16.07.2008 - Source: Austrian Centre for Country of Origin and Asylum Research and Documentation

Situation of Turk minority members: Azeri Turks, Turkmen, Qashgais and other Turkic-speaking groups ("a-6187-1 (ACC-IRN-6187)") [ID 25079]

"[…] Azeri Turks, concentrated mainly in the oil-poor northwest of Iran (along the border with Turkey, Armenia, and Azerbaijan), make up an estimated one-fourth of Iran’s population of 70 million. Azeris often claim a population share close to 40 percent, a number that includes ethnic brethren such as the Turkmen, Qashgais, and other Turkic-speaking groups. Unlike other ethnic groups in Iran such as Sunni Kurds and Arabs, the Azeri Turks are Shiites like the Persians. [...]

Ethnic Azeris composed approximately one-quarter of the country's population, were well integrated into the government and society and included the supreme leader. However, Azeris complained of ethnic and linguistic discrimination, including banning the Azeri language in schools, harassing Azeri activists or organizers, and changing Azeri geographic names. The government traditionally viewed Azeri nationalism as threatening, particularly since the dissolution of the Soviet Union and the creation of an independent Azerbaijan. Azeri groups also claimed that there were a number of Azeri political prisoners jailed for advocating cultural and language rights for Iranian Azerbaijanis. The government has charged several of them with "revolting against the Islamic state. [...]

In May 2006 there were large-scale riots in the Azeri majority regions of the northwest following publication of a newspaper cartoon considered insulting to Azeris. […] Police officials reported that four persons were killed and several protesters were detained. Authorities blamed foreign governments for inciting unrest. [...]

The Turkmen of Iran number around 2.2 million (no more than 3% of the population), and speak a Turkic language. They are Sunni Muslim and live in the north-west of the country. They are allowed no education or social services in their mother tongue, though a small number of newspapers are allowed to publish in Turkmen. Turkmen cannot obtain senior positions in even local government, under discriminatory selection policies. [...]

Between 200 and 300 Iranian Turkmen living in the coastal province of Golestan, near the city of Bandar-e Torkman, were arrested after the killing of an Iranian Turkmen fisherman by maritime security officers on 28 December 2007. The fisherman was one of a group fishing without a license in the Caspian Sea. The killing caused severe and widespread unrest in Turkmen areas around Bandar-e-Torkman. Government buildings and other public and private property was reportedly damaged."

Document(s): Open document

22.05.2008 - Source: Amnesty International

Jamshid Arazpour and Haji Aman Khadivar, who were among a group of Iranians of Turkmen ethnicity detained in early January 2008, are now known to have been charged with public order offences ("Further Information on Urgent Action 24/08 (MDE 13/016/2008, 25 January 2008) [MDE 13/072/2008]") [ID 24700]

Document(s): Open document

30.09.2002 -

University of Maryland - Minorities at Risk: Background Information ("30.09.2002 - University of Maryland - Minorities at Risk: Background Information") [ID 8820]

"The vast majority of Turkmen in Iran inhabit the region along the northern border of Iran across from what is now the state of Turkmenistan (previously a part of the USSR) (GROUPCON = 3). They have traditionally led a nomadic lifestyle; however, due to government policies, many have settled and now engage in agriculture. They are divided into several tribes, and are Sunni Muslims (CULDIFX4/5 = 2) who speak local dialects of Turkmeni (CULDIFX2 = 2). Much like Iran’s other Sunni Muslim minorities (e.g., Kurds, Arabs, Baluchis), the Turkmen are somewhat restricted in the practice of their faith and the use of their language (CULPO1/200 = 2). And like most other Sunni Muslim groups in Iran, the Turkmen are prohibited from organizing politically and attaining high official positions (POLIC4/896-00 = 2).
The Turkmen arrived in the region at about the time of the rise of Islam in the 7th and 8th centuries. They remained fairly free of outside control until the decline of the Qajar dynasty, which they helped to bring to power, at the end of the 19th century. In 1925, Reza Shah, Iran's leader, ordered a pacification campaign against the Turkmen. This caused many Turkmen to flee to the Soviet Union but most returned in the 1930s due to the Soviet policies of collectivization and religious prejudices. Some tribes rebelled during the Soviet occupation of Iran that occurred during and shortly after World War II but these rebellions ended shortly after the Soviets left in 1945.
Shortly after the Iranian revolution in 1979, the Turkmen rebelled against the new government demanding autonomy, official recognition of their language and representation in local revolutionary councils dominated by Shi'i Muslims. However, this rebellion was crushed shortly thereafter and their demands were not met. Since then, the Turkmen have suffered from the terror of Iran's revolutionary guards. In 1983, violence broke out when the revolutionary guard tried to prevent Turkmen women from working on farms and going about unveiled. This type of persecution, along with the Iran-Iraq war, caused many of them to flee to Turkey.
However, as a relatively rural minority that has not garnered much international media attention, a fine line exists between the government’s forcible restriction against political mobilization, and the Turkmen major desire to simply maintain greater political rights in their own community (POLGR200 = 1). Like other Iranian tribal people, the Turkmen have remained far enough away from mainstream Iranian politics to exist free of recent repression (REP99-00=0) (although a key Turkmen uprising was quashed by the government following the Q979 revolution), but they also do not possess any cohesive opposition organizations that would raise the ire of Tehran’s contemporary leadership (OPORGX/MILORGX = 0)."

Document(s): 30.09.2002 - University of Maryland - Minorities at Risk: Background Information

30.09.2002 -

University of Maryland - Minorities at Risk: Risk Assessment ("30.09.2002 - University of Maryland - Minorities at Risk: Risk Assessment") [ID 8821]

"As an ethnonationalist group, the future condition of Turkmen in Iran will be closely tied to ongoing foreign relations between Iran and Turkmenistan, which for the time being appears relatively stable regardless of the ideological support that Turkmenistan gives to its Sunni brethren. With little information to go on in the Turkmen region of Iran, a plausible general link can be made to the Baluchis (another Sunni and rural group). Due to their sect of Islam, the Turkmen will likely continue to face cultural and political restrictions; however, without an overt challenge to the central Iranian authorities, governmental repression against Turkmen will also likely remain at a minimum."

Document(s): 30.09.2002 - University of Maryland - Minorities at Risk: Risk Assessment