(MENAFN- AzerNews) By Sabina Mammadli
For centuries, the language of communication in Iran was not
Persian, but Azerbaijani-Turkic, President of Azerbaijani National
Sciences Academy (ANAS) Isa Habibbayli wrote in an article,
Azernews reports.
'Even now in big cities, the representatives of various
nationalities use the Azerbaijani language to communicate with each
other. However, as rightly observed by President Ilham Aliyev, the
Azerbaijani language was deliberately reduced to the 'spoken
language' level - it is not taught in Iranian schools,' he
said.
According to the article, the Azerbaijani language, which is the
native language of Azerbaijanis residing in Southern Azerbaijan,
was subjected to the influence of a large number of Arabic-Persian
words, which were alien to the Azerbaijani language grammar and
structure, resulting in significant changes in its colloquial
features and writing style.
He added that all these factors have put the Azerbaijani
language in Iran in jeopardy.
'In accordance with this, it is necessary to teach the
Azerbaijani language on a constant basis in secondary and higher
schools in Iran,' he stressed.
Further, the academician noted that the Islamic Republic of
Iran, which opens schools, newspapers, radio channels, and churches
for a small number of Armenians, should also recognize the right of
millions of Azerbaijanis to study in their native language.
'Depriving more than 35 million Azerbaijanis living in Iran of
the right to study in their native language is completely contrary
to human rights and humanity in general and is unacceptable.
Azerbaijanis' rights in Iran have to be restored,' Habibbayli
finalized.
To recap, speaking at the international conference under the
motto“Along the Middle Corridor: Geopolitics, Security and
Economy” at ADA University, President Ilham Aliyev also highlighted
this problem.
“We have 340 schools in Azerbaijan where lessons are conducted
in the Russian language. We have 10 Georgian schools in Azerbaijan.
In Georgia, there are 116 Azerbaijani schools although there is
something like 200,000-300,000 Azerbaijanis in Georgia. There are
Armenian schools in Iran. But there are no Azerbaijani schools in
Iran. How can that happen?” the president questioned.
He underscored that this issue is a part of a society that has
the same ethnic origin, speaks the same language, and has the same
values as Azerbaijan.
“How can we be indifferent to that? Why can't they learn their
language at school? They are losing the language, you know. The
problem is that. Why we are raising it is that the Azerbaijani
language which is spoken in Iran is losing its literary component.
It has become a language people speak at home. This issue must be
addressed. And I am raising this issue also because this is a
concern for us. I hope that the pro-Armenian actions of the Iranian
government will not damage the very fragile peace, and I think,
there will be more understanding of the necessity to take into
account the feelings of the Azerbaijanis and our interests,”
President Aliyev emphasized.
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Sabina Mammadli is AzerNews' staff journalist, follow her on
Twitter: @sabinammdl
Follow us on Twitter @azernewsaz
Tags: iran anas azerbaijani language iran-azerbaijan isa habibeyli