Mustard gas in the lungs, betrayal behind their backs, and a deafening silence from those who claim to advocate… Every year on the 28th of June, Sardasht is killed anew
An Op-Ed on the Anniversary of the Chemical Bombing of Sardasht
By Ebrahim Teimouri from Sardasht
Iranian Kurdistan Human Rights Watch – June 28, 2025
On June 28, 1987, the sky over Sardasht grew darker than ever. Not because of rain clouds, but due to bombs that brought death and agony. Mustard gas mercilessly settled on the bodies of children playing in the streets; on the shoulders of mothers clinging to life; and on the faces of old men whose only wish was a moment of peace. That day, not just a city, but humanity itself became a victim.
Sardasht was the first civilian city in the modern era to be targeted with chemical weapons. An unforgettable tragedy; a wound that still burns decades later, and the breath of thousands of its survivors still carries the scent of mustard gas.
But the crime didn’t just come from the sky. A dagger also plunged from behind; a betrayal that unfolded under the guise of the mountains. A betrayal in the name of Kurds, but against Kurds. Parties such as the Democratic Party of Iranian Kurdistan and KOMALA, instead of standing with their own people, stood with the invading enemy. They took up arms, provided intelligence, built prisons, and even determined military targets for Saddam. These groups became Saddam’s mercenaries; accomplices in the bloodshed of Kurds.
The Kurdish people of Iran have never forgotten this betrayal. Every scar that remains on a chemical survivor’s body is a testament to the fact that some who claim to champion Kurdish freedom and rights are, in reality, prisoners of their childish ambitions and continue to beat the drum of treachery.
The massacre of defenseless Kurdish people during the Iran-Iraq war did not end; the story of Kurdish genocide continues. Today, PJAK terrorizes civilians, and figures like Hossein Yazdanpanah, in the hellish “PAK” camp, under the patronage of the Barzani tribe, subject Kurdish boys and girls to unprecedented violence and abuse. Yes, the story of Kurdish genocide has not yet ended.
On the anniversary of that catastrophe, we once again face the same betrayal: parties that stand not with the Iranian people, but in line with the aggressive Israeli regime; a regime that has targeted the homeland. These groups once again sacrifice the security of Kurdish-inhabited areas for political ambitions and the enemy’s dollars. When a hospital in Kermanshah is militarily attacked, not the slightest reaction is heard from these alleged defenders of Kurdish rights.
How nauseating and bitter is the politics that slaughters humanity on the altar of power.
And how painful is the wound that still burns, after all these years…
