Professor Reza Baraheni's Complaint Letter to the BBC on Misrepresentations in Ethnic Mapping in Iran

April 30, 2006

 Dr. Reza Baraheni

I think that on the ethnic groups of Iran in your map of provincial divisions, you have made serious mistakes that the BBC could have easily avoided by consulting Ethnologue.com. The entire Western Azerbaijan has been called the land of the Kurdish people. Additionally, Eastern Azerbaijan has been cut off from the Caspian Sea, while the people of Astara, extending hundreds of miles to the south of that city, are Turkish-speaking people. According to the statistics given by the Islamic Republic of Iran, more than half the population of Tehran are Turkish-speaking people.

For exact percentages of the population of Iran’s ethnic groups, you can refer to the above source: Ethnologue.com. Any changes in these and other facts by the BBC are totally irresponsible and should be corrected as soon as possible. Mistakes like these, which can be documented in many other cases by referring to the right sources, can give a wrong impression to the ethnic groups concerned. They might in the future refer to the BBC rather than going to scholarly texts available, and such errors could create all kinds of ethnic hostilities in the area, particularly inside Iran.

I have been interviewed many times by the BBC on its Persian and English programs dealing with the politics, literature, and languages of Iran and other places. I have been one of the sources mentioned in the BBC’s book on the Iranian revolution. The BBC should take immediate action to make the suggested corrections.

I would be more than happy to discuss this with anyone on your staff. Although I have been an advocate for equality for all ethnic groups in Iran, I have also supported maintaining the country's borders as they are. We cannot afford an internal battle among the ethnic groups in Iran, nor a conflict outside our borders with our neighbors. Immediate responses and actions to correct the misinformation on the site are required.

- Professor Reza Baraheni, Iranian-Canadian poet, novelist and critic; Professor of Comparative Literature at the University of Toronto; and former President of PEN Canada.

Link: https://www.achiq.info/olaylar3/Barahani's%20Complaint%20to%20BBC.htm