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Genetic studies

Exceprt from Russian Journal of Genetics was intentionally misquoted to include "and Iranis" in part about genetic affinity of Talysh people. Reference link is also vandalized to point to anti-Azerbaijani site, here is the correct link to article: http://www.ingentaconnect.com/content/maik/ruge/2003/00000039/00000011/00479088 —Preceding unsigned comment added by 110.174.163.242 (talk) 16:43, 11 September 2010 (UTC)

Both of the genetics-related references, #91 and #92, are wrong or otherwise don't provide any information. They need to be replaced or removed. "A recent study of the genetic landscape of Iran was completed by a team of Cambridge geneticists led by Dr. Maziar Ashrafian Bonab (an Iranian Azerbaijani).[91] Bonab remarked that his group had done extensive DNA testing on different language groups, including Indo-European and non Indo-European speakers, in Iran.[92]" Also, there is no reference to Dr. Bonab's Azeri ethnicity, or the source of funding, and make-up of the team, of his research. Likewise, which regions were samples gathered from. It seems all these quotes from genetics are used unscientifically and uncritically, as similar conclusions are reached about many other people, for example Armenian, where Soviet Armenians are very different from Iranian Armenians, from Arab Armenians (Syria,Lebanon), etc. What about Persians and Ossetians, for example?

Also, this quote should include that its an Iranian-funded study: "2010 genetic study of Andonian et al shows Turkification of this region was predominantly by the process of elite dominance, i.e. by the limited number of invaders who left only weak patrilineal genetic trace in modern populations of the region and not mass migration[90]." It's very important to include full information about all sources, not just the hand-picked quote and bibliographic citation. --Agasalim (talk) 10:20, 23 July 2011 (UTC)

Azerbaijanian people are not turkified iranians or caucasians

First of all this disccussion about "turkification" process of Azerbaijan is largeley based on speculation since there are really no documents that could explain how people of Azerbaijan changed their language from a dialect of persian to oguz turkic tongue so fast. There is no proof of any mass migration that occured in 900-1100s or later except the rule of Seljuks. But Seljuks ruled over whole Iran and even part of Iraq, and still they didn't leave much turkic-speakers in these parts, except some migrant turkic tribes that settled in Iran and northern Iraq, even today are minority. Settlement of turkic-speaking soldiers of Seljuks and later Ilkhanides also can't explain turkification because migrant turks should have been assimilated by local peoples, since 40.000 army of cumans who migrated to Georgia did not assimilate a single village but were assimilated among georgians, the same story is with mongol army in Afghanistan and kalmyk-oirat invaders in Kazakhstan. Cultural and anthropological factors do not directly connect Azeri people with Turkmens, except by language. And the most reasonable factor here is the anthropology of azerbaijanians. Indeed many southern and lowland azeris mostly look the same way as many modern persians do, however mountain azerbaijanis still possess native turkic caucasoid or dinaric types of face, a bit mixed with caucasian type. If turkic-speakers were not native to the region then azeri folklore would mention migration westwards from Turkestan, in the same fashion as Yakut folklore tells about migration from south-west to the evenkian tundra after wars with mongols and manchurians. Or Balochi people's folk poetry which tells about their probable origins in the Alborz range among kurds or another theory that they are descendants of Qurayshi arabs who were exiled from Aleppo. Azeri people's lack of asian mongoloid genes can't be used as a claim of their non-turkic origins since turkic-speaking peoples are not mongoloid by nature, all mongoloid genetical elemenets in different turkic peoples are alien to them because caucasoid elements' frequency is still higher. The best example of that are iranian Hazara people, who are not directly related to any turkic-speaking peoples and whose origins are iranian, but mixed up with mongolic newcomers in 1200-1400s, this however didn't assimilate ethnic iranian hazaras into mongolian-speakers. Indeed modern Azerbaijani people are descendants of Caucasian Albanians. But their language is shrouded in mystery, and the claims that Caucasian Albanians were lezghian-speaking people are not based on any real sources but are matter of sheer speculation. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 95.58.112.78 (talk) 21:49, 9 September 2009 (UTC)

I agree with this user. The turkification stated here in this article is fake. Amir.azeri (talk) 10:22, 12 April 2010 (UTC)

I am a Azerbaijani from Iran i have to mention to some problems in this article, we are not turkified there is no document of this turkfication, this is just for people who like Persian people, we don't call ourselves Azeri, we call ourselves Turks[ name of our land is Azerbaijan], and our language Turku (Turkish),tell the world we can't read and study in our language( we have to study Persian), tell the world we have got problems with Persian people, PLZ tell the world persion people have a racism on us, just because they are Persian and we are Turks, don't deny our population we are even more than 20 million in Iran, if this is a site of reality don't tell lies tell the truth ! snake.co1 —Preceding undated comment added 18:09, 21 June 2010 (UTC).

