In 2006, South Azerbaijan made a major uprising against the racist and discriminatory policies of the Iranian state. This uprising, which has become an important turning point in the history of contemporary Azerbaijan, has been referred to as “Caricature Uprising” or “May Uprising”.

On May 12, 2016, the government’s official newspaper “Iran” published a long humorous essay entitled “How do I prevent the growth of insects?” This article, apparently a humorous writing, was literally a racist political and social method to destroy an unwanted society. In this article, the Turks were clearly mentioned, because both the texts were referred directly to the Turks, and the insects were speaking on the Azerbaijani Turkic!
South Azerbaijan’s reaction to this extremely inhumane writing came quick, because earlier such publications took place in the Iranian media, and there was already a growing anger in Turkish society.

The first protest was held by Turkish students at Tebriz University. Right after it there were Turkish protest rallies in almost all major cities of South Azerbaijan and Iran, including Tehran. On May 20, a small street protest took place in Khoy, South Azerbaijan.

There was a huge demonstration on 22 of May in Tabriz and hundreds of thousands of people filled the streets. There was a conflict between the security forces and an angry crowd about the police’s use of violence, and several banks and government offices were set on fire. Many people were injured and hundreds of people were arrested.

On May 23, a large crowd went to the street in Urmiye. Conflicts broke out as a result of police violence. The office of the Iranian newspaper and the state radio and television building were set on fire by demonstrators. There were wounded and arrested. Four people lost their lives.

After that, chain of protests continued in more than 50 cities of southern Azerbaijan. Unfortunately, Iranian security forces have not stopped using violence. The demonstrators who entered the district governor’s office in Sulduz were attackted with real bullets and seven people lost their lives. Generally, during in the south Azerbaijan, many people lost their lives, hundreds of people were injured and nearly 20 people were taken into custody for a long and short periods of time.

In the face of these events, the Iranian state temporarily stopped the Iranian journal and took several people into custody. But shortly afterwards, the newspaper continued to be released and both prisoners were set free.

Twelve years have passed since those events and the South Azerbaijani Turks no longer hope that the Iranian state’s case judges will deal fairly with responsibles. Because fair trials are rarity, racist publications have continued to be broadcasted in the Iranian media, more and more mass protests have been held and are still going on.

Southern Azerbaijani Turks have now completely lost their hope in the justice of the central government.