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| Teoman Aktan |
Political analyst Teoman Aktan, in a conversation with Voice of America, stated that the principles to be considered in political and cultural movements are determined by the core issues on which these movements are based.
The political scientist believes that if a movement abandons or fails to properly articulate its core principles in pursuit of alliances with other groups, it risks losing its own political identity.
"Certain issues are a matter of life and death for us, for the Turkish people in Iran. The language and identity issue, as Pişəvəri put it, is our life-and-death issue. To form an alliance with central political currents or to gain legitimacy for our movement within the central political sphere, abandoning this principle or temporarily setting it aside at a certain stage would be a historic mistake. Therefore, we must avoid this mindset," Teoman Aktan emphasized.
According to him, “The National Movement is fundamentally based on certain core issues: the language issue, the identity issue, the geographical issue, the cultural and political fate and economic interests of the people in this geography, the right to maintain ties with people in nearby regions who share the same language, culture, and history, and the issue of Lake Urmia, which threatens our very existence. These are non-negotiable principles... If we abandon them, we deny the political movement’s identity. It would be as if this movement has no identity, no distinct presence within the opposition."
Teoman Aktan also highlighted the Iranian state's repression of different social classes, as well as social, gender, ethnic, and political groups, and the silencing and fear tactics used against those protesting these oppressions. He stated that, "the main issue and the main principle for us is how to put an end to these inhumane actions and policies."
"For us, the key principle is how justice manifests. How can the rightful stakeholders, the people affected by these issues, truly initiate a democratic process with their direct participation? How can they express their views on resolving these problems? How can the guardianship of privileged classes and elites over politics be eliminated? How can their control over the economy be removed? All of these are fundamental principles for our movement, and indeed for any political movement engaged in struggle," he noted.
According to Teoman Aktan, "It is precisely these fundamental principles that repeatedly cause divisions and conflicts between us, as one of the oppressed groups in Iran, and other political groups. The existing tensions stem from this. These disagreements do not create the necessary conditions for a strong alliance in the country. Unfortunately, what we observe in different political groups is a strong resistance to accepting the essence of the issue."
Link to the original interview in Turkish on the Azerbaijani section of Voice of America:
Teoman Aktan: Əsas prinsip İranda demokratik mücadilə prosesini əzilən kəsimlərin birbaşa iştirakı ilə başlatmaqdır