Turk khodeti
Azaris are not Turks. They are Iranians who speak Turkish
Keyvan Valizadeh
June 7, 2005
iranian.com unedited
I am sorry but my english is very weak. My name
is Keyvan Valizadeh and I am an Iranian Azari
born in Belgium.
I was taught in my childhood that we were "iranian tork" but
when I was 16, I told myself that this was weird to be both iranian
and turk. I wanted to be sure of my identity. And I remember that
I hated the Persians because I heard from pan-turkist azaris that
we were being oppressed by them for hundreds years.
The fact that
we spoke a turkish language was enough for me to claim I was in
fact a Turk. But with time I discovered that these pan-turkist
nationalists didn't reveal us all about our history and many of
their claims was totally false. But I feel to be turkish even
if I begin hesitating about the origin of my people.
I was suddenly sad not to know my origins. I begin to search books
about the history of the Azaris. I read books of Ahmad Kasravi
and books of the "Azari nationalists". I understood that
the historical facts were hidden by those "nationalists" and
I found that many of their claims were lies (like the Azari language
didn't exist and that the Azaris are in fact Turks that settled
in Iran). Archeological founds said indeed the opposite.
But I was sure I was a Turk because of the language my family
spoke.
My parents were very disappointing when I said to them that they
were not Iranians and in fact traitors that prefered to change
their identity. The castle of Babak Khorramdin, this Azari Hero
that fought the Arabs was a proof for them that our ancestors were
Iranians as both the Azaris and Persians spoke different dialects
of the same language and that both were Zoroastrians at that time.
I was really impressed about their knowledge and was rather
amused by the fact that I could have found answers of all my
questions
without reading all of these books. Azaris are in fact aware
of their history, something the Turks don't know. But I wasn't
still
conviced.
I went to this famous Babak Castle that the pan-turkist Azaris
praised. I didn't know why these pan-turkists that I admired earlier
didn't said what was the real goal of his fight against the
Arabs. Years before in Maragheh (where I am from) the pan-turkists
gave me leaflets that said the "first Azeri hero that fought
the Persians for their independance was Babak Khorramdin".
I was now shocked because I knew it was false. I knew that Babak
(whose name I noticed was not turkish) was fighting the Arabs
and not the Persians and wanted to restore the glory of Persia
and the ancient religion of the Persians. And I distanced myself
from them. Because I hated their ocean of lies and like
Hafez said: Do not consider the intestinal conflicts
of sects for, not having found the truth, they went to the
invention
Today I feel great and can argue about our origins with other
Azaris. Many of the Azaris I spoke had discovered the Truth too and
were glad to say that their ancestors were Cyrus or Dariush
and not the Mongols the Turks claim to be their ancestors. Some
others didn't want to know. Books about Azaris are indeed very
rare and the Iranians don't have written books about us contrary
to the Turks.
Today even if I don't hate the Persian anymore (how
could I hate my brothers and sisters ?) I am really confused about
the fact that they have dropped us in this historical battle. Because
I assume they think they have no right to intervene.
Something that is totally irresponsable. If others peoples
of the Iranian family (be it Lors, Persians, Baluchs, Kurds,
Bakhtiaris, Gilakis, etc) don't help us the political agenda
of Turkey or the pan-turkists will be achieved.
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