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As the United States is attacking Iran, now is the time to also think about the day after the Iranian regime falls. With the United States attacking Iran, it is pivotal that the goal be regime change and not just a maneuver to try to get the regime to negotiate. It is crucial to note that if after the 11-day war last year Iran did not give up on its nuclear ambitions, this regime will never give up on its nuclear ambitions. Thus, if President Trump wants the world to be a safer place, he should rid the world of the mullahs once and for all, and help the Iranian people to establish a free and democratic country.
It is critical to recall that Iran is a multi-ethnic country, which includes South Azerbaijanis, Turkmen, Kurds, Baloch, Ahwaz Arabs and Persians. Between thirty and forty percent of the country is made up of South Azerbaijanis. And according to the former minister of education in Iran, 70 percent of the students in Iran speak a language other than Persian. Therefore, the non-Persian population’s grievances should be taken into account by the American president whenever the future of Iran is discussed.
Iran’s non-Persian communities, whether South Azerbaijani, Turkmen, Kurdish, Ahwazi Arab or Baloch, have been deprived of the most basic human rights and ethnic rights, such as the right to study and work in their mother tongue by the regime. Not only that, but activists from these communities who advocated for linguistic and cultural rights for Iran’s non-Persian communities have been arrested, tortured and given long-prison sentences. This repressive policy of imposing Persian culture and language on Iran’s non-Persian populations is known as linguicide.
On the ground in Iran, Iran’s non-Persian ethnic groups each have their own organized opposition groups that are fighting for cultural and linguistic rights against enormous odds. They also have groups advocating for a federal system in Iran, where the rights of Iran’s repressed minority groups would be respected. There are other groups among Iran’s non-Persian majority that are advocating for independence. All of these groups hold a positive opinion of the United States and would be more than willing to work with President Trump to liberate Iran from the mullahs. All of these groups have more internal legitimacy than the descendent of a monarch, who has been living for decades in exile in America and by now is far removed from the lives of the average person living in Iran.
South Azerbaijanis in particular are closely tied to the State of Azerbaijan, which has a long history of cooperating with the United States as an ally of NATO. Following the September 11 terror attacks, Azerbaijan granted assistance to America in their struggle against the Taliban and Al Qaeda in Afghanistan, serving alongside American troops and permitting American planes to refuel in Baku en route to Afghanistan. When the United States left Afghanistan, it was Azerbaijan who worked together with Turkey in order to safely evacuate American assets that were left behind.
Just as North Azerbaijan has been a valuable ally of the United States, South Azerbaijan if free and independent will similarly be a friend of the United States. For this reason, it would behoove the United States to help liberate the people of South Azerbaijan from the mullah’s tyranny once and for all, replacing their repressive rule with either a federal democracy elected by the Iranian people or a series of free independent states that will break off from the yoke of Persian hegemony, just as the nations of the former Soviet Union broke off from Moscow and obtained their freedom. The time for talk has ended. The time to obtain freedom has come.
Ahmed Obali is a South Azerbaijani dissident journalist, who founded and is head of Gunaz TV in Chicago.
