election takes place on Friday.
Barzani's father was nationalist hero Mullah Mustafa Barzani, who fought for
Kurdish self-determination.
He is best remembered for leading an uprising and emerging as president of
the short-lived Kurdish Mahabad Republic in 1946. The small republic, the first
ever Kurdish state, collapsed after an Iranian army attack in 1947.
Mahabad, still a Kurdish-majority town, is situated just south of Lake
Urumiyeh, near Iran's border with Turkey, and around 55 kilometres (35 miles)
from the frontier with Kurdish-run Iraq. |
