In Iranian Azerbaijan, the Qiyasi family succeeded in obtaining a birth certificate for their daughter with the Turkish name they chose after nearly 15 months of struggle.
According to information shared by the Qiyasi family on social media, their daughter, "Sevgi," born in December 2020, was issued a birth certificate last Monday.
Sevgi's parents had previously stated that Iran's Civil Registration Office refused to issue a birth certificate because the chosen name was Turkish.
In Iranian Azerbaijan and Tehran, many families face months or even years of struggle to register their children with Turkish names. Some of them appeal to various government institutions and use social media to amplify their voices.
Farhad Javadi, the author of the Dictionary of Turkish Personal Names published in Iran in 2001, mentioned in an earlier interview with Voice of America that the situation was even worse in the 1990s.
"For those who want to give a Turkish name to their child, store, or company, I say that no specific law prohibits such names. However, orders are given to ensure that Turkish names are not used. They create an environment where people go back and forth so many times that they eventually give up and say, 'Any name will do,'" Javadi stated in that interview.
Link to the original report in Turkish on the Azerbaijani section of Voice of America:
Təbriz qeydiyyat idarəsi 15 ay sonra Sevgi adlı qıza şəxsiyyət vəsiqəsi verməyi qəbul edib