KURDISTAN IS A NATION:

The small Kurdish city of Oshnavieh reportedly fell to protesters when local security forces retreated after days of intense fighting, the editor of a Kurdish news site said.

"Since last night, Oshnavieh has been governed by the people," a Kurdish official, Hussein Yazdanpana, said in an interview, adding that women had thrown off their mandatory headscarves in celebration.

"The liberation has far-reaching consequences for other cities," he said, describing the town as a gateway to other Kurdish areas of Iran.

Ammar Golie, an Iranian Kurd based in Germany who edits the news site NNS Roj, has been in regular contact with residents of Oshnavieh, which is in West Azerbaijan province and has a population of 40,000 ethnic Kurds. He said the residents had set up roadblocks at the gateway to the city's only two roads.

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