Thousands of Iranian Kurds on September 26 marched in the streets to declare their support for the independence referendum staged by Kurdish authorities in neighbouring Iraq, defying intimidation from Tehran including the flying of fighter jets over largely Kurdish cities in northwest Iran.

The uncompromising line from the Iranian ruling establishment is that the vote - which has also greatly angered Turkey and Baghdad - is a threat to regional stability and might easily set in train even more conflict in the Middle East. But Iranian Kurds in cities including Marivan, Sanandaj and Baneh put on shows of exuberance, dancing in circles as night fell, chanting Kurdish nationalist slogans and beeping their car horns in celebration, news agencies reported. With eight to 10 million Kurds living amongst Iran’s population of 80 million, Tehran will be on guard against any surge in secessionist feeling among Iran’s own Kurdish population.

"This referendum was not a threat to Iraq's neighbours, but it's a starting point to resolve the issues of Kurds, especially in Iran," Zaribar, who declined to give his full name, told Reuters. Zaribar, who said he was a Marivan resident and member of the Democratic Party of Iranian Kurdistan - a secular armed group which launches periodic attacks in Iran - added: "This referendum will encourage Iranian Kurds to be more determined to seek their rights." 

Various government departments of Iran, which announced a ban on direct flights to and from Iraqi Kurdistan on September 24 at the request of Baghdad, have condemned the plebiscite on independence.

“Illegal and worthless”
Top Iranian geopolitical adviser, Ali Akbar Velayati, described the vote as “illegal and worthless”, with no prospect of bringing a positive outcome, Mehr News Agency reported on September 26. Velayati, known to have the ear of Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, is often the first to make clear the line being taken by the supreme leader prior to an address to the nation. “Iraqi Kurdistan is most definitely part of Iraq, and honourable Kurdish people are fighting this discrimination [that forces a referendum against their wishes],” Velayati told reporters who quizzed him outside a religious event in Tehran.

Velayati noted that Masoud Barzani, President of the Iraqi Kurdistan Region since 2005, has friendly relations with Israel, the only country to publicly support the holding of the plebiscite, held despite the express disapproval of the Iraqi central government. “He did not learn from Palestine and the great [Kurdish] commander Saladin, but he should know that Kurdish people are proud of Saladin, not [Israeli PM Benjamin] Netanyahu,” he added.

Strong feelings against Barzani in Iran were driven home by the hardline Kayhan newspaper, which published a mock-up of the Iraqi Kurdish leader in a kangaroo-like pouch being protected by Netanyahu.

“Discrimination and oppression are clear in this issue, and the repugnant [Iraqi Kurdish] regime is on the verge of collapse because Kurdish noble people will never succumb to this scandal,” Velayati also said.

Speaker of the Iranian parliament Ali Larijani, meanwhile, said the vote would mean yet more tension in the already conflict-torn region. “Ever since the new Iraqi government was established and the Iraqi nation took control of the future of their own country, certain world powers and regional states began stirring up conflict and backing terrorist groups in Iraq. It has taken over three years to bring ISIL [ISIS or Islamic State] to its knees in the Arab country,” Larijani said.

He added: “We held talks with authorities under the central government of Iraq and they had talks with Kurdistan Regional Government [KRG] officials, but it seems that there are other elements making provocations inside Iraqi Kurdistan. I was saddened to hear that a KRG official had thanked the Zionist regime for helping them.”

Wandering, scattered peoples
“It is the Zionists’ policy to divide the Middle East,” Larijani stressed, referencing the widely held view among Iranians that the Israelis, given their own history, can exploit the idea that the wandering, scattered Kurds will only find peace once they secure their own homeland. Kurds are the fourth-largest ethnic group in the Middle East but they have never achieved the creation of a permanent nation state. In Iraq, where they make up an estimated 15% to 20% of the population of 37 million, Kurds faced decades of repression before gaining autonomy in 1991.

A push for autonomy by the Iranian Kurds, inspired by the defiant referendum of the Iraqi Kurds - who, it should be noted, say they will not actually push for independence right now even if the referendum delivers the expected resounding ‘Yes’ - would be unlikely to make progress any time soon within Iran’s theocracy, and given the strength of the Iranian armed forces.

Iran’s Revolutionary Guards have for decades dealt with any unrest in Kurdish areas. Many persistent activists have been slung in jail, with some sentenced to death.