On Iran: Marze Por Gohar Letter to Congressman Rohrabacher

Dear Friends, 

Please see the letter below by the Iranian opposition group Marze Por Gohar Party HQ'd in Los Angeles, in the district of Congressman Dana Rohrabacher concerning the member's communications with Secretary of State Hillary R. Clinton. The letter was addressed to the congressman and cc'd to Madame Secretary. 

Congressman's press release and letter:

http://rohrabacher.house.gov/news/documentsingle.aspx?DocumentID=304840

http://rohrabacher.house.gov/uploadedfiles/rep._rohrabacher_to_secretary_clinton_july_26_2012.pdf

Also note the congressman's historical concerning affiliations to Jack Abramoff, which begs the question of his role on the House Foreign Affairs Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations: http://thinkprogress.org/politics/2006/01/10/3128/rohrabacher-abramoff/

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Marze Por Gohar Party

1351 Westwood Blvd # 111

Los Angeles, CA 90024

August 20, 20012

Honorable Dana Rohrbacher

101 Main Street, Suite 380

Huntington Beach, CA 92648

RE: your letter to Sec Clinton 7-26-12

Dear representative Rohrbacher,

   The Marze Por Gohar Party is disappointed and appalled by your recent letter to the United States Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton, whereby you request that the American government aid separatists in Iran.

   Your letter contains so many factual errors it is difficult to find a good place to start.  Your historical recollection of Azerbaijan and Iran is simply wrong. Iran lost vast territories including Georgia, Armenia and Azerbaijan during the wars with expansionist Russia in the 19th century. 

  Azerbaijan has been part of Iran for over 3000 years.

  Moreover, I would like to bring your attention to the historical fact that the modern era for Iran was established by the Azeri Dynasty of Safavieh in the 16th century when they succeeded in uniting and defending Iran against threats including the Ottoman Empire.

   I would also like to mention that historians have always referred to all dynasties in Iran  as Iranian, not Azeri, Kurdish or otherwise.

   Azerbaijan has been part of Iran and it cannot be separated from Iran, as Iran will cease to exist. Azeris, live in mostly central Iranian cities, not just in Azerbaijan – Tehran alone is home to millions of Azeris.

   You may be surprised to hear that officials in the highest echelons of power in the Islamic republic are also Azeris. The supreme leaders, Khamenei, in addition to many other Islamic republic authorities, such as Mousavi the former prime minister, are Azeris. 

   As a matter of fact, Azeris, not just Persians, have been dominating the political scene in Iran for decades. In other words, Azeris just as all the other Iranian ethnic groups have been tightly integrated into Iranian society.

   Additionally your assertion that the Islamic republic is somehow an Iranian entity is not only insulting to Iranian patriots but is in fact patently false – an obvious conclusion for anyone familiar with the matter. Officials of the Islamic republic refuse to even admit that there was a Persian civilization and yet you label this occupying Arab regime as Iranian?

   There is not much we Iranians agree on, but on the subject of Iran's territorial integrity, there is no daylight between us. And one sure way to make enemies with the people of Iran, who by and large are receptive to American ideals, is to support secessionist movements in Iran.

   Lastly, we find it rather interesting that you speak of aspirations of people in the Persian Gulf, yet you make no mention of the thousands of people that have died in Bahrain for simply wanting a representative government. Is supporting the political aspiration of Bahrainis not a “worthy cause in and of itself”?

Sincerely,

Roozbeh Farahanipour 

Executive Director 

Marze Por Gohar Party

Email:Roozbeh@marzeporgohar.org

Cell: 310-500-8116

CC: The Honorable Hillary Rodham Clinton

Secretary of State

US Department of State

2201 C Street, NW

Washington, DC 20520

History of Kurdistan National Assembly (video)

Background on the establishment of Kurdistan National Assembly of Syria

Assembly Meetings
 


See also:

مقابلة صوت امريكا القسم الكردي مع الدكتور شيركو عباس رئيس مجلس الوطني الكردستاني - سوريا

www.dengeamerika.com/media/video/1489796.html

The Rise of Syrian Kurdish Autonomy

Friday, 17 August 2012

Kurdish autonomy Rally Tirba Spi 8-17-12

Source: KURDNAS

In Tirba Spi,  a small city 30 kilometers  east of the Syrian Kurdistan capital  of  Kamishly in the Syrian Kurdish heartland,  a rally of  more than 10,000  Kurds showed up  today with hand lettered posters in  Arabic, Kurdish and English extolling the message of regional autonomy.   One poster read:

We support Kurdistan National Assembly of Syria’s Call for forming Kurdistan Regional Government of Syria.

