عربي English Türkçe اردو فارسى
Logo
Latest News
World

Social Media Report Protests by Iranian Oil Workers for Higher Wages

A woman walks down a street in Tehran, Iran December 6, 2022. WANA (West Asia News Agency) via Reuters/File Photo
A woman walks down a street in Tehran, Iran December 6, 2022. WANA (West Asia News Agency) via Reuters/File Photo
TT
TT

Social Media Report Protests by Iranian Oil Workers for Higher Wages

A woman walks down a street in Tehran, Iran December 6, 2022. WANA (West Asia News Agency) via Reuters/File Photo
A woman walks down a street in Tehran, Iran December 6, 2022. WANA (West Asia News Agency) via Reuters/File Photo

Social media posts on Saturday purported to show a group of protesting oil workers in southern Iran demanding higher wages and retirement bonuses.

The reported oil workers’ protests, which Reuters could not verify, comes amid an uprising across Iran, the boldest challenge to the republic since the 1979 revolution.

The nationwide protests were triggered by the Sept. 16 death in custody of Mahsa Amini, a 22-year-old from Iran's Kurdish region, for wearing "inappropriate attire”.

Iran's oil ministry was not immediately available to comment.

The activist HRANA news agency said on Saturday that a group of oil workers protested outside the Pars Oil and Petrochemical Company in Asaluyeh in the southern Bushehr Province on the Gulf coast.

It said in addition to wage increases and pension bonuses, the removal of high income taxes and salary cap, improved welfare services and health conditions were among the protesters’ demands.

A combination of mass protests and strikes by oil workers and Bazaar merchants helped to sweep the clergy to power in the Iranian revolution four decades ago.

Most Viewed

 
 
World

Türkiye Replaces Pro-Kurdish Mayors with State Officials in 2 Cities

Fishermen fish on the Galata Bridge during heavy rain in Eminonu district of Istanbul on 21 November 2024. (Photo by KEMAL ASLAN / AFP)
Fishermen fish on the Galata Bridge during heavy rain in Eminonu district of Istanbul on 21 November 2024. (Photo by KEMAL ASLAN / AFP)
TT
TT

Türkiye Replaces Pro-Kurdish Mayors with State Officials in 2 Cities

Fishermen fish on the Galata Bridge during heavy rain in Eminonu district of Istanbul on 21 November 2024. (Photo by KEMAL ASLAN / AFP)
Fishermen fish on the Galata Bridge during heavy rain in Eminonu district of Istanbul on 21 November 2024. (Photo by KEMAL ASLAN / AFP)

Türkiye stripped two elected pro-Kurdish mayors of their posts in eastern cities on Friday, for convictions on terrorism-related offences, the interior ministry said, temporarily appointing state officials in their places instead.

The local governor replaced mayor Cevdet Konak in Tunceli, while a local administrator was appointed in the place of Ovacik mayor Mustafa Sarigul, the ministry said in a statement, adding these were "temporary measures".
Konak is a member of the pro-Kurdish DEM Party, which has 57 seats in the national parliament, and Sarigul is a member of the main opposition Republican People's Party (CHP). Dozens of pro-Kurdish mayors from its predecessor parties have been removed from their posts on similar charges in the past, Reuters reported.
CHP leader Ozgur Ozel said authorities had deemed that Sarigul's attendance at a funeral was a crime and called the move to appoint a trustee "a theft of the national will", adding his party would stand against the "injustice".
"Removing a mayor who has been elected by the votes of the people for two terms over a funeral he attended 12 years ago has no more jurisdiction than the last struggles of a government on its way out," Ozel said on X.
Earlier this month, Türkiye replaced three pro-Kurdish mayors in southeastern cities over similar terrorism-related reasons, drawing backlash from the DEM Party and others.
Last month, a mayor from the CHP was arrested after prosecutors accused him of belonging to the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), banned as a terrorist group in Türkiye and deemed a terrorist group by the European Union and United States.
The appointment of government trustees followed a surprise proposal by President Recep Tayyip Erdogan's main ally last month to end the state's 40-year conflict with the PKK.