Pishevari: A Reflection on the Fragility of a Charisma

 Ruzbeh Saadati – September 4, 2025

Sayyed Ja'far Pishevari was an Iranian/South Azerbaijani politician best known for founding and leading the Azerbaijani Democratic Party, which established and governed the short-lived Azerbaijan People's Government from November 1945 to December 1946.

The historical memory of the twentieth century is replete with charismatic leaders who emerged amid social crises. Nelson Mandela, in apartheid-era South Africa—a society divided between Black people fighting for equality and whites concerned with maintaining security and privileges—became a symbol of unity and hope. Similarly, Martin Luther King Jr. emerged in racially segregated America, where African Americans demanded civil rights and white populations feared social instability. Through his inspiring leadership, King united millions around his charismatic vision.

While these figures are not directly comparable to Mir Jafar Pishevari, their examples offer a clearer understanding of the mechanics of charisma through minimal theoretical lenses.

A Narrative of Suffering for the Sake of Alternative Possibilities

Ruzbeh Saadati – September 1, 2025

At its core, this story is of an ethnic Turkish Sunni activist from Iranian/South Azerbaijan navigating intersecting oppressions of ethnicity, religion, class, and other minoritized identities within a state structured by Persian, Shi’a, male, and other exclusionary forces.   

Ruzbeh Saadati

I am a child of a village. Our people are Shafi’i Muslims and Turkish. We have lived through layers of discrimination and humiliation—starting with the absence of basic infrastructure like roads, gas, and schools in our village, and extending to the everyday insults we endure in the cities. Even in the interrogation rooms of Tabriz, the guards found ways to demean us. I remember one waking me at two or three in the morning, saying, “Don’t sleep like Omar”—a sentence that made sleep impossible, replacing rest with unease.

In 2013, while imprisoned in Ahar, a small city in Iran’s East Azerbaijan Province, I refused to take part in the mandatory group prayer. The ward officer responded by sending me to the prison yard and threatening, “İndi səni şiə elərəm”—“Now I will make you a Shiite.” He stormed toward me, face red with fury. It was the Turkish activists who stepped between us, bearing the weight of responsibility. Apparently, the officer was determined to grant me paradise—by force if necessary. An hour later, I was called into the guardroom. There, in the prison director’s office, handcuffed, I was beaten by the duty officer and a soldier. The scar left by the handcuffs—an imprint of defiance—still sits between my eyebrows.

The Skin of the Camel and Mash Hassan’s Cow

Ruzbeh Saadati – August 31, 2025

The mourners of Bayal depicts a society where poverty and frugality, superstition and compromise, alienation and estrangement bring it ever closer to collapse and decay. Sa’edi portrays the society of his time through the lens of a village whose roofless houses are shorter than the stature of its dwarf-like inhabitants. A village that is the very ground of death—a living cemetery where every corner holds a tragedy. Its people—whose faces the narrator avoids describing—are all faceless. A face is a mark of individuality, and in Bayal, individuality is an unforgivable sin. Loneliness is the unwritten law of the story, and anyone who strays from this isolation is expelled from the narrative. A boy dependent on his mother, a young man who befriends a dog from a neighboring village, a girl whose love drips like a festering wound from her knees, a couple whose love leads to an untimely departure from the village, and a man who is in love with his cow—all are doomed to perish.

The Obedient Bodand the Forbidden Tongue; The Domain of a Politics

 Ruzbeh Saadati – August 30, 2025

Foucault begins Discipline and Punish with the account of a horrific scene: in 1757, in front of the Paris church, Damien—accused of attempting to assassinate the king—has his chest, arms, thighs, and calves torn open with red-hot pincers, molten lead and wax poured into his wounds, and finally his body is quartered. The chronicler writes that although Damien was foul-mouthed, he uttered no insult. From time to time, he lifted his head and looked at his blood-soaked body, and in the height of torture told the priests: “Kiss me.”

