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The statement accuses Russian airstrikes on Turkmen areas.
“We, the Turks of South Azerbaijan and Iran condemn the brutal genocide being applied to the Syrian Turkmens, both in terms of humanitarian, ethnic, and religious relations,” said the 1046 Turkish activists, including prominent religious figures, artists, and former political prisoners, who signed the statement.
The statement, written in Turkish, Farsi, English, and German, was published along with a list of signatories by social media and South Azerbaijan Television (Günaz TV).
According to the statement, “Since the collapse of the Ottoman Empire and the establishment of the Syrian state, the Syrian Turkmens, who have been subjected to national oppression, have recently faced threats from the Assad regime, ISIS, and the PYD forces, resulting in land occupation and ethnic cleansing. The situation has become even more catastrophic with Russia joining these forces.”
The statement also mentions that Russian military planes, under the pretext of bombing ISIS regions, have killed civilian Turkmen villagers in the Bayir-bucaq area.
Turkish activists in Iranian Azerbaijan and other regions of the country, including Hasan Demirci, Hasan Rashidi, Abbas Lisani, Ruqayya Alizadeh, Sara Mirzayi, Behbud Quluzadeh, and Hojjat al-Islam Abdulaziz Azimi Qadimi, also signed the statement, which declares, “Just as in Karabakh, Crimea, Kirkuk (Turkmeneli), and East Turkestan, there is now a Turkish massacre taking place in Syria.”
Following a statement of support for the Uyghurs signed by approximately 300 activists in Iranian Azerbaijan last June, demonstrations in support of the Uyghurs were organized in Tabriz and Ahar. The Tabriz Revolutionary Court sentenced several activists arrested during these protests to prison.
Political commentators highlight the special importance of the spread of statements supporting the Syrian Turkmens and Uyghurs in Iran, considering the Islamic Republic of Iran's close relations with the governments of Russia, China, and Syria.
Abdurrahman Mustafa, Chairman of the Syrian Turkmen Assembly, recently mentioned in an interview with Voice of America that Iranian forces were among the attackers on Turkmen villages in Syria.
Link to the original text in Turkish on the Azerbaijani section of Voice of America:
İranda 1046 türk fəaldan Suriya türkmənlərinə dəstək bəyanatı