Dr. Fazıl Özdamar, Center for Iranian Studies (İRAM), November 4, 2020
Iran, one of the countries with the largest Turkish population after Türkiye, was a region under Turkish political and cultural rule for centuries. As in the past, Turks living in Iran continue to exert their cultural influence today across a broad range of fields—from architecture, music, and poetry to handicrafts, narrative traditions, and the motifs woven into carpets.
Language is naturally one of the principal means through which cultural elements are preserved and transmitted to future generations. However, throughout the Pahlavi period, which began in 1925 and ended in 1979, all Turkish-language cultural activities—including education and publishing in the mother tongue—were prohibited. Iranian Turkish intellectuals, poets, and writers faced repression because of their efforts to engage with the Turkish language and culture.