Before beginning this discussion the following point must be clearly noted:

While this message does discuss the issue of pan-Turkism, it must be made clear that this has nothing to do with the ordinary folk of the Republic of Azarbaijan, who share much of Iran, a nation which they were an integral part of until the Russian invasions of the early 19th century.

The Turks of Turkey are also close cultural cousins to the Iranians and share much of Iranian culture (as Iranians do theirs).  One of Iran’s best features is its multilingual heritage and the fact that Azarbaijani-Turkic is widely spoken in Iran.

The message below selectively targets only those individuals who wish to promote racist ideology. Pan-Turk ideologues often negatively label anyone who questions their philosophy as “anti-Azarbaijani“, “anti-Turkish“, etc. to deflect attention away from their own racially-propelled objectives. Pan-Turkists often adopt the mantle of “human rights”, when in fact their actions and writings say otherwise. .

It is with great sorrow that the activities of Madame Fakhteh Luna Zamani are discussed, mainly due to the types of people she advocates. The pan-Turk movement, whom Madame Zamani promotes (which is denied), has recently circulated the websites below which are euphemistically called “anti-Chauvinist” (meaning Persian chauvinist in their ideology):

http://www.ayrim.blogfa.com/
http://www.hbayat.azerblog.com/1386_10_27_Say=388.ay

Far from being balanced and objective, these sites are nothing more than racist and fascist pan-Turk sites laden with ethnic hatred and ethno-narcissism. Note the following links which are openly rude and racist:

http://farssag.wordpress.com/korosh-msag/

http://pandogs.blogspot.com/

 

Photograph provided in Canadian Jewish News (March 6, 2009) shwoing a Pan-Turkist rally with signs stating “Dogs allowed, Jews and Armenians not allowed”. These people do not represent in any way whatsoever the majority of the decent, compassionate, hospitable, kind, resourceful and honorable people of Turkey or the Republic of Azarbaijan. Yet Madame Zamani chooses to promote the false historical narratives of a discredtied and fringe racialist movement (shunned by the Turks themselves) into Iranian Turcophones. Madame Zamani also presents these fascists as “human rights activists”. Some Western venues have fallen victim to Madame Zamani’s disinformation campaign (see further below regarding the editorial posted in the Vancouver Sun, January 3, 2009 ) .

A number of historical revisionist views are officially taught as “history” at the elementary, secondary and post-secondary levels of the educational system in the Republic of Azarbaijan (Former Arran as opposed to historical Azarbaijan in Iran). Below is a link to a history book from Baku presented by the Embassy of the Republic of Azarbaijan in Pakistan (the book is published in Pakistan):

“Azerbaijan: Short History of Statehood”
Written by Yagub Mahmudlu
http://www.azembassy.com.pk/en/book/?get=fromtr

The book pretends that neither Iranian Azarbaijan nor Arran (modern Republic of Azarbaijan) were ever a part of Iran in history. The historical claims in the book will probably prove surprising due to their fantastically revisionist claims. Almost every single point in this book is either falsified or distorted.

The question becomes this: what is the benefit of promoting such “historical” books based on Soviet era and pan-Turk narratives? The motives appear to be politically driven.

Madame Zamani’s petition which refers to iran as “a so-called country“

One pan-Turk activist who has been very active promoting ethnic hatred is Madam Fakhteh Luna Zamani.

Madame Fakhteh Luna Zamani

Madame Zamani has worked hard to present pan-Turkism as a “Human Rights” movement. In that endeavour She has written a number of petitions and directed these to UN bodies in an endeavour to promote a pan-Turkist agenda: In one of these petitions entitled “Petition Against PKK and PJAK Terrorism” (September 23, 2006), she refers to Iran as “a so-called country“. Below is a copy of that text with her use of that term (so-called country):

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To: UN
The Honorable Secretary General of UN Kofi Annan

We are writing to urge you to condemn the violent demonstrations held by Kurdish terrorist groups in the South Azerbaijani city of Maku. Left unchecked, these dangerous actions threaten stability in the region.

On February 16, 2006, several Azerbaijani Turks lost their lives in an attack by a terrorist organization, known as the PKK (Kurdistan Workers Party), in South Azerbaijan, an area located in the North West of the so-called country of Iran.

PJAK, a related Iranian faction of the PKK, had organized a protest to mark the 7th anniversary of the capture of PKK’s founder, Abdullah Ocalan, in the South Azerbaijani city of Maku. Kurds who were brought from Kurdish regions to Maku spouted anti-Turkish slogans and attacked civilians. In this demonstration, Azerbaijani Turks were targeted and several Azeris lost their lives.

