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| Tabriz Stadium |
During a football match held on Thursday night at the Tabriz stadium, which was attended by nearly 90,000 spectators, tens of thousands of fans chanted the popular slogan "Turkish language education for everyone."
According to semi-official ISNA news agency, the match between Tractor Azerbaijan of Tabriz and Perspolis of Tehran, originally scheduled for 8:00 PM, was delayed due to a larger crowd than the stadium's capacity. The game ended in a 1-1 draw.
According to news and footage shared on social media, from the 15th minute of the match, tens of thousands of Tractor fans began chanting "Turkish language education for everyone."
In several videos shared on X (formerly Twitter), it is seen that while fans sitting on one side of the stadium chant "Turkish language education," the response "For everyone" is heard from the other side.
Semi-official agencies like Tasnim and ISNA reported that the match was attended by 90,000 spectators.
According to Tasnim, the match supervisor, Davood Rafati, stated at the beginning of the match that the Tractor Club and East Azerbaijan's football team had not complied with previously accepted decisions. The decision was that 49,000 tickets should be sold. However, 90,000 people entered the stadium, and there was also a crowd outside the stadium.
The fans of Tractor Azerbaijan football team, known as a symbol of "Turkish identity" in Iran, have been chanting slogans, displaying banners, demanding Turkish language education, supporting political prisoners, and protesting issues such as the "drying up of Lake Urmia" and the ban on women entering stadiums in Iran in recent years.
Link to the original text in Turkish on the Azerbaijani section of Voice of America:
Təbrizdə Traktor-Perspolis matçında azarkeşlər “Türk dilində mədrəsə” şüarını səsləndirib