Iran's Repressed Minorities | Voice of America - English
The controversy over Iran's ongoing nuclear program has overshadowed other problems in the country in recent years. Human rights advocates warn about Iranian regime's increasing repression of its minority populations. The Iranian city of Tabriz may be best known to the world for its top-quality oriental rugs.  It is the capital and major trade center of Azerbaijan province in northwestern Iran.  More than 17 million of Azeri people who live there share the Turkic language and culture with their northern neighbors in the Republic of Azerbaijan.Iran's official language is Persian, also known as
For a long time the regime has tried in many, many ways to keep this segment of its population from seeking self-determination and there is a good reason for doing this because there are more Azeris in northern Iran, what they call southern Azerbaijan, than there are in the entire Republic of Azerbaijan. Azeris make up a large percentage of the Iranian population and if they were to seriously seek independence, it would be in the direction of the Republic of Azerbaijan," says Berman. "It would essentially suggest that they would be interested in breaking territory off from the Islamic Republic to join up with Azerbaijan. So this is obviously something that Iranians want very much to avoid." But instead of embracing its largest minority, the Iranian government has done much to antagonize it in recent months. Last May, a state-run Iranian newspaper published a cartoon depicting an Azeri-speaking cockroach, triggering several days of street demonstrations in the capital of Tehran and several northwestern cities. The government suspended publication of the newspaper and arrested both the editor-in-chief and the cartoonist. But it also cracked down on protesters. In the ensuing clashes, police and security forces killed four and wounded more than 40, and arrested nearly 200 demonstrators. The United States has strongly condemned these actions. Kurtis Cooper, a spokesman for the U.S. State Department, recently criticized Tehran for harassing groups that are willing to demonstrate for their rights. "We are deeply concerned by the regime's continuing repression of Iran's minority, ethnic and religious groups, including the Azeris, the Kurds, the Bahai, ethnic Arabs and others. The regime's oppression affects religious minorities, students, women, labor unions, journalists and academics," said Cooper. "We consistently have called on the Iranian government to respect the rights of all Iranian people and to release those arrested and imprisoned for insisting on their universal rights to freedom of expression and association."