It is truly tragic. A man who has been mutilated can no longer exercise his will over his body. He searches for a light with which to reclaim his flesh—even if this reclamation occurs through a part of the torturer’s own body. Here, the politics of the body appears in its barest and most brutal form: the torture of the flesh as a means to seize the soul.

A Memoryless House, a Storyless City; A Brief Reflection on Today’s Zanjan

Ruzbeh Saadati – August 21, 2025

Historical Bazaar of Zanjan

In Barcelona, Gaudí’s architecture and its spectacular buildings are not merely visual attractions; they carry the narratives of Catalan collective identity. The Sagrada Família, with its forms drawn from nature and the visual language of Catalan modernism, is a living symbol of people’s belonging to a city whose history is tied not to surrender, but to resistance. Heroes such as Rafael Casanova and national poets like Jacint Verdaguer are enshrined in literature and public memory; the former as a figure evoking sacrifice and the struggle for freedom, and the latter by contributing to cultural revival and the rebirth of the Catalan language in epic poems and stories, reinforcing the bond between language and identity. Even Catalonia’s defeat in 1714 and the loss of its local autonomy, rather than leading to collapse, transformed into a narrative of resistance; a narrative that was reproduced through poetry and literature, remained alive in language and collective memory, and was embodied by urban sites and symbols, turning into a tangible experience for later generations. This defeat, by passing through time and being named Catalonia’s National Day, became a symbol of Catalan endurance and collective identity. In this city, symbols, monuments, language, heroes, and historical events each shape part of the collective memory, enabling its continual reproduction and allowing people to recognize themselves and their city’s history in their narratives.

The West Failed Secularism in Karabakh. Can It Redeem Itself in Peace?

 Ali Rıza Kuluncu - Aug 17, 2025

Ana Kasparian — Host at The Young Turks

In recent years, I’ve come to doubt how secularism is truly understood in the West. The Second Karabakh War offered a revealing example. While both pro-Armenia and pro-Azerbaijan diasporas in the West were active, their narratives diverged sharply. Armenians framed the conflict as a Christian nation resisting Muslim Turks, whereas pro-Azerbaijan voices emphasized the country’s secular identity, portraying Azerbaijan as one of the least religious Muslim-majority societies. The contrast was deliberate. During the Karabakh conflict, global powers backed Christian Armenia despite UN resolutions, enabling its diaspora to weaponize religious identity while forcing Azerbaijan’s to overcompensate with secular claims. For Western thinkers committed to secular ideals, this should raise a clear concern: the “good guys” in Western eyes are either Christian (or at least non-Muslim) or secular.

The Memory Destruction and Reconstruction Games within the Scope of Persianization Politics in Iran

 Aug 05, 2025

Dr. Artum Dinç

The article, titled “The Memory Destruction and Reconstruction Games within the Scope of Persianization Politics in Iran” by Dr. Artum Dinç, published in the Journal of Nationalism, Memory & Language Politics, explores how the Iranian state’s Persianization policies since 1925 have deliberately manipulated collective memory to marginalize Turkish ethno-national identity. Focusing on cultural symbols, historical artifacts, names, and language, the study reveals the systematic erasure and rewriting of Turkish heritage within Iran’s nation-building efforts. It also highlights the active resistance of Turks through various cultural and political means to preserve their identity and memory in the face of official efforts to forget and assimilate non-Persian communities.

Read the full article from here. 

Pezeshkian Brought Hope to Iranian Azerbaijanis — But What Next?

  BBC Azerbaijan – July 29, 2025

From left to right, Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev, Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan arrive at the 17th Summit of the Economic Cooperation Organization (ECO) in the city of Khankendi, Azerbaijan, on Friday, July 4, 2025.

“I have said this unequivocally: I am a Turk. My father is a Turk, and so is my mother. I am proud to be a Turk.” These words from Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian have been among the rare moments that have emboldened Iranian Azerbaijanis, who have been gradually pushed out of the political sphere over the past 40 years.

