Author: Diri » Wed Dec 20, 2006 11:07 pm
Cazyun - I know both Iran and Turkey very well...
And you obviously don't know Iran well - but you do know Turkey...
You have some prejudice against Iran, which is not based on what you've read in books or seen on Lonely Planet - but based on what you have "heard" and what you "think"...
In Iran, there is a province called: Kurdistan... And there is a province called "Azerbaycan"... In Iran, there is a province called "Sistan va Balochestan" and one called "Fars" and another called "Gilan" and another called "Mazandaran"...
Now all the names of these places, are based on ethnic regions: Kurdish, Azeri, Baloch, Fars (Persian), Gilani and Mazandarani - these peoples/nations all reside in Iran - and even though Persian is the official language and Tehran is the capital, Kurdish, Baloch, Azeri and other languages are free to be spoken - and published in newspapers, magazines etc. There is no taboo in Kurdish clothes or dances or whatever else... Kurds are generally considered as more "ancient" and "noble" than most other Iranic nations...
There are of course in Tehran, many who consider Kurds as generally backwards - since we are traditional - however, those people in Tehran are the same who also think that people in Yazd, Khorasan and other rural areas also are "backwards"... It's a city-vs-village thing - not an ethnic thing...
However - in Turkey, Kurdish language was forbidden because it was a threat to "Turkish national integrity" for 80 years... In Turkey, Kurds were violently and brutally forced to assimilate... Nothing like this ever happened on an organized level in Iran... Yes - Persian was and is the official language - but Kurdish can be/could be studied at universities and schools...
You should try to support your accusations with some facts... I would be very interested in seeing facts which show that the government in Tehran organized and had an assimilation policy towards non-Persians...
Today the people who rule Iran are mostly ethnic Azeris... But for them it doesn't matter - as long as they are Shia...

