On February 12, Azerbaijan Cultural University Turkish students organized a protest meeting for Turkish language and literature. The students came together at the Faculty of Letters. Some of the students had posters with slogans like “Long Live Azerbaijan” and “Death to fascism”. Students demanded schools to apply the 15th article of the constitution, and learn Turkish language and literature in their mother tongue, they used slogans: “Ruhani, Ruhani – What will happen to your promises” and “Everyone will get education in their own language”. In he protest demonstrators also used slogans like: “We are Ready for Death”, “Azerbaijan exists” – “We do not want to be blind”, “Umru Lake is filled”, “The sun is still gone, my mother tongue died” “Haray, Haray – I am Turkic”, “Light js not gone- Azerbaijan is not dead “etc. It was stated that the protest meeting was not held by any organization or campus, but was conducted independently by trainees. Rector of the Azerbaijan Cultural University Hasan Valizade came to Sehriyarr Amphitheater two hours after the protest meeting of the students and promised the students Turkish language and literature to be taught in their language. These students sent a letter to the rector of the university on 7 November 2017 requesting that the Turkish language and literature be taught in the educational institution, but no further steps were taken until now.
In Article 15 of the Iranian Constitution adopted after the 1979 Islamic Revolution states that Persian is the official language of the country, but there are no obstacles in teaching and exploring other local languages as well. According to this article, Turkic education starts from primary schools, not from universities. However, as it is known, the rights of the ethnic minorities living in Iran, mentioned in the Constitution, are not recognized even on the surface, and the article 15 has not been performed to this day. At this moment, tens of people are being held in prison in Iran because they actively support their mother tongue. Today, after many years of struggle, Turkish language and literature topics are taught only in Tebriz, Urmiye, Maragha and Urmiye Technology Universities. Turkish language lessons are not compulsory for students, but many students choose this course voluntarily. The implementation of Article 15 of the Constitution, the establishment of the Turkish Language and Speech Culture House and the revival of the Urmia Lake were the main promisses given by the Iranian President Hasan Ruhani to South Azerbaijani people during the pre-election campaign period. It seems that these words have not been fulfilled during the five years of the reign.