Pejman: Article 15 of the Constitution Should Be Implemented for All

In response to recent comments made by Ali Yunusi, the special assistant to the Iranian President on minority affairs, Masoud Pejman, the Deputy Speaker of the Islamic Consultative Assembly, urged Hassan Rouhani to implement Article 15 of the Constitution for all ethnicities, so as not to give 'excuses to separatists and divisive elements.' Pejman made this statement on Tuesday, April 23, in the presence of Hassan Rouhani during an administrative council meeting in East Azerbaijan. Article 15 of the Islamic Republic's Constitution states: 'The official and common language and script of the people of Iran is Persian. Official documents, correspondence, and textbooks must be in this language and script, but the use of local and ethnic languages in the press and media, and the teaching of their literature in schools, alongside Persian, is free.' Recently, a member of parliament and several local media outlets have strongly criticized Ali Yunusi's comments, with Nader Qazipour, a representative from Urmia, accusing Yunusi of creating 'ethnic rifts.' Yunusi had stated in an interview with the newspaper 'Qanoon' that there should be a distinction made between Turks and Azerbaijanis, emphasizing that 'the Azerbaijani language is considered a dialect of Persian' and that the Turkish language 'established in Azerbaijan' has 'only existed for about three to four hundred years and is an incidental language.' Qazipour responded by saying that Yunusi has made 'scientific errors for the third time and has attempted to undermine the great Iranian ethnicity {Turkic speakers}.' Qazipour has called on Hassan Rouhani to take action against his assistant and advised Yunusi to 'stay at home and take care of his grandchildren.' However, Masoud Pejman stated in the meeting that 'the government's intention' is to support the Turkish language and literature, but 'recently something was raised in the media that turned against the government.' Islamic Republic officials have always opposed 'education in the mother tongue'; the 'education in the mother tongue' based on Article 15 of the Constitution has also not been implemented for decades in Iran. Hassan Rouhani, during the 2013 presidential election, promised that in response to requests for mother tongue education in various regions of Iran, the mother tongues of Iranians, including Kurdish, Azerbaijani, Arabic, etc., would be officially taught at school and university levels in line with 'implementing Article 15 of the Constitution.' However, teaching Kurdish language and literature at the University of Kurdistan and the teaching of local Kurdish, Turkish, and Turkmen languages in some areas where these languages are spoken began during both the previous and current administrations of Hassan Rouhani. Until October 2013, the special assistant to the president for Sunni affairs dealt with minority issues, but at that time, Ali Yunusi, the former Minister of Intelligence of the Islamic Republic, was appointed by Hassan Rouhani as the special assistant to the president on ethnic and religious minority affairs.