According to information received from city of Maku, the majority of the Kurds who participated in these attacks were not locals. They were Kurds from Kurdish cities such as Sanadaj, Soleymaniyeh, and some Kurdish cities of Turkey, who were brought to spread terror in the Azerbaijani region.

These incidents originate from the claims of Kurdish leaders to some parts of South Azerbaijan. The Democratic Party of Iranian Kurdistan’s claim to South Azerbaijani cities is evident in the news, maps and reports published by the organization. Furthermore, the PKK conducts terrorism in Azerbaijani cities trying to show their presence in this region. We ask for immediate attention to the unrest created by the alien terrorist groups of PKK and DPIK (Democratic Party of Iranian Kurdistan).

This is not the first time that Kurdish terrorist groups have committed atrocities in Azerbaijani regions. Atrocities committed by the Kurdish militia were started by Ismail Simitko, who massacred thousands of Azerbaijani Turks in present-day south Azerbaijan from 1920 to 1921. Also in the 1980s, both terrorist organizations of the Democratic Party of Iranian Kurdistan and Komoleh have killed and terrorized hundreds of innocent people in Sulduz (Naghadeh). Still Kurdish parties do not respect the territorial rights of the Azerbaijani people and continue to claim parts of this region.

We request that you condemn these acts of terrorism committed by the PKK, and would like to call the attention of the international community to the anti-Turk Kurdish terrorism in this Azerbaijani region.

Thank you for your attention to this matter.

Sincerely,

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The use of the term “so called country” has been a major liability as it highlights Madame Zamani’s ties to ultra-right pan-Turkists groups. Her petition is in fact posted on the ultra-right pan-Turk website entitled Baybak. This site is not only pan-Turkist but also denies that the mass deaths of Armenian civilians in the early twentieth century ever took place.  

There have been numurous attempts at deleting this from the internet by pan-Turkist supporters, most likley because it: (a) reveals madame Zamani’s ulterior pan-Turkist philosophy and (b) contains false information. The petition has in fact been “removed” from petition.com, which is clealry indicative that Madame Zamani is concenred that her racist comments will reveal her pan-Turkism.

Madame Zamani’s ties to the pan-Turkist movement are further highlighted by the fact that her petition is vociferously promoted by Mr. Saleh Ildirim, the official spokesperson for the ultra-right wing South Azerbaijan independence Party. Madame Zamani’s works are closely associated with the ultra-right GAMOH organization - interestingly one of their associated blogs even attempts to “explain” that their actions are not ultra-right racist.

While much of what is stated in Madame Zamani’s petition is historically false, one sentence in particular written by Madame Zamani is of interest:

“in South Azerbaijan, an area located in the North West of the so-called country of Iran“

Iran is not a “so called country“. Even Seyyed Jaafar Pishevari, who was the head of the separatist Soviet-puppet government of Iranian Azarbaijan in 1946 admitted in the bi-lingual (Turkish-Persian) newspaper the Hurriyat (Liberty) in Baku in 1919 that:

“It is a known fact that the Iranians are a historical nation which, despite having suffering numerous ups and downs in the past and adopted many religions and beliefs, has nevertheless been able to preserve its 6000 year old culture and tradition ”
(Hurriyat, no.72, May 21 1920).

Seyyed Jaafar Pishevari (1892-1947)

This was confirmed earlier by Amin Rasulzadeh, the first politician to apply the name of Azarbaijan in Iran to the Trascaucasus, (Arran until 1918). Rasulzadeh was very realistic when it came to the Azarbaijanis in Iran.

Rasulzadeh very much knew that Azarbaijan applied to the province in Iran south of the Araxes River and that the region north of that river was known as Arran. More important however, are a number of essays that Rasulzadeh wrote to fellow pan-Turkists entitled “Iran Turkleri ” (Iranian Turks) in Istanbul during his sojourn there in the early 1900s. Rasulzadeh had cited two “obstacles” with respect to “pan-Turkisizing” Iranian Azarbaijanis (Zarewand, 1926, p.144):

(1) The strongly rooted Iranian identity of the Iranian Azerbaijanis
(2) The influence of the old Iranian civilization and “its uncanny assimilating power“.

Muhammad Amin Rasulzadeh (1884-1955)

While Madame Zamani and her fellow pan-Turk philosophers may choose to pretend that Iran is a “so called nation“, have the distinguished members done some research? If they choose to dismiss ALL historical evidence (including Greco-Roman, Islamic, Chinese, etc. sources), then have they at least read ALL of the writings of Pishevari and Rasulzadeh, two key heroes of the pan-Turkists which Madame Zamani evidently advocates. Pan-Turkists, like all racialists, have an amazing ability to contradict themselves. In a purely psychological sense, this process of thinking is fascinating.

