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| Teoman Aktan, political scientist |
Political scientist and activist Teoman Aktan, in an interview with Voice of America, analyzed the events that took place on January 26 during the match between Tractor Azerbaijan and Persepolis in Tehran, which remains a topic of heated debate.
According to Teoman Aktan, “Sociologically, the behavior and rhetoric of Persepolis supporters—who used racist and sexist slogans against Tractor club and its fans—go beyond a simple fan rivalry and instead reflect systemic discrimination. The insults directed at Turks should not be confined to the atmosphere of a sports event. These incidents expose the deep fractures in the country regarding ethnic and cultural identities.”
The owner of Tractor club, in criticizing the Iranian Football Federation’s disciplinary committee’s decision, has stated that they will take the issue of racist chants to FIFA.
“The fact that Tractor has announced its intention to appeal to FIFA highlights how Iran’s legal system is not only inadequate and biased but also deeply partial when it comes to addressing ethnic discrimination,” Aktan said.
According to the political scientist, the Iranian government tries to portray such incidents as isolated cases in an effort to conceal the systemic nature of racism.
“There is a long history of racism against Turks in Iran. However, this social phenomenon is continuously denied by the official rhetoric of the state. To avoid acknowledging ethnic discrimination, the Iranian government presents these events as individual cases, thus attempting to obscure their systematic nature,” he stated.
Aktan believes that racism in Iran is also institutional.
“Racism against Turks persists not only on an individual and social level but also at an institutional level. Through media, education, and the legal system, Turkish identity is consistently belittled and degraded. The 2006 cartoon published in an Iranian newspaper was a blatant example of racism. Since then, similar incidents have continued without interruption. Therefore, claiming that these are isolated cases is simply not accurate,” Teoman Aktan emphasized.
The political activist also stressed that while racism is deeply entrenched in Iran, there is also strong resistance against it.
“There is serious racism, and there is also a serious movement resisting it. Azerbaijan is at the forefront of this fight against racism. But this movement is not limited to Azerbaijan alone—there are also Turks in other parts of Iran who are part of this struggle,” Teoman Aktan added.
Link to the original interview in Turkish on the Azerbaijani section of Voice of America:
Teoman Aktan: İranda sistematik ayrıseçkilik hökm sürür