Alirza Quluncu, Voice of America, May 21, 2015
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| Akbar Abulzadeh |
"If Tractor had become champions, Turks living in Iran would have gained confidence," says Akbar Abulzadeh, who believes the championship was systematically taken away from Tractor Sazi. On May 15, after watching the controversial Tractor Sazi-Neft match at Tabriz Stadium, the Southern activist spoke to Voice of America, describing what he witnessed at the stadium and commenting on suspicious events that had occurred in the weeks leading up to the match.
"We saw in the last 10 minutes of the game that the head coach started implementing different tactics. He stopped the attack and pulled back into defense. He substituted a forward like Edinho with a defender... Then, some people in the stadium started celebrating, thinking Tractor had won the championship. We also thought Tractor had won."
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| Head Coach Antonio Oliveira Initially Believed Tractor Sazi Had Won the Championship |
The Tractor Sazi supporter confirms reports of internet and phone connections being cut off during the match at Tabriz Stadium:
"When we saw this, we became suspicious. We tried to check the results of the Sepahan-Saypa match through the internet or by phone. But the internet was cut off, and the mobile network was down."
The Sepahan-Saypa match, held at the same time as the Tractor Sazi-Neft match, ended with a 2-0 victory for Sepahan. However, because it was falsely told that the Tractor Sazi match had ended in a draw, head coach Toni Oliveira mistakenly believed Tractor had won the championship and stopped the attack.
But Akbar Abulzadeh says that the suspicious events in the stadium were not limited to the spread of false information.
According to him, from the last 20 minutes, several suspicious incidents occurred. The referee ignored a clear penalty in favor of Tractor, and one of the team's players was suspiciously substituted. Additionally, in previous weeks, there had been suspicious referee decisions against Tractor.
According to Iranian news agencies, government officials, including President Hassan Rouhani, demanded an investigation into the events. However, Abulzadeh points to similar past incidents, stating that such investigations have generally yielded no results.
"Based on past experiences, there is no trust in such investigations by the system. Just like a few months ago, when investigations were promised regarding incidents with the Urmia volleyball team, but no conclusion was reached," he says.
The Azerbaijani activist, who believes the events in the stadium were carried out deliberately, views the plans against the Tractor Sazi team as part of the Iranian government's anti-Azerbaijan policies.
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| Tractor Azerbaijan Fans in the Stadium |
"To understand this event, we first need to define Tractor's position in society. Tractor's games create an environment for many events happening in Azerbaijan to come to the forefront," Abulzadeh notes, referring to events like the drying up of Lake Urmia and the Karadag earthquake.
He also mentions the "Red Card for Lies and Discrimination" campaign initiated after those events, and highlights the activists' protests against the "false promises":
"When Hassan Rouhani visited Azerbaijan, he promised to address issues like the drying of Lake Urmia and education in the mother tongue. He said he would establish a Turkish Language Institute. But none of these promises were fulfilled, and those demanding them continued to be arrested."
"If Tractor had become the champion, what would have happened? We can answer the main question by asking this. If Tractor had won, the Turks living in Iran would have gained confidence... It would have broken the 100-year-old humiliation plan. The system does not want that," he adds.
Link to the original interview in Turkish on the Azerbaijani section of Voice of America:
Əkbər Əbulzadə: Traxtor çempion olsaydı, İranda yaşayan türklər özünə-inam qazanardı