B (4:16)

Yeah.

A (4:16)

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 Shahi. 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. 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 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. 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 are talking about, this blackout in Iran 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, Mardi and so many others that they received these videos, I don't know, from the Internet, from Starling. And you can see in these videos that in a place called Kharizak, it's, it's near Tehran. It's. It's where the Tehran's Forcenik 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, they're 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.

B (9:17)

Jesus.

A (9:18)

And right now, because of the blackout, we really don't know how many people are exactly killed, how many people are injured, how many people are arrested or these things. We don't know the exact numbers. And it makes things so hard. But today, a few hours ago, there was a report from Iran International that stated that over 12,000 people have been killed. But this also is not fully confirmed because they just got these things through some sources.

B (9:51)

Yeah.

A (9:52)

And then at the same time, CBS News also published a report and said that between 12,000 to 20,000 people have been killed. But again, this is not really fully confirmed or verified because there is no information coming out that much. At the same time, we also got reports from Kurdistan that in the city of Kermanshah, these regime forces were taking the dead bodies with bosses. We don't know how many, but we know that they were taking these bodies with bosses. Like we don't know how many hundreds. And from this footage that you can also see that the regime is taking all these bodies with containers, like with. With trucks all over the city in Tehran and they're bringing it to the center that I mentioned before.

B (10:45)

God.

A (10:46)

And all families are looking for their children and their people. At the same time, I also got this direct information from someone who is from Rasht in north of Iran. She was traveling from Tehran to Rasht and she said that the people have burnt down most of the mosques and also the banks and other government buildings are also footage all over the Internet that in most of the cities that people have burnt down the whole mosques and buildings belonging to the government. And at the same time she also said that in that city there are so many people that are killed. She doesn't know how many or who, but families were desperately looking for their loved ones on the streets or anywhere. This is basically the same in almost every. Every major city or even a small city. We don't know exactly, but this is the footage that we got from Tehran that it shows what's going on.

B (11:46)

Yeah. That's horrific.

A (11:48)

Yeah. There are many, many also in our organization. We got a few confirmations from these limited access that some of these people killed in Tehran are also Kurdish and from obviously from other minority groups as well. At the same time, there is a special case that I want to talk about. There is a person like a protester. His name is Irfan Sultani. He was arrested a few days ago. And he is planned to be executed tomorrow. We don't know if they're really going to do that or whatever. But this is a really big sign that a lot of people are warning about it, like human rights organizations and that the regime might carry out mass executions everywhere and just to take control over the situation.

B (12:39)

Right.

A (12:39)

This is also something that might happen.

B (12:42)

Yeah, they did execute people after the Armenian protest, but they didn't do a three day trial. Right. That they did here. They had like a show trial first in that, in those instances.

A (12:53)

Yeah, they, they executed dozens of people after Gina Amini was killed and also previously in the previous years. So this is like what's, what's in general is happening. And at the same time, like in diaspora in Western countries, there are groups that are on the streets, like people that are calling for solidarity or whatever that can be done to help people out inside Iran. Yeah. This is like a general overview of what's happening. And as I said before, because there is no Internet connection and if there is, it's very limited, nobody knows what's happening exactly. Nobody knows the exact scale of the, the crimes that are taking place right now there.

B (13:39)

Yeah. Let's take a little break for advertisements here and then we'll come back and talk a little more. Okay. And we're back. So if people have seen anything about this, I don't know if they're on like a X. They would have seen videos of mosques burning and maybe videos of, of the Pak, like shooting at buildings. You know, these are the videos that were kind of widely circulated before people lost access to the Internet. And I think there's some idea that like this is an armed uprising. And I think it would be good to explain to people that like there are people clearly there is presence of like armed groups who are opposed to the regime in Iran. Right. But they are not necessarily the ones like leading the charge here. So maybe we could explain a little bit about both the armed groups who are Kurdish. There are some armed groups in Balochistan as well and like where they sit in relevance to these protests.

