Solidarity with Abtin Parsa and anarchists from Iran

Note from Anarchist Bure Cross: in this article, we relay (too late) the call for a week of solidarity (12th-19th of July 2021) with the anarchist Abtin Parsa, published by the Federation of Anarchism Era. We also relay a text from Abtin Parsa published on the 8th of July 2021 about their current situation. Finally, we relay a series of articles from Abtin Parsa in 2018 about torture and prison experiences of anarchists in Iran.

You can find more news from the Federation of Anarchism Era on:

• Their website asranarshism.com. It does not seem to be accessible through Tor at the time of writing this article – if you’re using Tor, you can use a free web proxy to access it.
• Their Twitter account @asranarshism, which is currently sharing news of uprisings and riots going on in Iran and facing very hard repression on the streets.

This article is also available in french.

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International call for a week of solidarity with the anarchist Abtin Parsa (12th-19th of July 2021)

Initially published on https://asranarshism.com/1400/04/18/international-call-for-a-week-of-solidarity-with-the-anarchist-abtin-parsa-12th-19th-of-july-2021

The anarchist Abtin Parsa is a former political prisoner from Iran with the atheist view imprisoned by the Islamic regime for one year and a half in 2014. Abtin Parsa, 16 years old at that time, was arrested by IRGC [1] for an anti-Islamic and anti-state public speech in his high school, “Shahid Chamran,” in the city of Zarqan. Even after his release from prison, Abtin was continued to be pressured and controlled by the Islamic regime, forcing him to escape to Greece in 2016.

Death threats from the Islamic regime accompanied Abtin Parsa with his arrival to Greece. He repeatedly received death threats from various organizations and individuals affiliated with the Iranian Islamic regime. In 2017, while the nationwide anti-state protests in Iran, Abtin Parsa showed his solidarity with the protests in a video message. A few days later, the Iranian regime manipulated and edited this video message and broadcasted it on national television to accuse the persecuted anarchist Abtin Parsa of teaching protesters how to make explosives.

The persecuted anarchist Abtin Parsa was granted a 3-years political asylum in Greece in 2017. In the same year, Abtin Parsa joined the resistance movement in Greece and began to struggle against the systematic oppression perpetrated by the Greek state against the working class, especially immigrants. During these struggles, Abtin Parsa was arrested and even tortured several times by the Greek state, including:

In July 2018, he was tortured by Greek police for his political activities against the Greek state, during which several parts of his body were severely damaged, and vertebrae in his back were broken.

In August 2019, he was arrested near his home by Greek police and charged with carrying a weapon while he had only a small paper cutter. Abtin refused to submit his fingerprint for a criminal record to the police to protest how the police treated him and other immigrants, and the court sentenced him to three months in prison and a fine of 180 euros. (suspended prison)

In November 2019, as the counter-terrorist police launched a large-scale operation to find clues to a revolutionary organization (revolutionary Self-defense), his house and a few other comrades were raided by the counter-terrorist police. During the counterinsurgency police operation, an anarchist and another person were imprisoned, and two other anarchists were arrested, both of whom are temporarily released. During the counterinsurgency police raid on the house of persecuted anarchist Abtin Parsa, all his asylum documents, which were in the house and his other belongings, were confiscated by the counterinsurgency police.

In February 2020, the persecuted anarchist Abtin Parsa was forced to leave Athens in a political decision to have more secret life in a different city to be away from police control due to the counterinsurgency police’s excessive control over his home, movements, and even personal connections.

In March 2020, persecuted anarchist Abtin Parsa was arrested by counterinsurgency police for terrorism.

While the political asylum of persecuted anarchist Abtin Parsa was nearing the end of its three-year term, various Greek newspapers quoted the Greek Ministry of Immigration as saying that the political asylum of persecuted anarchist Abtin Parsa had been revoked due to his arrest on March 30, 2020.
After the Greek state revoked the political asylum of persecuted anarchist Abtin Parsa, he fled Greece and applied for political asylum in the Netherlands.

In April 2021, Abtin Parsa was arrested by Dutch cops and charged with organizing an immigrant uprising against the Dutch state. (Here read about the anarchist community of immigrants in AZC Echt [2]: https://www.indymedia.nl/node/49617). Due to the arrest of April 2021, persecuted anarchist Abtin Parsa could face 5 years of prison.

Today 8th of July, the Dutch state rejected the request of comrade Abtin Parsa about stopping his extradition to Greece and formally deciding to extradite him to Greece. Read the statement of comrade Abtin Parsa here: https://asranarshism.com/1400/04/17/bourgeois-justice-wants-to-extradite-me-anyway/ [Note from Anarchist Bure Cross: you can also read the statement in this article]

As the local anarchist federation of Iran and Afghanistan, we call for a week of international solidarity with anarchist Abtin Parsa (12th-19th of July 2021).

