Urgent Warning: Organized Repression and Internet Shutdown in Iran — With a Focus on Rojhelat, Baluchistan, and al-Ahwaz
Documented time frame: 28 December 2025 to 9 January 2026
Audience: International and national media, global human rights organizations, international institutions, embassies and foreign ministries, parliaments and elected representatives, and the freedom-seeking public worldwide
Introduction: This is not an “internal crisis”
I, Ashtyako Poorkarim, as the leader of the Kurdistan Independence Movement, publish this memo/letter as an urgent demand and warning to the international community; because what has occurred in recent weeks in the geography known as Iran—since the start of the new wave of protests on 28 December 2025—is no longer merely an “internal crisis” or a “security response to protests.”
What we are witnessing is an organized combination of state repression, collective punishment, information warfare, systematic internet shutdowns, and mass arrests; a set of measures that in some areas—especially in Eastern Kurdistan (Rojhelat)—has taken on a targeted and punitive character and must rightly be placed on the world’s urgent agenda as an organized campaign against the civilian population.
This text is a comprehensive report-letter in an article-like format; written in a way that is suitable both for public publication and for submission to diplomatic, human rights, and media institutions.
1) Background and trajectory: From livelihood demands to structural protests
The recent protests began on 28 December 2025, centered on the livelihood crisis, inflation, the collapse in value of the national currency, and the collapse of purchasing power. But in a short time, in many cities they moved beyond economic demands and expanded into political and structural protest against the existing situation.
At the same time, strikes—especially in western regions and Kurdistan—played an important role as an effective form of civil resistance in sustaining the wave, connecting cities, and increasing collective capacity for protest.
2) The government’s response pattern: Violent repression, mass arrests, and information warfare
Based on field reports and aggregated human rights and media data, the government’s response in most areas has included the following components:
- A) On-the-ground violence and the use of coercive force
Numerous reports indicate the use of tear gas, beatings, pellet gun fire, and in some cases live fire. Night raids on homes and arrests in late-night hours have been reported as a recurring pattern. Widespread reports also indicate security pressure on families to remain silent, refrain from reporting, and prevent the holding of ceremonies and gatherings. - B) Mass arrests and judicial–security pressure
Arrests have encompassed a wide spectrum: street protesters, local activists, students and youth, bazaar merchants, and ordinary citizens. There are reports of transferring detainees to security centers, intensive interrogations, deprivation of adequate access to a lawyer, pressure to extract confessions, and the imposition of compulsory undertakings. - C) Internet shutdowns and communications blackout
At key moments, the internet in Tehran and then more broadly has been cut off or severely restricted. This action has clear and foreseeable consequences:
Weakening independent information flow and increasing ambiguity about the number of victims
• Making relief efforts and families’ communication with medical and aid centers more difficult
• Making documentation and verification of violations harder and creating practical impunity for perpetrators of repression
From a human rights perspective, restricting communications in crisis conditions is a tool to intensify violence, increase casualties, and conceal serious violations.
- D) Aggregated figures (minimum and with uncertainty)
Due to communications cutoffs, the security environment, and limitations on independent verification, precise unified statistics are not available. However, up to 9 January 2026, some aggregated estimates report dozens killed (about 42 to 45 people, including several children and teenagers) and more than 2,200 arrests. These figures are minimum estimates, and with the continuation of repression and communication shutdowns, there is a possibility they will increase.
3)Urgent warning: “Silent collective violence” and collective punishment in Rojhelat
What is unfolding today in Rojhelat Kurdistan must rightly be called a form of silent collective violence: a pattern of repression designed precisely on the basis of cutting victims off from global public opinion.
The Iranian government increasingly uses nationwide or regional internet shutdowns, the silencing of communication networks, and information warfare as tools of political control; not accidentally or temporarily, but consciously to isolate cities, conceal field realities, and provide the conditions for mass arrests, torture, enforced disappearances, and the killing of citizens away from public and international scrutiny.
This pattern bears a troubling resemblance to known dynamics of impunity, where the repetition of crimes against civilians, due to the absence of effective international accountability, becomes routine and cost-free behavior. Silence and inaction at this moment will be interpreted by perpetrators of repression as a green light.
