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Scholars and Activists Urge Ethnologue to Uphold Accurate Data on Iran’s Turkish Population
A group of Iranian and Azerbaijani Turk scholars, journalists, and human rights activists have written to Raymond G. Gordon, editor of Ethnologue, expressing concern over attempts to downplay the Azerbaijani-Turkish population in Iran. In their letter, they emphasize the absence of an official census on ethnicity and language in Iran and warn against the influence of Persian ultranationalist narratives. They urge Ethnologue to maintain its scholarly integrity by considering the perspectives of Azerbaijani community leaders and researchers. The signatories include prominent academics, writers, and activists worldwide.
Dear Mr. Gordon,
As a group of Iranian and Azerbaijani scholars and human rights activists, we, the undersigned, would like to express our deepest gratitude to you and all the individuals involved in publishing and maintaining Ethnologue, the most objective and scholarly body of knowledge on world languages.
In recent months, we have learned of some dubious attempts to pressure the editors of Ethnologue into reducing the number of Iran’s Azerbaijani-Turkic population (also known as Azeri, Azerbaijani, Turk, and Turkish) registered in Ethnologue’s current edition. Needless to say, we are deeply concerned and saddened by such attempts. In our capacity as scholars, academics, and human rights activists, we would like to assure you that Ethnologue’s current estimation (Web Edition, 2005) of Iran’s Azerbaijani and Turkic-speaking populations is a most objective estimation that closely corresponds to the facts on the ground. We hope that the editors and researchers of Ethnologue will not cave in to various Persian ultranationalists’ propaganda and will not allow Ethnologue’s scholarly reputation to be tarnished by ideologically motivated misinformation. To this end, we would like to bring the following to your attention:
It is a well-known fact that in Iran’s entire history, no kind of census has taken place that would account for the country’s population makeup based on ethnicity, nationality, and, more importantly, language. All existing figures and numbers in this area are estimations based on unsubstantiated sources and literature. As such, care must be taken that in estimating the number of each ethnic community, the views of local community leaders, scholars, and human rights activists are taken fully into account. In particular, an objective researcher must be cognizant of the fact that, due to a lack of respect for human rights and the rights of minorities in Iran, both ruling governments and many scholars of the dominant Farsi-speaking group have always presented a distorted view regarding the size and status of disenfranchised communities in the country. Unfortunately, they still continue to do so.
In present-day Iran, although a significant portion of the Azeri-Turkic population resides in the provinces of Eastern Azerbaijan, Western Azerbaijan, Ardabil, and Zanjan, the entire population is by no means limited to these four provinces. These provinces are recent creations based on dubious government measures and questionable administrative purposes. While constituting the core of Azerbaijan’s geography, they neither correspond to historical Azeri lands nor reflect the Azeri-inhabited areas in present-day Iran. In any kind of research on Iran’s Azerbaijani population, it must be borne in mind that the Azeri-Turks reside all over the country, from the current Azerbaijani provinces in the northwest to eastern and central Iran, including the provinces of Tehran, Khorasan, Markazi, Hamadan, Qazvin, and beyond. Paying due attention to this important issue is not only a matter of objectivity in social research but also a matter of moral and ethical consideration, particularly when dealing with marginalized communities.
We are confident that Ethnologue’s competent researchers will pay attention to the above-mentioned factors and, as always, will present the most objective estimation of Iran’s Azerbaijani and Turkic populations in the upcoming edition of Ethnologue. Please do not hesitate to contact us for further information or any kind of assistance. We will be more than happy to provide your researchers with relevant historical and contemporary literature on the subject.
Respectfully,
A group of Iranian and Azerbaijani scholars and human rights activists
Signatories are listed in alphabetical order, along with their academic background and current affiliation.
Dr. Seyed Zia Sadr al Ashrafi
Sociologist; Azerbaijani member of Congress of Nationalities for Federal Iran
Sedigheh Adalati
Ph.D. Sociologist
Alireza Ardabili
Journalist and Publisher
Dr. Alireza Asgharzadeh
Sociologist, York University
Mehemmed Azadgar
Writer and human rights activist
Professor Reza Baraheni
Iranian novelist and poet, former president of PEN Canada, and retired professor of Comparative Literature, University of Toronto, Canada
Professor Younes P. Benab
Professor of Political Science, Strayer University, Washington, D.C.
Ahmad Geybi
President, Association of Azerbaijanis in Sydney, Australia
Dr. Farhad Ghaboussi
Physician, Un Konstanz
Dr. Almas Shoar Ghaffari
Member of Société Botanique Française, "Cytologist"
Ali Gharajelou
Ph.D. Political Scientist
Seyfeddin Hatamlooy
Writer and publisher
Ismail Jamili
Poet and Artist
Lale Javanshir
Writer and Artist
Samad Purmusavi
Architect and Artist
Dr. Shahriyar Rahnamayan
Postdoctoral Fellow, Simon Fraser University, Vancouver, Canada
Hedayet Soltanzadeh
Lawyer, writer, and human rights activist
Hadi Sultan-Qurraie
Ph.D. Comparative Literature
Shahrouz Torfakh
Architect
Fakhteh Zamani
Research Engineer; Director of Association for the Defence of Azerbaijani Political Prisoners in Iran (ADAPP)