Alirza Quluncu, Voice of America, August 6, 2021
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| Ural Hatemi |
Sociologist Ural Hatemi told Voice of America that the July 24 protest in Tabriz against water scarcity and in support of the Arab community marked the beginning of a new era in Iran's history of social movements.
According to him, "Groups that face some form of discrimination in society, whether it be linguistic, religious, ethnic, gender-based, or any other form, are the first victims of the problems that arise in societies. These are the groups that suffer the most harm. Even in natural disasters, they are the ones who are most affected. In Iran, the groups that suffer the most from the water problem are the Arabs in the Ahvaz region, the Baluch in Baluchistan, and the Turks in Azerbaijan."
On July 24, Iran’s police and military forces blocked major streets in cities such as Tabriz, Urmia, and Ardabil to prevent the protests. During the protests in Tabriz, demonstrators chanted slogans such as “freedom, justice, national government,” “Azerbaijan, Al-Ahvaz, unity, unity,” and “Help, help, I am Turkish.”
According to Ural Hatemi, "From the perspective of social movements, we can say that with these protests, Iran entered a new phase of protests and political actions. In the history of Iran, we witnessed an example of unity, of giving voice to each other, and supporting one another among non-Persian communities during these Tabriz protests."
He talks about a new form of movement emerging in Iran: “A new form of movement is emerging in Iran. Geographically and sociologically, we see groups on the periphery of the center acting together. Arabs and Turks, the people of Ahvaz and the people of Azerbaijan. It seems that the mutual support between these two nations will change the direction of social movements in Iran in the future, and it has already changed it today. We can see that this issue has angered centralist political groups, and they are seriously boycotting it.”
In the interview, Ural Hatemi also commented on the slogans "freedom, justice, national government" chanted during the protests. He believes that “the chanting of this slogan shows that the national-cultural movement that emerged in Azerbaijan has taken another step forward.”
Link to the original interview in Turkish on the Azerbaijani section of Voice of America:
Ural Hatəmi: Təbrizdəki etirazlar İranda yeni bir ictimai hərəkatın formalaşdığını göstərdi