1- After Joe Biden has become the president, the Iranian government is trying to return to the negotiating table with the United States. In your opinion, can the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) and its revival be effective in getting the Iranian government out of the current crisis? In other expressions, what could be the most optimistic possibility for the end of this challenge?
After Joe Biden has become the president, we observed a desire on the part of Iran to negotiate with the United States. How targeted these negotiations will be, we will have to wait and witness what pressure cards the two parties will use. The Iran-US negotiations have started at the basic level and will continue at the expert level. However, the issues are complex, and with consideration of the hundreds of sanctions that need to be considered separately and agreed on which ones are related to the (JCPOA), this process will be time consuming. Discourse regarding the sanctions that the United States must lift in order to return to the (JCPOA), and what sanctions must be implemented, as well as what obligations Iran must fulfil, is controversial. Iran wishes that all imposed sanctions in May 2018, to be lifted, while the United States claims that the only sanctions that are incompatible with the (JCPOA), should be lifted. In view of the crisis situations in the country, the lifting of sanctions will only relieve the persecution of the people due to the incompetence and lack of ability of the country’s management. Extraterritoriality of the country’s crisis in the crucial proper and democratic management of the society would be concealed and with the current policies of repression inside and appeasement outside these crises will not be eradicated, but deeper crises should be expected.
2- On the other hand, due to the approaching presidential election process, relations and tensions have arisen in the authoritarian body, especially in the government and the state. What will be the direction of these tensions in the future?
As you are aware, since its inception, the Iranian regime masterfully planned to engineer the management of society. Accordingly, it suppressed all its opponents with uninterrupted violence. Religion has been continuing its dictatorship and disgraceful life for many years on the basis of deceiving the people and channelling the policies of the rulers. It can be briefly pointed out that the elections in the dictatorial regimes have no democratic legitimacy and that the electoral process in the Islamic Republic of Iran is only a formality.
One of the constitutional paragraphs on elections that depicts the face of dictatorship is as: “Any Iranian citizen born in Iran, believing in God and the official religion of Iran (Shiite Islam), who has always been faithful to the constitution and is at least 40 years old and at most 70 years old, can register as a presidential candidate”. Simultaneously, an institution known as the Central Board for Supervising Presidential Elections and under the auspices of the Guardian Council rejects registered candidates and selects a small number to run in the elections and in particular, women who register as candidates are generally would be excluded from running in the elections by the Guardian Council. Accordingly, an orderly election is held in Iran in which women, religions other than Twelve Shiite Islam, secularists and other faiths do not have the right to be elected. Partaking and voting in these showy elections are voting for the continuation of dictatorship and political, social and economic poverty in Iran.
3- The current tableau of the Iranian Society is recession, unemployment, poverty, inflation, widespread human rights abuses, and torture and repression. In such sorrowful circumstances, the Iranian government is trying to illustrate a warm atmosphere of elections. In your opinion, what is the electoral atmosphere in Iran regarding these issues?
In my opinion, partaking in this year’s election will not be the same as in previous years, and the turnout will be very low. It is forty years that people are under the yoke of the mullahs (theocracy) and the state mafia; the people have tasted various tastes of hunger, homelessness, corruption, despair and deprivation. With considering the circumstances that you also mentioned, partaking in the elections has lost its sense for the people. For the people who used to deceive the people with various tricks by the government and especially through the religious channel it will not be just a scenario.
As for the Kurdish people, everyone is aware that with the coming to power of the Islamic Republic, the political repression and the filling up prisons with revolutionary fighters and the brutal killing, it surpassed the Pahlavi regime. This totalitarian and dictatorial system soon showed its sinister face for our people. In the first election held in Iran after the overthrowing of the Pahlavi regime, the Kurdish people said “no” to the regime and did not partake in the election. Nowadays, more than forty years after the massacre and the imprisonments of the Kurdish people, the Kurdish people have no reason to partake in this year’s illustration-elections.
4- According to the intensification of public protests and strikes in Iran and the loss of legitimacy and popular acceptance, what will be the consequences for people not going to the polls for the current system?
In my opinion, the authoritarian mafia will carry out its plan and will not heed for the election. In this way, in pretending to be in the company of millions of people, they are going to the polls to show that they support the legitimacy of the public system, and this will not be other than a sinister scenario.
5- During the last year, there have been rumours that a military government will come to power in Iran. Accordingly, to the lack of democracy in Iran, the flawed structure of the constitution and the principle of Velayat-e-Faqih (Guardianship of the Islamic Jurist), what will be the consequences of the militarisation of the Iran’s authoritarian?
