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More protests spread across Iran as earthquake crisis continues in Khoy

By Mahmoud Hakamian
Iran Protests - February 1, 2023
According to latest reports protesters in at least 282 cities throughout Iran’s 31 provinces have taken to the streets for 139 days now seeking to overthrow the mullahs’ regime. Over 750 have been killed by regime security forces and at least 30,000 arrested, via sources affiliated to the Iranian opposition PMOI/MEK.

Latest update – 10:15 pm CET

Iran’s nationwide uprising is marking its 139th day on Wednesday as cities across the country are seeing people from different social sectors taking to the streets and protesting the regime’s rule. On Tuesday night many protesters chanted slogans criticizing regime Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, the mullahs’ Revolutionary Guards (IRGC) and paramilitary Basij, and their security forces apparatus.

Reports also indicate an escalating atmosphere of dissent and tension in the city of Khoy following Saturday’s 5.9 magnitude earthquake that has left many devastated and in need of urgent aid. Authorities have dispatched many security units to the city and are even attacking anyone asking for a tent and/or protesting the harsh conditions.

Protests in Iran have to this day expanded to at least 282 cities. Over 750 people have been killed and more than 30,000 are arrested by the regime’s forces, according to sources of Iranian opposition People’s Mojahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI/MEK). The names of 637 killed protesters have been published by the PMOI/MEK.

Early Wednesday morning reports indicate a major explosion outside rocked a judiciary building of the mullahs’ regime in Isfahan, central Iran. Today is the first of ten days that the mullahs’ propaganda apparatus launch every year to celebrate their rule. This explosion at the beginning of these events is a reminder of the ruling regime of the people’s hatred of their dictatorship.

Personnel of Parsian Bank in Tehran rallied outside the regime’s Central Bank on Wednesday to hold a protest gathering and seek answers to their demands that have long gone unanswered by regime officials. These protesters are demanding higher paychecks, better pensions, and other improvements in their work and living conditions.

On Wednesday night, protesters in the city of Abdanan, western Iran, took to the streets rallying and demolishing a statue of the IRGC paramilitary Basij Force while chanting: “This is the year Seyed Ali (Khamenei) is overthrown!” and “Freedom! Freedom! Freedom!” Footage from this city also shows protesters setting up roadblocks with fires and establishing control over their cities.

Also on Wednesday night, locals in Tehran began protesting and chanting anti-regime slogans, including: “Death to the dictator!”

In Tehran, family members of death row inmates rallied on Wednesday outside the regime’s judiciary building protesting the death sentences and demanding answers from regime officials. This is the sixth such rally held recently as family members of various inmates have traveled from across the country to hold these gatherings on January 29, January 25, January 22, January 16, and January 14 in the country’s capital where children have been seen holding placards reading: “Don’t execute my dad!”

On Tuesday evening, people in the cities of Tehran, Karaj, and Javanrud were protesting and chanting anti-regime slogans in their districts. Tehran’s Darband, western neighborhoods, and other areas were also scenes of such protests. These slogans include:
“Death to Khamenei! Damned, be Khomeini!”
“Death to the dictator!”
“Poverty-Corruption-High prices! We’re going to overthrow the regime!”
“Death to Khamenei, the murderer!”
“I will say this under torture: Give me freedom or give me death!”
“No to a monarchy! No to [the mullahs’ regime]! Death to Oppression!”
“Death to the Basij! Death to the IRGC!”

A magnitude 5.9 earthquake rocked the city of Khoy in West Azerbaijan Province of northwest Iran on Saturday night, leaving many locals in the freezing cold winter without any aid from the local authorities. State media are reporting three dead while reports from other sources indicate at least seven people have died with 1,075 others injured. Further reports indicate 70 villages have witnessed 80 percent damages, and more than 3,000 homes have been severely impacted.

On Tuesday morning locals gathered once again outside the city governor’s office demanding aid, such as tents, blankets, heating appliances, and food. Nearly all of the shops across the city of Khoy have run out of food. Locals say many officials and state press have only taken pictures of the damages and left, without providing any meaningful aid.

Local activists in the city are reporting that regime authorities have deployed a large number of security units, most of whom are stationed in the Khoy Red Crescent. Anyone who protests the status quo is attacked and beaten with batons, the report adds.

Regime officials were quick to dispatch anti-security units to the area to prevent possible anti-regime protests by the locals who are in desperate need of assistance. On Sunday authorities even used water cannons of anti-riot trucks to disperse a crowd of earthquake victims.

On Monday people gathered outside the local governor’s office demanding answers and aid. There is a severe shortage of bread and food in stores across the city, and many still don’t have tents. There are several reports of regime security forces attacking those who gathered seeking aid for their families.

People in different cities, including Urmia in northwest Iran and Sarpol-e Zahab in western Iran are taking matters into their own hands and collecting aid for the needy in Khoy as authorities are refusing and failing to provide any meaningful assistance.

Regime security forces are preventing of the distribution of aid voluntarily collected by ordinary people from the cities of Urmia, Salmas, and Naqadeh to the quake-hit people of Khoy, according to local activists.

On Wednesday evening, locals are holding a protest gathering demanding tents for their families who are freezing following Saturday’s 5.9 magnitude earthquake that has left them stranded. Regime authorities are concerned about such rallies evolving into anti-regime protests and growing out of control.

In other reports on Tuesday, schoolkids in the city of Javanrud in Kermanshah Province, western Iran, took to the streets and began chanting anti-regime slogans, including:
“From Zahedan to Izeh, this country is bleeding!”
“Death to Khamenei! Damned, be Khomeini!”

This restive city has witnessed massive protests during the past few months and the regime’s security forces launched an intense crackdown campaign in response that left dozens killed and injured.

In other protest reports, workers of a copper mine in Shahrebabak, Kerman Province, south-central Iran are on strike and holding a gathering outside of the local governor’s office, protesting their low paychecks and pensions.

On Tuesday morning, investors of the Cryptoland online exchange held a rally outside the regime’s judiciary building in Tehran demanding the IRGC to return their stolen money returned.

The users of Cryptoland have been holding protests for two years, but authorities are refraining from acting on their demands. Cryptoland had around 289,000 users, who have lost hundreds of millions worth of their savings in the online marketplace.

Iranian opposition coalition NCRI President-elect Maryam Rajavi once again reminded the international community of the need to adopt a firm policy vis-à-vis the mullahs’ regime in Tehran, explaining how such an approach will aid the Iranian people in their effort to establish freedom and democracy in their country.

“Any act of firmness against the Iranian regime and any steps taken against it, anywhere in the world, will aid the Iranian people’s struggle to overthrow the regime, and is in line with international peace and security,” the NCRI President-elect highlighted.

The protests in Iran began following the death of Mahsa Amini. Mahsa (Zhina) Amini, a 22-year-old woman from the city of Saqqez in Kurdistan Province, western Iran, who traveled to Tehran with her family, was arrested on Tuesday, September 13, at the entry of Haqqani Highway by the regime’s so-called “Guidance Patrol” and transferred to the “Moral Security” agency.

She was brutally beaten by the morality police and died of her wounds in a Tehran hospital on September 16. The event triggered protests that quickly spread across Iran and rekindled the people’s desire to overthrow the regime.

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