By Asim Janattoglu
Since its establishment, the Islamic Republic of Iran
has faced criticism for its repeated human rights violations. Despite its poor
human rights record, however, Iran’s position in the Middle East has made it a
major player in international politics. Iran is a multiethnic country, with
different ethnic groups and minorities throughout the country.
The rivalry over the control of the Azerbaijani
territories and over hegemony both in the South Caucasus and the Caspian Sea
led to two major wars between Russia and Iran, which were concluded with the
Treaties of Gulistan (October 12, 1813) and Turkmenchay (February 10, 1828).
The massive region of “Southern Azerbaijan” in northwest Iran, which
encompasses six provinces–East Azerbaijan, West Azerbaijan, Ardebil, Zanjan,
Qazvin, and Hamadan–became known as such after Azerbaijan was officially split
into two parts (north and south) by the Russian Empire and Iran following the
second Russo-Persian war. Southern Azerbaijan has since become a significant
province of Iran. “Despite their separation under fundamentally different
political and cultural systems… for over 150 years,” Southern and Northern
Azerbaijanis continue to share a common ethnic identity.[1]
Precise estimates of the Azerbaijani population in
Iran are unknown. Some researchers estimate that more than half of Iran’s
population is Persian while the others claim Persians make up less than 50
percent. Nonetheless, Azerbaijani activists and political groups believe
Azerbaijanis are the largest ethnic group in Iran and that their numbers in the
country are underestimated. According to Azerbaijani student groups in Tehran,
27 million Azerbaijanis live in the Islamic Republic,[2] with
the majority of Azerbaijani Turks concentrated in the northwestern part of
Iran. They are also the predominant population in several provinces, including
in East Azerbaijan, West Azerbaijan, and Ardabil Province.
Pressure from the Iranian authorities also forced
large communities of Iranian (or Southern) Azerbaijanis to emigrate. Many left
to the Republic of Azerbaijan, Turkey, Russia, European Union countries, and
the United States. Some eight million Iranian Azerbaijanis live outside
Southern Azerbaijan, over a million of whom are considered political immigrants
residing in Europe or America. Some have also left the Azerbaijani provinces
for other Iranian provinces, such as Tehran. Some estimates claim the
population of Tehran to be made up of between 25 percent to a third of
Azerbaijani immigrants and their first or second generation offspring.[3]
Based on these estimates, some 25 million Azerbaijani
Turks live in Iranian or Southern Azerbaijan, making them the largest ethnic
group in the country. Despite
their size, however, the rights of Azerbaijani Turks, including minority,
cultural, and linguistic rights, as well as their national identity, have been
violated by the Iranian authorities. In order to limit their expansion and
control their population growth in the country, the Iranian central government
has implemented an assimilation policy. This article will focus on the outcome
of demonstrations by the Azeri minority throughout the 1990s and the 2000s against the
central government in Iran.
AZERBAIJANI INDEPENDENCE FROM THE SOVIET UNION AND
AZERIS IN IRAN
Following the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991 and
Northern Azerbaijan’s restored independence, Azerbaijani national identity grew
stronger. This historical event also influenced Iran’s Azerbaijani Turks and
encouraged them to push for independence in the South. From the mid-1990s, the
Azerbaijani Turkish population held several peaceful demonstrations demanding
ethnic and cultural rights and protesting the Iranian government’s
discriminatory policies. Such demonstrations were held in Tabriz, Urmia, and
many other Azerbaijani cities. Their main demands were official permission to
use their mother tongue and recognition of their national identity as “Azerbaijani
Turks.” Another principal demand was cultural and administrative autonomy in
the Azerbaijani provinces.[4] The
Iranian security forces suppressed the protesters, with no promises from the
governmental authorities to meet their demands.
While the right to education in one’s mother tongue is
enshrined in the Iranian constitution, the Azerbaijani-Turkic language remains
suppressed in Iran. Use of the Azerbaijani language in schools and at
universities is prohibited by the Iranian government. The University of Tabriz,
for example, offers no Azeri-language education, while seven other languages
are taught in the cultural centers of Iran’s Azerbaijani provinces.
