PDKI Statement Regarding the Student Uprisings

The freedom-seeking movement of the people of Iran has seen a fresh development in the last few months.  Those open letters that various groups and segments of Iranian population write to the regime’s officials, to bring up to date the domestic and world opinion, prove that there is a clear and firm confrontation between the popular mass and the whole of the establishment.  It is also clear that the peoples’ latest uprising has no halt until the final victory - regime change in Iran.

            In this regard, the Iranian student movement that enjoys a contented history in the course of Iranian struggle for freedom has taken a greater and much more active role.  This year’s commemoration of the 18 Tir tragedy (July 9 1999), the ruthless crack-down of the students uprising by the dogmatic rulers of the regime, has been considered as a new start to give the freedom movement of students and the rest of Iran a new momentum.  A few months ago, students and many other dissident groups had decided to commemorate the attack on students with a unique immensity to mark the foundation of a new course of confrontation. 

            On the other side, the regime’s rulers, scared to death of any freedom movement and apprehensive of their fate, are preparing themselves in various forms to confront students dissident movement.  In this regard, to disperse students, they planned to take final examinations a week in advance so universities can close ahead of 18 Tir.  Here, the courageous and awakened students of Iran decided to start their protests ahead of schedule, and ruined the regime’s evil tactics.  For this reason, the announcement of privatizing universities became a premise for expressing their demands, and above all the demands of freedom-thirsty Iranians.

            Now, following a week of student demonstrations, and despite all the crack-downs and brutalities, the protests are in their zenith.  This year’s students uprising have some distinctiveness that either did not exist in the years before or were less conspicuous.  Among them: students demands are no longer restricted to students solely, rather, they have mirrored the demands of all the people of Iran; the protests, unlike the previous demonstrations, are not mainly against the ruling elite, rather, it has attacked the whole of the establishment.  More importantly, the demands are expressed dauntlessly; they explicitly recite the riddance of the regime and speak of surfacing a popular administration.  We are delighted and hopeful that these series of protests are not restricted to the University of Tehran, and every day new numbers of Iran’s universities turn into the axis of resistance, and it is evident that before 18 Tir, all the universities of Iran will be drawn in.

            On the other hand, the people of Iran, particularly in Tehran, have decided to support their sons and daughters decisively, and not leave them alone on their fight for freedom and democracy.  In the last week, if the regime’s vigilantes had attempted to close down all the avenues leading to the University of Tehran to prevent the general public joining the wave of dissident students, the people of Tehran have turned all the city’s streets into centres of confrontation, in a way that the whole city has turned into a large university.

            The recent media coverage of student uprising is incomparable to previous protests; lately, the news of student uprisings in Iran has turned into headlines of world media.  This has attracted unique solidarity within the world opinion for the student movement and the freedom movement of the people of Iran.  For the first time, a superpower such as the United States has declared support for the demands of the protesters and the freedom movement of the people of Iran.  PDKI along with praising the immense uprising of the students in Tehran University and other universities of Iran, and along with offering boundless support for the legitimate demands of the dissidents that are in fact the demands of all the people of Iran:

-appeals to the members and supporters of the Party in Kurdistan and other parts of Iran to support this massive uprising and offer assistance in any way possible.

-appeals to all the Kurdish students in all the universities in Kurdish regions and other parts of the country to participate actively in this movement with a Kurdish identity and strive to embody the national demands of the Kurdish people and other deprived nationalities of Iran within the demands and slogans of this movement.  Especially, it is appropriate that the memory of July 13, the anniversary of the assassination of our  historical Kurdish leader by this regime, Dr. Ghassemlou be coupled with the memory of 18 Tir, the brutal crack-down of Tehran University student uprising.

-And above all, we appeal to all the segments of Kurdish society to stand behind their young students and participate in these protests with all their abilities that will be held in Kurdistan universities.

-PDKI appeals to all the people of Iran to join in hand together, and support the student uprisings, and once for all to be done with the regime of Islamic Republic of Iran.  Meanwhile, we expect the international community to support the demands of Iranian people for freedom and democracy more decisively, and not allow the regime to use ‘domestic affairs’ to shed blood on the peaceful and calm uprisings.

Democratic Party of Iranian Kurdistan

Political Bureau

17 June 2003

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