TIME "Azerbaijan has always stood up against dictators." Really?

Very interesting archives for june 2009: The presidential candidate was greeted last Monday at the airport by a jubilant throng, chanting "Azerbaijan is awake, and is supporting its son!" That slogan, shouted in the Azeri language, might sound a little discordant, given that Mir-Hossein Moussavi is running for President not of Azerbaijan, but of Iran. But the enthusiasm of his home-state crowd in East Azerbaijan may help explain — at least in part — why Moussavi is currently the strongest challenger to incumbent President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad in the June 12 election.



The rights and concerns of Iran's ethnic minorities are enjoying a prominence in this year's race far greater than during any previous election in the Islamic Republic. Both Moussavi and the other reformist candidate, Mehdi Karroubi, have traveled far and wide in Iran to court Lors, Kurds, Arabs, Turkomans, Azeris, Baluchis and other non-Persian minorities who together make up almost half of the population. Under Ahmadinejad's government, there has been greater repression of political and media activity among the minorities, a fact the state justifies by citing U.S. government efforts to undermine the Islamic Republic by funding opposition activities among minorities in the border regions. Despite the country's patchwork of intertwined ethnicities, religions and languages, Iranians from all backgrounds harbor a strong sense of national identity. Still, the central government has historically been wary of the minorities who mostly inhabit Iran's peripheral provinces.


In Tabriz on Monday, addressing a cheering crowd of about 30,000 in his native Azeri, Moussavi trumpeted, "Azerbaijan has always stood up against dictators.

Really?

Azerbaijan's champions have changed the destiny of Iran." He cited the names of important Azeri figures in Iran's democratic tradition.

Azeris are the most integrated and influential among Iran's minorities. While it is rare for a Kurd or an Arab to occupy a high office in the Islamic Republic, many of the leading figures in today's regime are Azeri, including Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.