4) Kurdistan and the Zagros: The active axis of protests and repression
Based on reports and field monitoring, a wave of protests and severe security crackdown has been reported across wide parts of Kurdistan and the Zagros; including in:
• Kermashan (Kermanshah)
• Ilam, Malekshahi, Dehloran, Abdanan
• Lorestan: Khorramabad, Kuhdasht, Aligudarz, Azna
• Hamedan
• Chaharmahal and Bakhtiari: Shahrekord, Lordegan
• Yasuj
and other areas of Kurdistan and the Zagros belt
The common pattern reported includes heavy securitization, checkpoints and route controls, night raids, mass arrests, pressure on families to remain silent, and restriction of communications. In some locations, reports of live fire and casualties have also been raised. In this context, the role of youth and social participation in organizing gatherings and sustaining civil resistance has been prominent and decisive.
Separate regional report from Kurdistan
• In the cities of Kurdistan (including Sanandaj, Saqqez, Mahabad, Marivan and other areas), gatherings have continued with broad participation, and repression has been reported through pellet fire, tear gas, raids on homes, arrests of activists, and systematic pressure on families. Cases of protesters being killed (including teenagers), severe injuries, and mass arrests have been recorded. The security environment in many cities is described as militarized.
• In Kermashan, gatherings involving youth and the participation of parts of the public and bazaar merchants have formed and, despite heavy deployment of security forces, tear gas, beatings, and in some cases live fire, have continued in some neighborhoods.
• In Ilam and especially Malekshahi, reports of live fire and the killing of protesters have been raised; at the same time, internet shutdowns/restrictions and controls on travel routes have increased, and pressure on families to remain silent has been reported.
• In Lorestan, especially Kuhdasht, there are reports of the harshest forms of repression and live fire and casualties/injuries. In Azna as well, local internet shutdowns, the establishment of checkpoints, and night arrests have been reported.
• In Abdanan, the response of security forces has included pellet fire, severe beatings, and night arrests, and reports of casualties and injuries have been raised.
• In Chaharmahal and Bakhtiari, especially Shahrekord and surrounding areas, continuous gatherings have been reported, and the security response has involved raids, pellet fire, and mass arrests.
5) The 18 Dey / 8 January strike: An unprecedented consensus and organized civil action
On 18 Dey 1404 (8 January 2026), a collection of Kurdish political forces—with different tendencies—called for a general/nationwide strike. Based on field monitoring, the strike was carried out in wide parts of Kurdistan with notable participation in bazaars/markets, workplaces, and some social institutions.
5.1) Independence-seeking signatories
• Kurdistan Independence Party
• Kurdistan Serbasti Party
• Yarsani Organization “Yari Kurd”
• Union of Kurdish Revolutionaries
• Kurdistan Independence Movement
5.2) Federalist signatories
• Kurdistan Freedom Party (PAK)
• Free Life Party of Kurdistan (PJAK)
• Khabat Organization of Kurdistan Iran
• Komala, Kurdistan Organization of the Communist Party of Iran
• Komala of Kurdish Toilers
• Komala Party of Kurdistan Iran
• Democratic Party of Iranian Kurdistan
This simultaneity and overlap—regardless of differences of opinion—indicates an important reality: Kurdish society, in the face of repression and in defense of human dignity, has the capacity to create coordinated and organized civil action; and the strike has become one of the main instruments of social linkage and civil resistance.
6) Baluchistan: Intensified repression and a military–security atmosphere
In Baluchistan, protests have persisted despite security pressure, and the pattern of repression has often been described as severe and rooted in a military–security atmosphere. Reports indicate mass arrests, threats against families, and restrictions on information dissemination. Due to communications limitations and an information siege, providing precise disaggregated statistics requires greater access; nevertheless, severe repression and mass arrests at the regional level have been reported.
7) al-Ahwaz: Systematic repression and organized pressure
In al-Ahwaz as well, gatherings and protests have been reported, and the security response has been highly intense. The pattern includes arrests, intimidation, restricted information flow, and systematic pressure, and there is serious concern regarding repression of the Arab people of al-Ahwaz.
8) Persian-majority cities and major centers
Alongside peripheral regions, protests and security responses in major cities have also been reported:
• Tehran, as the initial focal point of the wave, has witnessed street gatherings, security crackdowns, and then intensified communications restrictions.
• In Isfahan, Shiraz, Mashhad, Qom, and several other cities, street protests and waves of arrests have been reported.
• In major cities, the government, in addition to on-the-ground repression, has turned to strict media control, securitization of the environment, and communications restrictions.
