Araz News:Ms. Zahra Saei the Spokesman of the Turkish Faction announced about the establishment of the Faction of Turkic Regions with  the presence of 100 Turk representatives and chaired by Masoud Pezeshkian on Oct. 31.

İt should be noted that this is  the first time in the Islamic Republic’s history, Iranian Turkic-speaking MPs, including Azerbaijanis formed a parliamentary faction calling it “Faction of Turkic Regions.”

The faction held its first meeting on Oct. 30 and elected Masoud Pezeshkian and Nader Qazipour, Tabriz and Urmia representatives, as its head and deputy head, respectively.

At least 100 MPs of Iran’s 290-member parliament from different political backgrounds were present in the faction’s first meeting.

Besides Iranian north-western Azerbaijani MPs, who are about 40 in number, representatives from other areas of Iran with Turkic population, including capital city of Tehran, Shiraz and Qom are also members to the faction, holding 34 percent of the parliament seats.

The move to form a faction based on ethnic identity itself is a daring move, as the Iranian officials have always tried to eliminate Iran’s ethnic diversity and have not permitted the issues with ethnic background to be highlighted in the country.

Now some ethnic Turks from the administration’s inner circles have decided to form a parliamentary group for “a strategic management with an aim to solve the problems of the regions inhabited by Turkic population.”

Actually the issues related to the ethnic groups’ rights have found way to Iran’s political discourses in recent years and politicians started to refer to that, in particular during the elections.

In order to serve the interests of Turks in iran the faction was found . However, the faction has already caused concerns among certain Iranian intellectual circles, which see it as a threatening step against Iran’s national unity, through intensifying ethnic sectarianism.

On the other hand, the faction’s supporters emphasize that it is causing no threat to the country’s national unity, but is contributing to the national security through preventing radicalization of ethnic groups’ demands.

In fact, formation of an ethnic faction in the parliament can not be considered as a big deal given that in many countries, including in some neighbors of Iran, ethnic-based parties are represented in the parliament.

By-trend