BAKU, Azerbaijan, November 28. For centuries, the language of communication in Iran was not Persian, but Azerbaijani-Turkic, Trend reports, referring to the article by Isa Habibbayli, President of Azerbaijan's National Science Academy (ANAS).
"Even now in big cities, the representatives of various nationalities use the Azerbaijani language to communicate with each other. However, as rightly observed by President Ilham Aliyev, the Azerbaijani language was deliberately reduced to the "spoken language" level - it is not taught in Iranian schools," he said.
He also mentioned that the Azerbaijani language, which is the native language of Azerbaijanis residing in Iran's South Azerbaijan, was subjected to the influence of a large number of Arabic-Persian words, that were alien to the Azerbaijani language's grammar and structure, resulting in significant changes in its colloquial features and writing style.
All this has put Azerbaijani language in Iran in jeopardy, added Habibbayli.
" In accordance with this, it is necessary to teach the Azerbaijani language on a constant basis in secondary and higher schools in Iran," he said.
The academician noted that the Islamic Republic of Iran, which opens schools, newspapers, radio channels, and churches for a small number of Armenians, should also recognize the right of millions of Azerbaijanis to study in their native language.
"Depriving more than 35 million Azerbaijanis living in Iran of the right to study in their native language is completely contrary to human rights and humanity in general and is unacceptable. Azerbaijanis' rights in Iran have to be restored," said Habibbayli.