Journalist Alirza Quluncu says, “We can see the protest vote of Turks—who have been sidelined from centers of power since the Pahlavi era, and whose region, Azerbaijan, has been weakened and fragmented—in the support given to Pezeshkian.”

July 30 marks one year since Masoud Pezeshkian assumed the presidency in Iran.

However, his failure to fulfill the promises made during his campaign has not sat well with many Azerbaijanis.

Lake Urmia "Could Completely Evaporate Within a Week"

 BBC News Azerbaijan – July 24, 2025

The northern part of Lake Urmia could completely evaporate within a week.

This warning was issued by Hojjat Jabbari, the head of the Environmental Protection Department of West Azerbaijan Province.

He stated that if current water management practices, as well as the policies of the Ministries of Agriculture and Energy, continue, the restoration of the lake will not be possible.

Faces of Injustice: Afghan Migrants and the Politics of Exclusion in Iran

Ruzbeh Saadati – July 7, 2025

Workers waiting for work

“The face is the ultimate vulnerability of the Other. Peace with the face of the Other is the beginning of justice.” – Emmanuel Levinas

This note begins with an image on a winter morning; when I saw migrant workers gathered at a street intersection in the bone-chilling cold. With cracked hands and sleepless eyes, I remember one of them who, when the turn for work passed to another, neither grew angry nor resentful—he simply disappeared! That scene stayed in my memory because it displayed something of imposed suffering and the very image of injustice. They are only seen when they work, and they only count when they are silent. As if being useful is the price of visibility, while speaking marks the boundary of erasure. These days, however, that innocent image blends in my mind with newer ones—images that show how merely being Afghan suffices for some people to imagine you as an enemy. It was precisely this combination of suffering and suspicion, this rift between being and being accepted, that became the pretext for writing these lines.

The Ethnicization of Crime: A Sociological Reading of Elahe Hosseinnezhad’s Murder

Etek Yazı – 9 June 2025

The Murder of Elahe Hosseinnezhad and the Ethnicization of Crime in Iran

The murder of Elahe Hosseinnezhad has exposed deep fractures in Iranian society, where mourning can quickly give way to marginalization. As public outrage swelled, so too did a troubling shift in discourse—one that placed ethnicity, rather than the root causes of violence, on trial. From media headlines to social media commentary, the focus turned toward the ethnic identity of the alleged perpetrator, evoking long-standing stereotypes about Turks and other non-Persian communities. In this context, sympathy for the victim became a vehicle for scapegoating, and the crime itself was reframed through a lens of racial and regional prejudice. This article interrogates how media narratives and public discourse reproduce Orientalist logics within Iran’s internal borders, constructing “monsters from the periphery” and obscuring structural violence behind ethnic blame. Ultimately, it raises critical questions about who is allowed to be mourned, who is allowed to be demonized, and how national identity is policed through moments of collective grief.

The Struggle for the Right to Turkish Names in South Azerbaijan

June 1, 2025

Identification document

In South Azerbaijan, the “Balamın Adı” (My Child’s Name) petition campaign seeks to amend Iran’s civil registration laws. Launched by Azerbaijani activists on the karzar.net platform, the campaign calls for reforms to Article 20 of the "Civil Registration Law" to strengthen the right of parents to freely choose their child’s name. As the petition states, many parents face restrictions they “have never encountered in their lives,” leaving them unable to obtain birth certificates for their children.

Tractor SC complete journey to upset Iran’s establishment and claim historic title

John Duerden -  The Guardian -  Wed 14 May 2025 

The pre-match show before Tractor’s home game against Nassaji Mazandaran in May. Photograph: Mehrvarz Ahmadi/Anadolu/Getty Images

The club’s success has brought hope, unity and a voice to millions of Azerbaijani- Turks, the largest minority in Iran

The league title was won with games to spare by a coach in his first season, leaving fans in the north-west of the country to wait for the official presentation of the trophy. Jamie Carragher said on Sunday that “Liverpool as a city feels like it is ‘us against the world” but that is nothing when compared to those who follow Tractor SC, a club that brings hope, unity and a voice to millions of Azerbaijani Turks, the largest minority in Iran. Now they have a first Iranian championship to celebrate.

