On edge, Iranians in Turkey watch their homeland convulse

Mahsa, an Iranian exile, nervously twirled a strand of hair around her painted fingernails, chain smoking as she contemplated the chaos in her home country from across the border in Turkey.

Three years ago, the 30-year-old Tehran native fled for Van, in eastern Turkey, fed up with receiving threats and police summonses in the wake of the protests that shook Iran after the death of a young woman detained for breaking the Islamic republic's dress code.

Now, as Iran reels from a deadly crackdown on a new wave of protests, Mahsa is on edge watching and waiting for news from her homeland, where authorities imposed an internet blackout as anti-government demonstrations swept the country.

Rights groups say the blackout provided cover as security forces brutally crushed the demonstrations, leaving several thousand dead.

Mahsa went two weeks without news of her loved ones in Tehran.

She has managed to contact them as communications have slowly been restored, but says they fear speaking openly.

"They told me they're OK. But they're afraid to talk on the phone. They're afraid to even go outside," said Mahsa -- a pseudonym she chose to protect her identity, in tribute to Mahsa Amini, the student whose death in 2022 sparked the previous wave of protests.

"On the news (in Iran), they warn you: 'Don't talk, or something will happen to your family.'"

Speaking over tea at a cafe popular with young Iranians in Van, 100 kilometres (60 miles) from the border, Mahsa told AFP the situation had left her emotions "raw".

The "Women, Life, Freedom" protests that erupted in 2022 were put down with hundreds of deaths and thousands of arrests.

But that pales in comparison to the violence used in early January to stamp out the latest protests, which began over economic hardship and spiralled into a mass movement for change.

The terror can be felt across the border.

"People can't take it anymore. We want freedom, a future. And for them to stop oppressing us," said Mahsa.

"Religion should be personal. Let everyone live as they want and dress as they want."

But she does not want to see US President Donald Trump fulfil his threats of a military attack.

"How many more innocent people are going to die?"

- 'Disgusted' -

Nilufer, 35, who left for Turkey last year, wants the United States to intervene.

"I hope they launch strikes right away. No matter what America does, they'll never kill as many as those who opened fire on their own people," she said.

Nilufer, a former civil servant, left her 10-year-old son behind with her mother in Tabriz to come to Turkey on a student visa and find work.

In Iran, she said, "the situation is terrible".

"The economy is a disaster. You get paid one day, and prices double the next."

But she returns every month to see her son, "despite the pressure", she said.

"As soon as I cross the border, I have to wear the veil," she said.

"I don't say anything against the government. I'm careful about what I share. But no one wants this regime. They've disgusted the entire Muslim world.

"We're calling for help. We have no other choice."