2023-05-17 06:40:44
In a conversation with political activist Saleh Yıldırım, he talked about the great uprising that broke out in Iran Azerbaijan in May 2006. He considers the May uprising as the biggest mass uprising not only up to that date, but also today in the history of the Islamic Republic.
In the interview, Saleh Yıldırım also commented on the activities of the political forces belonging to the Azerbaijan National Movement and the joint projects of the organizations after the recent mass protests against the government in Iran.
On May 12, 2006, cartoons published in Iran magazine, the official press of the Iranian state, caused the uprising. In the cartoon, a child asks a cockroach in Persian, and the cockroach answers in Turkish. The written text discusses ways to destroy cockroaches. Mass uprisings that lasted for days, especially in cities such as Sulduz, Tabriz, Urmiya and Khiyav, were bloodily suppressed by the use of force by the police and military forces.
According to Saleh İldırım, “the actions of May 2006 were the strongest actions since the 1979 Revolution until today.”
“For two weeks, the nation seriously took to the streets in Tabriz, Urmia, Sulduz, Ardabil and more than 30 cities. The number of wounded, martyrs and prisoners was high. The participation of the nation was huge,” he said.
According to the political activist, the May 2006 uprising was not covered as much as it was because of the conditions of the period and because it was boycotted by the central forces.
“Azerbaijan’s voice was not heard. In other words, it did not happen so that it was promoted and brought up in the media. There were no current opportunities. Imagine that we used to record the voice while talking to the protesters on the phone so that we could deliver it to the media. But in these recent protests in Iran, there was an opportunity to spread it to the world instantly, and besides, there were many people who were interested in these protests. But the voice of actions in Azerbaijan was not delivered. He did not come to work,” he said.
Saleh Yıldırım noted that there is a double standard in the coverage of the protests in different regions of Iran in the Persian-language media and the international community.
“We still see this double standard between the center and non-Persian nations today. Look at Balochistan, people die every day, they kill every day. Balochistan is where the protests are strongest. But they show one out of 20, one out of 30 of those in Balochistan. That is, they show the parts that come to their work. Because the slogan and message of our protests do not work for centrists, media and power holders,” the political activist added.
Voice of America
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