Kurdish struggle critical linchpin of Iran protests, says BBC World Affairs correspondent Jiyar Gol
Protests in Iran are continuing despite a harsh crackdown by security forces. Human rights groups say that at least 201 people have died in the violence that was triggered by the death in custody of a Kurdish woman, Mahsa Amini. The 22-year-old was detained by the morality police for supposedly breaking rules on mandatory Islamic-style covering.
BBC World Affairs correspondent Jiyar Gol says much of the violence is concentrated in the Kurdish heavy northwest provinces, where long-running grievances over political repression and poor economic conditions mesh with the regime's suppression of Kurdish identity.
Protests in Iran are continuing despite a harsh crackdown by security forces. Human rights groups say that at least 201 people have died in the violence that was triggered by the death in custody of a Kurdish woman, Mahsa Amini. The 22-year-old was detained by the morality police for supposedly breaking rules on mandatory Islamic-style covering.
BBC World Affairs correspondent Jiyar Gol says much of the violence is concentrated in the Kurdish heavy northwest provinces, where long-running grievances over political repression and poor economic conditions mesh with the regime's suppression of Kurdish identity.
With the world's attention focused on Ukraine, Turkey has escalated its campaign against the outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) across its own borders in Iraq and Syria. Meghan Bodette, director of research at the Kurdish Peace Institute in Washington DC, tells Al-Monitor that Turkey is increasingly targeting activists, politicians and other civilian figures associated with the Kurdish political movement founded by imprisoned PKK leader Abdullah Ocalan. This is because Turkey fears the legitimacy such individuals lend to Kurdish aspirations.
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