Alirza Quluncu, Voice of America, February 28, 2018
At universities, particularly in Azerbaijan regions of Iran, students have organized petition campaigns and protests demanding the teaching of Turkish language and literature.
According to Güney Azerbaijan Television (Günaz TV), recently, 250 students from Ahar Azad University in East Azerbaijan province addressed the university authorities with a petition demanding the teaching of Turkish language and literature.
The students have raised this issue by referencing Article 15 of the Iranian Constitution.Article 15 of the Constitution permits the limited teaching of non-Persian languages. However, Iranian officials interpret this article differently. Many Iranian politicians argue that this article does not impose any responsibility on state institutions.
Currently, in addition to the Turkish language and literature department established at Tabriz University, Turkish is also taught as a two-credit elective course at Urmia and Maragheh universities.
After protests and petition campaigns organized by students in recent months, the authorities at Urmia Technical University and Tabriz’s Azerbaijan Martyrs Cultural University have also promised to begin offering Turkish as a two-credit elective course.
However, these promises and their implementation at some universities do not satisfy Turkish activists and students. They criticize the structure of these departments, the appointed teachers, and the subjects taught.
In some of these universities, the teaching of Turkish language and literature is assigned to instructors known for their anti-Azerbaijan and anti-Turkey views.
In an interview with Anaj agency, Ahmad Farshbafiyan, the head of the Turkish Language and Literature Department at Tabriz University, stated, "We do not see the need to teach the literature of another country."
"Some imagined that we would teach the literature of the Republic of Azerbaijan in Tabriz. This was a very wrong assumption. I have said before, we teach the Azeri language and literature in Tabriz, that is, the literature of Iranian Azerbaijan."
According to information obtained from students attending these courses by Voice of America, even though the elective course or department’s name includes the word “Turkish,” the teachers prefer to use the word “Azeri” in class and, in some cases, refer to sources published in Iran that deny a "Turkish" identity.
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| Ahmad Farshbafiyan, Head of the Turkish Language and Literature Department at Tabriz University |
The rector of Urmia Technical University, Ja’far Abdullahi-Sharif, who promised that Turkish would be taught as a two-credit elective course, emphasized in an interview with the Fars News Agency that the sources used for teaching would be carefully selected.
"The issue of sources is very important. The content must also be such that it has a national direction and does not lead to misuse or cause conflict within the country," Abdullahi-Sharif stated.
Link to the original text in Turkish on the Azerbaijani section of Voice of America:
İran universitetlərində türk dilinin tədrisi ilə bağlı problemlər