In this blog I want to address some of the accusations of a response to my blog last week, which was made by someone under the name Yek Irani. This person claimed that my blog “is essentially promoting pan-Turkism under the guise of ‘human rights’.” Bravo! you unlocked the secret conspiracy to my human rights blog, which is the promotion of separatism from Iran and Pan-Turkism. No. First, let me say that I barely knew anything about pan-Turkism until last night I looked it up to discover more for myself after reading your post, and I assure you that I am no pan-Turk.  Let me explain this convenient tactic used by those Persians who are racist to discredit a peaceful movement.

This post illustrates beautifully, more than I could ever do myself, a harsh reality among Iranians. Anyone who works on behalf of a minority group in Iran is called various names in hopes to be discredited. As I have said in my blog, anytime Azerbaijanis try to develop a voice for their rights to learn the language of their mothers and fathers (which are guaranteed in the Iranian constitution) and to celebrate historical figures and culture, they are labeled as pan-turk or separatist. Yesterday’s post response is a good example (I shall henceforth call him Yek Irani which means “an Iranian” because that is the name this person gave him/herself). Pan-Iranists, pan-aryanists and racist Iranians use the same rhetoric, calling people pan-turk and separatist, that the government of Iran uses to detain, torture and murder people for peacefully promoting human rights. In reality, this movement would not even exist if Persians were to give minorities their basic human rights.

If you notice, when the issue of human rights is addressed, racist Persians tend to bring history and genetics into the matter. They claim Babak Khorramdin was Persian and Azerbaijanis did not exist in that time. They assert that they have no claim to him and no right to celebrate him at Babak castle every year (which is banned). Persians claim that Azerbaijanis were once Persians and forced to speak and adopt Turkish language and culture with the invasion of Oghuz Turks. Azerbaijanis, however, describe that they have been a distinct ethnicity long before the the Indo-Aryan settlement of Iran. Anyway, it is pretty bold for one group of people to say “you can’t celebrate someone because he’s ours.”  Another common claim is that Azerbaijani Turks are most genetically linked to Persians because a scientist one time in 2005 decided to take a Azerbaijani Turk and and Persian and compare their DNAs and ruled that they are the same. (Boy, comparing and contrasting genetic features sounds to me a heck of a lot like Nazi Germany) So the then we hear: since we are the same, you should “persianize” and accept your ancient culture and history.  Well, let’s assume that this behavior is OK. How about instead, we send a team of scientists to Iran to sample DNA throughout the country, excavate artifacts and shed some light on Iranian history. The history we read today is not much different from the anti-Ottoman revisionist history of the 19th century and the construction of the Aryanist myth implemented in Nazi Germany. Any argument of a history that kind of contradicts this notion is met with extreme resistance. That aside, genetics is not always a determinant of ethnicity. Ethnicity can be determined by language and culture just the same.

I shall use a deconstructionist approach to falsify Irani’s primary assumption and thus unravel his/her entire argument. First, Yek Irani builds an entire arguement on the assumption that this blog masks pan-Turkism behind the facade of human rights.  Well, frankly, that is impossible. Before my responsibilities to ADAPP, I am a peace fellow with the Advocacy Project, which sends graduate fellows all over the world to provide a voice for the voiceless. It is a highly credible organization focused solely on human rights that has established a partnership with ADAPP, making it possible for me to come here to Vancouver. I believe that Advocacy Project would not partner with any organization that it felt wasn’t peacefully promoting human rights or had an ulterior motive or was in any way fishy. That being said, as a human rights activist, I am indiscriminate on the injustice of people around the world. Minority rights in Iran just happen to be the focus of my fellowship and I am obligated to focus on ADAPP and its activities, which is why I cannot discuss disenfranchised people all around the world. Mr. Irani brings up points about the treatment of Turks around the world on minorities. These are great points, but in response to an accusation of me being a pan-turk. In reality, I am a human rights activist and I am not bound by any loyalty other than to justice and equality. He/she makes a point that my attendance in the Uighur protests do not belong in a blog about minority rights in Iran and that is true and I apologize for my small paragraph on the issue. I was merely expressing my involvement in a demonstration where ADAPP was invited along with Turkic communities throughout Vancouver and the Tibetan community to protest China’s treatment of minorities. We also attended a candlelight vigil in Vancouver for the post-election crisis in Iran and we were not very welcome (I am currently creating a video blog on our experience) I never thought that I would have to apologize for my involvement in a human rights issue. But then, if attending a demonstration for a marginalized people is pan-Turkist, then feel free to call me one. Why do I have to be a pan-Turk to fight against and injustice like this.

Mr. Irani does raise an important point about the demographics. He notes that he pulled facts from Ethnologue citing that 11 million Azerbaijanis live in Iran. Actually, this is sort of a marvel because it has changed recently. Before, I myself quoted Ethnologue for claiming that 23 million Azerbaijanis live in Iran and I guess within the past few weeks that changed on the website. Ethnologue changed it to 11 million and rising, which was estimated in 2001. But Ethnologue also claims that there are 67 million total people in Iran while the World Bank shows 73 million. The CIA world factbook shows that 24% of Iranians are Azerbaijani, which is over 17 million. Azerbaijani activists on the ground claim 30 million. So why is this such a contested issue? This is because the Iranian government has never truly taken a census based on ethnicity. These are all estimates. The last census, conducted in 2006 included data on religion, but not ethnicity. Mr. Irani, you are right, we need an ethnicity census for Iran.

