Iran’s Azerbaijani Question in Evolution
15
to the steady decline of regional languages. The chances for non-Persians to
contribute literature, music, or other high culture products become considerably
lower in comparison to Persian. Third, Persian is the language of government
officials and the court system. Due to the lack of interpreters in Iranian courts, non-
Persians suffer discrimination vis-à-vis the majority population. This problem is
even more pronounced for poor and uneducated Iranian citizens from minority
nationalities. For them it is very difficult to attain the same level of justice as is
experienced by the Persian majority. Fourth, according to Raeesi’s argument, since
language and literature are among the most important means of human
development, the marginalization of local languages negatively affects
development in Iran’s peripheral regions. Fifth, due to the aforementioned factors,
ethnic Persians enjoy superior positions in terms of their cultural development and
ethnolinguistic dominance. This means they are at a distinct advantage when
compared with members of the republic’s ethnic minorities.
15
The Iranian constitution is in fact quite detailed and exact in its definition of the
rights and protection of minority nationalities and other minorities, but its
application, together with other legislative measures, and especially its
enforceability are wanting. Therefore, demands are periodically made, for the
revision of some parts of the Iranian legal code and for the implementation of rights
provided by the constitution, usually at times when elections are approaching.
Historical Background to Iranian Azerbaijan
Persia has represented a conglomerate of nationalities, languages, and culture for
centuries. The ancestors of present-day Azerbaijanis began to populate the area
together with the dominant Persians around the year 1000 CE, when the eastern
provinces of present-day Iran were conquered by the Ghaznavids, the first Turkish
dynasty originating in Central Asia, who became the first of a series of dynasties of
Turkic origin that would rule the territory of the ancient Persian kingdoms. They
would become Persianized over time and accepting of the more developed culture
15
Foreign Policy Centre, “Discrimination against Religious and Ethnic Minorities in the Islamic
Republic Constitution”, Iran Human Rights Review, January 2014,
https://tavaana.org/sites/default/files/657_violence-en_discrimination-against-religious-and-ethnic-
minorities-in-the-islamic-republic-constitution1_0.pdf
Souleimanov & Kraus
16
and often even the language of the native Persians. The Ghaznavid rulers were
followed by the Seljuk Oghuz, ancestors of today’s Turks, Azerbaijanis, and
Turkmen, when nomadic tribes began a large-scale westward migration from the
plains and steppes of Central Asia through Persia as far as Asia Minor. With the
exception of Mongolian hegemony from the 14
th
century until the end of the 15
th
century, the territory of historical Persia was ruled by powerful Turkic dynasties
that managed to centralize the Persian lands, and ruled Persia until 1925, when the
last shah of the Qajar Dynasty was deposed by Reza Shah Pahlavi in a coup d’état.
During those centuries, Persia’s military-political elite generally consisted of
members of various Turkic tribes, the ancestors of the present-day Azerbaijanis.
16
Various Turkic dialects close to modern Azerbaijani served as the informal
language of the court and also as the language of the army, which consisted mainly
of members of the originally semi-nomadic Turkic tribes. Meanwhile, Persian kept
its position as the literary and formal language of the court, and Arabic was
regarded as the language of theology and science. Turkic dynasties and urbanized
members of Oghuz tribes usually underwent Persification within just a few
generations, while the Turkic-speaking countryside kept its ethno-linguistic
identity.
At the beginning of the sixteenth century, it was Shah Ismail I – a Turcophone ruler
of the Safavid dynasty, which originated in the Azerbaijani region of Ardabil – who
gave Shiite Islam the status of state religion.
17
The majority of Azerbaijanis and
Persians adopted Shiite Islam, which became, along with high Persian culture, the
foundation of Iranian statehood during the centuries that followed. This religious
identity put the ancestors of the present-day Azerbaijanis in conflict with the Sunni
Anatolian Turks of the Ottoman Empire.
16
Their dominance can, perhaps, be explained by the fact that unlike the settled Persians with their
environment of highly developed feudal relations, the Turkic tribes, which lacked social stratification
(i.e. a nobility controlling the land and dependent peasants), possessed an established warrior ethos.
From childhood, every young male was regarded as a freeman and a future soldier, and he was raised
in that spirit.
17
For more on the Turkic – or Azerbaijani Turkish – role in the Safavid period (1501-1736/1773) see
Willem Floor and Hasan Javadi, “The Role of Azerbaijani Turkish in Safavid Iran,” Iranian Studies 46,
no. 4 (2013): 569-581.