The Kurdish Massacre of 1979 in Iran: A Call for International Justice and Recognition

The 17th of August, 2023, marks the 44th anniversary of the tragic massacre of the Kurdish people by the Islamic Republic of Iran. On this date in 1979, Ayatollah Khomeini issued a jihad fatwa against the Kurds in Iran who merely demanded their fundamental right to self-determination. Khomeini based his fatwa on Surah Al-Fat-h of Quran (48:29), and ordered both the Iranian army and semi-armed forces to launch a massive suppression campaign in Kurdistan. The aim of this invasion was to regain control over the cities that were under the authority of the people and Kurdish political parties. Tragically, this operation resulted in a horrific massacre in the Kurdistan region.

According to Amnesty International: “Most of the Kurdish villages and towns were destroyed and around 10,000 Kurds were killed. Thousands of Kurds were sentenced to death after summary trials.” (Amnesty 2008).
To date, no independent investigation commission or committee has been established regarding the massacre in Kurdistan following Khomeini’s fatwa, and no official statistics of the number of casualties, who were mostly civilians in different cities of Kurdistan, have been released. To combat the culture of impunity, the crimes committed in Kurdistan should be subject to an independent international investigation and a legal mechanism should be created for the victims. Therefore, it is necessary to form an international fact-finding committee to investigate the crimes committed by the Islamic Republic of Iran in Kurdistan and to seek the international recognition of these crimes by the international community and justice for the rights of the victims of these massacres in Kurdistan.

Faraz Firouzi Mandomi

Human Rights Lawyer and Legal Advisor of Hengaw