Alirza Quluncu, Voice of America, September 19, 2019
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| Farzad Samadli |
In various provinces of Iranian Azerbaijan, high-ranking officials, including governors, have at times drawn attention to the discrimination against Azerbaijan and have criticized the state. Journalist and political scientist Farzad Samadli, in an interview with Voice of America, states that local officials, through these "soft criticisms," are both drawing attention to the discrimination they feel and preventing a potential "popular uprising."
The governor, Mohammadreza Purmohammadi, and the Friday prayer leader of Tabriz, Seyyed Mohammad Ali Ali-Haşimi, along with some state officials in the province, reported that the firefighting efforts were not properly implemented and that requests for assistance from Tehran were not answered in a timely manner.
According to Farzad Samadli, “These governors and high-ranking officials in Azerbaijan see and feel all the discriminations because they live there. They express it in a soft way. This is true for the earthquake issue, the wildfires in Qaradağ, and the drying up of Lake Urmia."
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| In the Qaradağ forest fire, some officials of East Azerbaijan province, including the governor, reported that firefighting efforts were not implemented in a timely manner and that requests for assistance from Tehran were not answered on time. |
In the opinion of the expert on international relations, the central government partly welcomes these "soft criticisms":
"If they don't make this criticism, the people might ask bigger questions this time. The people might ask why, after four days, the fire destroyed hundreds of hectares of forest and you didn't say anything? These officials are trying to answer the local population's questions and are also sending a message to Tehran in a soft way… The government can also say, look, your voices and demands are also being expressed by high-ranking officials!"
Samadli emphasizes the special importance of social media in this matter: "An important issue is social media. An event occurs, and before the state or official media, people get the images and the commentary of the event completely from social media. There is nothing left to hide anymore."
According to the journalist, local officials, by occasionally making soft protests to Tehran, are also preventing ‘the people's uprising’: "If that government official didn't make a soft protest, two days later, five days later, a popular uprising would start in Ahvaz, Varzigan, Urmia, Tabriz, Ardabil."
Recently, some local politicians and journalists have also criticized the fact that meetings between Iranian officials and Turkish officials are being held in cities like Isfahan instead of Tabriz.
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| The governor of East Azerbaijan said last March: Tabriz could be the diplomatic capital of Iran. In this regard, shortcomings and deficiencies must be eliminated. |
Farzad Samadli thinks that the regime does not look favorably on this type of criticism. In his opinion, there is a "red line" for criticisms in Iran.
"Going beyond that is like stepping on a mine. The state allows them a bit to express their criticisms loudly. If they go beyond that, it will bring troubles to the person. We have seen this."
He points out that the government responds mercilessly to protests in all regions of the country, but the discrimination in Azerbaijan is more visibly evident.
"This system is disastrously closed, cruel, and aggressive. But when it comes to the Azerbaijan issue, discrimination starts to show itself completely. This is a Turkish region. Turks can be an alternative to Iran. Therefore, Turks should never be given a place of honor and pride. If Tabriz becomes a world city again, it will raise its head and see the world, and the world will see Tabriz. This should not happen," says Farzad Samadli.
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| In Iran, de facto power is concentrated in the hands of Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and the leadership of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, which is considered the foundation of his regime. |
According to Samadli, the main goal of the regime is to strengthen the central government in Tehran to the maximum and minimize the political role and influence of ethnic minorities.
He believes that local politicians could express their criticisms more openly and forcefully if certain conditions are met:
"There are two factors here. One is if the central state weakens, and the other is if the Turks show their strength in Iran, the situation will be different. Azerbaijan must grow stronger. Although we are numerous in terms of population, we are weak in both political and economic power. We need to fix this situation. It's time to move from defense to offense."
Link to the original interview in Turkish on the Azerbaijani section of Voice of America:
“Güneydə yerli məsulların yumşaq etirazı xalq üsyanını önləmək üçündür”