Oshnavieh: Civil and Environmental Activist Kamyar Oqabee Arbitrarily and Violently Arrested
On Sunday, June 29, 2025, Kamyar (Kamal) Oqabee, a Kurdish civil and environmental activist from Bala Geer village, Oshnavieh County, was violently arrested by security forces during a pre-dawn raid on his home and transferred to an undisclosed location.
According to a reliable source who spoke to Kurdpa, at 2:00 a.m., security forces affiliated with the Oshnavieh Intelligence Department stormed Mr. Oqabee’s residence in Bala Geer without presenting a judicial warrant, using excessive physical force to carry out the arrest.
The source reported that approximately 15 security and plainclothes agents, traveling in three vehicles and wearing masks, forcibly entered the house through doors and windows, assaulted Mr. Oqabee, and removed him from the premises.
As a result of the violent and unlawful raid, Mr. Oqabee’s mother, who suffers from a respiratory condition, experienced a severe health episode and was hospitalized.
Kamyar Oqabee, 33 years old and married, is a prominent member of the Zhinko Environmental Association, known for his extensive activism around the protection of the Gadar River. In 2024, he was previously arrested and subsequently sentenced to four months of discretionary imprisonment.
The Zhinko Environmental Association, originally founded in 2015 in Oshnavieh, was later compelled by government pressure to change its official name to "Kileshin Pouyan Sabz Zagros Oshnavieh", though it is still widely known by its original Kurdish name, Zhinko.
In recent years, the Gadar River has suffered severe ecological degradation due to excessive and unregulated sand and gravel extraction, primarily by licensed and unlicensed quarrying operations. These activities have transformed parts of the riverbed into deep ravines, dried up local wells, destroyed orchards, lowered groundwater levels, and contributed to increased dust storms. Despite public outcry and the launch of the “Save Gadar” campaign, authorities have failed to take meaningful action. Article 48 of the Law on Fair Water Distribution has further enabled this destruction by legitimizing repeated excavations under the pretext of riverbed dredging.
