Thousands honor the memory of fire victims in Marivan, Iran
Thousands of people showed up on Sunday from different towns and cities of Kurdistan to participate in the funeral of four environmental activists from Marivan.
The victims have lost their life trying to stop a suspicious forest fire on Saturday near Salasi village of Marivan, which believed to be carried on by the Iranian Revolutionary Guards.
Hundreds demonstrated against the security forces right after the incident. Thousands other joined people in Marivan today while shouting political slogans against the Iranian Revolutionary Guards.
Eyewitness from the village said the fire is not naturally caused, accusing the the Guards to purposefully burn the forest. Iranian Revolutionary Guards had burned several forests in the Kurdish towns and villages especially in the border areas, apparently to prevent Kurdish Peshmerga from taking shelter in forests.
The city of Marivan is well known for its environmental, cultural, civil and human rights activities in the Kurdish region of Iran.
Today’s march was a reminder of the historic march of people of Marivan in 1979, when over 80 percent of residents took out of the city in protest to the Islamic Republic’s military activities inside the border city.
The participants of today’s ceremony took the same historic path, chanting slogans, and singing Kurdish anthems to honor the memories of the four much-loved Kurdish activists.