If the Azerbaijanis of Iran are much less than previously estimated, then in reality they have less power and influence than previously assumed. And to say that Iran is in the hands of Azerbaijanis is false. All of those Azerbaijanis who hold power in Iran have spent most of their lives in Tehran and have persianized. They could care less about the treatment of minorities, as I have said time and time and time again.

One thing that is truly disturbing is that Mr. Irani claims that Azerbaijani is taught but just not at the elemetary school level. Truthfully, it is completely banned throughout high school and into college. During the election campagin Ahmadinejad claimed to remove the ban, but we are still waiting for that. Here is a quote from Eurasianet on the issue: During the presidential election campaign, both Mousavi and Ahmadinejad promised to expand civil rights for Azeris. Ahmadinejad, who claimed to speak Turkish, promised to allow Azeri-language classes in universities and schools, the Tabriz source told EurasiaNet. Mousavi, meanwhile, promised to designate Azeri as Iran’s second official language and to grant greater financial autonomy to Azeri-populated regions. We are still waiting Mr. Ahmadinejad.

Now the issue of the cartoon is also a bit disturbing. In a country where racial tensions are so high, the printing of a cartoon which shows an Azerbaijani boy speaking to a cockroach riles a furious crowd. To put it in American terms, it would be the same as a cartoon of a hispanic kid talking to a cockroach and the cockroach saying”que”? Then, it audaciously proceeds to compare the the language to a language of cockroaches and show how to exterminate them… all in the kid’s page of a newspaper! If it isn’t a big deal, tell that to the 10,000 who were arrested, some of which were tortured and the dozens who were killed in the aftermath. Do they not deserve a voice? Were they all pan-Turkists and it is ok to exterminate them like the cockroaches in the cartoon?

Mr. Irani, what is so threatening to Persians about the right to speak their own language or discover their history without someone telling them this is the way it is, you must accept it. Can’t Azerbaijanis see for themselves? If the history of Azerbaijanis and Persians are so intertwined, then beautiful! But what is so threatening about their self-determination then? It is a peaceful movement. I am urging Iranians to change their thinking, to accept the many nations of Iran as equals. If you don’t, you might have a bigger problem than peaceful demonstrations advocating human rights.

Mr. Irani, you are correct about the many injustices in the world. Please set yourself up a blog and blog about those marginalized people around the world who have no voice. I will be your first supporter and I promise not to call you a pan-aryanist. I do support the plight of the Kurds as I have written and the plight of Baluchis (which I will try to devote some time on in the following posts), Turcomens, Uighurs, Talysh, Arabs, Lors, Afghans etc.

Last week I wrote about the arrest of Said Matinpour.Well today we are receiving word that a few Azerbaijani activists organized to show their respects to Said Matinpour’s mother and father. When they called and text messaged each other, the Intelligence Ministry tapped their lines.

After visiting Matinpour’s parents, Ettelaat (as they are known within Iran) went to arrest the activists. Those arrested were Rauf Taheri (he is officially missing but it is highly probably that he is detained), Riza Abbasi and Ahmad Midadi. Intelligence officials also detained Matinpour’s parents for allowing Azerbaijani activists to enter their home. This is the foul and despicable behavior that is the control apparatus of the Iranian state.

Kurdistan

I am getting word from my own sources that 2 people died in Sanandaj two nights ago, which is in the Kurdish area of Iran.  I will continue to update this as I receive more information.

Said Matinpour

Said Matinpour

This week I wanted to draw to your attention the case of Said Matinpour, who yesterday July 11, was arrested and taken to Evin Prison to serve out his prison sentence of 8 years. Last year Matinpour was convicted of “anti-regime propaganda” and “maintaining links with foreigners”. His case was included in an article in Reporters without Borders. The following is our press release which we are about to post to the website:

Said is at imminent risk of extreme torture and ill-treatment at Evin Prison. He was treated very harshly during his first prison term, which was in temporary detention in the custody of the Ministry of Intelligence. In 2007, Said Matinpour was very active in the city of Zanjan promoting Azerbaijani culture and rights. He wrote for a journal and maintained a series of blogs about human rights. Matinpour noticed that a lot of the city was becoming quite “Persianized” and in an attempt to maintain his culture and language, he actively promoted Azerbaijani music and literature. The Islamic Republic took note of this and didn’t like it very much. He became quite active after taking an all-expenses paid January 2007 trip to a conference in Turkey, which discussed the rights and culture of Turkic peoples around the world. When he came back, his passport and papers was confiscated at the border, but he was free to go.

Six months later in May 2007, the government decided that he was a threat to the regime and the Ministry of Intelligence detained him in Evin prison for 278 days. Unlike much of the Western world, the intelligence ministry can hold you for an undetermined amount of time until they decide it’s time for your trial. In February 2008, his family posted bail of 5 million Toman, which amounts to roughly 540,000 dollars (his family didn’t have the money so they singed over their property to the courts).  During those 278 days he was in temporary detention, though, he faced grueling conditions. For example, his written work was confiscated by the government, shredded and shoved in his mouth repeatedly as prison guards beat him. He told one of ADAPP’s activists that sometimes about 10 people would beat him senseless. He also said that they repeatedly put some kind of drug in his food that made him frail and weak. When he was on the drug, his vision became very blurry and he’d lose his memory. I am not sure what the purpose of the drug was but it sounds to me that it might have lowered his inhibitions to talk more freely about his activity. Here are some links to Amnesty International’s reports on Matinpour: Amnesty 1, Amnesty 2, Amnesty 3

Metinpour and his wife

Metinpour and his wife

In May 2008, he went to trial and in June 2008 he was convicted with anti-regime propaganda and maintaining links with foreigners, but he appealed. It took until about 3-4 months ago for him to receive a reply for his appeal, which was denied. (Reporters Without Borders claims this to be last month but apparently they’re wrong) The judge summoned him on July 11, which is when he was transferred to Evin to carry out his sentence.