Federation of Anarchism Era

[1] Note from Anarchist Bure Cross: Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, branch of the Iranian Armed Forces

[2] Note from Anarchist Bure Cross: Asielzoekerscentrum Echt, administrative retention center for migrants in the city of Echt, in the south of Netherlands

Bourgeois justice wants to extradite me anyway – Abtin Parsa, 8th of July 2021

Initially published on https://asranarshism.com/1400/04/17/bourgeois-justice-wants-to-extradite-me-anyway

Today, July 8, 2021, the Dutch state rejected my request to stop the extradition by sending an email and formally issued an extradition order. I intend to appeal the regime’s decision by making an appeal and take the case to the court, but it has become clear that bourgeois justice intends to extradite me to Greece anyway.

If I am extradited to Greece, it will not be the biggest problem to spend time in Greek prisons, but because, in addition to Greece, I have been accused of terrorism by the Iranian theocratic regime (2017 during the student uprising, accused of teaching protesters to how to make bomb, this accusation was broadcast on Iranian national television), there is also a risk of my extradition from Greece to Iran, which is the main problem. I was once tortured and imprisoned in the prisons of the theocratic regime of Iran in 2014-2015, this time the followers of Allah will surely kill me. European bourgeois justice wants this, too, because it gets rid of me.

Is there no solidarity? Is this how western comrades treat their comrades who comes from the Middle East? Does not the life of a non-white immigrant, queer and anarchist worth enough to give solidarity? Have we not fought next to each others against the common enemy in the streets of Europe for years? So why are the majority of western political movements silent on this case, the decision of which determines my fate, whether I am dead or alive? Why the LGBT movements in the west are silent? isn’t the life of a non-binary and queer worth enough for giving solidarity? Comrades, this silence will be recorded in the history of the left and anarchism struggles, and will undoubtedly be a historical shame on the foreheads of western political movements.

Abtin Parsa
8 July 2021

Torture and prison experiences of Anarchists in Iran

Initially published as a series of articles by the Federation of Anarchism Era on:

• https://asranarshism.com/1397/07/15/anarchist-146
• https://asranarshism.com/1397/07/26/anarchist-150
• https://asranarshism.com/1397/07/26/anarchist-152
• https://asranarshism.com/1397/07/26/anarchist-154
• https://asranarshism.com/1397/09/17/fifth-course-torture-and-prison-experience-of-anarchists-in-iran
• https://asranarshism.com/1397/10/27/sixth-course-torture-and-prison-experiences-of-anarchists-in-iran

Warning from the Anarchist Bure Cross: this text addresses topics of torture and rape.

First course

For hours, they pushed my head onto an iron table. In that room, there was a barrel of water hanging from the ceiling. From the barrel, small drops of water dripped onto the iron table. I had to be silent and just listen to the water drops with agony

At the time, I was a 16 year-old with anarchist views and atheist beliefs. I was tortured because of my atheist views and my anti- government stance while a student at the Shahid Chamran School in Zarghan, Iran.

The name of the person who tortured me was Seyed Jaáfari; at least, that’s what they called him.

During the interrogation, most of the time, an empty glass bottle was on the table; I didn’t have another choice, I had to accept everything, even something that I never did; they told me if you don’t accept anything that we are telling you, we will rape you with this empty bottle. We fought for freedom, for equality, we were tortured, under threat. I was just sixteen years old as an anarchist political prisoner in Iran. There were many people in there that some of them were girls, The Revolutionary Guards officials raped them every day; When I was in the detention center, my room was near the torture chamber, I could heard their voices and groans; my morale was totally destroy, I wanted to commit suicide several times, But I was thinking that I had to survive for saying that what happened there; I had to survive for revenge. Now I am in Greece but I will not forget and I will not forgive.

Second course

Although they allowed me to continue the schooling because of my age, I was constantly under control at the school, even sometimes some people attacked me in the school, beat me and threatened to rape me and my family.

After about a year and a half and after many kinds of mental and physical torture, when I was about 17 and a half years, It seemed like my period of conviction had expired; I really wanted to leave from Zarghan because I was sick of that city; even though they allowed me to leave, they warned and threatened me about many things including disclosing what happened to me. Anyway as soon as possible, I left Zarghan to Shiraz to live in a new city, in fact it was like exile.

I started a new life in Shiraz with fake names Dariush and Yashar, Although I knew they will not miss me by changing the name. While I was severely suffering from mental illness as a result of torture in the past. After a while I entered a new school in Shiraz for a short time, but in fact my thoughts were very far from what the system wrote in the school’s books. All that existed in my mind was struggle and revolution for freedom and equality. In Shiraz as fast as possible I tried to find new comrades who had interest for the struggle. Finally we created a political group with five people (mobarezaneh shiraz), but it didn’t work well. Adding to that, due to security concerns of the comrades, we dissolved the group, after some activities, including the publication of an anti-government declaration.

This bad experience of doing political activity with the collective in the practical situation, forced me to do some political activity on the internet but I, as an anarchist, preferred the practical situation. So I was thinking of burning one of the government centers, one of the ideas was bombing in the Imam jomeh headquarters which was in the karimkhan zand street.

Third course

The summer of 2016, the municipality had fenced the square opposite the headquarters of Imam jomeh, The work had become much more difficult because the fence takes the space to move for bombing; in fact There was no choice except attacking with Molotov, but it would not make any damage so Inevitably the operation was stopped.

