Radio odlar Yourdu from Vancouver, Canada: Every year in May 22nd members of Azerbaijani community in Iran commemorate the event they call cartoon incident. Four years ago, in May 12th Iranian State newspaper published a cartoon depicting Azerbaijani Turks living in a country as cockroaches. It showed an Azeri-speaking cockroach and suggested people deny it food until it learned to speak Persian. Soon demonstrations spread over the northern cities of Iran. By May 22nd hundreds of thousands of Azerbaijanis went on the streets demanding an official apology. The demonstrations were met by force and many people were killed and arrested by the authorities. Today, we are having a guest here in our studio. Her name is Faktheh Zamani and she is a founder and Chief Executive Officer of Association for Azerbaijani Political Prisoners in Iran. We are going to talk about events happened today 4 years ago.
Interview questions with Fakhteh Zamani :
You are a founder and current Chief Executive Officer of Association for Azerbaijani Political Prisoners in Iran (ADAPP). First, tell us about ADAPP? Why and when did you decide to create ADAPP? What was the need? Please tell us more about Cartoon incident. What happened in May 12th? Why did this newspaper publish such a cartoon? Were they trying intentionally insult someone?
So, the cartoon was published on May 12nd and the wide scale demonstrations and protests started on May 22nd. What happened in between? What was the governments initial reaction to the cartoon? Why the government waited until May 22nd to issue an official statement?
What was the governments reaction to the protests and demonstrations? How did the government try to stop protests?
What was the reaction from the international media, the governments of the other countries, and international human right institutions? Was there an immediate response? If not, why?
Why Azerbaijanis? Why did cartoon depict Azerbaijanis as cockroaches? And why it created such a huge reaction among the Azerbaijani community?
Tell us more about Azerbaijanis in Iran. How many Azerbaijanis live in Iran? Are they well integrated in the society?
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ADAPP - On May 12, 2006, "Iran", a state-run newspaper published a cartoon insulting Azerbaijanis. It depicted an Azeri-speaking cockroach and suggested people deny it food until it learned to speak Persian.
Azerbaijani university students held demonstrations protesting the cartoon and demanded a formal government apology. In the first days of the demonstrations, no official response from the government condemning the cartoon materialized. The demonstrations spread to other cities in the predominantly Azerbaijani region of Iran. On May 22, Tabriz was home to the greatest anti-state demonstration since the founding of the Islamic Revolution. The protestors went out to the streets and called on Tehran to respect ethnic rights, and demanded that Azerbaijani Turkish be an official state language in Iran. The Azerbaijanis peaceful demonstrations were met with force. The security forces fired on people, reportedly killing at least 15 and arrested hundreds of protestors. Similar demonstrations shook most of the Azerbaijani cities. Naghadeh (Sulduz), Urmia, and Meshghinsherhr (Khiyav) hosted bloody demonstrations with at least 10 people killed.
In response to the vast demonstrations, the government quickly removed the editor-in-chief of the newspaper and the caricaturist, but no official apology was released. The Iranian media did not adequately report the events that occurred during the demonstrations despite their unprecedented size and duration and the events went largely unnoticed in foreign media outlets as well. Azerbaijanis found themselves completely alone in the struggle for their rights in Iran. The opposition in Iran, the so called reformist camp, also did not support the rightful protests of the Azerbaijanis. The demonstrations were not only a backlash against the cartoon, but represented a wider uprising against the tens of years of discrimination and oppression in Iran toward the Azerbaijanis.
http://www.adapp.info/
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South Azerbaijanis in Iran and demonstrations for Independence and Democracy (1/3)by insanhaqlari2,803 views
@KipchakTegin
Bruv you is right.
tabrizturk98 4 months ago
@TheAzeri1977
Yes bruv you is right. Us azeris have rights. I hate being an iranian azeri. i want us azeris to have our own country or join with our northern brothers. D you think the same bruv.
tabrizturk98 4 months ago
iran = USSR
iranTURKS 6 months ago
@TheAzeri1977
your forfathers were roaches and you belong in mongolian deserts, not in our lands
IranSepahbod 7 months ago
Our fore fathers have done it , they had too much to do to keep persians sharp . instead of developing turkish language they focused on farsi. they were waried about size of their empire than true nation building !!
first thing we heed to do take farsi out of our schools and our media than we need to get ourselves instead of learning history of immgrated aryan tribes to our country!
TheAzeri1977 7 months ago
Thanks for the video, keep spreading awareness of racism in Iran. Freedom for South-Azerbaijan.
KaWeH17 9 months ago
TÜRK IRKI SAĞOLSUN
greenultras28 1 year ago
Haray haray,men Türk'em!
That's enough,I'm a Turk!
Freedom for Southern Azerbaijan!
KipchakTegin 1 year ago
teshekkur
AZERBAYCA 1 year ago
evel hedef qarabag sonra tebriz yashasin butov azerbaycan
azeriforward 1 year ago