According to Kurdish National Assembly of Syria (KURDNAS) President Sherkoh Abbas,  the posters’ messages in the city  of Tirba Spi reflect the growing sentiments of the Syria’s Kurds for regional autonomy.  That message has sent the Kurdish National Council (KNC) head Dr. Abdul Hakim Bashar scrambling to catch up with the Kurdish street. Bashar appeared in an interview on Al Arabiya TV today extolling the virtues of a federal Syria.   KURDNAS appears to have captured a wave of popular support. Dr. Bashar was the head of a KNC delegation that came to Washington in May,  to meet with US State Department officials, Ambassadors Robert Ford, Frederic Hof and Assistant Secretary of State for Near Eastern Affairs Jeffrey Feltman.  The KNC is viewed as a Kurdish partner of the Syria National Council (SNC), a creation of the coalition of Turkey, Qatar and Saudi Arabia. Dr. Bashar takes his lead from President Massoud Barzani head of the Kurdish Regional Government  (KRG) in Iraq.  The KRG in fact pays Dr. Bashar a salary of $10,000  a month as head of the KNC.  Bashar toes the line that Turkey is democratic and both Ankara and the KRG are working together on a solution for Syria’s Kurds. Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu commenting  in an August 9th Today’s Zaman article,  suggested that Ankara might support Kurdish autonomy in Syria, subject to agreement with all of the parties, a herculean task at best. The US wants to keep the structure of the unified Syrian state and military intact believing that they learned lessons from the initial failures of the US occupation of Iraq. Problem is that any central government in Damascus is likely to be governed by Muslim Brotherhood and Salafist elements drawn from the Syrian National Council and Free Syrian Army opposition.

These dynamics were reflected in an Algemeiner article, published today, by Gabriel Max Scheinmann of JINSA in Washington, "Ending Sykes-Picot: Why the U.S. Should Support a Federal Syrian Republic".

Scheinmann presented the following arguments for a Federal Republic of Syria:

As planning for a post-Assad Syria accelerates, the Obama administration is signaling its desire to keep Syrian political and military institutions intact. However, America’s own, now lengthy and bloody, history of Middle East state building suggests that doing so may be costly, unwise, and at odds with the region’s natural proclivity. Rather than uphold the illusory political order installed by the century-old Sykes-Picot Agreement, the U.S. should encourage the creation of a federal Syrian republic with far greater autonomy for its component parts.
[. . .]
The Iraqi constitution, a document that enshrines federalism as well as recognition of the many, non-Arab Iraqi peoples (Kurds, Assyrians, Turkmen), gives significant autonomy to Iraq’s 18 provinces as well as the three-province Kurdistan region, where the Kurdistan Regional Government has established a fully-functioning quasi-state, with its own parliamentary, diplomatic, and proto-military trappings
[. . .]
Rather than apply superglue to the widening cracks in Syria, as the U.S. tried to do in Lebanon and Iraq, Washington should encourage the establishment of a federal Syrian republic, enhancing the autonomy of its distinct, minority peoples, such as the Kurds and Alawites.

The problem of a unified  Syria is that it needs central leadership in Damascus. Given the Sunni Arab majority in Syria, unfortunately the most likely source would be the Muslim Brotherhood Sunni leadership in the SNC and Free Syrian Army militia.  That leadership would impose an Arab supremacist agenda inclusive of a Shariah compliant Constitution denying the minority rights of Kurds, Alawites, Druze, Christians and the secular Sunni merchant class.

That prospect was reflected in those posters carried by Kurds rallying in Tirba Spi calling for regional autonomy in North and Northeastern Syria, a reflection of the neighboring KRG in Iraq.

