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Recently, cultural activists in Ardabil Province have inscribed the original names of certain villages on signboards at the entrances of villages whose names had been changed.
According to images shared on social media, villages such as "Dərin Köhül," renamed "Darin Kabud," "Zəngəvar," renamed "Zangbar," and "Pəlmə Yer," renamed "Pormehr," have had their original names written on the signboards.
Since the Pahlavi era, the names of numerous cities, villages, rivers, mountains, and other places with Turkish origins in Iranian Azerbaijan and other parts of Iran have been changed to Persian.
In 2014, Hadi Bahadori, then Deputy Governor of West Azerbaijan Province, stated that "approximately 2,000 historical Turkish names were changed during the Pahlavi era and afterward."
Many families in Iranian Azerbaijan and Tehran face difficulties in registering Turkish names for their children on birth certificates. Some families are forced to fight for months or even years to obtain official documentation with their chosen Turkish names.
Last month, Iran's Minister of Culture and Islamic Guidance, Mohammad Mehdi Esmaili, announced that police forces would be used to protect the Persian language and literature. Previously, Tehran police declared that using non-Persian names for businesses and commercial establishments in the capital was prohibited.
Link to the original report in Turkish on the Azerbaijani section of Voice of America:
Ərdəbil vilayətində fəallar kəndlərin orijinal türk adlarının bərpasını tələb edir