South Azerbaijani Student's Open Letter to Secretary-General of United Nations

His Excellency,

The General Secretary of the United Nations, more than thirty million Turks live in Iran and reside almost in all provinces. Most Turks live in South Azerbaijan, in six provinces, including West Azerbaijan, East Azerbaijan, Ardabil, Zanjan, Qazvin and Hamadan.
 
Beginning from the reign of Reza Shah (1925), linguistic assimilation has been the central policy of the state in Iran. This policy has been rationalized with the ideology of “one nation, one language” and “superiority of Persian language, culture, and civilization” over other minority languages in Iran. In nationalist historiography, Turks are misrepresented as “originally Aryans” whose language changed through the Mongol invasion.

Now Turks are considered second-degree citizens. After the Iranian Islamic Revolution in 1979, despite a series of changes in the structure of government, the policy of assimilation and oppression of Non-Persian ethnic and language groups continued. Turks of Azerbaijan have been at the center of this oppression in subjugation to the forced assimilation policy.

The death of diverse cultures and languages in Iran will result from the ongoing Aryanist Racism in the country. 

Persecution and arrest of Azerbaijan Turk cultural activists have intensified these days. 

As part of Azerbaijani Turks' struggle for their rights, Azerbaijani student activists expect the United Nations to pay serious attention to the violation o ethnic groups' rights in Iran.

Regards,
A group of Azerbaijani Turk Student Activists from Iran
December 10, 2007