I’m guessing that if his treatment was that harsh to begin with, what’s his real term going to be like? Sometimes I can’t comprehend the bravery of these individuals who continue to do what they do after being beaten repeatedly in prison. Anyway, I am hoping that we can quickly put out a Take Action notice so that we are able to send masses of letters to the Iranian government calling for Matinpour’s release.  I am calling on all of you who are reading this to help. I will let you all know details soon. Many of the Azerbaijani activists that I’ve been talking to have been extremely angered by Matinpour’s arrest. A lot of them consider him a hero and a dear friend.

Protests for Uighurs

This week, ADAPP was invited to participate in protests today at 2 PM in front of the Art Gallery in Vancouver. The Protests will be from the Uighur Community in response to the the conflict between Han Chinese and Uighurs and the brutal crackdown on Uighur protests by the Chinese governement. For Azerbaijani activists, the situation in Xinjiang province, also known as East Turkestan among the Uighur community, is a dear one. They view Uighurs as Turkic bretheren who are struggling for the same rights against an oppressive government. Many of ADAPP members, including myself, have been posting on the situation of Uighurs during the past week. I can even understand about 20-30% of their language since it is Turkic. To get an idea of the hatred that exists in that society, HERE is a video that was sent to ADAPP of what appears to be Han Chinese brutally beating ethnic Uighrs. I will warn you though, the video is extremely graphic and not for the faint of heart.

Reflections on the week

I wanted to quickly draw your attention to two matters of the Azerbaijani community in Iran. Firstly,  July 3 was supposed to be annual gathering at Babek Castle, which is a yearly celebration of Azerbaijani hero Babak. Babak became famous for holding off the northwest of Persia from the Arab conquests of the region in the 8th century CE. Thus Azerbaijan became the last Persian region to fall to the Arab conquests. Although Wikipedia claims that he was Persian, his parents were Azerbaijani. Anyway, well there was no gathering. Since 2005, every year there have been scores of police to patrol the area and arrest those who go to worship the Azerbaijani hero. Essentially, Babek Castle is closed down on July 2-3, which is during the time of the annual gathering.

Another thing that I wanted to address was that I had been reading on Twitter that there were protests in Azerbaijani areas on July 9 commemorating the 10th anniversary of the 18 Tir student movement. As many of you are aware, in 1999, there was a massive student movement throughout much of Iran where students protested the regime. The crackdown was brutal, many were arrested, and many of those who participated were attacked by police in the night, who cut the protesters’ faces. Tabriz University (in Iranian Azerbaijan) did participate in the protests in 1999. This year, however, Azerbaijan remained silent. Many of those student protesters in 1999 moved on to becoming Azerbaijani rights activists from what I can gather. Now, students in universities of Iranian Azerbaijan are more willing to participate in the Azerbaijani movement than anything else.

Thanks for reading and I apologize for the length!

Answering Questions

Let me start off this blog first by answering some excellent questions that had been posed as comments to my previous blogs. Firstly, a question was raised about my optimism for the future of Iran’s minorities. Well, essentially the minority issue in the June 12 election  was just rhetoric, but it’s rhetoric that’s never been used before. Candidates appealed to the Azerbaijanis by complementing the language of Azerbaijani Turks. The two other candidates that we didn’t hear much about discussed this issue as well. Karroubi called for greater rights for Iran’s linguistic and ethnic minorities to include rights granted by Iran’s constitution, which are as follows:

Article 15
The Official Language and script of Iran, the lingua franca of its people, is Persian. Official documents, correspondence, and texts, as well as text-books, must be in this language and script. However, the use of regional and tribal languages in the press and mass media, as well as for teaching of their literature in schools, is allowed in addition to Persian.

Article 19
All people of Iran, whatever the ethnic group or tribe to which they belong, enjoy equal rights; color, race, language, and the like, do not bestow any privilege.

Here is an interview with Press TV where he discussed this issue. Musavi also promised implementation of articles 15 and 19 in a speech in Azerbaijani Iran. Rezaie also discussed the issue of minorities to some degree. He said he would look into the establishment of a federalist state whereby each ethnic region could have some degree of economic autonomy. These, along with Ahmadinejad and Musavi’s remarks on the Azerbaijani language, were very progressive and have never really been addressed in the history of the Islamic Republic (or the reign of the Pahlavi kings for that matter). So while much of it was the art of rhetoric, which Iranians are all too familiar with, I wrote that I was optimistic because at least there was some mention of minorities in this year’s debates.

