PROFESSOR BERAHENÝ’S COMPLAINT TOWARDS BBC
Professor Reza Beraheny, Iranian (now Canadian too ) poet,
novelist, critic; and also Professor of Comparative
Literature, the University of Toronto, warned BBC by a
statement published on April 30th.
Professor Baraheny determined that there are serious
mistakes about the ethnic groups of Iran in the map of
provincial divisions for Iran which was published by BBC.
Berahany pointed out the following matters in the statement
which has been sent to BBC;
“The
entire Western Azerbaijan has been called the land of the
Kurdish people. The Eastern Azerbaijan has been cut of from
the Caspian Sea, while the people of Astara to hundreds of
miles to the south of that city are Azari - speaking people,
and according to the statistics given by the Islamic
Republic of Iran, more than half the populations of Tehran
are Azari- speaking people. On the exact percentage of the
population of Iran’s ethnic groups also you can see the
above source: Ethnologue.com. Any change in these and other
facts by the BBC is totally irresponsible, and should be
corrected as soon as possible. These and similar mistakes,
which can be documented in many other cases by referring to
the right sources, will give a wrong impression to the
ethnic groups concerned, because they might in future refer
to the BBC rather than going to scholarly texts available,
and these mistakes might create all kinds of ethnic
hostilities in the area, particularly inside Iran. The BBC
should take immediate action to make the above suggested
corrections. We cannot afford an internal battle among the
ethnic groups in Iran, as well as a battle outside our
borders with our neighbors. “
Berahany emphasized in his statement that he has been an
advocate for equality for all ethnic groups of Iran and has
been one of the active researchers in the world on this
subject. He hereby called BBC to correct the wrong
information on the site immediately and also stated that he
is ready to give more information about this subject if
necessary.