These inconsistencies were pointed out in a mass e-mail message originally sent out on April 11, 2008. This may aprtly explain why Madame Zamani’s supporters have tried to unsuccessfully delete the petition.

Madame Zamani is cited as a “Human Rights” activist by the Baybak website. Zamani has also stated in another posting in the Baybak website that: 

“in the sense that the Azerbaijani parents are not permitted to name their children with traditional Azerbaijani names. “

Strictly speaking, this is patently false. Names such as Aydin, Arsalan, Yashar, Sonmaz, Solmaz, Aylar, etc. are very common in Iran. The above link also states:

“The government has arrested men and women for simple acts such as possessing Azerbaijani books, organizing Azerbaijani language classes and attending festivals to preserve their culture.”

This is false as there is no ban on the Azarbaijani language. There are books, magazines and other printed media in Iran today in Azarbaijani-Turkic. There are also television and radio programming in Azarbaijani-Turkic. The language is spoken freely and widely all across northwest Iran as well as Tehran and all across Iran.

Iranian Azarbaijanis however do not support these so-called activists. Many famous Iranian figures of Azarbaijani origin such as veteran actor of Iranian cinema Behrouz Vosoughi have officially condemned pan-Turkist activities.

The recent racist links and the select historical quotes will hopefully enlighten Madame Fakhteh Zamani as to the jingoistic racism of these ethno-racialist philosophers who rely on duplicity and forgeries to disseminate their narratives.

Falling for pan-Turk propaganda: Editorial in Vancouver Sun

Western outlets are being swayed by pan-Turk propaganda masquerading as “Human Rights“.  This is facilitated by the fact that the current attitude of the western media is unfavorable towards Iran and  Iranian in general. The process of viewing Iran and Iranians as propaganda targets has often distorted the accuracy and reliability of Iran-related news reports. A recent example is seen in the January 3, 2009 editorial by Tara Carman entitled Minority Report: Vancouver woman risks her life to expose the persecution of Azerbaijani Iranians.

The “Vancouver woman” cited in the Vancouver Sun article of January 3, 2009 is none other than madame Zamani. The article essentially narrates (or repeats) the pan-Turkist philosophies already articulated in this linkpage. 

There is one additional poitn here that Madame Zamani has cited to help convey her philosophy: the cockroach cartoon scandal. Madame Zamani beleives that this was directed specifically against Iranian Azarbaijanis, a claim which is categorically false. For a retort to the cartoon issue consult:

http://www.azargoshnasp.net/Pasokhbehanirani/SuskhaavaPanturkisthaa.htm (in Persian text only)

The article perpetuates a number of unsubstantiated claims such as  ”When Iranian embassy officials came looking for him at the hospital” or “”suggesting 10 ways of exterminating them“. These are allegations or distorations at best in that every attempt is being being made to re-narrate Iran’s complex political climate in simplistic tribalistic terms.

The report narrates that Davarpanah was blinded by pellets fired into his body by Iranian security forces wielding riot guns. Simply put, this is false. Davarpanah was inside his home at the time of the riots and two unknown persons knocked on his door and then shot him in face.  It is well known that the culprit was an ordinary person by the name of “Ebrahim Hadayi” who has no governmental position. The motives for this assault are not completely clear. 

What is known however is Davarpanah’s connection with the ultra-racialist Grey Wolf party as is evident in his blog.

Some of the rival ultra nationalist parties such as the the Kurdish PKK (PAJAK  in Iran) and/or other competing national-racialist pan-Turk groups may have also engaged in the attack. There is currently an intense rivalry taking place between nationalist and separatist groups with respect to gaining funds from outside sources that have an interest in fomenitng violence in Iran. Three years ago, one of the members of the rival nationalist pan-Turk group (Ojagh) was violently assaulted by another group in Tabriz for financial reasons (the sum in question was about 100.000 $).

As a rule , the Iranian government never allows political opponents to leave the country. Given that this person went to Italy without incident, revelas that he was nerver under any surveillance by the Iranian government.

In summary the following points can be made - many of these have already been expostulated earlier in this posting:

1) Madame Zamani removed her petition after it revealed her pan-Turkist racialistic leanings.

2) She labelled the KPDI and Komola as terrorist organizations mainly due to the anticipated fight between pan-Turks and those organizations over West Azerbaijan.

