(MENAFN- AzerNews) The 52nd Regular Session of the UN Human Rights Council (HRC52)
is taking place in Geneva.
Human rights activist and expert of the Legal Analysis and
Research Public Union Azar Hasrat addressed the session about the
rights of Azerbaijanis in Iran and Armenia's ethnic purge.
He expressed regret over the fact that Iran, being one of the
officially Islamic states, unfortunately, is using religion as a
pretext to suppress people of other nationalities than of Persian
descent.
According to some estimates Iran has around 30 to 40 million
Azerbaijani Turks. But unfortunately, these people still have no
right to use their mother tongue.
Iran has failed to provide schools for this“minority” in the
Turkic language. He pointed out that“what is more dangerous, if a
child approaching the age to start a school does not speak Persian,
he/she cannot be registered to get an education”.
He underlined that it is regular for the Iranian state media
including TV channels to insult all Turkic-speaking people of the
country in common. In Iranian provinces, where the majority are
people of Azerbaijani Turkic descent, the economic situation is
much worse than in other parts of the country.
According to him, even during an earthquake in Khoy city,
Western Azerbaijan on Jan 28, 2023, the Iranian government
prevented even other people to help the population. The government
also failed to support people in need.
Azar Hasrat noted that likewise, Iran's neighbor – Armenia is
also failing to provide basic human rights for minorities. Some
230,000 Azerbaijanis were ethnically cleansed from Armenia starting
in 1988 and afterward, Armenia became one of the very few
monoethnic countries in the world.
The session commenced on February 27 and will run until April 4.
The event brought together officials, and civil society
representatives.
---
MENAFN25032023000195011045ID1105860509
Legal Disclaimer:
MENAFN provides the information “as is” without warranty of any kind. We do not accept any responsibility or liability for the accuracy, content, images, videos, licenses, completeness, legality, or reliability of the information contained in this article. If you have any complaints or copyright issues related to this article, kindly contact the provider above.