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| Bulut Alemdar |
Bulut Alemdar believes that the Iranian government does not want activities promoting the Turkish language and culture to be conducted openly and in front of the public eye.
Speaking to Voice of America, the political commentator emphasized that the recent intensification of pressure on Turkish activists in Tehran is related both to the current political situation and the systematic anti-Turkish policies rooted in the past.
Bulut Alemdar states:
“Iran has a dictatorial regime. It applies pressure on the people, arrests them, and sentences them to prison and exile. In this sense, these may seem like ordinary arrests. But there is another issue. Why, in today’s turbulent situation, has Iran increased its pressure on Turks and sentenced people who openly work on language-related issues to imprisonment and exile in remote regions? These activists are not doing anything secretive. They are working openly.”
He points out that these pressures serve as a tool for domestic policy for the Islamic Republic:
“We need to view these pressures from several perspectives. First, the government uses this as a tool for its internal politics. Second, it is trying to rally Persian nationalists to its side. Third, and most importantly, this is not just a tactic of the Islamic Republic but a systematic and strategic attack by Iran against Turks and South Azerbaijan. The intensity of these attacks fluctuates over time. Fourth, there is also the increase in our own activities.”
According to the political activist, the Iranian government does not want activities related to the Turkish language and culture to be carried out openly in public.
He states:
“The Iranian government does not want the Turkish issue to become more prominent or widespread. It tries to push national activists toward radical and covert actions. Our publishing house, which sells and publishes Turkish books, operates legally under Iran’s own constitution. Their fear is that our cause will expand legally within Iran. They want to prevent this.”
Bulut Alemdar also evaluates the denial of permission for the “Turkish Regions Faction” to operate in the Iranian Parliament within this context:
“We saw this in the case of the Turkish Faction organized in the Iranian Parliament. Turkish representatives established a faction to connect more closely with their regions. But this, too, was obstructed... Similarly, they tell our activists that even if you work openly and legally in the fields of language and culture, we will still imprison you.”
In 2016, about 100 Turkish parliamentarians from Iranian Azerbaijan and other regions of the country formed the “Turkish Regions Faction” in the Iranian Parliament. However, since its establishment, the faction has not been active, and it is unclear whether it still exists.
According to Bulut Alemdar, the Iranian government views the distribution of Turkish publications, particularly in Tehran, as a threat.
“The government does not want Turkish books or Turkish magazines to reach Turks in Tehran or even catch their eye. Why? The late Dr. Javad Heyat had a memory. He said, ‘I brought the Varlıq magazine to Ayatollah Shariatmadari and told him we are writing in Turkish. He replied, Is it even possible to write in Turkish? They want a generation of Turks in Tehran to grow up thinking that Turkish cannot be written, that Turkish books do not exist, and that Turkish culture does not exist,” the political activist adds.
Link to the original interview in Turkish on the Azerbaijani section of Voice of America:
Bulut Ələmdar: İran hakimiyyəti türkcə kitab görməmiş bir nəsil yetişdirmək istəyir