“We call on all businessmen and residents of the Kurdistan Region to stop importing and consuming Iranian products, although the Kurdistan Region, Erbil in particular, is a significant market for Iranian products,” Erbil's Chamber of Commerce and Industry said in a statement that condemned Iran’s missile attack.
In the late hours of Monday, Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) fired ten ballistic missiles toward Erbil under the pretext of targeting the “spy headquarters” of anti-Iran groups. The strike killed Kurdish businessman Peshraw Dizayee and three other people. Dizayee’s mansion, destroyed in the attack, was described by Tehran as a Mossad base - a claim strongly denied by Kurdish officials.
The Commerce chamber also called for a halt on all economic and trade ties with Tehran.
There are multiple border crossings between the Kurdistan Region and Iran, but only three are internationally recognized: Bashmakh and Parwezkhan in Sulaimani province and Haji Omran in Erbil province.
The Kurdistan Region heavily relies on imports from Iran and Turkey for most commodities.
Gaylan Haji Said, the president of the commerce chamber, told Rudaw that the Region imports numerous commodities from Iran, including industrial materials and sanitation and medical products, but added that there are other options.
“There are many alternative countries, such as Turkey, Saudi Arabia and Jordan,” he said.
Many social media users have also called for a boycott of Iranian goods and there have been protests in Erbil, Soran and Duhok.
Duhok’s governor on Thursday took a shot at Tehran during an anti-Iran protest, accusing it of targeting a toddler named Zhina in Erbil with a missile because killing Zhina Mahsa Amini at home was not enough.
"Was [little] Zhina an Israeli officer? As if martyring one Zhina was not enough, you martyred another Zhina. Kurds will name thousands of other [women] Zhina," said Duhok Governor Ali Tatar.
Zhina Mahsa Amini was a young Kurdish woman who was killed at the hands of Iran’s morality police in 2022 after she was arrested for allegedly wearing a lax hijab. Her death sparked a nationwide protest movement. The other Zhina is Dizayee’s daughter, who was killed in Monday’s attack at the young age of 11 months. The name derives from the Kurdish word zhin, meaning life.