A (14:49)

Yeah. So far I can speak for Kurdistan. Yeah. There have. I've seen also this footage that Pak or the Freedom Party of Kurdistan published on social media. I cannot personally confirm that, but there has always been a call for military action against the regime in the previous years and even before Gina Amini In 2022, there was always some sort of call from the people. But right now, as we are seeing the Kurdish parties, the seven major Kurdish parties from Iran, they are not Taking really a real military action, because there is a big fear that if they do this, the regime might bomb the cities and kill thousands of civilians with heavy weapons and even missiles. So this is also one of the main reasons that even the parties have talked about it many times before when people call for a military support. But of course, I can also confirm this, that all of these parties, all of these organizations have some sort of networks inside Iran that they are. They are monitoring the situation, they are collecting information, and they are like connecting people together. And in some cases that I am aware of, that happened in my hometown in Urmia in 2022. Some of these parties also have. Have been able to lead the protests, like to organize protests. So this is, for now, the presence of these parties. But for Baluchistan, I can also say that I think it was in October or November 2025 that all these groups in Balochistan, they had a conference and they announced that they are all united and they're all working together under one banner. So they also carried out a lot of attacks on the IRGC bases and vehicles in their regions in the past few months. But so far we haven't heard much from them in the past few weeks. Yeah, we don't know they're not doing anything or if they are doing anything. It's not on the Internet.

B (17:05)

Yeah.

A (17:06)

Or it's not published yet. Yeah. This is the situation right now with the, with these groups. But at the same time, groups or parties actually, like Pjak, they also have warned that this was like, if I want to say, quote, unquote, don't play with fire. They were warned Iranian regime that they shouldn't play with fire. Yeah. This is a situation right now that's going on with the parties as well.

B (17:34)

Yeah. And it's very complicated for people who are not. Right. Familiar. I think, like, maybe we should take a step back even further and just explain, I guess the concept of Iran as like a contiguous empire might be a good way to see it.

A (17:49)

Right.

B (17:49)

With different ethnic groups currently under the control of one state. Can you just explain that for people, if they're not familiar? Because I think in the US Like Persian identity and Iranian identity by people who are not familiar with it are conflated. Right. But if you could explain the different nations that exist within the state, that might help people.

A (18:10)

Yeah. Like Iran as a geography is a very diverse country. So basically the Persians, or as they call themselves, Iranians, are the dominant group. They are the majority. But we also have the Azeri Turkish people who are the Second majority. And then we have the Kurds, we have the Baluchis. Then there are Ahwazi Arabs in the south, and then there are Turkmen people, and then there are Tailishis, but their numbers are really small. And at the same time, there is also the Mazandarani or the Gilag people that live in the Caspian Sea coast. They are also a different ethnic group. They have a different linguistic background. But because of the Iranian state policies of 100 years, majority of them are assimilated and no longer carry that cultural heritage or identity. But in Kurdistan, in Baluchistan, in Ahwaz, in Azerbaijan, it's. It's really different. And also in. In the Turkmen regions, basically this is. This is what Iran looks like. Of course, there are other small minorities, like Armenians, even Georgians that migrated to, like, hundreds of years ago. There are also several religious groups, like the Shia Muslims are the majority, which Persians and Azeri Turks are basically the followers of this religion. And then there are Sunnis, Sunni Muslims who are like, majority of them are Baluchis and Kurds and Hawazi Arabs or other groups. And then we have several other groups from Jews, Christians, and also the Yanis, which is a Kurdish religious minority. And there are about 1 million to 2 million people. Yeah, this is what Iran looks like.

B (20:05)

Yes. Yeah. And I think people can be easy for them to just see it as like, Shia Muslim, Persian monolith.

A (20:11)

Right? Yeah. But I also want to add a little bit more of, like, how this works. So because the Iranians or the Persians are the majority, they own the state, the entire identity is evolving around them. And because of this, during the past 150, 100 years, there has been a policy of assimilation in every region in what's called Iran. Right now, for example, if I want to talk about the language, right now, the only official language is Persian. And in the past 100 years, this language has not just been a language of communication, it has been a language of oppression and assimilation. And there are many regions in Iran that were. For example, if I want talk about Kurdistan, there are many regions in Kermanshah and Elam provinces and other regions that used to be fully Kurdish. And they used to speak Kurdish just a few decades ago, but now they are completely assimilated. The same policy was also followed strictly, but heavily in Turkey and also in Iraq and also in Syria. So this is how this has been working in the past century and how all these ethnic groups with different languages and cultural backgrounds and identities have been forced to accept an Iranian identity that evolves that turns around the Persian identity and Persian language and history. Yeah. So this is also like a general overview of the oppression if I want to.

