Saleh Hamid - Al-Arabiya Persian - August 24, 2014
Turkmen human rights activists have criticized the continued efforts of Iranian authorities to eradicate the Turkmen language in the country, issuing a statement on the matter.
The statement reads:
"The government’s understanding of the rights to education in one's mother tongue and culture amounts to the continued marginalization of non-Persian ethnicities and the implementation of discriminatory policies aimed at erasing their identities. The Islamic Republic, following in the footsteps of the Pahlavi monarchy, continues to resort to its own methods to suppress and destroy the mother tongues of non-Persian ethnicities in Iran."
According to the "Turkmen Students" website on August 10, 2014, Farajollah Razaghi, the Deputy Director of Elementary Education at the Golestan Province Department of Education, announced the implementation of a bilingual education program for nomadic and border-region students in Golestan before their entry into primary school. He stated:
"One of the main challenges for teachers and students in border and nomadic areas at the start of the academic year is the contradiction between their mother tongue and Persian."
Speaking to the Mehr News Agency, Razaghi elaborated during a press conference on the same day:
"This program is implemented annually for border and nomadic students and those whose official language is not Persian. It is conducted one month before the start of the academic year to ensure that these students do not face difficulties in their studies."
Yousef Kor, an advocate for the rights of Iranian Turkmen, told Al-Arabiya:
"The Islamic Republic of Iran, like the deposed Pahlavi monarchy, continues its efforts to destroy the language and culture of Iranian Turkmen. In other words, it persistently pursues identity erasure against the Turkmen people, employing various methods to assimilate them and alienate them from their identity, leaving them confused and trapped in the miseries that follow."
Kor added:
"A brief review of news about the Turkmen and the Turkmen-inhabited regions in regime-affiliated publications and various regional websites shows that government agencies are actively working to discriminate against and violate the human rights of Turkmen. Over the past two years in particular, the Iranian government has combined efforts to expand Persian language education with economic programs targeting border areas. These initiatives, under the pretext of economic development, aim to assimilate the Turkmen population while increasing the number of non-Turkmen residents in these border areas. This allows the regime to claim to international human rights organizations and global audiences that non-Turkmen residents are the majority in these areas and that the Turkmen themselves lack interest in their linguistic and cultural rights."
The Turkmen Sahra region, located in northeastern Iran, includes the cities of Gonbad-e Kavus, Bandar-e Torkaman, Aq Qala, Maraveh Tappeh, Kalaleh, Siminshahr, Gomishan, Neginshahr, Anbar Alum, Dashliborun, Bojnord, Dargaz, Faraji City, Golidaq, and the areas surrounding Torbat-e Jam.
Geographically, this region stretches from the Caspian Sea in the west to the Turkmenistan border in the north, extending 400 kilometers from west to east. It is bordered on the east by Khorasan, the semi-arid regions of Bojnord and Dargaz, and on the south by the forested foothills of the northern Alborz Mountains.
Official statistics on the population of Turkmen, like other ethnic groups in Iran, are unavailable. However, Turkmen activists estimate their population in Iran at approximately three million, with nearly 95% living in Golestan and North Khorasan provinces, situated east of the Caspian Sea. The remaining Turkmen predominantly reside in Khorasan Razavi (or Central Khorasan) in the county of Torbat-e Jam.
Turkmen are Sunni Muslims adhering to the Hanafi school of jurisprudence. Like other Sunni citizens in Iran, they suffer from religious discrimination and unequal treatment under the general policies and laws of the Islamic Republic.
هشدار فعالان تركمن نسبت به نابودی زبان ترکمنی در ایران