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| Syria-Lebanon-Iran | |
| New Unrest In Iranian Kurdistan | |
| 2005-12-07 | |
| Tehran, 7 Dec. (AKI) - The death of a young Kurdish man in a police station in Sanandaj, the capital of Iranian Kurdistan, has triggered new clashes between locals and police in other Kurdish-majority villages and cities. Last Sunday, Pouya Ebrahimabadi, 22, was arrested in the centre of Sanandaj, during police raids against venues frequented by nationalists. The friends and relatives of the dead man told the Iranian site Khabar that Pouya was tortured for hours during interrogation, before being transferred in critical condition to a local hospital. He died several hours later. The Sanandaj police offers a diferent version. Commander general Rahim Khorshidvand argues that Pouya, who they say was arrested with several grams of hashish in his pocket, took his life in a holding cell before being interrogated. "The defendant died several hours later in hospital, where we had transferred him immediately" he said.
Iranian Kurdistan is in the northwest of the country, along the borders of Iraq and Turkey. The Kurdish people say they are denied their rights as an ethnic minotiry, especially the right to be educated in their own language. | |
| Posted by:Steve |
| #3 I think the Kurds are in the right. There is a cultural "right" to perpetuate an ethnic heritage through their local school system. I don't believe that right extends to immigrants living in an unassimilated ghetto wanting to obtain education in their native language on the public dime. The USSR made every effort to facilitate the absorption of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania by discouraging the use of languages other than Russian. Gaelic is another language that is less than popular for some very un-mysterious reasons. Let's not go so far as making the local school board of Font du Lac offer algebra in Hmong dialect, though. Our city is becoming the home of many Somali transplants. I'm nit interrested in the kids learning Bantu at this point. |
| Posted by: Super Hose 2005-12-07 17:10 |
| #2 Is this an Iranian thing or a fantasy thing?Same thing in Turkey until recently. Turkey just passed a law allowing Kurdish to be used in schools and in the media. Guess they were trying to destroy Kurdish heritage and culture by killing the language. The United States was guilty of doing the same to native americans, even taking some children away from their parents and giving them to white families. Not one of the highlights of our history. |
| Posted by: Steve 2005-12-07 15:56 |
| #1 The Kurdish people say they are denied their rights as an ethnic minotiry, especially the right to be educated in their own language I'm a big fan of the Kurds but I've never heard of this right before. Is this an Iranian thing or a fantasy thing? |
| Posted by: rjschwarz 2005-12-07 12:21 |