A second point was raised as to why Azerbaijanis and other minorities were reluctant to join the protests and get involved in the “Twitter Revolution”. Well what I gather from my discussions with Azerbaijanis is that it was a combination of fear and marginalization. The government made sure to be well prepared in the minority areas of Iran to brutally suppress any kind of peaceful protests. Minorities feel that they are regarded as second class citizens in the Islamic Republic so repression is much more brutal for them; and they are right. Another aspect of the discussion is minority interaction with the media and social networking. The refusal of VOA, BBC Persian, Radio Farda, Press TV and Iranian news organizations to provide any reporting on Azerbaijani, Baluchi, Kurd, Arab, Turcomen, Qashqai, Afghan, Lori or Khorasani Turk areas, left them almost hopeless about their position in Iran’s future. This is quite dangerous for Iran because this type of behavior is the reason why seperatist ideals are starting to gain traction in many regions of Iran.

In my previous blogs, I discussed that there were many false tweets and facebook posts about protests and riots in Azerbaijani and Kurdish areas of Iran. In reality, minorities in Iran have not been using social networking media because these regions are in worse economic shape than the Persian areas of Iran. Those that are lucky to have access to a computer are not even that familiar with alot of the programs that exist. Even then, Azerbaijanis are much better connected than regions such as Khuzestan (predominantly Arab) or Baluchistan. So, we can hear all the lies about these regions we want and not many can say otherwise. I’ve been trying to do my best to educate some of ADAPP’s overseas contacts to use Twitter and other web programs, but it’s not that easy. Hopefully it will catch on.  I hope these answer some of your questions. I’d like to thank Iain Guest for the insightful comments and questions. If you guys have any other questions, please feel free to comment and I will be sure to include answers in my next blog.

Racist Drawing

I had a quick bone to pick with a Persian website. Fakhteh found this cartoon on Jokestan.com showing the evolution of an Azerbaijani Turk donkey from Ardabil (a predominantly-Azerbaijani city in Iran) into a human being upon his travel to more Persianized areas, ending with Tehran.

The Evolution of Turks

The Evolution of Turks

The writing at the top translates roughly to “The evolution of Turks.” Basically this implies that Turks are donkeys until they Persianize. To Jokestan.com: come on guys, this is not nice. Actually, this is infuriating. 5 out of 7 of the “Jokes of the Week” on this website were about Turks, 1 about Arabs and 1 about a mullah. I’m noticing that alot of Persian jokes in general have to do with minorities, especially Azerbaijani Turks.

Canada Day

I’d like to end this week’s blog, however, on a high note. Yesterday I got a chance to go to the Canada Day celebration here Vancouver. I had a great time. I strolled around Granville Island and it was amazing seeing performances, food and culture from all the different ethnicities in Canada.

In Toronto, a couple memebers of ADAPP were able to put together a small exhibit on Iranian Azerbaijan. During Toronto’s Canada Day festivities, Amnesty International asked ADAPP to showcase the art and culture of Azerbaijanis in Iran. ADAPP members were able to secure a sculptor, who made elaborate sculptures depicting Azerbaijani national heroes, and Azerbaijani dancers and musicians who performed on stage in the evening. In all, the exhibit was a success and we were able to circulate 2 petitions: 1) to lift the ban on the Azerbaijani language in Iran and 2) to support ADAPP’s work. Here are some pictures from the event:

Showcasing Azerbaijani Artwork and Sculpture at the ADAPP tent

Showcasing Azerbaijani artwork and sculpture at the ADAPP tent

Children Singing Traditional Azerbaijani Song

Children singing traditional Azerbaijani song - Jujelerim

Azerbaijani men doing the Traditional Lezgi dance

Azerbaijani men doing a traditional dance

Traditional Azerbaijani Dance

Traditional Azerbaijani dance

Azerbaijani plays Traditional Instrument - Baghlama

Azerbaijani plays a traditional instrument - Baghlama

This week I interviewed Fakhteh Zamani, the founder and president of ADAPP. She is truly an inspiring woman and literally works non-stop (and I’m starting to adopt her work schedule ). Here she discusses ADAPP as an organization and gives her opinion as to why Azerbaijanis have been silent in the recent election protests.

Here it is: Interview with Fakhteh Zamani

Also, an ADAPP statement that I wrote made it into the Letters to the Editor section of the Miami Herald. You can read that here.

This has been a very unbelievable and emotionally-troubling week. Seeing all of the photos and videos pouring in from Iran has been completely surreal. It is hard to believe that a government that came to power through a revolution and that tries to uphold the ideals of that revolution can suppress the will of the people with such callousness. I want to send my sincerest condolences to the families of those who were taken in the violence.

I’ve tried to keep up with sending videos and posting pictures as I see then on my own personal Facebook and twitter accounts. It has been amazing to see the impact of the brave people of Iran using social networking sites to raise awareness of the brutal crackdown on peaceful protests. It’s a shame, however, that Iranian government officials, including militiamen (basijis) have infiltrated these sites and have been posting false reports. I have heard that these have included false claims of protests in various streets of Tehran, where Basijis and police were waiting to ambush Twitterers. Twitter and Facebook have proven to be great tools so far, but unfortunately reports that surface cannot always be trusted.

