TABRIZ, South Azerbaijan

Araz News: Currency bills printed during the brief “Azerbaijani National Government” have been on display at the currency museum in the Tabriz Municipality building.

In a rare gesture commemorating what some in Iran consider an illegitimate government in the mid 1940s, Azerbaijani residents have hailed the decision to display the currency as an integral part of Azerbaijani identity and history.

Currency used during the Pishevar-led Government of Azerbaijan (1945-1946)

Paper currency used during the two-year Azerbaijani Democratic Republic in “North” Azerbaijan from 1918 to 1920 were also on display in the museum.

Tabriz’s Currency Museum is owned and operated by the Iranian Ministry of Tourism.

The “Azeriha” news website, widely regarded as an organ of Iran’s intelligence ministry commonly referred to as Etelaat, condemned the decision and demanded that the currency be removed from the museum.

In 1945, an autonomous national government was set up in South Azerbaijan under the guidance of Jafaar Pishevari. A year later, accusing the autonomous government of being a Soviet client state, Iran’s central government made the decision to reabsorb South Azerbaijan, brutally massacring tens of thousands of supports as many in Pishevari’s government fled to North Azerbaijan, then a part of the Soviet Union.

Azerbaijanis in Iran remember the People’s Government as a period in which their identity was practiced freely. The official language was changed to Azerbaijani-Turkic allowing for education and free media in the Azerbaijani language, while the region underwent drastic economic improvements. The devastating collapse of the People’s Government left irreparable damage to the Azerbaijani national psyche, which can still be felt today.