At least 10 Kurdish citizens in the cities of Marivan, Sanandaj and Saqez have been arrested for participating in Nowruz celebrations in western Iranian cities.
At least four of those arrested are from Ney village in the city of Marivan, in Iran’s Kurdistan province near the Iraq border.
The state security forces arrested four Kurdish citizens, Salman Afra, Seiwan Parto, Jamal Gerami, and Aram Nik pey, in the village of Ney on March 23 and 24.
Security forces arrested Salman Afra and Seiwan Parto without an arrest warrant and transferred them to an unknown location.
Aram Nikpei, 34, was arrested after being summoned to the Marivan Intelligence Office on March 23.
On the evening of Monday, March 22, security forces raided the village of Marivan, breaking down the doors and windows of several citizens’ homes and illegally inspecting their homes.
The state security forces on March 22, also arrested Saleh Hassanpour, Isa Hassanpour, Hadi Rahavard and Ali Hassanpour, all from the mainly Kurdish town of Oshnavieh, in Iran’s West Azerbaijan Province.
Earlier on March 20, security forces arrested another Kurdish man identified as Hadi Khalandzadeh in the city. The fate of the five men arrested in Oshnoye is unknown.
On Sunday, March 21, coinciding with the first day of Nowruz, a citizen from Sanandaj, identified as Sarvak Abolghasemi, was arrested on the same charge and transferred to an unknown location.
Hengaw Kurdish human rights group reported that at least nine citizens who attended the Nowruz celebrations in the village of Qala-e Kohneh have been detained by security forces. Hengaw dd not identify the detainees.
Every year, the IRGC, intelligence and state security forces in various Kurdish cities, summon and threaten citizens to prevent them from celebrating Nowruz.
This year, after locals made announcements on social media that they would hold Nowruz celebrations on Taragha mountain of Bukan and Roush mountain of Saqqez, the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) blocked the roads leading to these mountains, preventing people from participating and holdidng the celebrations.
