Politics

 IS “TURKISH” A SUFFICIENT REASON FOR BANS?

It has been reported that a shop in Ardabil was closed down in March. The reason for the closure of the shop named Chanlibal, owned by a Southern Azerbaijani named Abbas Lasani, was the fact that the signboard was in Turkish. It was stated that should the said signboard changed into Farsi, the shop could be reopened.

The owner Lasani was arrested in October 2006 for his alleged active involvement in the incidents that erupted after the publication of a cartoon in the Iran Newspaper in May 2006 depicting Azerbaijanis as cockroaches, and was released in October 2008.

 MARCH 31 DECLARED AS THE COMMEMORATION DAY

Southern Azerbaijani groups declared March 31, 2009 as the commemoration day for the anniversary of the massacres carried out by Armenians against the Southern Azerbaijanis living in the Jiloluk Region near Uroumiyah in 1915-1916.

Southern Azerbaijani are using the reports prepared by the then mayors so as to inform the then Iranian government on the massacres perpetrated by Armenians as evidences. The mentioned historical documents state that along with the Jiloluk Region, also in certain villages of the towns of Salmas and Khoy Armenians perpetrated attacks.

AKBAR ALAMI IN THE ELECTION PROCESS…

In the upcoming period of the 10th term presidential election process, South Azerbaijanis are reported to be engaged in activities to support former Islamic Shoura Council member Akbar Alami who announced his candidacy as of 10 March.

There is the possibility that the presidential candidacy of Alami, who defended the rights of Azeris and did not refrain from bringing forth his ethnic identity during his period as MP in the Islamic Shoura Council, could be rejected by the Guardian Council of Iran. Thus, the South Azerbaijanis have hastened their support campaign for Alami, according to reports.

MUSIC ART SCHOOL CLOSED

According to reporting, “ Azerbaijan ” music art school was closed down by the security forces with claims that it acted against Islamic rules. The music art school had been functioning for 5 years in Tabriz with the purpose of teaching Azeri music and folklore by 12 teachers among whom were also local performers.

The school administrator Hassan Damirji had been detained in 2006 after various pressures and was sentenced to 1 year imprisonment by the Tabriz Revolutionary Court but the sentence had been annulled by the Court of Appeals.  

A NEW TYPE OF IRANIAN OPPRESSION ON AZERBAIJANIS

The Iranian Regime has generated a new type of oppression on the Southern Azerbaijanis. While the related authorities were tolerating, though reluctantly, sermons in the Azerbaijani language in the small mosques in certain provinces of Southern Azerbaijan only yesterday, the government has taken a hasty decision “to put a complete ban on sermons given other than Farsi”. The mentioned decision has been currently submitted to the Council of Experts (Shouraye Khobragan).Following the opinion of the Council of Experts, the decision will be submitted to the Expediency Council (Majmae Tashkheese Maslahat Nazam) for the ultimate approval.This decision means “the continuation of the denial of Southern Azerbaijanis’ mother tongue.” The regime commits a spiritual genocide by “putting a ban on languages other than Farsi”. Presently, the people of Southern Azerbaijan constitute 30 million of the overall Iranian population of 70 million. Thus, just like Farsi, the Azerbaijani Turkish represents most of the Iranian nation and a ban on the usage of this language will add on to the human rights record of Iran under the title of “disgrace”. It is useful to remind Articles 15 and 19 of the Iranian Constitution…

Article 15: The official and common tongue and written language of the Iranian people is Farsi. Official documents, correspondences, texts and textbooks should be written with this language. However, it is free to use regional languages in publications and the mass media, and to instruct the literatures of these languages in schools besides the Farsi language.

Article 19: Iranian citizens have equal rights regardless of their tribes and clans. Color, race or language do not constitute any privilege.

THEIR ONLY FAULT IS TO THINK DIFFERENTLY

A group of 20 students who are from various universities and who have been deprived of the right of education carried out an activity by gathering in front of the Islamic Consultative Assembly of Iran on 05 October.

Nirouie Entazami Forces detained the students after beating them because of the slogans protesting against the practices and raising their demand of returning to the universities.

The education process of the group of students who have got together under the name of “Danashcouyan Satarehdar” who are from universities has been ended due to their political activities at universities.

IT IS ALSO THEIR RIGHT 

TO BE EDUCATED AND TO LEARN

South Azerbaijani students who are receiving education at Zanjan University were deprived of the right of education by not getting admitted to the university by the University administration in the 2008 instruction year.

The people called Hahami, Bahram Vahedi and Alireza Firouzi were detained and released after their interrogation in May 2008 on the grounds that they participated in the activities so as to protest the conditions of education and accommodation within the scope of restrictions on the students.

A CALL CAMPAIGN HAS BEEN INITIATED ON THE INTERNATIONAL ORGANIZATIONS…

A campaign has been initiated in Iran to raise the demands regarding the establishment of independent jurisdiction, rights of minorities, freedom of speech, the arbitrary detentions and ethnic discrimination.

The texts of the campaign initiated by the organizations struggling for the independence of the South Azerbaijan are sent to international organizations in particular the Amnesty International and Human Rights Monitoring Committee as well as the Iranian authorities.

 LATEST SITUATION OF THE TABRIZ UNDERGROUND

The Tabriz underground the construction of which was started in 2001 and which is designed to run on four routes can not be completed due to insufficient funds.

The Mayor of Tabriz Ali Reza Novin who came to the site of underground to observe the work on 03 April 2008 stated that “a fund of 200 million Tumans has been allocated for the Tabriz underground, the transfer of funds from the Tabriz Mayorship will continue, the problem of mass transportation which is increasingly pressing in Tabriz can be overcome with underground.” It is common view among public in Tabriz that it is not possible to complete the underground in a short while.

THE LETTER BY THE GROUP FOR THE SOUTHERN AZERBAIJAN NATIONAL MOVEMENT

It has been found out that 19 scientists living outside Iran in favor of the Southern Azerbaijan National Movement as well as the representatives of various associations and organizations have sent a letter to Raymond G.Gordon, the editor of “the Etnologue” published by the International Linguistic Center, based in the USA. 

The letter is noted to have stressed briefly that a great majority of the Azeri population in the country live in the Provinces of West Azerbaijan, East Azerbaijan, Ardabil and Zanjan and that they are spread all over the country involving the areas stretching from the existing Azeri areas in the northwest to the east of the country and the areas of Tehran, Khorasan, Markazi, Hamadan and Qazvin. It also underlined that information has been received regarding the suspicious attempts to reduce the figures of the Azeri population in Iran and that those figures which appeared in the Etnologue are objective and correspond to the realities of the region.”     

THE INCIDENTS IN THE URMIA PRISON

It is reported that 10 South Azerbaijani prisoners in the Urmia Prison carried out an act for the improvement of the imprisonment conditions in late March. Following the incidents occurred between the reacting officials in the prison and the prisoners, the prisoners involved were transferred to the Urmia intelligence building by the intelligence officials. The officials made no statement concerning the fate of the individuals.

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