IMHRO: Minorities’ political parties suppressed by Iranian Government whilst extreme right wing parties are able to act freely

Iranian Minorities’ Human Rights Organisation (IMHRO)

Ref.IMHRO.35

01/01/09

Political Freedom of Minorities in Iran

According to our sources in Ahwaz, Azerbaijan, Kurdistan, the Iranian government allow fascist group of Iranian National-Socialist Workers’ Party (SOMKA)[1] to act freely, whilst suppressing all Iranian minorities-based political parties.

Almost all members of minority political parties are living in exile. The Iranian government have persecuted members of minorities’ political parties, even when they have been living abroad and as far away as Western Europe. The assassination of two Kurdish leaders of the Democratic Party of Kurdistan in Austria and Germany, are well known examples of Iranian persecution of political dissidents in the West.

Iran’s Ties with Fascism

During World War Two the Allies feared the monarch's (Reza Shah) close relations with Nazi Germany[2]. In September 1941, following the occupation of western Iran by the Soviet Union and the United Kingdom, Reza Shah was forced to abdicate. The SOMKA party started during WW2 which had close ties with Nazi Germany and was directed by Himmler.

Reza Shah, a pro-Nazi king of Iran at the height of WW2, wrote[3]:

“Germany was our age-old and natural ally; love of Germany was synonymous with love for Iran. The sound of German officers' footsteps was heard on the shores of the Nile. Swastika flags were flying from the outskirts of Moscow to the peaks of the Caucasus Mts. Iranian patriots eagerly awaited the arrival of their old allies. My friend and I would spin tales about the grandeur of the superior race. We considered Germany the chosen representative of this race in Europe and Iran its representative in Asia. The right to life and role was ours. Others had no choice but submission and slavery. We discarded the old maps and remade Iran into a country larger than what it was in Achaemenian times.”

During the 1930's, Hitler's interest in the Aryan homeland would have him and the Shah of Iran change the name of Persia to Iran, which in Persian translates as ‘Land of the Aryans.’[4]

The ideology of Aryan blood has always been a hot topic among Persians in Iran. Based on their view everything invented in the East and connected to Aryan advances.

SUMKA is an Iranian neo-Nazi party[5]. The party was formed in 1952 by Davud Monshizadeh, a professor at Ludwig Maximilians University of Munich, who served with the SS and been injured fighting in Berlin[6].

The party briefly attracted the support of young nationalists in Iran, with Daryoush Homayoun, who would later rise to prominence, an early member. Monshizadeh was known as something of a Hitler worshipper and aped many of the ways of the Nazi Party, such as their militarism and salute, as well as attempting to approximate Hitler's physical appearance

SOMKA reorganised recently under name of the Pan-Iranist movement[7].

Left wings and Far Right

Most surprisingly, it is not only right-wing and conservative parties that believe in the superiority of Aryans, even the Iranians who are left-wing support this idea. They also strongly believe that Arab and Turk minorities in Iran are sub-human.

Islamic government and Far Right

The Islamic Government of Iran has implemented Nazi-inspired policies against minorities in Iran. They continue to ban minority languages and the practising of various aspects of minorities’ culture. Furthermore, they arrest cultural activists and do not invest in areas with significant minority populations.

Appeal

We urge the international community to condemn the Islamic Republic of Iran for their discrimination against political parties; they encourage extremist parties but suppress minority parties. We want the Iranian government to grant equal political and social rights to the minorities of Iran and ban the far right Iranian neo-Nazi party and it’s associated.


Sources

[1] http://sumka.blogfa.com/

[2] http://www.state.gov/r/pa/ei/bgn/5314.htm

[3] http://www.militaryphotos.net/forums/showthread.php?t=132745

[4] Same source

[5] http://neonazi.ir/

[6] Leonard Binder, Iran: Political Development in a Changing Society, University of California Press, 1962, p. 217

تاریخچه مکتب پان ایرانیسم - نویسنده:طالع،هوشنگ - ناشر: سمرقند

Hezbe Pan Iranist by Ali Kabar Razmjoo (ISBN 964-6196-51-9)
Engheta, Naser (2001). 50 years history with the Pan-Iranists. Los Angeles, CA: Ketab Corp. ISBN 1-883819-56-3.

[7] http://paniranist.com/
http://www.paniran.blogfa.com/
http://pan-iranist.blogfa.com/
http://farmane-ariya.blogfa.blogfa.com/
http://bjiiran.blogfa.com/
http://urumie.blogfa.com/