In a statement released on Friday, the Executive Council of the Kurdistan Communities Union (KCK) directly blamed the government of Turkish President Tayyip Erdoğan for the recent Islamic State (ISIS) attack in Kerman, Iran.
The attack, now considered the deadliest in Iran since the 1979 Islamic Revolution, took place on 3 January at a cemetery commemorating the fourth anniversary of Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) commander Qasem Soleimani’s death. Soleimani was killed in a US drone strike at Baghdad airport in 2020.
The KCK condemned the attack, highlighting its similarity to previous attacks carried out by ISIS against Kurds and other communities in the Middle East.
The statement outlined a broader perspective, suggesting that the attack in Kerman was not only aimed at targeting the Iranian people, but part of a larger plan to escalate conflicts in the Middle East. The KCK claimed that certain forces, dissatisfied with the outcome of recent events in the region, wanted to deepen and spread the war. The umbrella organisation accused these forces of trying to drag Iran into conflicts with Israel and the United States.
The KCK pointed to the timing of the attack, which coincided with the commemoration of Soleimani, arguing that it was a deliberate move to provoke tension in the region. The Executive Council claimed that the real instigators behind the attack were the same forces that had previously supported ISIS, against which the Kurdish movement had successfully fought in the past.
The KCK claimed that the Turkish government under Erdoğan has not only facilitated ISIS attacks against Kurds and other peoples in the Middle East in the past, but also continues to support and direct the terrorist group for its own purposes today.
The KCK concluded its statement by reaffirming its commitment to fight against ISIS and the forces behind it.