Even CNN is reporting some of the incorrect Twitters. A couple of days ago, I noticed a man on CNN by the name of Badi Badiozamani claiming that people of Tabriz (the unofficial capital of Iranian Azerbaijan) were beginning to leave their homes to show solidarity with the Persian people. He claimed that since Musavi himself is an Azerbaijani Turk, the Turkic speakers of Iran were beginning to show support for him. Then, I kept seeing videos of protests on YouTube claiming that they had taken place on June 22, 2009. One particular video I saw was sent to ADAPP the week before. It was a video that was filmed on June 10, even before the election itself. IT WAS THE SAME EXACT VIDEO as the one claimed to be from June 22! So, I decided to send the video with some edits to CNN’s IReport. You can watch it here .  I also posted the video on the Advocacy Project YouTube page if anyone is interested. I’ve also been Twittering about it using ADAPP’s username ADAPPInfo.

So let’s get this clear, ADAPP is in daily contact with Azerbaijani human rights groups AND various other Azerbaijani civilians across Iranian Azerbaijan (this includes Tabriz, Urmia, Ardabil etc.). In reality, there have been no protests since June 15, 2009. The Azerbaijani provinces of Iran are eerily quiet. But yet again, not enough coverage on Iranian Azerbaijan. However, Azerbaijanis activists were successful in getting some of the word out in an article in EurasiaNet. Also I’ve been following this blog which has some great insights on why. In the next section, I will write about my thoughts as to why Azerbaijanis remain silent.

Firstly, election protests did occur in the Azerbaijani provinces of Iran. People took to the streets in Urmia and Tabriz to chant “Azerbaijani is not asleep, they have not abandoned Musavi” and Azerbaijani rights slogans. However, police and various other security forces were dispatched to South Azerbaijani cities early in anticipation of any protests and riots. My guess is that the government knew something was going to happen in these areas since Musavi is an Azerbaijani Turk. Anyway, I am told protests lasted from June 12-15. The repression was pretty brutal, in my blog last week I mentioned students in Tabriz and Urmia universities were beaten mercilessly. In Urmia, one person was killed on June 12 and again another on June 15. In Tabriz, 3 people were brutally beaten to death during protests of June 15. However, the Iranian state media, VOA, BBC Persian, Radio Farda and others refused to report on these events and refused to publish our reports because these protests were coupled with Azerbaijani rights demonstrations. Persian language media looks at Azerbaijanis as separatists, and I guess for them it’s OK that there are crackdowns in those areas. Well, June 15 was the last protest in any Azerbaijani city that we are aware.

Another reason is that Musavi, though an Azerbaijani Turk, is so assimilated into the government structure that he himself has supported crackdowns on Azerbaijanis in the past. During his campaign, he announced greater linguistic freedoms for Azerbaijanis, but actions speak louder than words. Its all political rhetoric to Azerbaijanis and here’s why:

1) When Musavi was prime minster (his term lasted from 1980-88) he was instrumental in destroying the Ayatollah Shariatmadari movement. During the early years of the revolution, this Ayatollah opposed Khomeini in establishing a velayat-e faqih, the position of supreme Islamic guide. Shariatmadari also called for a seperation of religion and the state and supported Azerbaijani cultural and linguistic rights. His party Khalq Muselman, was roughly 5 million strong and comprised of mostly Azerbaijani Iranians. It was crushed and scores were arrested and executed. Shariatmadari was allegedly tortured to retract his former statements and placed on house arrest until he died. He was well loved by the Azerbaijani community.

2) Even more disturbing is Musavi’s lack of criticism of the May 2006 crackdown. On May 2006, a cartoon was published in state-run Iran newspaper that compared Azerbaijanis to cockroaches and explained how to exterminate them. (I have an article on the cartoon that Fakhteh published if anyone is interested.) Oh, and this was in the kids section of the newspaper Anyway after the cartoon appeared on May 22, 1 million in South Azerbaijan took to the streets in the same fashion this month’s election protests. Here is a video of the May 2006 Protests; and this is a video showing some of the protests and riots in various cities; and another showing Tabriz in the one-year anniversary of the May 2006 protests.  Many cities in Iranian Azerbaijan saw protests and riots. Azerbaijanis were just fed up in general with they way they had been treated. The government crackdown was severe. Security officers fired indiscriminately on crowds, killing dozens. They shot anti-riot ammunition into the crowds, which blinded many people. In the aftermath roughly 10,000 were arrested and many of them were brutally tortured. But alas, there was no reporting of this event in Persian media. Many of the so-called “reformist” candidates, which Musavi associates himself with, were supporting the crackdown. Musavi was silent. Azerbaijanis are still scarred from this event.

These are photos of the crackdown. Cand you tell the difference between these and the photos that are emerging now?:

Azerbaijanis now would rather not get involved with the current election crisis. Essentially, why should they get involved if they are not guaranteed their own rights by Persians. ADAPP’s contacts report that Kurdistan is pretty much the same way. There are no protests in Kurdistan, just a few strikes here and there; nothing significant. The following chart, which was in an e-mail to ADAPP from the British-Ahwazi Friendship Society, shows ethnicity and turnout for the recent elections. As you can seen Kurds and Azerbaijanis were the bottom two ethnicities in voter turnout:

voter-turnout

So, I’m sorry for the length of this post but I had a lot to say. I will conclude by mentioning that in order for these uprisings to become a country-wide revolution, Persians must embrace their ethnic minority groups. The racism that exists deep within Iranian society must be completely eradicated. Minorities must be guaranteed that their regions will receive some kind of stake in any new government or change to the current regime. Linguistic and cultural rights must be acknowledged! After 1979, despite a new constitution being written which gives minorities equal rights and the right to study their own languages, the shah’s policies endured. Some say that the 1979 revolution would have never happend if the city of the city of Tabriz did not join the movement. Tabriz played a critical role in 1978. In this current movement, minorities must finally be guaranteed these rights. Otherwise, why would they risk their lives for the status quo? What’s in it for them?

