my guest is abdullah mohtadi, leader of the komala party of iranian kurdistan. is his a fight for rights orfor independence? abdullah mohtadi, welcome to hardtalk. thank you for having me. it s a great pleasure to have you on the show. i began by referring there to the tragic death of mahsa amini. would you say that her death last september in custody inside iran has changed the political dynamic inside iran? it has because on the 16th of september, she was declared dead in the hospital. the day after, on the 17th, there was a funeral in her hometown of saqqez in the province of kurdistan there are four kurdish provinces in iran and it was a spontaneous protest movement erupted in saqqez, her hometown, and it soon spread to sanandaj, the capital city of that province. and two days after that, on the 19th, it was a general strike called by the cooperation center the kurdish political parties which was fully observed. and after that, they called for a peaceful evening dem
broad coalition of exiled opposition groups, that you say must come together to present an alternative vision of iran s future. can it include the son of the former shah, reza palavi, who some in your community accuse of basically having a prejudicial attitude toward the kurds and their aspirations? can it also include the mojahedin al khalq, lead by maryam rajavi, who many both in iran and in the west regard as somebody politically beyond the pale, their leader? the mojahedin have to accept and abide by the rules of democratic game in iran, they have to open up and be ready to co operate with others. but you would be ready to work with them, would you? despite their reputation, despite all the alliances
that they refuse to obey, so the reasons are. well, all of those reasons you ve just given are fascinating and obviously, they would be aggressively disputed by the tehran regime, but my interest is that those reasons for protest you ve just outlined don t include going out on the streets, demanding greater rights for the kurdish people. maybe the kurdishness of the origins of this protest movement, as you have put it, have been lost? no. in fact, the kurds came to this revolution hoping that while they are for a broader democracy in iran, at the same time, their rights will be preserved, their rights will be recognised by the society, by the new constitution, by the new system in iran. what you have said about the origins
long term aspiration, an independent kurdistan? historically, kurds were denied their right to self determination, but our programme and other parties as well, our programme is a secular, democratic, federal iran, where the rights of kurds and other ethnic minorities are respected and safeguarded, notjust by paying lip service, but by being enshrined in the constitution. a future inside iran, not separate from iran? inside iran, yes. i m very mindful of your own personal history. your father was intimately involved with that short lived moment in 19116 where the kurds of iran thought they had created their own state of mahabad.