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| Ural Hatemi |
Recently, Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian's meeting with several political activists in Tabriz has sparked serious debates in Iran’s political environment. Some Iranian politicians, journalists, and academics have claimed that the president met with "pan-Turkists and separatists" and called on him not to meet with "individuals of unknown affiliations."
Sociologist and political activist Ural Hatemi, speaking to Voice of America, says that labels such as "pan-Turkist" and "separatist" are products of "confrontation and friction" in Iran's political discourses. He also emphasizes that these labels can carry "legal and penal consequences."
He points out that labels like "pan-Turkist" and "separatist" are terms used in the discourse of Iranian nationalism and the ideology of the Islamic Republic:
"Now we see the discourse of the Turkish movement in Iran. In the struggle for national rights, we also see that the discourse changes according to the political issues of the time. In contrast, labels like pan-Turkism and separatism are used in the discourse of the centralist, Iranian-nationalist, Persian-nationalist, and the ideological core of the Islamic Republic. These are also accusations."
The sociologist notes that these words can carry legal and penal weight in certain situations.
"Some words have legal and even criminal consequences. Now, labeling someone as a pan-Turkist or a separatist gives Iran’s security forces a pretext. They may know that the person is not really that, but using those labels, they can issue an arrest warrant, write something on their file, or harass them. These things happen. These are not only in the political field. Labeling, or what we call ‘stigma’ in Turkish, is a very important sociological theory," says Ural Hatemi.
In his opinion, resistance to these labels can be achieved by recognizing them and being informed about them.
"These labels exist not only in politics but also in our everyday lives. However, depending on people’s psychology and how much they know about the issue and the label, they can defend themselves. They can bring clarity. Right now in Iran, even someone like Pezeshkian, who I consider fully integrated into the system, is being called a pan-Turkist by some," Ural Hatemi adds.
Link to the original interview in Turkish on the Azerbaijani section of Voice of America:
Ural Hatəmi: İranda pan-türkist kimi etiketlərə qarşı məlumatlanaraq müqavimət göstərilə bilər