Anti-Iranian sentiment in Azerbaijan
The belief that Azerbaijanis have been and continue to be victims of Iranians (and Armenians) is planted in children through state-sponsored propaganda and brainwashing in schools.
The people who lived in the present-day country of Azerbaijan identified as either Muslims of the ummah (community), or Turks, who shared a language family spread out throughout a considerable portion of Central Asia, or as Persians.
The local populace was frequently included under terms such as Türk milleti and Qafqaziya müsalman Xalqi ("the Muslim people of the Caucasus").
[6] Iran was in the midst of deterioration and revolution when the formation of the Azerbaijani national identity was taking place, and therefore it did not provide an ideal role model or source of inspiration.
[9] The Baku-based Musavat party addressed the topic of Iranian Azerbaijan for the first time in an editorial that was published in their Açiq Söz newspaper in January 1918.
The author outlined Azerbaijan's "historical borders" as extending from Tbilisi on the west to the Caspian Sea on the east, with the Caucasus Mountains in the north and Kermanshah in the south.
He placed the blame for the measures that led to the "division of the nation of Azerbaijan" on the Iranian ruling class and Russian expansionists.
The head of the Democrat Party, Mohammad Khiabani, a well-liked member of Iranian Azerbaijan's political elite, changed the name of the province to Azadistan ("land of freedom") out of concern for such risks.
[14] The phrase "Caucasian Azerbaijan" was thus used in the documents intended for international distribution by the Azerbaijani government to ease Iranian concerns.
[1][15] In a number of seminars at Baku State University in November and December 1924, the distinguished Soviet orientalist Vasily Bartold talked about the purpose suggested by this designation; "however, the term Azerbaijan was chosen, because when the Azerbaijani republic was established, it was supposed that the Persian and this Azerbaijan would form one entity, since they have a very large similarity in the composition of their populations.
Commenting on this, Mamedov states that "Considering that Iran fought two devastating wars with Russia (1803–1813 and 1824–1828), the idea of a Russo-Iranian conspiracy against Azerbaijan is totally absurd."
[21] The political party known as the Popular Front of Azerbaijan (abbreviated as APF) accelerated the development of a Turkocentric and anti-Iranian national identity.
To them, Turkish nationalism stood in the way of the Islamic ideology that Iran might otherwise have spread to the newly formed Azerbaijan republic.
The idea of "uniting" "northern" and "southern Azerbaijan", and Ataturkist secularism are among the other tenets of APF philosophy that persist under the Aliyevs, albeit to differing degrees.
Additional instances of Iran's history being appropriated are the assertions that the game of polo and the tar string instrument were solely invented by Azerbaijan.
This includes Nasib Nasibli, a university professor and member of the Azerbaijani parliament, known for strong advocacy for a "unified Azerbaijan".
[26] Parviz Varjavand, a professor at a university and the secretary general of the National Front party in Iran, wrote an open letter to Mohammad Khatami during his presidency (1997–2005) alerting him to the anti-Iranian actions of Elchibey's followers as well as those of other pan-Turkist organizations and the media, and requesting that Khatami take appropriate action to deal with them.
