Hamid Melikoglu, Voice of America, September 3, 2024
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Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian |
Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian, during a meeting with economic activists in the Razavi Khorasan province on September 3, highlighted the existence of discrimination among the country’s various regions. He stressed the importance of increasing the authority of provincial governors and reducing centralization in the governance system.
According to Iranian media reports, during his visit to Mashhad, Pezeshkian noted that the provinces of Azerbaijan, Kurdistan, and Khuzestan lag economically compared to Razavi Khorasan.
“We must change our outlook to address these issues based on justice. Both the eastern and western parts [of the country] are impoverished. The people in Kurdistan, Azerbaijan, and Khuzestan, despite having oil, gas, land, and water, are in far worse conditions than in Mashhad. Everything is there, but the people live in deprivation; their situation is much worse than what we see here. We need to reflect on this to establish justice in society,” he stated.
Pezeshkian also underscored the necessity of increasing the powers of provincial governors, stating, “We must eliminate centralization in the country’s governance system. In the past, local governments and governors contributed funds to higher authorities, but now everyone demands money. Fine, let’s change this rule; I’m not saying it should be exactly as it was in the past, but we must move away from a centralized system. This system, where a few people at the top think they know everything and assume those below know nothing, must be dismantled.”
He expressed that, during his time as a parliament member, the system did not allow him to “serve the population of a deprived region,” and he emphasized that officials in various parts of the country must be “granted authority to prove themselves.”
Pezeshkian expressed his belief that increasing the authority of local officials would lead to the country’s development. However, he stressed that the powers granted to local officials must be “based on the state’s general policies,” warning that otherwise, “chaos” could ensue.
Opposition political activists in Iranian Azerbaijan argue that non-Persian regions face not only cultural and linguistic discrimination but also economic discrimination. They claim that a significant portion of government investments is directed toward central and Persian-speaking provinces.
Additionally, some local officials, including governors, mayors, and parliament members, have repeatedly criticized the unequal distribution of economic investments in the country.
Recently, the mayor of Tabriz highlighted the lack of government investments in Tabriz over the past five decades, expressing hope that this trend would change under Masoud Pezeshkian’s administration.
Governors of East Azerbaijan, including Pourmohammadi and Abedin Khorram, have frequently voiced their dissatisfaction with the limitations on their authority, with Pourmohammadi even referring to himself as merely an employer.
Meanwhile, Alireza Novin, a former head of East Azerbaijan’s delegation and a representative of Tabriz in the Iranian parliament, has called for the establishment of provincial structures and an increase in governance powers for provinces.
Despite these remarks by officials, the existence of a centralized system that has caused disparities in welfare distribution among the country’s regions continues to be indirectly acknowledged by opposition political activists and some officials. However, political observers remain skeptical about how feasible it is to change this situation given the Iranian president’s stance and the limitations of his powers.
Link to the original text in Turkish on the Azerbaijani section of Voice of America:
İran prezidenti ölkənin idarə sistemində desentralizasiyanın vacibliyini vurğulayıb