The lesson I learned that day was the power of patience. Sometimes you have to wait for years and watching the target

Almost every weeks, I checked the goal to make the coordinates updated in my mind

In one of the days that I was checking my targets, In the vicinity of one of the targets that a fascist shop was, I found a person who selling some books in Karimkhan zand square.

After more attention, I understand that most of the books were books that were forbidden in Iran for sale and maintenance, I passed without care, but tomorrow I was come back at this point for talking with him and buy some books.

After a few weeks, we became friends, and he told me that he has more books which he could not bring here because they were more illegal.

At this time, when I had a small shop in front of the Shiraz registry office, I thought I would sell books there because I needed money to do more serious things; Now that I think of it, it was one of my biggest mistakes because this was the beginning of a banned book’s shop, which later forced me to escape from Iran.

On the other hand, the activity I had on the Internet made me get acquainted with a communist-feminist girl who was living in Tehran, After a while, we realized that we were interested in one another, but we really did not have much information about each other except some political discussions.

Fourth course

Meeting with a Revolutionary comrade in Shiraz. Since he is still in Iran, we will not publish any personal information from a common comrade, I goy acquainted with him, and I requested of him a face-to-face meeting to talk.

But for such a meeting and escape from the intelligence forces of the Iranian regime, there was a need for an anti-intelligence operation. So, after he accepted the invitation to meet, I designed two different times and places; First time and place for the first meet, and second place and time for that if we could not meet in the first meet for any reason, we would meet each other in the second place and time (Azadi park in center of shiraz at 16:00)

I gave one of my photos to our common friend and asked him to send me a photo of himself because It was very important for us to easily identify each other.

Then I sent the details of the meeting to him, by our common friend.

The person who arrived first at the point of meeting should not be fixed in the same place; he must move.

After seeing each other, we have to make eye contact.

We will never get very close to each other.

We have to make sure nobody is chasing us, so he should start walking and I will follow him away after I made sure nobody chased him, I will touch my clothes a few times as a sign of warmth, then he must do, what I did.

If there is any danger, the meeting will be canceled and we will meet in the second place and time.

The meeting was well done, but my forced escape from Shiraz to Tehran never allowed us to have a joint project.

Fifth course

Escape from shiraz to tehran.

The issue has always existed in my mind that why those who call themselves peaceful persons, do not call the violence of the system against people as terrorist attacks, but if we turn the violence back onto the system, they called us terrorists.

In fact they are part of this system, also the system speaking about peace because it wants the use of violence be only its monopoly.

Yes my revolutionary comrades that i do not know many of you, when we did robbery from rich persons to get money to continue the struggle of the guerrillas, they called us violent and thieves but they never said that the real thieves are those who have property and do not share it with people who are in need, they never say that the real violent ones are banks that are raping our community with money every day, when the fascists and the authorities of the iranian regime were killed, they called us terrorist but they never said that the real terrorists are those who killed our freedom and equality, so let it go on until there is no authority anymore.

In order to carry out more serious operations i needed more money, I was thinking of robbing one of the shops in the mali abad region of shiraz which is a Bourgeois region, but the illness during the last month of my presence in Shiraz prevented me from any operation, even i could not be selling the banned books anymore.

And in those circumstances I noticed some movements around me that the beginning of them was a night that i was came back home from my small shop on Koye Zahra Street in Shiraz when I realized that I am chased by an intangible person, I guess it was an intelligence force, so i wanted to be sure about it, also if it was necessary, have the strategic ability to attack, for this reason i quickly changed my way to some other streets, The person concerned continued my deviation, but because of my illness I preferred to escape than have the conflict, then, as soon as possible, by a familiar cellphone I contacted one of the Revolutionary comrades in Tehran and as much as possible i explained to her about my conditions, very fast to protect the information i destroyed my notes and on a bus i went tehran, We met each other in Tehran with security considerations and it was decided to leave Iran together.

Sixth course

After a few days of wandering across the border between Iran and Turkey, we finally managed to escape in a cold night. We were sure that if we could not escape quickly, they would find us

The political situation in Turkey, was not better than Iran with a stupid dictator like Erdogan, I did not prefer to do political activity there, so we decided to run away to Greece

Finally, we reached the small island of Samos in Greece in the vicinity of Izmir

During the staying in the camp of Samos, the Iranian regime, who was informed of my escape, issued a claimed that they arrested my two struggler comrades

They said that i am responsible for them, in fact, they were indirectly planning to bring me back to Iran by putting pressure on me

even they released some of my comrades’ information to prove to me

But I decided to do not return to Iran because I knew that my return would not help them, and I would only hand over myself to the Iranian regime

Eventually they issued my fatwa (murder), which means that everyone who kills me will go to Paradise. Soon after, we were attacked at the camp, my comrade was wounded by a knife and I was beaten

We asked for help from the UNHCR [1]. Eventually, after receiving the seriousness of the matter, the UNHCR introduced me to speak with the interpol. But no answer was given to me except that Greece is a safe country

24/07/2021