On 22 March 2025, 4 days after Newroz festivities in Urmia drew over 100,000 attendees, Turkish demonstrators affiliated with Pan-Turkist ideologies organised protests with alleged support from security forces and the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC). Urmia is the capital of West Azerbaijan province in Iran.
Reports indicate that some participants in the Pan-Turkist demonstration directed hostile slogans at Kurds, including denial of their historical presence in the region and explicit threats of violence. Kurdish advocacy groups denounced these actions as incitement to ethnic violence, demanding government intervention to de-escalate tensions.
During this march, Nader Ghazipour—a former representative of the Islamic Consultative Assembly of Iran, former commander of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, and a staunchly anti-Kurdish figure in West Azerbaijan province—was present, along with several associates of the Iranian government.
Although the demonstration ultimately ended following police intervention, local sources reported that even the police joined the protesters in chanting racist and fascist slogans.
In response to this racist march, political parties in Iranian Kurdistan (Rojhilat) as well as an Azeri organisation issued statements condemning the demonstration, describing it as a project orchestrated by Iranian security institutions and foreign actors seeking instability in Iranian Kurdistan.
In this contexts, the Kurdistan Free Life Party (PJAK) emphasised, in a public message, that Newroz represents a day of solidarity, hope, and national identity. They wrote:
“Unfortunately, this widely celebrated occasion was exploited by certain factions with a fascist and narrow-minded agenda under the guise of disrupting peaceful coexistence and fueling artificial tensions. The Kurdish and Turkish peoples of Azerbaijan have lived side by side for centuries, and despite their cultural differences, their relationship has always been rooted in mutual respect and coexistence. Efforts to turn these differences into conflict are part of a broader scheme orchestrated by Iranian and foreign security institutions seeking to advance their interests through regional instability.
The Party of Free Life of Kurdistan (PJAK) firmly believes that only by rejecting extremist nationalism, embracing the principles of coexistence, strengthening democratic culture, and fostering mutual acceptance can a just and democratic solution be envisioned for the future of all peoples. The people of this region deserve peace, freedom, and coexistence—let us work together to realize this shared ideal.”
In response to these developments, Komala (Komalay Zahmatkeshan-i Kordestan), a leftist political organisation, issued a statement vehemently condemning the demonstration and those linked to Iran’s regime who orchestrated it. Komala urged the people of Kurdistan—both Kurds and Turks—to exercise caution and vigilance against scenarios designed to destabilise the province, calling for collective strength to be directed not against one another, but against the Islamic Republic of Iran.
Komala views the coexistence of the Turkish and Kurdish nations as pivotal in thwarting the Iranian regime’s conspiracies, and remains fully committed to fostering peaceful relations among the region’s ethnic groups.
The Kurdistan Democratic Party of Iran (KDPI) also released a statement denouncing the alignment of Pan-Turkists with the Islamic Republic’s security apparatus. It appealed to intellectuals, public figures, and Turkish civil society to uphold Kurdish-Turkish coexistence and prevent such movements from sowing division between the two peoples.
“We reaffirm the deep-rooted bonds of friendship between the Kurdish and Azerbaijani peoples, underscoring the necessity of mutual understanding and shared existence. We maintain that stoking hostility between these nations serves only the regime’s interests. It is our hope that, through the wisdom and responsibility of Azerbaijani Turkic intellectuals, activists, and civil society leaders, such extremist rhetoric and hatred will come to an end.”
Beyond these parties, three Kurdish and one Azerbaijani human rights organisation issued a joint statement urging vigilance and resistance against the Islamic Republic’s incendiary tactics in Urmia. The Association for the Defense of Azerbaijani Political Prisoners in Iran (ADAP), the Kurdistan Human Rights Society (KHRN) the Kurdistan Human Rights Network, and the Kurdpa Human Rights Organization reaffirmed Urmia’s multicultural identity, asserting that the city belongs to all its inhabitants—Azerbaijanis, Kurds, Armenians, Assyrians, and others.
The joint statement declares:
“We, the Azeri and Kurdish human rights organisations, caution against the exploitation of religious, linguistic, and ethnic divisions by the Islamic Republic to incite tension and conflict. We stress the imperative of coexistence, mutual respect, and social harmony. We call upon all Urmia citizens, alongside political parties, civil society groups, trade unions, and cultural organisations in Kurdistan and Azerbaijan, to mitigate tensions and resolutely oppose the Islamic Republic’s plots, as well as provocations by violent extremist factions of any ideological persuasion.”
The predominantly Kurdish province of West Azerbaijan in Iran, has increasingly become a flashpoint for ethnic tensions, fuelled by the intervention of centralist forces in Tehran and, more recently, the governments of Turkey and Azerbaijan republic. Many experts on Iran assert that Turkey and the Republic of Azerbaijan have, in recent years, heavily invested in promoting pan-Turkist ideologies to counter Kurdish influence. They caution that without vigilance from both Kurds and Turkey, the region risks descending into widespread ethnic strife.
