Azerbaijanis dance to support their kin in Iran

Social media users in Azerbaijan are dancing on video to express solidarity with their ethnic kin in northern Iran.

The campaign began among ethnic Azerbaijanis in Iran, who make up around one-quarter of the country's population, and took to social media to protest a variety of grievances, including the poor economic conditions in Iran, particularly in the northern part of Iran where Azerbaijanis are concentrated. The protest took the form of dancing to a song, "They Talk About You," by Iranian Azerbaijani singer Alireza Sharifzade.

The action then spread north of the Iran-Azerbaijan border, where Instagram and Twitter users posted their own videos using the name of the song as it is rendered in the Latin alphabet used in Azerbaijan, #sənideyirlər.

The two populations of Azerbaijanis were separated in the 19th century when Russia took over what is sometimes referred to as "Northern Azerbaijan," today's independent Azerbaijan.

Azerbaijanis feel a sense of kinship with their brethren in Iran, though actions of solidarity like this are relatively rare. "First time ever Northern Azerbaijan social media gets dominated by Southern Azerbaijan trend," wrote Azerbaijani social media personality Cavid Ağa. "Seems like music was the only thing lacking all these years."

"Iran is a country where you can be punished for dancing, for promoting music of the largest minority - Azerbaijani Turks, for being without headscarves, for promoting LGBT rights," wrote investigative journalist Khadija Ismailova on her Facebook page. "This [is] one of the biggest solidarity actions."

The Azerbaijani dance protest follows another Iranian dancing social media controversy, when a young woman was arrested in July after posting a video on Instagram of herself dancing. Iranians and others then expressed their solidarity by posting their own dancing videos.

The song "Səni deyirlər" is dedicated to Lake Urmia, a salt lake that straddles the Iranian provinces of East Azerbaijan and West Azerbaijan, which is drying up. The lake's dessication has become a key focus of Iranian Azerbaijani grievances against the government in Tehran, which has sought to suppress Azerbaijani culture and political expression in the country.

"How good Lake Urmia is for swimming, but they dried it up," Sharifzade sings. The song concludes with the line, "Long live Azerbaijan."

Others unwilling to publicize themselves dancing supported the campaign in other ways. Activist Samra Sadraddinli posted a photo of herself in Tabriz, the largest city in Iranian Azerbaijan, with the caption: "Support South Azerbaijanian youth's Mother Language Movement and dance challenge. I don't want you to see my Raj Kapoor style dance, that's why I'm here with my photo from Tabriz."

The campaign even hit Azerbaijani opposition politics. One Facebook user posted a video of opposition leader Ilgar Mammadov criticizing - without naming them - other opposition groups for holding rallies that were ineffective and only played into the government's hands. The user captioned the video "They are talking about you."

As for the government itself, it is keeping quiet. Tehran is extremely sensitive to any hint of Azerbaijani separatism, and official Baku gives Iranian Azerbaijani issues a very wide berth in an effort to not antagonize the Iranian government.

Lamiya Adilgizi is a freelance Azerbaijani journalist.