Gordain (88:08)
Yeah, sure. So just a few days before the New year's Eve on December 28, there was a spontaneous demonstration and strike in Tehran's Grand Bazaar, which is basically the center of Iran's trade and one of the most important backbones of the Islamic regime or revolution. There were strikes inside the bazaar. And so many shopkeepers and business owners just closed down their businesses and they took to the streets and inside the shopping centers and they started chanting against the regime. And they were basically protesting the horrible economic situations and the decrees of the Iranian riyal, or the Iranian currency against the US dollar, which was $1, was equal to 1,400,000 Iranian riyals. And then these protests quickly spread it all over the city in Tehran. And as usual, this is what happens all the time. The Iranian regime forces, they started attacking people and trying to control the situation, but it somehow got out of their control. And the next days, these protests, these strikes, spread it to other cities, to other major cities from Shiraz, Mashhad, Isfahan, Tabriz, and many other cities got involved. But in the early January, around January 5 to 6 and 7, there were major protests in cities like Malikshahi in Ilam province and other cities in Kermanshah Province, which are basically the Kurdish provinces in western Iran. What is really unique about this is that usually when protests happen across Iran or when there is something happening, the Kurdish regions are the first to react. But this time, the Kurdish regions, like, if I want to say the West Azerbaijan province and the Sanandas province, they were not really involved because a lot of people were saying that in the previous movements, especially in 2022, we gave too much. There were too many victims here. But the center was silent. I mean, Tehran and Shiraz and these major Iranian cities. So a lot of people didn't really come out, and there was nothing happening. And at the same time, this is my personal opinion, I think, because there was also a heavy snowfall in Kurdish regions and it was really cold, and I think a lot of people just didn't want to go out. So this was happening in Malik Shahi and other cities in Elam and Kermanshah province until I think it was January 5th, that there was a really, really big demonstration in Malik Shah. And it's a small city, but I can say majority of the people were out on the streets. And then the Iranian regime forces started shooting at people and they injured and killed a lot of people. And the hospital in that city, in that small city was full and they had no. No space anymore. So the people took the injured protesters to the center of or the capital of the province, in Elam city, to the Imam Khomeini hospital. What happened in this hospital was that there were so many people in front of the hospital, like families and relatives of the victims. And then after a few hours, the Iranian regime forces started attacking the hospital. There were so many videos and footage that came out, and we also posted it on Hangout and all over the Internet, that the regime forces were basically surrounding the whole building. And then they started shooting tear gases inside the hospital. And then there was a video that came out that these regime forces were trying to get inside the hospital and arrest or kidnap all the injured people or if there was a dead body or something. And then there was some sort of resistance from the medical staff, and then they started beating the medical staff. And then a few days later, we also posted about it that some of these medical staff in that hospital were also arrested. The same thing was also happening in a few other cities, but this was very specific and it got very viral on social media and a lot of people talked about it. And at the same time, there were massive protests taking place in Tehran and other major cities, which, like, I am 28 years old and I think I've never seen such thing happening in Iran. It was. It was really extraordinary. So while these things were happening, there were also a lot of calls from people in Kurdistan that they were calling on Kurdish parties to do something, to say something. So on January 6, seven Kurdish parties from Iran, they had a meeting and they announced a call for a general strike in Kurdistan for all over Iran. So on Thursday, January 8, over 40 cities across Kurdistan, they went on a strike, which was really big, and it wasn't really discussed or talked about on major media, and it was somehow ignored while it was a really big action that took place there. And usually after the strikes in Kurdistan, this is something that's happening for years. People take to the streets and protest during the night. It happened in a few cities and there were some people injured and also killed. And then it's been over 124 hours right now as we're talking now that there is no Internet connection in Iran and even the normal lines don't work. You cannot call anyone from outside of Iran. However, there are some people who have access to the Starlink Internet and some, a few people that have access to, I don't know, some sort of strong VPNs that work for a few minutes and then they disconnect. And at the same time, I have contacts to two people who have been using the SIM cards or the Internet from Iraq or Turkey. They are living on the border regions, but they also have a limited access. So this is what's happening right now. And as we were talking about this, this blackout in Iran has, has caused a lot of confusion, a lot of horror that the world doesn't know what's happening exactly right now. Yeah, after the blackout there were a few videos and footage that came out that were published by major activists or journalists like Ali Jawan, Marty and so many others that they received these videos, I don't know, from the Internet, from Starlink. And you can see in these videos that in a place called Kharizak, it's near Tehran, it's where the Tehran's Forsenik Medical center is located. You can see in these videos that countless of bodies, maybe hundreds or maybe thousands of bodies are just on the ground. They're in body bags. And desperate family members, relatives all traumatized, are looking for their loved ones. And it's just like, it's so unbelievable. It's like movies. And apparently the regime forces have machine gunned all these people.
