Following the recent parliamentary elections, there are reports that more and more Iranians are now turning to the ethnic "tribalism" and away from the central government in Tehran. After the parliamentary elections, numerous Iranian media outlets are criticizing the low turnout in the Iranian elections and many in the West noted the existence of numerous blank ballots being cast into ballot boxes as a form of protest. In fact, some joked that several seats in parliament should be left blank due to the existence of these blank ballots, which even the regime noted existed in large quantity.
Iran International, an opposition media outlet, noted: "Some newspapers such as Ham Mihan and Sazandegi, along with the pro-reform Arman Melli, delved into significant issues with headlines such as "The Decline of Politics in Iranian Society," "Ethnic Groups Supplanting Political Parties," and "A Silent Protest."" It should be noted that from nearly 62 million eligible voters, some 36 million refused to take part in the elections, even according to the inflated numbers announced by the government.
They added: "In an article for Sazandegi, Hossein Marashi of the centrist Executives of Construction Party pointed out the replacement of political parties by ethnic groups in the election, attributing it to government filtering of political parties and the expectation of a Tehran boycott, which shifted political activity to smaller towns with stronger ethnic identities. Marashi cited Urmia's election outcome, where ethnic Kurds triumphed over ethnic Azeris as evidence."
Leading up to the elections, the Azerbaijani national movement called for "freedom, justice and national government," proclaiming throughout the streets of Tabriz that there should be "no vote" in the ballot boxes. It should be noted that the Iranian regime has been increasingly repressing South Azerbaijan and other non-Persian communities, viewing them to be a threat to the continued existence of the mullah's regime.
Ahead of the elections, 50 West Azerbaijani dissidents were arrested due to their call for a boycott of the Iranian parliamentary elections. They are not alone in this. Around this period of time, Marges Mohammadi, a Nobel Prize winning Iranian human rights activist, denounced the Iranian parliamentary elections as "stage managed," adding: "I along with the people will aim to declare the Islamic Republic's lack of legitimacy and the oppressing rift with the people by sanctioning the theatrical elections."
Earlier in the month, Iran voted for the Majles, the Iranian Parliament, and the Assembly of Experts, a purely religious entity which determines who will be the Supreme Leader who holds all of the power in Iran. These elections came at a time when there is increased tension between the government and the Iranian electorate who is largely sick and tired of theological rule. It also comes at a time when Iran's ethnic minorities are increasingly demanding their rights in a political system which represses everyone who is not Shia Muslim and Persian.
It is critical to note that part of Azerbaijan is being illegally occupied by the Islamic Republic of Iran. Historically, there was no division between North and South Azerbaijan and Tabriz was an Azerbaijani, not a Persian, city. From the Sassanid Empire in the 3rd century through the 18th century, both North and South Azerbaijan were part of the same nation. This only changed following the Russo-Iranian Wars of 1804-1813 and 1826-1828, when Iranian and Russian colonists decided to cut Azerbaijan in half. This led to Qajar Iran giving what is today Azerbaijan to Russia under the Treaty of Gulistan in 1813 and the Treaty of Turkmenchay in 1828. South Azerbaijan remained under Persian domination until 1945 when the area was declared independent at Soviet instigation. However, when the Soviet forces withdrew, the dream of an independent South Azerbaijan abruptly ended and thousands of Iranian Azerbaijanis were killed by the Persian occupiers.
Today, these people do not have an independent homeland. In 1981, there was an uprising in Tabriz, where hundreds of Azerbaijanis were massacred by the Iranian regime. Although that massacre is over, Azerbaijani people remain repressed. Dr. Sarang Zeynizadeh, an Azerbaijani Human Rights activist based in United States, explained what happened as followed: "Modern nation-state building in Iran began from the Pahlavi dynasty. This nation-state building was based on two premises: 1) Iranians are Aryan 2) Persian is the main language of Iranian civilization. Since Iran is a multinational country, this kind of nation-state building solely based on one language (Persian) and one culture (Persian) was exclusive and denied the other ethnicities of the Iranian empire"
He added: "In this paradigm, the Iranian people living in Azerbaijan (northwest region of Iran) whose mother tongue is Azerbaijani Turkish are assumed Aryans whose language has been changed through a coercive process of Turkification by the invasion of the Turks of central Asia. Forcing Azerbaijanis to consider themselves as Aryan is just a small piece of the whole picture. The main part of this picture is the long-standing anti-Turkism. In practice, this anti-Turkism appears as a two-sided assimilation of language and race."
"The principal strategy to assimilate Azerbaijanis over the past hundred years was to spread this propaganda that the mother tongue of Azerbaijanis is Azeri (Azeri is an extinct language in the Indo-European family and has nothing to do with Azerbaijani language), not Azerbaijani Turkic," he noted. "Imposing this new identity sets the ground for eradication of the Azerbaijani Turkic language and extensive assimilation. To this end, both teaching of Azerbaijani Turkic and educating in this language were prohibited. During the Pahlavi dynasty, even speaking this language at school was forbidden and those who violated this rule had to pay a penalty. This cliché has been used for decades to suppress the linguistic identity of Azerbaijanis. In line with this policy of oppression, many names such as a village's name, a city's name, a river's name or a mountain's name were changed to Persian names. Additionally, press and newspapers written in Azerbaijani Turkic language encountered substantial restrictions which are still in effect."
According to Zeynizadeh, "Since the beginning of this suppression, there have always been people fighting against identity oppression who strive to preserve their language and culture. However, the government has strictly suppressed these activists under both the Pahlavi and Islamist regimes."
The Southern Azerbaijanis are not alone since the cultural oppression in Iran includes all the non-Persian ethnic minorities such as Kurds, Arabs (in Ahwaz) Baluchis, Turkmens and many others. People and states all over the world which support human rights and minority rights should support the plight of all the ethnic minorities in Iran in their struggle for freedom and independence from the Persian yoke.
