Syriac-Armenian firefighter killed in Iran
RASHT, Iran — A firefighter of Syriac-Armenian origin, known as Yohanna, was killed in the Iranian city of Rasht after being shot while attempting to extinguish a fire reportedly set by government forces, according to the website ANB SAT.
Press reports stated Iranian security forces opened fire on dozens of protesters as they tried to flee a massive blaze that broke out in Rasht’s central market. Rasht is the capital of Gilan Province and the largest city in northern Iran, overlooking the Caspian Sea.
The Washington Post, citing eyewitnesses, reported on Sunday that Iranian forces carried out a massacre against protesters. These events followed days of escalating demonstrations in the city, including the mass closure of shops in the historic Rasht Bazaar — an unprecedented move in Iran.
The Hengaw Human Rights Organization confirmed that Gilan Province, and Rasht in particular, witnessed one of the bloodiest crackdowns of the Iranian uprising on Thursday and Friday, 8–9 January 2026.
According to Hengaw’s documentation and field reports, the bodies of protesters were transferred to one of the city’s hospitals and later to Bagh-e Rezvan cemetery, a process that continued until Saturday. An informed source said that 134 people were killed during the protests and officially registered at the hospital.
Based on verified identity records collected by Hengaw, at least 90 residents of Gilan were killed by government forces, including 14 women and two children.
At the same time as the protests in Rasht, multiple fires broke out across the city. During these incidents, some individuals prevented protesters and rescue teams from extinguishing the flames. An informed source told Hengaw, “The nature of the fires varied, but what they all had in common was that groups of individuals armed with machetes prevented firefighters and civilians from putting them out.”
To date, the death toll in the market area has not been fully determined. Reports indicate the presence of piles of bodies along Shariati Street, where individuals fleeing the market were targeted with direct gunfire.
The protests and systematic repression were not limited to Gilan. They spread rapidly across much of the country, with activists reporting that the death toll has exceeded 12,000, including Christians. An Armenian community-affiliated outlet reported that one of the Christians killed was identified as Ejmin Christian.
According to reports, Ejmin Christian, a 17-year-old Armenian teenager, was killed by Iranian security forces during protests in Tehran’s Narmak neighborhood. Ara Torosian, an Iranian-American Church leader based in California, said the Armenian Prelacy has warned that more Armenian citizens could be killed amid the ongoing unrest.
The number of Christians in Iran is estimated at between 200,000 and 300,000. Their share of the population has declined from five per thousand to one per thousand since the Islamic Revolution of 1979.
Ayatollah Khomeini’s revolution led to the emigration of large numbers of Christians, particularly following the eight-year war with Iraq and Iran’s prolonged conflict with the United States. In addition, the Islamic Republic’s push to Islamize Iranian society forced more than two-thirds of Iran’s Christian population to leave the country.
Iran has historically been home to multiple Christian denominations, including Christian Syriac (Aramean–Assyrian–Chaldean) whose number is estimated at between 11,000 and 20,000, as well as Armenians, who are distinguished by their own culture and language. Members of newer and smaller churches come from traditional Christian ethnic minorities as well as from converts from non-Christian backgrounds.
