Protests in front of Iranian Embassy in Turkey

Iranian refugees and the Association of Iranian Democrats in Turkey staged a protest in front of Iranian Embassy in Ankara yesterday.

The hour-long protest, in which tens of Iranians and a number of Turkish students participated, marked the student uprising of July 9, 1999 in Iran.

On July 9, 1999, Iranian security forces and plain clothes forces attacked Tehran University dorm and injured and arrested tens of students. Later the government confirmed the death of Ezzat Ebrahimnejad but protesters claim the number of deaths were far more that the official reports.

The protesters in Turkey expressed anti-government sentiments chanting slogans against the Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Khamenei and against the Islamic Republic as well as slogans demanding the release of political prisoners.

Iranian embassy officials did not exit the building during the protests but filmed protesters from inside the building.

Protesters read out a resolution in which they primarily urged the international community to put Iran under “political sanctions” and to close down their all their embassies which they describe as “spying nests and centres for the export of terrorism.”

Turkish government is also called on to end its collaboration with Iran. Turkey and Brazil are the only two countries that opposed the United Nation’s Security Council resolution to impose new sanctions against Iran.

The protesters also called for “freedom of speech and the press, an end to censorship, release of all political prisoners, respect for ethnic minority rights and a free referendum to choose their fate.”

The resolution also calls for prosecution of the perpetrators of the Islamic Republic crimes, an end to “medieval sentences of execution, stoning and dismemberment”, as well as complete equality of men and women, abolition of compulsory dress codes and all “patriarchal relations in society and the law.”