Middle Eastern Kurds are under attack from all sides

With the West distracted, the ethnic group has been subject to assaults by both Turkey and Iran, writes Borzou Daragahi

- Borzou Daragahi

The Middle East’s Kurds are being bombed, shot at and arrested across four countries. Scores have died in political unrest in northwest Iran. Some two dozen have died in airstrikes on northern Syria. And both Tehran and Ankara are threatening ground invasions, which will kill and displace even more.

It is an unprecedented moment of pressure on one of the world’s largest stateless ethnic groups. It has come about in part because of the war in Ukraine and international disengagement from the region.

Turkey and Iran are subjecting Kurdish populations in their own countries, as well as those in Syria and Iraq, to increasing pressure and violence. In response to a 13 November bomb attack, the Turks have launched cross-border airstrikes and are preparing for a possible ground invasion of Kurdish-controlled regions of northern Syria. They have also struck positions held by Kurdish militant groups in Iraq. In addition, Ankara has upped the pressure on Turkey’s main Kurdish-led political party.

Iran is dispatching heavily armed ground forces to quell one segment of a nationwide political uprising in its own Kurdish towns and cities. In one video clip posted to the internet, proregime gunmen can be seen attacking unarmed protesters in the city of Javanrud, opening fire wildly while yelling God is great!”

Like Turkey, Iran has also been launching missiles against Kurdish rebel groups across the border in Iraq, using drones and fighter jets in an attack early on Sunday that was at least the second in recent weeks. We’re seeing that Turkey and Iran are bombing more, and further, into Iraq and Syria, with a volume and cadence we haven’t seen for a while,” says Hetav Rojan, a security expert based in Copenhagen.