Every year, on September 23, which marks the beginning
the school year in Iran, youth in the predominantly Azerbaijani-populated
regions of the country boycott the schools and hold demonstrations demanding
the right to education in their native Azeri Turkish and calling for an end to
the Iranian government’s discrimination policies. The demonstrations have
resulted in arrests, including of youth, by the Iranian authorities. In 2006,
for example, at least 15 were detained in the provincial capital of Azerbaijan,
Tabriz, among them 14-year-old Mohammad Reza Evezpoor and his brother Morteza,
aged 16.[5]
In addition to the denial of mother-tongue education,
non-Persian-language media and publications are systematically limited by the
government, despite the fact that the Iranian constitution grants “the use of
regional or tribal languages in the press and mass media.”[6] Azerbaijani-Turkic
language publications and broadcasting do not promote Azerbaijani Turks’ rights
nor do they discuss their main challenges. Azerbaijani activist groups have
criticized local radio and television channels for the limited number of
programs available in Azerbaijani-Turkic. In response to this, in April 2010,
the head of Zanjan Province Radio and TV stated, “We are not legally authorized
to broadcast (programs for children, adolescents, and youth) in the local
language. Tehran must grant authorization for Turkic broadcasting of such
programs to enable us to do so… According to its guidelines, 50 percent of the
programs must be in Persian.”[7] Only
pressure from the international community and increased sanctions against the
Iranian government will force Iran to abandon this policy of discrimination,
and only then will Iran’s Azerbaijani Turkish population be granted the
minority rights to which it is entitled.
THE 2006 DEMONSTRATIONS
Following years of mistreatment and discrimination at
the hands of the Iranian government, on May 12, 2006, an Iranian newspaper
printed an insulting cartoon mocking Azeris, which depicted a cockroach
speaking Azeri. The cartoon was accompanied by an article criticizing the
country’s Azeri population. The article read: “… in dealing with cockroaches…
one should not adopt violence, because it takes the fun out of it. In a
civilized way, we should sit at a table and have a dialogue with them. Unfortunately,
the cockroaches do not understand human language, and the grammar of their own
language is so difficult that 80% of them prefer to speak the language of
others. When cockroaches do not understand their own language, how do you
expect them to understand us? It is at this point that dialogue comes to an
end, and you have to resort to more violent ways.”[8] The
event sparked a wave of demonstrations among Azeris across the country–mainly
in the Azerbaijani-populated cities of northwestern Iran–against the Persian
regime. The demonstrations were initially concentrated in Tabriz, the cultural
center of Iran’s Azerbaijani provinces but soon spread throughout the country
and “paralyzed these cities for several days, in some cases even weeks.”[9]
The protesters demanded a formal apology from the
government and called for respect of Azeri ethnic and cultural rights and for
Azerbaijani Turkish to become an official state language in Iran. Tehran,
however, did not meet their demands, did not condemn the caricature, and
provided no official response. The anti-state demonstrations soon came to a
halt due to pressure from the Iranian security forces. Some reports indicate
that Azerbaijani nationalists in particular were targeted by the security forces.
As a result, dozens of protesters were killed and hundreds were arrested.
However, the exact number of fatalities is unknown due to the Iranian
government’s distorted and unreliable information as well as its exclusion from
Iranian media reports.[10]
In response to the demonstrations, the Iranian
government eventually made some amendments to appease the protesters. The
newspaper’s editor-in-chief and the authors were fired. In addition, the
publication of the newspaper was temporarily suspended.[11] Still,
there was no official government apology. The demonstrations constituted a
major uprising against Tehran’s policies toward the country’s Azerbaijani
population and were among the largest ethnic protests since the 1979 Iranian Revolution.[12]
THE 2009 PRESIDENTIAL ELECTIONS AND MINORITY RIGHTS
Following the 2006 events, national identity among
Iran’s Azerbaijani Turks was strengthened. This was evident during Iran’s 2009
presidential elections. Among the candidates was opposition leader Mir Hussein
Mousavi, an ethnic Azerbaijani. Mousavi vowed to secure equal rights for the
country’s minorities, and he was supported by the majority of the citizens in
the northwestern provinces. During the campaigning, Iranian President Hassan
Rouhani also promised to expand minority, cultural and linguistic rights. With
the conclusion of the elections, however, Rouhani neglected to address the
issue.
Mousavi’s failure in the presidential elections led to
demonstrations by his adherents against the Iranian central government. While a
number of Azerbaijani activists were killed during these protests, the
situation for the Azeri minority in Iran remained unchanged after the
elections. Article 2.1 of the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of
Persons Belonging to National or Ethnic, Religious, and Linguistic Minorities
asserts, “Persons belonging to national or ethnic, religious and linguistic
minorities… have the right to enjoy their own culture, to profess and practise
their own religion, and to use their own language, in private and in public,
freely and without interference or any form of discrimination.”[13] Azerbaijani
Turks in Iran continue to be deprived of education in their mother tongue,
non-Persian media and publications are limited, and they cannot provide court
testimony in their native Azeri–though these rights are enshrined in Iran’s
constitution. Despite criticism by the international community, Iran continues its
discrimination policy against the Azeri minority.
