ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - Kurdish and Azeri human rights groups on Tuesday condemned the tensions that flared between ethnic groups in Iran’s West Azerbaijan province after anti-Kurdish slogans were chanted during a religious gathering.
The joint statement, cited by the Paris-based Kurdistan Human Rights Network (KHRN), decried that several participants hijacked a state-organized demonstration commemorating the martyrdom anniversary of the first Shiite Imam to inject their "religious and extreme nationalist sentiments."
On Saturday, ethnic tensions rose after anti-Kurdish slogans were chanted at an Alawite religious gathering in West Azerbaijan’s Urmia at a ceremony where Alawites were marking the martyrdom of Imam Ali (599-661 CE), the cousin and son-in-law of the Prophet of Islam Muhammad.
"During the demonstration, which was held in the presence of government officials and supported by police forces, a significant number of participants" held "banners containing explicit anti-Kurdish messages and hate speech," according to the joint statement.
"Some protesters, who openly declared their allegiance to Iran’s Supreme Leader, threatened Kurdish civilians with massacre. Others carried images of Gholamreza Hassani, the former Friday prayer leader and representative of the Supreme Leader in Orumiyeh [Urmia], who was notorious for his anti-Kurdish stance and for advocating the killing of Kurds," the joint statement said.
It vehemently condemned the actions as damaging and threatening to Urmia, a "multi-ethnic and multicultural city" that "belongs to all its residents, including Azerbaijanis, Kurds, Armenians, Assyrians, and other communities."
"We call on all the people of Orumiyeh ... to take a firm stand against the Islamic Republic's provocations and the incitement of extremist violent factions, regardless of their political or ideological affiliations," it continued.
The semi-official Tasnim news agency, affiliated with the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), reported on Monday that 22 individuals were arrested in connection with the events, citing West Azerbaijan police commander Rahim Jahanbakhsh as accusing them of "inciting ethnic strife and insulting ethnic groups."
"The enemy's desperate plot to create division among the original ethnic groups of Iran in the province was neutralized through the identification and decisive action against the main visible and hidden perpetrators of this seditious move," Jahanbakhsh said.
In another statement, Tasnim accused the neighboring Kurdistan Region and pan-Turkish elements of seeking to "disrupt the peaceful atmosphere" in West Azerbaijan province.
"The actions of a number of known and separatist figures to raise the fake flag of the Kurdistan Region and the wearing of local clothes by several girls that were emblazoned with the symbol of this flag were immediately met with reprimands and countermeasures from those present and the organizers of the program, and the tricolor flags of the Islamic Republic of Iran were waved throughout the gathering, preventing further incidents," Tasnim stated.
It further blamed the "zealous Kurds and authoritarian Turks" for the unrest, which it said "failed miserably due to the insight and awakening of the people."
Social media footage from the ceremony showed the crowd chanting anti-Kurdish slogans, including: “Urmia belongs to the Turkics and will remain Turkic … No Kurd can pass here if a Turkic doesn’t allow it,” and “Azerbaijan will never part from Khamenei," referring to Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
The crowd additionally chanted, “Hasani, where are you to back and support the Turkics?” in reference to the controversial cleric Hassani, who until January 2014, served as Khamenei’s representative in West Azerbaijan Province and the Friday Prayer Imam of Urmia.
Hassani is believed to have stood behind a bloody 1979 massacre of Kurds in the village of Qarna in Naqadeh county, West Azerbaijan, which sparked deadly ethnic and armed conflicts in the country between Kurdish and Turkic residents.
Urmia is the capital city of West Azerbaijan Province in northwestern Iran. It is known for its diverse ethnic and religious composition, and is home to Turkic-speaking residents who practice Shiite Islam, Kurdish residents who primarily adhere to Sunni Islam, as well as communities of Assyrians and Armenians, who are Christian.
The controversial chants came after Urmia was recently scene to massive Kurdish New Year, Newroz festivities where an estimated 150,000 Kurds participated.
