Report on repressions against Azerbaijani Turks in Iran

Baku/05.12.22/Turan: During large-scale anti-government protests in Iran in September-October 2022, at least 13 Azerbaijanis were killed and 1,700 were arrested,  the Report on the situation of Azerbaijani Turks in Iran, prepared by Iranian human rights activists who are politically emigrating to the United States and Canada.

Azerbaijani Turks are the largest ethnic group in Iran, living mainly in the provinces of Zanjan, Qazvin, Hamadan, Alborz and Tehran, as well as in Ardabil, West Azerbaijan and East Azerbaijan, which border Turkey and Azerbaijan.

The Iranian government has never released official statistics on ethnic groups. However, in January 2011, Iranian ex-Foreign Minister Ali Akbar Salehi stated that 40% of Iranians speak Turkic. Azerbaijani Turks also claim to make up about 40% of Iran's population.

After the Pahlavi dynasty came to power in Iran in 1925, the government pursued a policy of forced assimilation, and the influence of Azerbaijanis in the government decreased significantly. The Islamic regime continued the policy of ethnic discrimination.

In mid-September of this year, another wave of protests against the ruling regime began in Iran. Azerbaijanis take an active part in them.

According to Sina Yousifi, deputy chairman of the Human Rights Commission of the Iranian Azerbaijan Lawyers Association, over 1,700 protesters in Tabriz were arrested by police and SEPAH forces in the first two weeks of the protests. The scale of arrests for the entire region of Azerbaijan is difficult to calculate. However, it was possible to establish the identity of 121 arrested and 13 executed protesters.

The authorities are actively using the Sepah and Basij security forces to quell the protests. Full text of the report. ---06B---