In the recent days anti-regime protests erupted in many cities of Iran. The protests had begun due to awful economic conditions, very high unemployment and inflation. But very rapidly it turned to ani-regime rallies and spread throughout mostly Persian populated provinces.
However at the beginning non-Persian regions such as South Azerbaijan showed a noncommittal attitude but in the advancing days non-Persian political organizations made calls to people to take part in the demonstrations, aiming the fall of the dictatorship of Islamic regime.
In this context, eight South Azerbaijani organizations including, Azerbaijan National Resistance Organization (ANRO) issued a joint statement calling South Azerbaijani Turks to join the demonstrations, emphasizing that the demonstrations in South Azerbaijan should be for preserving national rights of Turkish people in South Azerbaijan and other regions in Iran.
Upon the call by South Azerbaijani organizations in many South Azerbaijani cities including Ardabil, Zanjan, Qazvin, Maraga, Urmia, Hamadan and Xoy protest demonstrations took place, while due to very heavy security measures demonstrations in capital Tabriz crushed down after a short while it began.
At the demonstrations people shouted Turkish slogans such as “Long Live Azerbaijan” and “We are ready to die; We are soldiers of Babek (an ancient Azerbaijan hero)” and Farsi slogans such as “Down with Dictator”.