July 30, 2011
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A participant holds a placard reading “Down with Racism,” Mount Savalan, July 29, 2011. |
On Friday, July 29, 2011, hundreds of Azerbaijani Turk civil activists in Iran climbed Mount Savalan and held a peaceful gathering calling for mother-tongue education and the recognition of their other national rights.
Participants carried placards bearing slogans such as “Free Azerbaijan’s political prisoners,” “Azerbaijan has not died; it has not abandoned its identity,” “My mother tongue will not die or become another language,” “Down with racism,” and “Long live Azerbaijan.”
Abbas Lisani, a prominent Azerbaijani political and cultural activist, was among the speakers at the gathering. In his address, he described continued civic activism and struggle as the only reliable path toward equal rights and a freer, better future for Azerbaijanis.
“Government pressure can no longer silence the voice of Azerbaijan,” Lisani said, “because the Turkic nation is now conscious of the longstanding discrimination and oppression imposed upon it.”
Article 15 of the Constitution of the Islamic Republic of Iran permits the use of regional and ethnic languages in the media and the teaching of their literature in schools. Nevertheless, nearly 30 million Turks in Iran remain deprived of school textbooks and formal education in their mother tongue.
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“Azerbaijan is being plundered—wake up, nation, before it is too late!” |