We understand that KURDNAS supporters will soon bring this message to a larger rally in the Kurdish regional capital in Kamishly.  Moreover, a rally is in the planning stages to communicate this message to the worldwide media gathered at the Republican Convention in Tampa, Florida on August 27th and 28th. Perhaps the presumptive Republican candidate, Governor Romney and his Vice Presidential nominee, Wisconsin GOP Rep. Paul Ryan, may take notice of this Kurdish quest for autonomy nearly six thousand miles from sectarian ravaged Syria.

http://www.newenglishreview.org/blog_display.cfm/blog_id/43490

الشارع الكردي يتضامن مع أهداف المجلس الوطني الكردستاني – سوريا

 

حمل شباب وشابات من الإقليم الكردستاني – سوريا لافتات تضمنت عبارات طالما نادى بها المجلس الوطني الكردستاني – سوريا، ودافع عنها في المحافل الدولية.

تظاهرة هذه الجمعة عبرت وبشكل واضح أنها مع مشروع المجلس الوطني الكردستاني – سوريا.

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هيئة كردناس الإعلامية

http://kurdnas.net/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=1866:2012-08-17-21-02-57&catid=53:2012-08-06-21-59-43&Itemid=75

Interview with Shahriar Etminani on 'From Washington Al Mundo'

About Shahriar Etminani, Board Member, Iran Democratic Union

http://www.irandemocraticunion.org/About-IDU/Leadership

Sirius XM Radio’s Cristina Radio (Channel 146) From Washington al Mundo features interviews with national and international leaders, policy experts and opinion-makers, is hosted by Mauricio Claver-Carone, a Capitol Hill insider and one of the country’s most respected foreign policy commentators

بیانیه درخواست آزادی گروگانها توسط انقلابیون سوریه

 ندا برای یک ایران آزاد 

ریاض الاحمد سخنگوی گروهی که 48 ایرانی را به اسارت گرفته، به صراحت گفت که اگر ارتش دولتی سوریه حمله به مواضع آنها را متوقف نکند؛ همه‌ این اسیران را خواهد کُشت. در برابر این سخنان باید بلافاصله به این گروه بعنوان زیرمجموعه‌ ای از ارتش آزاد سوریه، هشدار داد که راه چه گوارا را نرود و میثاق جهانی حقوق بشر را بفراموشی نسپارد.

طبق اعلامیه جهانی حقوق بشر، این 48 نفر ولو اینکه از ایادی سپاه پاسداران‌ باشند؛ مشمول رعایت مبانی حقوقی هستند. چرا که هر انسانی در هر شرایطی می‌بایست از جهانشمولی حقوق بشر برخوردار باشد. این اسیران حتی اگر از اعضای سپاه پاسداران‌ باشند، نمی‌توان آنها را شکنجه کرد یا کُشت و مندرجات «حقوق بشر» را نادیده انگاشت.

اعتراف گرفتن از زندانی تحت فشار روانی و جسمی، در همه جا فاقد وجاهت قانونی و اخلاقی ست و با مبانی حقوق بشر منافات دارد. به این گروه گروگانگیر باید هشدار داد که ایرانی‌ بودن، شیعه‌ بودن و سپاهی‌ بودن؛ هرگز انسان را از شمول انسانیت خارج نمی‌کند و امکان نمی‌دهد با اسرا رفتاری غیرانسانی شود و اصول «حقوق بشر» در مورد این 48 نفر نقض شود. باید از انقلابیون سوریه انتظار داشت که طبق مبانی و کنوانسیون های جهانی عمل کنند تا انقلاب سوریه بتواند خود را متمایز از رژیم فاسد و جانی اسد نشان دهد.

برای پرهیز از جنون مرگ‌زایی که هر روز آشوب و خشونت عریانی را به مردم سوریه ارزانی می کند، باید توجیحاتی از قبیل «اقتضائات شرایط انقلابی» را وانهاد و در مورد همین 48 ایرانی بازداشت‌شده؛ بی قید و شرط از آرمانهای حقوق بشر و از گفتمان لیبرال-دمکراسی پشتیبانی نمود.