B (21:51)

Yeah, no, I think that's probably the right word. I think people who have listened to our coverage of Myanmar will be familiar or like, I mean this has happened in countless places. Right. This is, this is why British people all speak English now.

A (22:03)

Yeah.

B (22:03)

Right. This is how sort of internal empire works. I wonder. We should talk about the possibilities and to an extent the demands here. Right. Because in the US it seems to be that there is a binary choice or that it's presented as a binary choice between the current state in Iran and a monarchy. And it doesn't seem to be an option for self governance. Right. For Iranian people to have democracy, to have liberty. And that's evidently not the case. Right. Like when you have this many people in the streets. That's how democracy works. But let's talk about the sort of the demands and then the possibilities of this being co opted and turned into another type of state.

A (22:47)

So here in these days, or basically in the past decades, the main demand of people, all different ethnic groups in the geography of Iran has always been a regime change. They want this regime gone. This is the first thing that everybody wants. At the same time, there are other possibilities that could be there. One of the things that when you look at these ethnic groups and their organizations and the people, you can see that also most of them want some sort of federalism or autonomy or self governance. At the same time, this idea of federalism and self governance or self determination is nothing that let's say that the dominant group would accept because they don't understand it. Because for them, I wouldn't say all of them, because we cannot generalize everyone. But when you look at it, the dominant group sees Iran as an entity that's not diverse, it's just Iran and everybody's Iranian. Just like the way Turkey or the Turkish government sees everything. Everybody's Turkish, but in Iran they also say everybody's Iranian. We will have an election, we will choose a president, we will have a parliament and that's it. That's what, what is also being, let's say, offered. But at the same time there is also a call for monarchy. But this is also something that not majority of people, even Persians, majority of them don't want monarchy back. Because there is a huge discussion between people that here we are fighting against a dictatorship. Why would we bring back another dictatorship? Overall, I can say that the minority groups, majority of them for now, I would say like if the regime is going to be changed, they want self governance, but maybe in the future also independence. We don't know that this is something complicated to talk about, but for now this is what minority groups want. But in the Persian community, some of them want to have like a republican system or whatever, but some of them also want to have monarchy back. And there are also other groups who reject both Republicans and also like monarchists and they want to have more diverse and more open system for the future. But again, this is something that we cannot say how it's going to be proceeded because we don't know how the situation is going to be and how these opposition groups are going to work together in the future. Are they going to start a civil war or are they going to sit down together and find a solution? This is all depends on how the regime falls and when. And the destruction of this regime is the biggest priority right now.

B (25:57)

Yeah, yeah. I mean we could see a situation very much like the one that's happening unfolding right now in Western Kurdistan, unfolding later in Iran if the regime falls. Right.

A (26:06)

Yeah.

B (26:07)

Which unfortunately is something else we'll have to talk about at the time, but very terrible things happening there too.

A (26:19)

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B (26:52)

Because you know, most of our listeners are in America. The way that people may have engaged with this is through Donald Trump's posting on Truth Social, where he has said that help is coming recently. Like let's talk about what US intervention means, especially in the context of A the US having intervened all over the Middle east and what that has meant and b the US's recent national security strategy, which suggests that basically they don't care about the region and they don't want to be involved in the region. Let's talk about what that means and why it might not be the panacea people think it is.

A (27:32)

Yeah. So in the past few weeks Trump has said a lot of things. In the first few days he came out and said that if the regime is going to kill civilians, we're going to do this and that we're going to punish the regime. And then I think it was an interview or he was on tv, I don't exactly remember, but he said something that all the people that were killed, we don't know if the regime killed them. Maybe they just were killed in the crowd. Like there were like thousands of people.

B (28:00)

And they were just, yeah, like a crush.

A (28:02)

They were crushed. And this is so unbelievable. He's making these comments and then he's just threatening the regime all over again. And just a few hours ago, as you mentioned, he said that the help is coming and he's asking people to keep fighting and keep protesting and things like that. However, we should also like regarding this, we should talk about what people also want from Trump. Yeah, this, this has been like something that a lot of people, again this is not the majority, but a lot of people have been calling on him or basically on America or something to do an action against the regime, to do something against the regime or damage the regime so that people can get rid of it. And right now I saw some screenshots from people who were able to get access to the Internet for a few moments. I saw one, there was a, it was shared on the Internet that a woman from Tehran was saying that they are killing everyone. I don't know where my children are. One of them is 19 and the other one is 23. She was just saying, please, please be our voice and just tell them to attack, tell Trump to help. So this is also something that there is a call for, for, for attacking Iran and destroying the regime. But again, we don't know if Trump is really going to do this or not. There is also like threats coming from Europe as well and uk but again, as you mentioned, if these attacks happen, we don't, is it going to be something like Iraq or Afghanistan or other places or is it going to really help the people of Iran, the people inside Iran, to get rid of the regime?