Iran’s Systematic Denial of Identity Documents for Children with Turkish Names

March 19, 2025

The Iranian identity booklet, also known as the Shenasnameh

In a blatant violation of human rights, Iran’s Civil Registration Office continues to deny identity documents to children with Turkish names, leaving them stateless and deprived of essential services. Several families in Azerbaijan and beyond have been subjected to bureaucratic discrimination simply for choosing names that reflect their ethnic and cultural heritage.

The Struggle of Families Choosing Turkish Names for Their Children in Iranian Azerbaijan

 Alirza Quluncu & Vüqar Bəhmənzadə, Voice of America, March 14, 2025

In Iranian Azerbaijan, as well as in provinces such as Tehran, Alborz, and Gilan, there are families who have been unable to obtain identity cards for their children for months or even years due to the Turkish names they have chosen.

A Call for Linguistic Justice: Professors in Iranian Azerbaijan Demand Mother Tongue Education

Hamid Melikoglu, Voice of America, March 6, 2025

Tabriz University

University professors from Azerbaijan’s provinces have sent a letter to the president, urging the government to take immediate steps to ensure the teaching of their mother tongue in schools and universities.

Among the 196 signatories of the letter are faculty members from universities in Tabriz, Ardabil, Urmia, and Maragheh. They have called on the president to introduce a bill in parliament for the teaching of their native language.

Iranian Parliament Rejects Bill on "Teaching Ethnic and Local Literature" in Schools

February 26, 2025

Islamic Republic of Iran Parliament

With a majority vote of its members, the Iranian Parliament has rejected the "Teaching of Ethnic Literature" bill, which was proposed by the Education Commission and consisted of six articles.

According to Iran’s official news agency IRNA, the bill titled "Teaching of Ethnic Literature" was discussed in today's parliamentary session on February 26. Out of 246 participating deputies, the bill was rejected with 104 votes in favour, 130 against, and 5 abstentions, failing to gain approval for its general principles.

"At Sea" (Dənizdə) Play Performed in Turkish at Tabriz City Theater

Alirza Quluncu, Voice of America, February 26, 2025

The poster of the play Dənizdə (At Sea).

The Turkish-language play At Sea (Dənizdə), directed by theatre arts instructor and director Ali Fotouhi, has been on stage at Tabriz City Theater since Sunday.

According to reports from Nasr News and various social media channels, the play is being performed at the Ustad Sadiqi Hall within the Tabriz City Theater complex and will run for 10 days.

Originally written by renowned Polish playwright Sławomir Mrożek, the play has been translated from English into Turkish by Mehdi Velizadeh.

Vahid Qarabagli: Growing Anti-Racism Discourse in Iran May Spark Awareness and Change

Alirza Quluncu, Voice of America, February 23, 2025

Vahid Qarabaghli

Sociologist and activist Vahid Qarabagli discussed the recent debates surrounding "racist chants" that have been prominent in Iranian Azerbaijan and Tehran's sports and political circles in an interview with Voice of America.

Qarabagli expressed his hope that with the strengthening of the "anti-racism discourse" in Iranian Azerbaijan, there will be an increase in awareness about racial slurs in Iranian society.

According to Qarabagli, racist chants in stadiums should be seen as a reflection of broader racist discourses, policies, and practices within mainstream society, and addressing these societal issues is key to eliminating racism.

Arrest of an Activist in Iranian Azerbaijan for Distributing Turkish Books on International Mother Language Day

Hamid Melikoglu, Voice of America, February 23, 2025

Mohammad Asadi

Turkish activist Mohammad Asadi has been summoned and arrested by security forces in Maragheh, a city in East Azerbaijan Province, Iran, for distributing Azerbaijani Turkish storybooks in schools.

Human rights activist Sina Yousifi reported the incident on his X (formerly Twitter) account. According to the information, Asadi was detained on Saturday, February 22, and transferred to the city's prison.