مسائلی مثل گروگان گیری، خشونت و کشتار در سوریه از سوی هر که باشد؛ عملی کور و منفور است. مدیریت خشونت‌ را وانهادن و انقلابیون را به مراعات حقوق بشر دعوت کردن همانا شرط عقل است. در این راستا، هر دو سوی چپ و راست در اپوزیسیون ایرانی بدون هیچگونه ملاحظه ای، باید مسئولیت جان این گروگان ها و دیگر اسیران جنگی را طبق کنوانسیون های مختلف جهانی بر عهده ی ارتش آزاد سوریه برشمارند و نیز هر گونه کشتار را محکوم کنند

به صفحه فیس بوک "ندا برای یک ایران آزاد " به پیوندید

http://nfafi.org/fa/press-releases/بیانیه-درخواست-آزادی-گروگانها-توسط-انقلابیون-سوریه

Iranian Opposition to FSA: Interrogate, Don't Masacrate

In a brave and brilliant move by the the Baraa Brigades sect of the Free Syrian Army, 48 Iranian militants have been taken hostage in Syria. FSA is the collective cadre of defectors from Assad's brutal military and enemy alliances as Hezbollah and IRGC, pledging allegiance to rule of law, rejection of cruel and unusual punishment, peace and border security. 

Recently the Baraa Brigades have reportedly threatened to kill these Iranian hostages in a video citing Iranian military allegiance to Assad, and in ongoing urgent threats. However, the three hostages who were killed were victims of a roof caving in as a result of unpredicted Syrian government air strikes on rebel positions, not by the hands of Baraa.

Considering the number of political prisoners being brutally tortured and massacred inside Iran under IRGC and related "justice" authorities, ironically the Iranian Foreign Minister Ali Akbar Salehi has appealed to the UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon and Turkish government to aid in the Iranian militants release, while threatening the US with resposibility. 

The hostages have made certain offerings, not unlike the standard practice inside Iran: both claiming they will publicly denounce Assad to media if they are released (whether or not that is their true stance); while Saeed Jalili, Iran's security chief met with Assad committing support to his leadership. 

The identification of these 48 Iranians is debatable, but likely all are right. 

Salehi claims that the hostages were on religious pilgrimage to Syria, which is not surprising given religious ventures are a constant historical cover for terrorist and otherwise threatening acts by the Iranian government, typically lead by clerics and IRGC. ForeignPolicy.com reports: 

"The Free Syrian Army maintains that the Iranians are members of Iran's Revolutionary Guards Corps who had been collecting intelligence on Syria's rebel movement. The Iranians have insisted that they were Shiite pilgrims traveling to Sayida Zeinab, a Muslim shrine outside of Damascus…In a letter to Ban, Salehi said that seven members of the Iranian Red Crescent Society had also been abducted in Benghazi on July 31. He said they were in Libya at the invitation of the Libyan Red Cross when they were kidnapped."

In civil society, prisoners of war (PoWs) are taken in as war criminals, to gain more information, to negotiate, or otherwise to keep the enemy's soldiers off the battlefield and promote peace. In the black market and elsewhere, hostages also make good for high-levels of ransom, an idea which may not be that out of line given the significance of the black market to regional revolutions, including smuggling phones, food, and aiding people in escaping their nations. Given that the questionably aligned Syrian National Council isn't exactly aiding the FSA as they purport to the western governments, financial resources have to come from somewhere at least moderately legitimate, and it better not come from al Qaeda. 

The Free Syrian Army is a military apparatus in its infancy, faced with a major triumph, and course for determining new policy of post-Assad era military engagement. Certainly there is no need to release the hostages, they are a battle won, and in good number. What more, any claim that Salehi and his associates have against FSA for 'crimes against humanity' most certainly call for counter-claims due to the presence of IRGC and Iran-sponsored Hezbollah on the ground, breaking into residences and businesses, brutalizing innocent families and butchering children from a country that is not even theirs. The Syrian people have captured sufficient evidence of these massacres, and the Iranian opposition empathizes as the Iranian people suffer similar tragedies inside Iran on a daily basis. Salehi has no place to request assistance from anyone, and Iran doesn't participate in International Criminal Court anyway. Its like driving a car without a license, Iran has no defense. 

To the FSA, leadership councils and respective commanders, hold the hostages, treat them civilly, keep firm to the Free Syrian Army's Proclamation of Principles that is in line with Allepo FSA commanders, and consider this. Ban Ki-Moon is in process of nominating Lakhdar Brahimi to replace Kofi Annan, he's not in the role yet, but let this be his first assignment. 

Original: http://nfafi.org/reports/iranian-opposition-fsa-interrogate-dont-masacrate

Reposted, Radio Koocheh: http://radiokoocheh.com/article/174465