Eight years have passed since 3 Kharmanān 2718 in the Kurdish calendar, “25 August 2018 CE”; the day when Sharif Bajour, Omid Hosseinzadeh, Mohammad Pazhouhi and Rahmat Hakiminia lost their lives during the forest fires in Mariwan. They went into the flames to save the forests and prevent the spread of the fire that was burning Kurdistan’s natural environment, and they never returned.
On the eighth anniversary of this tragedy, the Independence Party of Kurdistan commemorates these four environmental martyrs and all those who have sacrificed their lives in defence of Kurdistan’s natural environment, and once again stresses the Iranian regime’s deliberate involvement in their martyrdom.
From the perspective of the Independence Party of Kurdistan, the martyrdom of Sharif Bajour and his companions was not an event separate from the general policy of the Islamic Republic of Iran in Kurdistan. This tragedy must be viewed within the framework of a broader, planned policy that, over several decades, has subjected Kurdistan’s natural environment and all those who defend this land and homeland to destruction, imprisonment, repression and assassination.
According to reports, most fires in the mountainous areas of East Kurdistan are connected to the activities and military operations of Iran’s terrorist Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps. The Iranian regime has consistently pursued a hostile policy toward the people, land and natural environment of Kurdistan. With regard to its hostility toward Kurdistan’s environment, hundreds of reports have been published concerning the militarisation of mountainous areas, the burning and cutting down of forests, mine-laying, the destruction of natural resources, the plundering of mines, the transfer of water resources and pressure on environmental activists.
A regime that turns the mountains and forests of Kurdistan into fields of military operations; a regime that, through artillery bombardment, military exercises, mines and the militarisation of Kurdistan, places parts of the natural environment at risk of destruction; a regime that, during fires, fails to provide people with the necessary and immediate equipment and resources and forces citizens and environmental defenders to confront the flames empty-handed and with the most basic tools; the same regime that, instead of supporting environmental activists, views them through a security lens and subjects them to arrest, threats and pressure; and, in general, a regime that has occupied the land and homeland of Kurdistan cannot present itself as the protector of Kurdistan’s environment.
The Independence Party of Kurdistan believes that this conduct by the Iranian regime is one of the signs of an explicit anti-Kurdish and anti-environmental policy in Kurdistan.
Sharif Bajour and his companions were neither armed nor had they gone to the mountains to wage war. They went to save trees, land and life. They were the Peshmerga of Kurdistan’s environment, and their crime, in the eyes of a regime that regards every independent form of organisation in Kurdistan as a threat, was that they organised people to protect their homeland, refused to remain silent in the face of the destruction of nature, and demonstrated that Kurdistan’s society can defend its own resources and environment without relying on the structures of the occupying Iranian regime.
The Iranian regime, as an occupying force, has extensively exploited Kurdistan’s resources over the past several decades, profited from them and plundered them; at the same time, it burns the forests of the Zagros, destroys pastures, has driven water resources toward crisis, extracts mines and mineral resources, and has placed the region’s environment under pressure and destruction. At the same time, activists who protest against this process are subjected to imprisonment, torture, pressure, assassination and killing.
The events of 3 Kharmanān 1397 in the Solar Hijri calendar are among the clearest manifestations of this situation.
The Independence Party of Kurdistan considers the martyrdom of Sharif Bajour, Omid Hosseinzadeh, Mohammad Pazhouhi and Rahmat Hakiminia to be the result of the same political, security and occupationist course pursued by the Iranian regime, which for years has made Kurdistan’s environment and its defenders its victims. The hostility of this occupying regime toward Kurdistan’s environment cannot be separated from its hostility toward the Kurdish people; it is an enemy of the people, trees and stones of Kurdistan.
The Independence Party of Kurdistan calls for an independent and transparent investigation into the events of 25 August 2018 and all suspicious forest fires in Kurdistan. It also calls on international environmental and human rights organisations to regard the destruction of Kurdistan’s environment and the situation of its defenders as a serious and dangerous issue and not to disregard the responsibility of the Iranian regime in this regard.
On the eighth anniversary of the martyrdom of Sharif Bajour and his companions, we declare that forgetting them would mean normalising the policy that turns Kurdistan’s forests and their defenders into victims.
3 Kharmanān must be a day for remembering the truth that Kurdistan’s natural environment is not defenceless and that the defenders of Kurdistan’s environment will never be forgotten.
Sharif Bajour, Omid Hosseinzadeh, Mohammad Pazhouhi and Rahmat Hakiminia entered the flames to save the life of Kurdistan’s environment. For this reason, their memory, names, path and cause will remain alive in the memory of Kurdistan as a symbol of the defence of the homeland.
May the memory of the martyrs of Kurdistan’s environment remain honoured and exalted.
Independence Party of Kurdistan
2 Kharmanān 2726 Kurdish Calendar
24 August 2026 CE
