IRAN RISES

Karubi (of Lurish background) showed a tin ear to Azerbaijani aspirations in the following situation reported by Turk News:

After the publication of brochures and leaflets in several cities in Azerbaijan, such as Khoi, Urmia, Shahin, Dezh, Salmas, and so on, for the celebration of the birth of His Holiness the Prophet (ص), featuring Mehdi Karubi and the beloved Southern [Iranian] Azerbaijani poet Hushang Ja`fari, he expressed ignorance of such a meeting and said that even if he knew of such a meeting, he would have avoided participating in it. Hushang Ja`fari said, “I am really sorry for the candidates and their supporters who are still trying to con and trick the Turkish nation and are putting on an act. I emphasize that if such an incident is repeated, I will protect my own social status with all my might.” He added, “As long as the just rights of the Turkish nation of Iran, such as the right to study in their mother tongue, etc., I will not support any candidate.” He greeted the news that Mr. Akbar Alami was running.

http://turk-news.blogfa.com/

As for Khatami, his blunder was to tell a Turkish joke among his fellow divines. Turkish jokes are a bit like our Polish jokes or Canadians’ Newfie jokes or the British’s Irish jokes, but with other characteristics folded in (a naive religious zeal, for example). Moreover, many provinces of Iran have imputed characteristics which have attracted their share of humor–stingy Isfahanis, Rashtis whose men are not sufficiently jealous about their women, cowardly Yazdis. These are generally taken in more or less good humor by their victims, and I’ve even seen Azerbaijanis tell Turkish jokes. But when national feelings run high and, moreover, one nationality feels singled out and unduly put-upon, these jokes can sting and ultimately become intolerable. It becomes so much the worse when a leading Iranian political figure is telling the joke. So when, on May 14, a cell-phone video appeared on the internet of Sayyed Mohammad Khatami telling a Turkish joke,

it was taken very badly by the Azerbaijanis. Khatami’s joke told of a preacher from Ardebil (a city in Azerbaijan) whose specialty was reciting the story of the life of Fatima (the Prophet’s daughter and Imam Ali’s wife). The preacher told how, on her wedding night, she was escorted to the bed chamber with the Prophet in front, Imam Hasan on the left, and Imam Hosein on the right. Of course, by the time Fatima was married, the Prophet had already passed on and Imam Hasan and Imam Hosein, being her children, had yet to be born! Khatami then thumps his chest and says, “May I be a sacrifice to your ignorance, preacher.” When this joke was published, it led to a violent reaction in Azerbaijan. When Musavi held meetings in the cities of Azerbaijan, especially the universities, pictures of him were torn up and burned, since he had allowed Khatami to endorse him. He was forced to cut question and answer sessions short and leave the room quickly, or simply state that he did not want to talk about Khatami’s joke. In Ardebil, Musavi was forced, according to a report, to hold his entire program in Azerbaijani Turkish. The joke protests led to many arrests. (This information is from the Azerbaijan Nationalist Movement‘s website and could not be independently confirmed.) In understanding Azerbaijan’s relatively muted reaction to the struggle over the recent presidential elections, it should be noted that, even while the Azerbaijanist websites denounce the repression in the Persian Iran, they are more concerned with the backlash over Khatami’s Turkish joke.