THE LAKE URMIA CRISIS AND TEHRAN’S ASSIMILATION POLICY
Lake Urmia located in northwestern Iran between the
country’s Western and Eastern Azerbaijani provinces, is a saltwater lake
considered the largest lake in the Middle East. The lake, which is protected as
a UNESCO biosphere reservation,[14] is
an important part of rural life for the residents of the northwestern
provinces, especially for Iranian Azerbaijanis.[15] Since
the late 1990s, its water level has been declining due to agricultural
development construction by the Iranian government on the lake’s tributaries,
which has stopped the flow of fresh water to the lake. Environmental experts
have predicted that the lake could dry up completely in a few years unless
urgent measures are taken by Iran. The international community has warned the
Iranian government about the lake’s declining water level, which has caused
increased salinity and is destroying the lake’s ecosystem. The United Nations
Development Programme (UNDP), considering this a matter of urgency, has even
allocated a special fund to prevent this environmental disaster. Still, the
Iranian government has taken no “serious measures to prevent the lake (not only
a valuable biotope, but also one of the symbols of Southern Azerbaijan) from
disappearing.”[16]
In March 2010, Iran’s Azerbaijani Turks began holding
demonstrations criticizing the government’s policy on the Lake Urmia crisis and
calling for it to take action on this urgent matter. Local football fans
(Tractor Sazi FC) and nationalist groups from the region also took part in the
demonstrations. For the protesters, the issue was not only environmental, but
also political and nationalist, due to Lake Urmia’s importance to the
Azerbaijani Turkish population in the region. Tehran’s failure to address the
environmental crisis was seen as discrimination against the Azeri minority. The
demonstrators thus demanded that the government respect their minority and
resolve the crisis.[17]
Tehran’s failure to take action resulted in
intensified protests from mid-2011. In addition, the protests spread to Turkey
and Azerbaijan, both of which would also be affected by the lake’s desiccation.[18] Demonstrations
continued for a period of several years. During this period, Iranian government
intervention resulted in the arrest of hundreds of protestors and the deaths of
a number of them.
As of the writing of this article, Tehran’s discriminatory
policies toward the country’s non-Persian populated regions continue, and Lake
Urmia’s water level continues to decline. The Islamic Republic’s failure to
take action on the Lake Urmia crisis stems from two major objectives it has in
drying up the lake. First, it hopes to use the lake’s uranium reserves for its
military-based nuclear program. Second, the lake is considered an essential
aspect in the agricultural development and rural life of people living around
it–mainly the country’s Azerbaijani Turkish population. If the lake dries up
completely in a few years, the population will be forced to migrate to the
central, Persian-populated parts of the country, which could lead to their
assimilation.
CONCLUSION
Minority rights in Iran are repeatedly violated by the
central government in the political, religious, economic realms, and more. Due
to their (non-Persian) national identity and large numbers, Iran’s Azerbaijani
Turks have in particular been targets of discrimination by the government since
the 1990s. In general, political relations between the central government in
Iran and its minority communities are unstable. Azerbaijani national identity
intensified with the independence movement in Northern Azerbaijan during the
late 1980s and following Azerbaijani independence in 1991 (with the
establishment of the Republic of Azerbaijan), including among Iranian
Azerbaijanis. Since these events, Tehran and the country’s security forces have
kept the Iranian Azeri community under close watch. The rights of the
Azerbaijani Turkish minority are systematically violated by the government, in
particular in the northwestern part of the country where Iranian or Southern
Azerbaijanis are concentrated.
Two decades of demonstrations against Tehran’s
discrimination policies have served as an indication of the reality Iran’s
Azerbaijani Turks are facing. Their main demands have been equal
rights–including education and media in their mother tongue–the promotion and
recognition of their national identity as “Azerbaijani Turks,” cultural and
administrative autonomy, and environmental protection. Due to the benefits of
the Azerbaijani provinces for the country’s economy, Iran is not willing to
give up this territory. Instead, the Islamic Republic’s policy has been suppression
and discrimination against the Azerbaijani population in all realms. So long as
the international community does not increase sanctions in order to stop these
human rights violations, the Iranian central government will continue to
implement its discriminatory policies towards its Azeri Turkish population.
*Asim Jannatoglu Jannatov is a Master’s student at
the Sapienza University of Rome’s Political Sciences, Sociology and
Communication Faculty, Department of Communications and Social Research. He holds a
Bachelor’s degree in history and anthropology from Baku State University (Azerbaijan). His research
interests include social and political sciences, history, multiculturalism,
ethno-political studies, and Turkic culture.
www.rubincenter.org/
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