Security agencies have been summoning and detaining dozens of teachers in the cities of Saqqez, Divandarreh, Marivan and Sanandaj since 15 June in order to prevent a nationwide gathering of teachers, which was held under tight security measures on 16 June.
Security agencies, who threatened several teachers’ union activists in phone calls, told them that orders were given to shoot teachers at protest rallies.
Also, reports received from Sanandaj indicate that since the morning of 16 June, Special Forces were deployed in the streets leading to the General Directorate of Education in Kurdistan Province and were trying to end the teachers’ gathering.
Despite the security situation and pressure on teachers, protest rallies are being held in the cities of Sardasht, Bukan, Saqqez, Bijar, Sanandaj, Marivan, Kermanshah, and Eslamabad-e-Gharb.
Since 15 June, security forces detained at least 18 Kurdish teachers and members of the Kurdistan-Saqqez and Ziviyeh Teachers’ Union.
These were identified as Avat Razavi, Marzieh Talaei, Khaled Abdollahi, Taher Ghaderzadeh, Mohammad Fattahi, Ghader Yasrabi, Salaheddin Hosseini, Zahed Moradi, Amanj Amini, Soleiman Abdi, Hossein Mohammadi, Keyvan Mohammadi, Loghman Elah-Moradi, Aziz Marzi, Ahmad Ghaderi, Khaled Sheikhi, Anvar Farajzadeh, and Esmaeil Reyhani.
On the afternoon of 16 June, a number of detained teachers were transferred to the Public Prosecutor’s Office and the Islamic Revolutionary Court of Saqqez in handcuffs and fetters. Still, no information has been obtained about their detention or bail.
Also on 15 June, five members of the Kurdistan-Divandarreh Teachers’ Union named Omid Shah-Mohammadi, Hiva Ghoreishi, Osman Rezaei, Parviz Ahsani, and Kaveh Mohammadzadeh were detained by security forces and taken to an unknown location.
On 16 June, following a teachers’ protest rally in Sanandaj, security forces raided the home of Salah Haji-Mirzaei, a member of the Kurdistan Teachers’ Union board, and detained him.
On 15 June, three members of the Kurdistan-Marivan Teachers’ Union, Tahsin Mostafa, Aram Ghaderi and Seyvan Soleimani, were detained by security forces and taken to an unknown location.
Several other teachers’ union activists in Marivan were also summoned to the security agencies by telephone and interrogated for several hours.