So I’m sorry for the delay of this blog. I know a lot of you are starving for information from Iran right now. First off, I’d like to say that I can’t believe that I am a part of this amazing opportunity during a time like this. It has truly been inspiring to see how social media and advocacy is changing the rules for Iran. History in the making I encourage everyone to hop on Twitter and check out some of the news feeds. I am in awe of the resilience of young Iranians who are not afraid to spread news and information even at the risk of their own safety. The crackdown, however, is starting to take a bit of an emotional toll on me, though I will try to stay objective for this blog.

So, as you can imagine this week has been absolutely nuts. I have had quite a bit of work. ADAPP has been writing reports of incidents as they have been coming in, but it has been extremely hard to gather information. The Iranian government has been filtering many internet sites and our usual methods of communication have been blocked (I can’t really explain what they are) so we’ve been trying to find alternate methods to avoid the filters. But for roughly 2 days, we haven’t been able to get any information from the Azerbaijani provinces of Iran. All the news that is coming out in the media thus far has been from the predominantly Persian areas of Iran (Tehran, Ishfahan etc.). There have been absolutely no reporting on Azerbaijanis, Kurds, Baluchis, Semitic Peoples, Afghanis, Turcomens, Qashqai and Ahwazi Arabs. All of the information and reports that ADAPP has tried to send to Radio Farda and VOA Persian have been rejected because in Azerbaijan, the protests have been coupled with Azerbaijani rights demonstrations. Apparently the Persian-run media does not like that.

That being said, I do have some information to spread. Let me just start by saying that while there were protests in Iranian Azerbaijan, they were slow to start and spread. Many Azerbaijani rights groups were very apathetic about the election protests over the weekend. Azerbaijanis are still scarred from the crackdown of the May 2006 (in the future, I plan on dedicating an entire post to this) cartoon protests. Scores were killed in 2006 and roughly 10,000 were arrested and some tortured, all while the reformists were publicly supporting the crackdown. Seemingly, however more and more Azerbaijanis are beginning to take to the streets. Their cause is, however unique. Their chants have been coupled with Azerbaijani rights slogans. Here is an amateur video taken on a cell phone on June 13 in the city of Urmia: Protests in Urmia, Iran. In the video, residents of Urmia are chanting (in Azerbaijani Turkish) “Azerbaijan yatmiyib, Musevini atmiyib” losely translating to “Azerbaijan is not asleep, it has not abandoned Musavi“. Other videos show Azerbaijanis chanting “Azerbaijan is not asleep, it has not abandoned its own son”. This is especially powerful because Musavi is an Azerbaijani Turk himself and this shows the Azerbaijani support behind Musavi despite the government insisting that Azerbaijanis overwhelmingly voted for Ahmadinejad.

Here are images from Urmia:

The bottom row shows images from Tabriz University from Sunday. In Tabriz, over the weekend the government was expecting mass protests so they sent police, militias and Revolutionary Guard to patrol Tabriz University and the town. The first picture shows Tabrizi police and the subsequent 2 pictures are images of protests in Tabriz University. As you can see Tabriz was fairly quiet over the weekend compared to Tehran. Unfortunately, this meant that police were prepared to quell protests. Yesterday I received word that in the beginning of the week as protests grew in size in Tabriz University, police and revolutionary guards brutally beat and suppressed them. I don’t have images but I was told there were literally puddles of blood across campus. Some police, RGs, and militia members are running around in plain clothing beating students and activists. Look at this smug (**insert expletive here**).

jerk

Brutal repression also occurred in Urmia, Iran the past few days. Yesterday I received word that they had arrested 300 protesters and sent them to Urmia prison. Of those 300, prison guards were separating those with backgrounds in Azerbaijani activism. Activists were literally shoved into a minibus and driven to an undisclosed location. It is my belief that they were sent to a Ministry of Intelligence detention facility. God only knows what will become of them. We have also confirmed that 2 have died in the Urmia protests.

I don’t have any word from Ardabil or Khamaneh Musavi’s hometown or any other city with a majority population of Iranian Azerbaijanis. If anyone gets any word on what’s going on in these places, please let us know!!

There is still absolutely no word on the dozens that were arrested before Friday’s election. Many Azerbaijani activists have been taken by the Ministry of Intelligence (Etilaat) and are most likely being tortured, which is pretty normal. They are not allowed to get in contact with their families and nobody is aware of a trial date, their whereabouts or their health conditions. University Professor Alireza Farshi, who I have grown to admire, is one of them. His wife and family know absolutely nothing about his condition. He was arrested on May 22.

On a side note (I know this is not really relevant), I am hearing rumors that former Iranian President and current head of the Assembly of Experts, Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, is actively trying to call an emergency meeting of the 86-member government body. The Assembly is responsible for the election and supervision of the Supreme Leader. Rafsanjani, a very prominent and RICH (and possibly very corrupt) mullah, has been at odds with the Supreme Leader Khamanei and has called for the transformation of Iran to a more pragmatic and open country. He and his reformist camp have been growing in power in recent years. He put his backing behind Presidential candidate Musavi. It is rumored that Rafsanjani might call for a special meeting of the Assembly of Experts to call a vote to oust Khamanei. You didn’t hear it from me.