B (29:49)

Yeah.

A (29:49)

Which is also really hard to understand because Trump hasn't been really clear about all these things on one side. He was also asked if he has any talks or connections with the so called Prince Reza Pahlavi. And he said no, he's a good guy but I don't want to talk to him. But then now you can see that on Fox News, like all the Trump affiliated or pro Trump media, they are promoting this guy all the time. And at the same time, Reza Pahleri was also on tv. He was on cbs and he said that he is directly in touch with Trump administration. So we don't know, like, what exactly. I mean, it's so hard to. To understand what exactly the US Is going to do.

B (30:38)

Yeah.

A (30:39)

They also announced that we're going to put more like 25 tariff on countries who work with Iran or trade with Iran. And then the European Parliament also announced that we're going to ban all Iranian diplomats from entering the European Parliament.

B (30:56)

Not made to begin with.

A (30:57)

All these comments that are coming out, they are so vague. And at the same time, there are calls from Germany, France, and I think Australia too, that they were calling on the citizens that are in Iran, like tourists or whatever, to immediately leave Iran. Yeah. This is also something that we don't know. Like, Trump is not somebody that you could trust.

B (31:19)

Yeah. Ask people in Rojava, like, they.

A (31:21)

And at the same time, sorry, this is also important. There was also some news that the Iranian authorities in the Foreign Ministry were trying or they contacted some people from Trump administration for negotiations. But then Trump said that we will not negotiate anything. So this is all like, all these contradictions that Trump is just talking about. And he's denying that the regime is killing people and people are just being killed because it's too crowded.

B (31:53)

Yeah. And then you see Khomeini, like, tweeting that everyone out in the street is a Trump supporter. Right. Which is like, that's useful to him. That narrative is useful to him that these are American imperialists or American whatever, puppets.

A (32:07)

Yeah, of course. That has been the regime's behavior forever.

B (32:12)

Yeah.

A (32:13)

Whenever something happens, they immediately blame it on America, Israel, I don't know, uk. But it's good that you mentioned what Khamenei was saying in the first few days. He said that, yeah, we hear you, the people in Bazaar and yeah, we hear you. Sorry that this is going on and things like that. But then he immediately said that the people who are protesting, they are destroying everything and we will deal with them in the harshest way. And then the President of Iran, Masoud Pezeshkian, he also came out and he said almost the same thing. And then he started threatening people. And a few days after that, the head of the judiciary, the Iranian judiciary, came out and said that, like, in a very, very aggressive language, he said that we will deal with you in the worst ways possible. We will destroy you and things like that. He posted a lot of texts on his Twitter account. His name is Mohsen Ejei. So, yeah, there is also, like a huge online fighting between these Politicians and so called leaders. That makes the situation even more complicated and hard to understand.

B (33:30)

Yeah, I think from a US perspective, like when America invaded Iraq, Right. They had a partner force in Kurdistan. When America worked in Syria, they had a partner force again in western Kurdistan. Like they don't really have that here. Like there's not really a, I mean the, the PAYAK are still on the American foreign terrorist organization list. There's not like that, like American sort of partner force boots on the ground like that that they had in these other places. Likely what they would do is just bomb stuff. That's kind of the approach that's most likely here. And then bombing alone is, is unlikely to, to remove the regime.

A (34:10)

Yeah, I think bombing is definitely not enough because they bombed the regime partly last year, but it is still there. Of course it was. The regime got weaker, like it got weakened really bad. But at the same time, like I think if there is going to be something and if there's going to be something like Syria or Iraq, I think the Americans or the American government would possibly work with the Kurdish groups even though they are on the so called terror list. Like you know, it happened in Rojava in Syria. That how they, they've been working with the Kurdish groups even though they're related to PKK and PKK is on the.