3) She has used terminology such as “so called Iran” and and refers to Iranian Azerbaijan as “Southern Azerbaijan”.

4) She blatently lies about Azarbaijani-Turkic language being banned in Iran.

5) She blatently lies about Turkic names being banned in Iran.

6) She mentions that it was Reza Shah who made Persian official. In reality this was done decades before Reza Shah, namley the constitutional revolution in 1906.

Falling for pan-Turk propaganda: The Canadian Parliament

On March 24, 2009, Madame Zamani gave a speech in front of the Canadian Parliament disguised as “Human Rights” (pdf: Zamani speech to Canadian Parliament March 24, 2009). The Distinguished parliament members evidently failed to realize that Madame Zamani is simply taking advantage of the current political friction between Iran and the west to promote a racist ideology.

An observor of pan-Turkism who has long written against the activities of pan-Turks such as Fakhteh Zamani has provided the following in retort response to the recent propaganda stunt:

Fakhteh Zamani claims that Azeri is banned in Iran! and that she was racially discriminated against!  The claim is so far from the truth that the Persian expression: “Morgheh Pokhteh raa ham beh khandeh Miyandaazad” (The baked Chicken even starts laughing) comes to mind. First Azeri is not a race in Iran and in general, there is no racial difference in Iran, since the basic racial type is mediterranean caucasoid.  Second Azeri is not banned in Iran, there are books, newspapers, music recordings, university and summer cources in that language.  Only by constitution of 1906 and 1979, Persian is the official language of Iran and is thought as the main language in all schools. This is no different than teaching German in Germany despite 3 million Turkish immigrants or teaching French in France, despite 6 million Arab immigrants.  Having a national language which allows for the integration of the country and mass communication is fairly usual in all countries.  Persian due to the fact that it has been used for more than 1000 years and due to the fact that even in Azerbaijan, it has been the primary written/education language, was chosen as the official language in 1906.  Interestingly enough, while Zamani and her backers try to minimize the role of Persian, the country of the republic of Azerbaijan claims hosts of Persian poets like Nezami and Khaqani whom the normal population cannot understand and who of course existed at a time when the urban population spoke Iranian languages.  A glance at the Encyclopedia “Safineyeh Tabrizi” written by a Tabrizi author shows Persian and then Arabic were the main historical and educational languages.  So Persian is not just a heritage of Persian speakers but all Iranians. 

At the same while Zamani falsely claims that Azeri is banned in Iran, one can simply show videos of Ayatollah Khaemeni speaking Azeri-Turkish: Khamenei the supreme leader publically recites Azari-Turkish poetry, and speaks Azari-Turkish to a large crowd. The conclusion is clear: Madame Zamani is lying to the Canadian Parliament by saying that  speaking Azeri is banned in Iran.  As noted already, Madame Zamani has an agenda and has called Iran a “so called country”.  So lying in order to enhance the interest of her idealogy (pan-Turkism) should be expected.  But more people should know about these lies as well as the ethnocide of Dersim, and the genocides of Armenians, Assyrians, Greeks commited by pan-Turkists.

Falling for pan-Turk propaganda: The Durbin Review Conference in Geneva

Madame Zamani again expostualted her views at the Durbin Review Conference in Geneva on April 20-24, 2009. A number of protests were launched against the sponosors of that conference, including Mr. Bahram Sadat-Tehrani. Questions have been raised regarding the logistics of her works, namely the source of her financial support for being able to travel so widely across Europe and North America . The e-mail below was forwarded by Khosrow Panahi of the Persian-American Society on April 30, 2009:

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From: @yahoo.com]
Sent: Thursday, April 30, 2009 10:02 AM
To:
Cc: xx
Subject: RE: Voices: Durban Conference

My guess is her [Fakhteh Zamani's] expenses [for Travel] are paid by British Intelligence and their cronies who have used the scheme of “Divide and Rule” mantra for 1000 years. If you like I can send you the future map of the Middle East to show you what we can expect of our destiny. When we cannot manage our house an intruder is going to come in and restore order according to his wishes. Separation of Azerbaijan, Kurdistan, Baluchistan, Khuzestan, Lorestan, Turkmenistan, Pashtun, Badakhshan, etc is cooking. The balkanization of the Middle East…

From:
Subject: RE: Voices: Durban Conference
To:
Date: Thursday, April 30, 2009, 9:09 AM

Can somebody ask her where did she get the money to travel throughout North America and Europe ? I am trying to go to Europe for the past 10 years and could afford it. Nevertheless, given her look, she could be an anchorwoman.

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