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| Ural Hatemi |
Sociologist Ural Hatemi, in an interview with Voice of America, discussed the recent Nagorno-Karabakh war, as well as the close cooperation between Azerbaijan and Turkey against the backdrop of the conflict, evaluating its echoes and long-term effects in Iranian Azerbaijan.
Ural Hatemi said, "There are events that have such a deep impact on society, the state, and the country that they completely change the way the nation and society live after the event. I believe that, since the second Nagorno-Karabakh war, the people of North Azerbaijan fully earned the right to the term 'nation'."
According to him, in these processes, the sorrow and joy experienced by the people of the Republic of Azerbaijan have also been reflected in Iranian Azerbaijan:
"In the second Nagorno-Karabakh war and the subsequent victory of the Azerbaijani army, we saw that the sorrow and hope of the people in the North became the sorrow, hope, and joy of the people in South Azerbaijan. Until today, the awakened segments in the South were different from the unawakened population. However, today we see this shared sentiment and solidarity among the entire population in the South."
Hatemi added, "Until now, in the South, the issue of Karabakh was mainly seen in the songs of bards at weddings or in the works of artists. But as the battles heated up, it started to manifest itself not only in the bards' songs and literature but in the daily lives of the people. What does this mean? People would leave their jobs to sit by the television to watch what happened... Or they would drive for hours from Tabriz to stop at the border and watch the soldiers on the other side of the Araz. They would salute them and express their emotions in some way."
During the ongoing second Nagorno-Karabakh war, the population of Iranian Azerbaijan and other Turkish-speaking regions particularly followed the news through Turkish television channels.
According to the sociologist, "The people, who are interested in certain news, get their information from specific TV channels or news sources. Whether they are aware of it or not, their political identity tends to align with the discourse of the source they trust. That is, if they are watching Turkish and Azerbaijani channels instead of Iranian TV, it is important to understand that the people in the South grant political legitimacy to the news source and its truthfulness."
Ural Hatemi believes that the close cooperation between Turkey and Azerbaijan during the Nagorno-Karabakh war created a sense of hope for the future in Iranian Azerbaijan.
He stated, "The collaboration between Turkey and Azerbaijan in this second Karabakh war should be seen as a great example not only in South Azerbaijan but also across the entire Turkish world. It was a major example. The cooperation and solidarity were not just between the states but also between the two peoples. Whoever you talk to in Turkey, in the streets or markets, everyone discusses the same issue. This unity provides hope to the entire Turkish world, and how much it multiplies that hope for the South Azerbaijani community."
Link to the original interview in Turkish on the Azerbaijani section of Voice of America:
Ural Hatəmi: Türkiyə və Azərbaycan arasındakı yaxınlıq İran Azərbaycanına ümid hissi verir