NCRI’s viewpoint on the issue of minorities in Iran – Hossein Abedini

MINORITY RIGHTS IN IRANIAN SOCIETY

Human Rights Abuse & EU Reaction
Umayya Center for Research & Strategic Studies in collaboration with the Institute of Strategic Thinking (SDE)
Saturday 17th - Sunday 18th October 2015, Istanbul, Turkey

Draft text of remarks by Mr Hossein Abedini, member of the National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI) Foreign Affairs Committee: Iranian Resistance’s viewpoint on the issue of minorities in Iran

Dear friends and distinguished personalities,
Good morning,

It is an honour and privilege to address this very timely and important conference on behalf of the National Council of Resistance of Iran and the Iranian Resistance, I am grateful for this opportunity.

First of all, allow me to express the most profound, heartfelt support and solidarity of NCRI with our brave combatant Syrian brothers and sisters and their epic resistance against Assad regime backed by the brutal mullahs in Iran.

Before I address the specific topics of today's conference, allow me to make a point by referring to my personal experience from the last time I visited this beautiful city of Istanbul, which in a way is related to the concerns that this conference is addressing.

We all know that terrorism has always been one of the main pillars and an instrumental tool that the theocratic regime has used to pursue their barbaric and expansionist policies. They have either carried out or have been behind more than 450 major terrorist operations against the Iranian dissidents, political opponents and foreign nationals. I am one of the very few survivors of Iranian regime's terrorism.

In early 1990s I had gone to Turkey with some of my colleagues to help a group of Iranian refugees in that country. As we were on our way to Istanbul's airport, our car was ambushed in broad daylight and we came under attack by Iranian regime's diplomat - terrorists who started to shoot at us with revolvers and machineguns from all directions. I was seriously wounded and a bullet hit my chest and narrowly missed my heart. Other bullets hit me in the abdomen and liver and my liver was badly damaged and at least 80 percent of my liver was damaged. I was bleeding extensively and was taken to hospital by my friends where I had to go through 14 major surgeries to survive. They even tried to finish me off twice in the hospital but they did not succeed.

I chose this personal experience as an introduction to my speech to remind you of the true character of the Velayat-e Faqih regime and that its terror campaign is not confined only within the Iran's border.

So after this brief introduction, allow me to address the main subject of this conference, the rights of minorities in Iran, by presenting to you the viewpoints of the Iranian resistance in this respect.

Following the fall of the Shah back in 1979, the ethnic minorities in Iran that were freed from this dictatorship were rightfully demanding their minimum rights in Iranian provinces of Kurdistan, Khuzestan, Baluchistan and Turkmenistan. From the outset, the mullah regime's response to these legitimate demands were bombs and bullets.

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http://www.ncr-iran.org/en/news/society/19307-ncri-s-viewpoint-on-the-issue-of-minorities-in-iran-hossein-abedini