So I’m following Iran’s elections right now and though there seem to be some irregularities, I am happy with the turnout and the participation of Iran’s population. While I won’t say my pick for the election. I will make a quick note about how Azerbaijanis fit into the debate.

The two front-runners thus far are Mir-Hossein Musavi and incumbent Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.  In the run-up to the campaign, Musavi visited a few cities in South Azerbaijan to sort of charge the 30 million or so Azerbaijanis living in Iran. As I mentioned before, he is an Azerbaijani Turk himself and he spoke Azerbaijani in a few of his speeches. In some videos on the internet, you can see the crowds going wild during his Turkish language speeches. He is a public advocate of Articles 15 and 19 of the Iranian constitution which guarantee equal rights and the right to teach languages other than Persian and use those languages in public and the media. Ahmadinejad, on the other hand, has fashioned himself a champion for Iran’s poor and has diverted a lot of Iran’s oil wealth to poor families. He has also tried to gain the favor of Azerbaijanis by praising the language and claiming that he is fluent.

Both candidates, however, have shared their crimes against Iran and minorities. Musavi was Iran’s last Prime Minister and held office during some of the Iranian government’s worst crimes against it’s people. Ahmadinejad has also been quite repressive of minorities in the past 4 years. Whoever wins though, absolute power will still ulimately be held in the Supreme Leader’s hands who has final veto power over all actions proposed by anyone in Iran.

Also, it’s a shame that as the candidates try to gain the support of the Azerbaijani population, activists are still being arrested and beaten for promoting language rights. This week on June 9, Behnam Sheykhi and Mahmud Ojaghli were arrested in Eslamshahr. Behnam Sheykhi was seen spray painting slogans on the walls of buildings calling for the implemention of Articles 15 and 19. One of the walls happened to be on the Musavi campaign headquarters. Later on, Iranian intelligence officials came to arrest him in his shop. When his brother asked the officers show a warrant, he and his brother were severly beaten and Behnam was taken away. Then, Ojaghli was beaten and arrested himself for videotaping the beatings across the street. Both Behnam Sheykhi and Mahmud Ojaghli are indefinitely detained by Iranian Ministry of Intelligence. We don’t know the status of their health or whether or not they are being tortured (which is actually quite common). Both activists were Musavi campaign volunteers.

Another thing to note is that while a presidential candidate’s appeal to a minority group is quite novel and shows that Azerbaijanis do play an important role in Iran, I have yet to hear any other minorities getting any attention (though I am told that Musavi has traveled to other regions to praise other ethnicities, they haven’t received as much attention as Azeris). I am learning that the Iranian government is still continuing it’s campaign to forcefully displace various ethnic groups to mix up Iranian society. Hopefully, I will report on that as time goes by, but I am aware of some atrocities that the government is committing against Baluchis, Qashqai, Turkomen and semitic peoples.

Time magazine wrote an article about this not too long ago:  http://www.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,1901667,00.html

As far as my work, this week has been super busy. I have been editing all sorts of documents and press releases to spread the word. We are trying to secure various types of funding for ADAPP as well. If anyone has any ideas, please feel free to shoot them my way.

I am really enjoying Vancouver, I have yet to have a bad experience with food here and they weather has been really nice thus far.

I love Vancouver! While I did arrive during a heat wave, I don’t mind it much because D.C. is usually much hotter. So, I’ve been walking everywhere. I got a bus pass for the month and I’ve been using it to explore the city. It is gorgeous. The city is nestled near a mountain range and an inlet. My housing situation is great and my director Fakhteh Zamani is a truly inspiring person and is incredibly dedicated to her work. But more about me and Canada will come later. 

I must first apologize for the length of this blog but I need to discuss what I am learning and doing.

So far, the only substantial work that I have done this week (besides this blog) has been to search for possible foundations and trusts that can fund ADAPP’s work and I have drafted a letter of inquiry for one foundation. I’ve never had any experience with grantwriting, but we shall see how it goes. Hopefully, we can secure some grants for Fakhteh’s work because most of the organization’s funding has come from donations and Fakhteh’s own pocket, so it is unsustainable. 

I’ve spent the rest of my time learning about the organization, the plight of the Azerbaijanis in Iran and the complexity of Iranian politics. I have also been practicing my Azerbaijani and I must say that I really have a lot to learn. I’ve gotten a chance to speak with Azerbaijanis that have studied in Azerbaijan proper and I’ve gained first hand experience as to how rich their language is compared to ours in South Azerbaijan. I really now understand how deprived South Azerbaijanis feel.  If all of this sounds new to you, let me give you some facts about Azerbaijanis in Iran so you can understand why I am here. 

Firstly, we need to understand that Iran is not a homogeneous society and houses many people of many faiths and identities.

Azerbaijanis are a Turkic people that are effectively separated between the Republic of Azerbaijan and the Islamic Republic of Iran. They number about 7 million in Azerbaijan proper and a whopping estimated 30 million in Iran but share the same culture and language. While they have had a long history with various Iranian peoples, they are distinguished by their own history, culture and Turkic language. The nation was split during the Russo-Persian wars and various cities were handed over to Russia in the Golestan Peace Treaty in 1813 and again in 1828. So one set of Azerbaijanis shared Iran’s destiny and the other shared Russian and Soviet destiny. Well, at least up until 1991. When the Soviet Union fell, North Azerbaijanis received their own state and were able to flourish culturally. When this happened, South Azerbaijanis gradually became more active in advocating language rights (if you like, ask me about the theory of relative deprivation). Azerbaijanis became more fed up with the racism in Iranian society as they watched their brethren flourish. Actually, it was explained to me that the education system is the exact opposite of the western system. Racist mentality grows in higher education institutions, weird huh? 