9) International law: violated rights, occupation, and the right to self-determination
What is happening stands in clear contradiction with recognized human rights principles and states’ obligations: the right to life, the prohibition of torture and inhuman treatment, the prohibition of arbitrary detention, the right to a fair trial, freedom of expression and access to information, and the right to peaceful assembly and protest.
At the structural level, the right of peoples to self-determination as a fundamental principle of international law holds central importance in this crisis; because a significant part of the violence and discrimination in the regions of non-Persian peoples is rooted in long-standing mechanisms of identity denial, deprivation, and the securitized handling of collective demands.
On this basis, our position is clear: we demand the withdrawal of the Iranian occupier from our lands—withdrawal from the soil and land of Kurdistan, Baluchistan, al-Ahwaz and other lands under repression and occupation—and we consider this a necessary condition for ending systematic repression and achieving a just order based on the will of peoples.
10) International responses: Not enough
General expressions of concern—though important—are not proportionate to the intensity and scale of the violations. The continuation of a “concern only” policy in the face of a “silent collective violence” pattern practically assists the continuation of repression.
11) The necessity of avoiding authoritarian alternatives
We emphasize:
• The people of this geography have experienced both religious despotism and monarchical despotism and do not consider a return to the past a solution for the future.
• Any project that pursues the logic of centralization, denial of peoples, and the reproduction of one-sided rule is the continuation of the same cycle of despotism—even if presented in a different appearance.
• A sustainable solution is conceivable only within the framework of real pluralism, equality of peoples, and respect for the right to self-determination—including the practical end of occupation and the withdrawal of the Iranian occupying structure.
12) Specific and urgent requests from the international community
We ask governments, international institutions, human rights organizations, and the media to place practical and specific actions on their agenda:
- Official, explicit, and public condemnation of violent repression, the use of lethal coercive force, and mass arrests.
- Demand the immediate cessation of violence and the release of political detainees and those detained in connection with peaceful protests.
- Support independent and international investigations into killings, torture, enforced disappearances, and widespread human rights violations.
- Condemn internet shutdowns and the suppression of communications, and emphasize the necessity of free access to information.
- Practical action to ensure the people of Rojhelat and other silenced regions have access to the global internet (including emergency and satellite solutions) to break the information siege and enable documentation.
- Review accountability mechanisms, including targeted human rights sanctions against those who order and carry out repression, and supportive measures to protect victims and families.
- Call on the media for professional, accurate, and persistent coverage; with special focus on silenced and peripheral regions, so victims do not become invisible in the darkness of censorship.
- Recognize the political reality of occupation and emphasize the principle of the Iranian occupier’s withdrawal from Kurdistan, Baluchistan, al-Ahwaz, and other lands of oppressed peoples.
- Request that the United States, Israel, and their allies in Europe and the world adopt urgent, effective, and deterrent measures within the framework of international law, prioritizing the protection of civilians and the containment of the repression machine; so that the cost of repression becomes real and deterrent. A preventive military attack on Iran and nuclear sites, barracks, military and governmental institutions, and the regime’s repressive organs; our demand is that the United States, Israel, and their allies in Europe and the world, alongside military strikes on the positions and bases of the Iranian regime’s repression, carry out a humanitarian military intervention that is necessary to stabilize democracy.
- Considering field reports indicating that some cities of Rojhelat have to some extent fallen into the hands of the people and parts have effectively been liberated, it is necessary for the international community to examine and operationalize urgent mechanisms to protect civilians; including examining protective arrangements in the skies over Eastern Kurdistan and across Iran to prevent aerial attacks against civilian areas. Also, some cities of Rojhelat Kurdistan have to some extent fallen into the hands of the people and have been liberated; therefore it is necessary that a no-fly zone be formed in the skies over Eastern Kurdistan and across Iran so that the regime cannot bomb these areas from the air, which is possible.
Conclusion
What is happening today in the geography known as Iran is a crisis that, through widespread human rights violations, organized repression, mass arrests, and communications shutdowns, has direct effects on regional peace and stability. In Rojhelat, this process has reached a stage that must be called collective punishment and silent collective violence.
Silence and inaction at this moment will rightly be interpreted by perpetrators of repression as a green light. The people of these regions—including Kurdistan, Baluchistan, and al-Ahwaz—must not be left alone and voiceless in the darkness of communications shutdowns and repression.
If needed, we are ready to provide supplementary documents, testimonies, lists of recorded cases (disaggregated by city/day), and the necessary cooperation to the media and relevant institutions.
Ashtyako Poorkarim
Leader of the Kurdistan Independence Movement
12 January 2026