Currently, the Iran’s authoritarian is in a crisis of legitimacy and a crisis of management. Therefore, due to the US sanctions and at the same time with the exposing of the reformist and the fundamentalism hands of the system, this method of the regime based on the reformist opposition has lost its effectiveness in the observation of the public. It will not be economical for the authoritarian to continue this process. According to the body of the dictatorial authoritarians and the lack of democracy in this system, it is not possible to continue to deceive the people with the tricks of previous years. The dictatorial authoritarians have relied on their repressive power throughout history and with the military, they tried to faint and stifle the legitimate demands of the people.
Consequently, the mafia authoritarian finds a solution for exit of this crisis through: Unifying the triple forces of and to unify the government and the parliament, and at the same time to further militarise the system in order to suppress and suffocate inside the country and to soften and collusion against foreign forces, but they are unwitting of the liberalism people in this process that are ready to sacrifice to achieve freedom. The liberalism people will not tolerance of all this oppression and tyranny from dictators. By relying on their inherent power, the liberalism people will defeat the dictatorship. No governance will be able to oppose a foreign power without popular support.
6- PJAK and KODAR, as in previous periods have boycotted the elections. What is the reason for choosing such this approach and what alternative do you suggest?
It is clear as the existence that popular participation in these elections will be drastically reduced, because of factors such as the complete disappointment of the people in pursuing their demands within the existing system, widespread financial and administrative corruption, national protests in December 2017 and October 2019, the US sanctions, intensified economic crisis, Lack of political freedoms such as freedom of expression and human rights violations, the incorrigibility of the political structure and theatrical and non-free elections, continuation of harsh political restrictions, social and religious, the complete disappointment of the people with the deceptive promises in the last elections, this is the agenda of forty years of mafia and oligarchy authoritarian, therefore the authoritarian has lost its ideology. The Iranian peoples cannot view any future in the continuation of this system. With over time, more problems will be observed.
With this agenda of the dictatorship authoritarian and dozens of other reasons, our peoples have been never aligned with the goals of these authoritarians and simultaneously it has been proved that the ordered-elections have not solved any problem. Therefore, we have considered the boycotting the elections as the only right method in this system and until to a free and democratic election would be held in Iran, participating in the elections within the framework of the current electoral system has been as a form and an order, and the boycotting is the only logic and proper method. In our opinion, a confederate system in Iran can replace the centralist system that dominates Iran and according to a democratic nation the Democratic self-government is the only option that different peoples, religions and beliefs can they represent themselves. This provides the base of way in the democratisation process. It achieves a humane and free life based on their natural rights in the democratic environment.
7- The presidential and town and village council elections will be held simultaneously. Can people’s participation in urban and rural elections have an effect on the will of the people and decision-making for their affairs?
A single-dimensional view of concerns cannot correspond to the logic of socio-political authenticity. In the various circumstances, achievements can be achieved in a purposeful society. However, in the critical situation of the mafia authoritarian and with the security view of the authoritarian on the issues of Kurdistan, the democratic movement was blocked in its place. The proper atmosphere for expressing the democratic demands of the people has been not provided. With this sinister atmosphere, if one thinks that one can pass through the lines of this system safely, one will be left in complete unawareness.
The town and village councils could form the democratic organs of society, but the mafia system and its functioning have influenced the space and identity of these councils. The mafia authoritarians have turned them into a source of bribery and corruption. If somewhere people determine for themselves, they can achieve some of their goals in an organised shape, I think it should be left to the people themselves. The final decision based on this approach should be left to them.
8- At the end, the people in Iran, especially in East Kurdistan, are in a nuisance situation and they have insignificant positions in the decisions and policies of the country. What should be the approach and position of the people, especially women, youth and intellectuals in the elections?
The people of Iran, and especially our people in East Kurdistan, have no any role in the decisions and policies of the country. The security view of the regime in relation to East Kurdistan is racist and with the view of ethnic-religious chauvinism. With the stating that we know this system views on issues at the peak of religious dogmatism and all the affairs of the country’s administration pass through a specific stratum channel. All individuals of the Kurdish society must understand the objective reality of their society and prepare themselves for the final struggle and boycott these orderly and comical elections actively and revolutionary; There must be an atmosphere in the society when people can disgrace “the going to the polls” and they can avoid of voting.
04 June 2021
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