Azerbaijanis in Iran suffer from language discrimination – National Academy of Sciences

BAKU, Azerbaijan, November 28. For centuries,
the language of communication in Iran was not Persian, but
Azerbaijani-Turkic, Trend reports, referring to the article by Isa
Habibbayli, President of Azerbaijan’s National Science Academy
(ANAS).

“Even now in big cities, the representatives of various
nationalities use the Azerbaijani language to communicate with each
other. However, as rightly observed by President Ilham Aliyev, the
Azerbaijani language was deliberately reduced to the “spoken
language” level – it is not taught in Iranian schools,” he
said.

He also mentioned that the Azerbaijani language, which is the
native language of Azerbaijanis residing in Iran’s South
Azerbaijan, was subjected to the influence of a large number of
Arabic-Persian words, that were alien to the Azerbaijani language’s
grammar and structure, resulting in significant changes in its
colloquial features and writing style.

All this has put Azerbaijani language in Iran in jeopardy, added
Habibbayli.

” In accordance with this, it is necessary to teach the
Azerbaijani language on a constant basis in secondary and higher
schools in Iran,” he said.

The academician noted that the Islamic Republic of Iran, which
opens schools, newspapers, radio channels, and churches for a small
number of Armenians, should also recognize the right of millions of
Azerbaijanis to study in their native language.

“Depriving more than 35 million Azerbaijanis living in Iran of
the right to study in their native language is completely contrary
to human rights and humanity in general and is unacceptable.
Azerbaijanis’ rights in Iran have to be restored,” said
Habibbayli.