B (34:54)

Terror or they removed them like they did with hts. Right. And then suddenly these guys are, they've transformed now.

A (35:01)

Yeah. So this could also happen, but we don't know because it's been years. It's been decades that the US is always threatening Iran and then something happens, then they do nothing and it's just there.

B (35:18)

Yeah. It reinforces the legitimacy of both states to threaten each other. Right. And see each other as adversaries and to a degree use that for domestic violence against their own citizens.

A (35:27)

Right.

B (35:27)

Or for terrorism stuff. I guess. Finally we should just talk about one other thing that Khomeini said which was that American and Israeli shipping would become legitimate targets if you thought the Americans were involved. Just to explain the possibilities there for people if they're not familiar.

A (35:47)

Well, this is not a new thing, to be honest. They've done this before and in the previous years many times. And there were times that they attacked some US bases like the one in Iraq, it's called Al Assad or something like that. They attacked it a few times, I guess in the past few years.

B (36:08)

Yeah.

A (36:09)

Like this is also really complicated because. How can I explain? The regime always does this threats and it might not do it at all. But at the same time, this is also something that I think that if the regime falls and if it's the last moments, they would probably try to do something to damage the region or to damage the people as much as they can, and then they would just give up on everything and just disappear. So they could do that. But if I want to go back to last year, we also need to understand that after the 12 Day War, Israel also destroyed a massive amount of Iranian military bases and all these buildings and structures, but still nobody truly understand how much has been destroyed. But the Iranian Air Force is really, really weak right now and apparently completely destroyed. So Iran is not as strong as before. So there could be a possibility that Iran actually doesn't have the capability to attack US Bases across the region anymore. So this could be also a possibility that they are just threatening. They really don't have anything left anymore. Or their military capabilities are completely down.

B (37:39)

Yeah. Or they'll do their sort of symbolic, send a half dozen shahed drones and then the Americans shoot them down and they say, oh, well, we tried. Or, you know, we, we, yeah, we attack. We attack them. Even though, you know, most of the time they have hurt a couple of American people with them, but relatively unsuccessful. I wonder, like, this is obviously a situation that people will want to follow. Things are developing very quickly. And good news, good reporting on Iran is very hard to find in America. So where would you suggest people look? Either, you know, your own stuff or other sources you suggest people should look to.

A (38:15)

If I want to mention, obviously I work with Hangout Organization. It's a trusted organization. People can follow them. And there is also a journalist called Ali Jawan, Marty. He is a supervisor at Voice of America, Kurdish, Persian and Afghanistan. And these are like, for the sources that I personally trust. There are other organizations such as Kurdistan Human Rights Network. There is also Iran Rights or Abdul Rahman Boruman center for Human Rights in Iran. There are several organizations, human rights organizations that are constantly reporting and they're trying to reflect what's happening. And they're, I could say majority of them are honest and they are not trying to push for a specific narrative, especially the Pahlavist, because right now if you check the media, the international media, the Iranian media, such as Iran International or BBC Persian and all of these major medias, even in the US they are pushing for, for the monarchists and they are completely ignoring the other groups like for example, the Kurdish people. I said, I mentioned that there was this great and big strike that happened in 40 cities. It's a very big social act, but barely anyone talked about it, barely anyone mentioned it. So I think for people it's better to follow human rights organizations and do not really fall for the things that some media that are just promoting a specific person because they're just taking away the truth.

B (40:00)

Yeah. Yeah. I think that's a fantastic place to finish up. Thank you so much for joining us. If people want to follow you, do you have any social media or place people can find your work?

A (40:10)

I have my personal page, but it's not really big. I just post some slides recently and my other page, Curtis Sunny People, it got disabled. Unfortunately, I started again. I'm just posting like some updates and like slides about the important things that I find. I can also put the links there.

B (40:32)

Yeah, we'll include them. Belize, the podcast so people can click on them.

A (40:35)

Yeah, yeah.

B (40:36)

Fantastic. Well, thank you so much for joining us this evening. We really appreciate it.

A (40:40)

Yeah. Thank you very much for having me again. Yeah. It Could Happen. Here is a production of Cool Zone Media. For more podcasts from Cool Zone Media, Visit our website, coolzonemedia.com or check us out on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to podcasts. You can now find sources for It Could Happen here listed directly in episode descriptions. Thanks for listening. This is an iHeart podcast. Guaranteed Human.