(Currently I’m reading Iran and the Challenge of Diversity by Alireza Asgharzadeh and Borders and Brethren: Iran and the Challenge of Azerbaijani Identity which are provide a great backdrop to this issue, check them out!)

So the movement exploded in May 2006, when an Iranian newspaper published a cartoon comparing Azerbaijanis to cockroaches. 

iran_azeri_cartoon-11

Another series of protests erupted last month when an internet video emerged showing former President Mohammed Khatami making insulting jokes about the Azerbaijani people on May 16. Protests again ensued in the cities of Tabriz, Urmia and Tehran. On May 22, a group of protesters interrupted a government-sponsored fitness walk in Tabriz. Many were taken away screaming “Turk dilinde madrese” which translates to “Turkish language schools”. This video shows an example of one activist Alireza Farshi, who was taken into ministry of intelligence custody for advocating linguistic rights. He is currently being held in government custody with no word of a trial date. His wife and family are unaware of his whereabouts and health. He is at risk of torture. Oh and it is estimated that roughly 100 Azerbaijani activists were detained in the May 22 protests alone.

But it’s not all complete doom and gloom. The Azerbaijani people are gaining some momentum. It seems that the minority card has been steadily becoming more important in the upcoming election. Former prime minister (Iran abolished this position after the constitutional reforms of the late 80s) Mir Hossein Mousvai, himself and ethnic Azerbaijani, toured Tabriz and Urmia (the city that I was born in) on May 25 and 26 to appeal to the Azerbaijani people. At one point in his speech in Urmia, he began to speak Azerbaijani and the crowd went wild. He also screamed “ Yashasin Azerbaijan”  which sort of translates to long live Azerbaijan. The following picture is of Azerbaijani activists holding up a sign which says “Turkish language schools” during Mousavi’s speech in Urmia.

mousavi

Even current president Ahmadinejad joined the bandwagon. On a June 7^th speech in Tabriz, Ahmadinejad reportedly claimed that he spoke fluent Azerbaijani and said that the language was “one of the best and most complete languages”… go figure. Yea, so appealing to minorities is quite new to Iranian politics. While this is still all rhetoric, I’m pretty optimistic about the future.

So this week, I will be working to get news about political prisoners out in the open to the English-speaking world. I have thus far made a facebook fan site, group and causes page. Please join them and ask all of your friends to join. 

Although I haven’t left for Vancouver yet, I’ve been quite busy here in D.C. working for ADAPP, my partner organization. Let me first start by introducing the Association for the Defense of Azerbaijani Political Prisoners in Iran (ADAPP) and what I will be doing for them.  ADAPP is a minority rights organization based in Vancouver, Canada whose principal purpose is to raise awareness of the maltreatment of Azerbaijanis vying for cultural and linguistic rights. It was founded by Fakhteh Zamani, an ethnic Azerbaijani who has experienced firsthand the dehumanizing system of institutional racism that exists within Iranian society. Through an ingenious system, the organization monitors and reports on those who have been detained by the government (and sometimes tortured and killed) for protesting in favor of the right to use their native tongues in schools and in public. This summer, I will help Mrs. Zamani by keeping in touch with her various international contacts to update the website on new developments on the treatment of Azerbaijanis and Azerbaijani political prisoners in Iran. I will also assist her in her fight to expose this situation to the Canadian Parliament, U.S. Congress, the United Nations, western media and other forums in the western world. In my free time, I will be blogging about my experiences so that you all at home can see what I’m doing and know that your donations are actually being used appropriately. 

Even though I’m still in D.C., Fakhteh has given me the honor to work with her directly upon my appointment as an Advocacy Fellow. So far, I have helped her write a small biography of her organization for distribution at a conference and have summarized a speech she gave to the Canadian Parliament, which was posted on the ADAPP website. I have also been in contact with ADAPP members in Azerbaijan and Turkey through Yahoo messenger and since I am a native Azerbaijani speaker, communication has been quite easy. Recently they have given me some information regarding a video that has emerged on YouTube showing former president Khatami belittling the Azerbaijani community. I was able to write a press release concerning this issue and the resulting protests the ensued in the cities of Tabriz, Urmia and Tehran (more information on this issue can be found on the ADAPP website).

Fakhteh gave me an assignment, to which I was particularly proud to do. She was invited to speak at a forum called “Voices” at the Durban Review Conference on April 23. The forum was sponsored by the UN High Commission on Human Rights and took place in Geneva, Switzerland at the UN. I’m sure some of you remember that the conference gained international attention when some of the attendees partook in a walk-out during a speech that was being given by the current Iranian President, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. Anyway, I had the pleasure to of writing Fakhteh’s speech. She was very pleased as it was received very well and sparked the attention of the UN High Commissioner on Human Rights.

I am very excited to begin my work in Vancouver. I know that I will have a very challenging and rewarding experience working for ADAPP and I hope that my work can truly affect the conditions to which Azerbaijani political prisoners are subjected. I know that I have my work cut out for me.

Azerbaijanis take to the streets to demand equal rights.