World Bulletin / News Desk

Iranian Kurds await a solution process similar to that Turkey started months ago, Secretary-General of the Iranian Kurdistan Democratic Party Mustafa Hijri said at a time when newly elected Iranian President Hassan Rouhani has shown a softened stance against a number of perennial issues.

“We always tried to have a dialogue with Iran; however Tehran refused our efforts. It refused to recognize Kurds’ basic rights. Nonetheless, we are ready for dialogue. We call for a similar process to that Turkey has started,” Hijri told an AA correspondent on Thursday in Iraqi city Irbil, where he has struggled for 67 years for Iranian Kurds’ rights. 

Kurdish politician Hijri blamed Iranian President Rouhani for what Hijri called “his lack of a roadmap for Kurdish rights” by saying that “Rouhani has no plan to improve the quality of lives. During Rouhani’s reign, a number of people were executed.”

Since Rouhani’s election, he has displayed a softened stance over the country’s nuclear program to ease sanctions applied by the UN Security Council. The US government in particular has welcomed this development and shown willingness to talk with the Iranian government for the first time after the 1979 revolution.

Iran perceived Kurds as a security issue, Hijri said. “When a citizen asks for freedom, s/he is accused of being a spy or an enemy of the regime. That’s why hundreds of people have been executed. Thousands of them are still in jail. Once Iranian Kurds get a chance to leave the country, they flee to Iraq or western countries,” he stated.

In response to Mustafa Hijri’s claim, Iran’s Irbil Consul General Huseyin Uzeyimi said in a written statement to AA that all Iranians are “proud of being Iranian.” He dismissed Kurds' demands for education in the mother tongue and for freedom of political activities, adding that “Kurds approve of their present situation and we refuse nationalism.”