Insafali Hidayat – Voice of America (Azerbaijani section) – January 27, 2011
According to its founder, Eyvaz Taha, Yarpaq’s office was located in Tehran. Most of its content was reportedly prepared in Tabriz, Ardabil, Urmia, and Baku. Yarpaq was the only magazine in Iran to be officially published entirely in Azerbaijani Turkish since the fall of the Pishevari government. In Iran, it is generally mandatory for Persian-language content to be prominently included in all newspapers and magazines, and Yarpaq was the first exception to this rule since the Pishevari era.
The publication of Yarpaq, the only magazine entirely in Azerbaijani Turkish in Iran, has been halted. The magazine's website published this announcement, stating: “The voice of South Azerbaijani thought has been silenced.” Eyvaz Taha is the owner of the magazine. He previously served as a cultural officer at the Iranian embassy in the Republic of Azerbaijan.
The news of the magazine’s closure was written on behalf of Yarpaq’s editorial team and highlighted the challenges they faced. The statement read: “Although we attempted several times to publish new issues, we encountered new obstacles each time. Finally, the publishing license for Yarpaq was revoked by Iran’s Press Supervisory Board, and the magazine was unable to overcome this last barrier.”
Despite the announcement of its closure, Voice of America has learned that legal efforts to resume Yarpaq’s publication will continue. The electronic version of the magazine’s 15th issue will be released soon.
In an interview with Ədəbiyyat magazine correspondent Selim Babullaoghlu, published in Baku, Eyvaz Taha stated that Yarpaq aimed to provide information on associations engaged in promoting Azerbaijani culture and the teaching and advocacy of the Azerbaijani Turkish language. He noted that the magazine mainly included poetry, satire, cartoons, news from the Turkic world, and articles on social sciences, including philosophy and world literature.
Eyvaz Taha added that Yarpaq had been published entirely in Azerbaijani Turkish (in the Arabic script) since mid-2004 (1383 in the Iranian calendar) in 12-page issues and was distributed in regions inhabited by Azerbaijani Turks, Qashqais, and Khalaj Turks. Although the office was in Tehran, most of its content came from Tabriz, Ardabil, Urmia, and Baku. After the Pishevari government, Yarpaq was the first magazine to be fully published in Azerbaijani Turkish. In Iran, all officially licensed Azerbaijani-Turkish language newspapers and magazines are required to dedicate significant space to Persian-language articles. Yarpaq was the first publication since the Pishevari era to defy this requirement.
Eyvaz Taha is also the founder and chief editor of the Yol magazine, which was published for years in Cyrillic and Latin scripts by the Kayhan Institute under the supervision of Ayatollah Khamenei, as well as the Cahan magazine, published in Baku.
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