I am just stunned by how stupid you guys are. Azeri people are local people who were Turkicized by the 13-15th century with no doubt. ofcourse there are no documentation to describe this process, do you think we could find the so called documentation to prove the Arabization in Syria and Iraq? and Turkicization in modern day Turkey? the Turkic people originated from the Mongolian plateau and moved westwards after major defeat by the Chinese. read some history please. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 123.113.185.91 (talk) 15:26, 5 April 2011 (UTC)

Firstly please refrain from personal attacks it is uncalled for. Secondly the Turks or the modern day Azeris came first to the Iran with the conquest of the Seljuqs in 1037 by Tugrul Bey. This is quite contaray to your claim of 13-15th century. You say the local population was tukofied, well I can say the exact same thing. The local population of Iran were not Persian but were greekofied by the greeks. Yea... not very appealing is it, this is as ridiculas as your claim. Tugrulirmak (talk) 18:34, 5 April 2011 (UTC)

Human rights of Azerbaijanis in Iran

I want to mention to human rights of Azerbaijanis in Iran. Azerbaijanis in Iran are in a very bad situation, they even can't read and study in their own language, they should send their children too school which Persian language is taught there. they can't have their own economy and always important factories are built in Persian cities. there is racism in Iran, always Persian people insult Azerbaijanis with jokes,movies, and even in official newspapers such as Iran's newspaper caricature. Azerbaijanis want to at last study in their own language but Iran's government doesn't let. Iran's government has never given a reliable population of Azerbaijanis (haven't you thought why there is so much different reports of Azerbaijanis' population in Iran?) the migration of Kurdish people to west Azerbaijan state with the support of Iran's government has made west Azerbaijan state a Kurdish state, this state was first named as West Azerbaijan because there were only Azerbaijanis there, they also doesn't let Azerbaijanis too have a unique state of Azerbaijan ( included all part of where Azerbaijanis live). I wanted to tell that there is racism in Iran specially with Azerbaijanis. I think it is better to be a part for human rights of Azerbaijanis in Iran.

sorry for mistakes i am not so good in English --Snake co1 (talk) 12:37, 5 July 2010 (UTC) —Preceding unsigned comment added by 220.101.28.25 (talk)

its hard to know. but if i am not mistaken, then isn't the great ayatollah of Iran who is an Azeri? Compare with your neighbor Turkey with prohibition of Kurds into political life. I believe Persians are doing pretty well, I know you probably want to unite all the Azeri land together but its not very real consider the power of your two neighbors Russian and Persian. If you push too hard then that may hurt the group as a whole. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 210.73.78.62 (talk) 03:51, 16 November 2010 (UTC)

I am sorry but do you not know that our Kurdish brothers in Turkey are in the AKP party which is the leading party in Turkey. They are in the ministries, they also have their own political party called BDP so please know before you write. Secondly there is a violation of human rights in Iran that should be discussed. I'll give you some sources:

Here is a source from Amnesty International (I am sure you know who they are):

Iran: Continuing crackdown against peaceful critics

This makes it clear that peacefull activits are being detained by the iranian authorities for expressing their freedom of expression. Now please do try to discuss the reliabilty and the validity of this source.

"In addition to the human rights crisis following the election, security forces systematically harassed members of religious minorities, such as Baha'is and Sunnis, and carried out a campaign of arbitrary arrest against Kurdish, Azeri, Baluch, and Arab civil society and political activists." This indicates not only Azeri civil society and political activits are target of the Iranian regime but other ethnic minorities and religious groupings.

Tugrulirmak (talk) 18:18, 31 March 2011 (UTC)

To add to this the report made by UNHCHR also supports the claims made by previous sources and I suggest you give it a read. It includes many statements which have not been answered in this article Tugrulirmak (talk) 18:39, 31 March 2011 (UTC)

The human rights groups are political pressure groups in nature . That means they magnify every report about every unrest in the world . They can improve the human rights , but they are not sources for judgment about a nation . The human right report about Turkey is always negative , but I'm sure the nation of Turkey is not judgable in this report . The worst thing is to use such reports as a weapon in political conflicts : that makes any improvement impossible . So neither Turkey is anti-Kurdish , nor Israeli nation anti Arabs and Iranians anti.... based on the human rights groups . --Alborz Fallah (talk) 13:33, 3 April 2011 (UTC)

Please prove that human rights groups are political by nature, prove that they are preasure groups. If not please do not make false claims. The last time I checked Amnesty International was a well recognised human rights watch dog as well as the UNHRC which is in its self connected to UN therefore follows no secret "agenda". Please, lets keep the consipracy theories away from this article and place them where they need to go. Wikipedia Conspiracy Theories. Going by your manner of thought I can say that all Scholars follow their own political agenda...Tugrulirmak (talk) 06:25, 5 April 2011 (UTC)

Sources in question

In this changes : [1] , some invalid sources has been used . According to previous discussions, UNPO is not a reliable source , diplomaticobserver and other sites are news sites and not statistics sites, so I don't think the changes are acceptable . --Alborz Fallah (talk) 11:33, 16 March 2011 (UTC)

You can't just say UNPO is not reliable can you please discuss why it is unreliable. Then we can go on from there.To add to this one of the sources that is referenced in the population data is from 1999. 1999 is 12 years ago please tell me how this source is even vaguely relevent to now.If you are going to say to give us an idea then the reader should be made aware on the date the sources estimated the population.Tugrulirmak (talk) 18:21, 5 April 2011 (UTC)

Unpo has been discussed prevously in wikipedia and is seen ad unreliable.. check the wikipedia reliable sources archive. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 166.137.10.221 (talk) 04:37, 6 April 2011 (UTC)

Iran's population and total population

Sources (in this article) show that total Azeri population in Iran is 16-25% of Iran's population. The country population is 75-77 million. So the correct max number is 18-19 million. 30 is incorrect.

Total population must calculated by countries data. So 22-29 or 22-30 million is better. Because it matches the other data (population in other countries). Zagroos (talk) 08:13, 13 April 2011 (UTC)

I too believe the figures that presented "30 million" are an exageration of the real population of Azeris. However we can still discuss the source that was presented to us which incited the editor to edit like wise. According to CIA world factbook the population of Iran as of 2011 is 77,891,220 of which 24-25% are of Azeri origins. This makes the population of Azeris range from 18,693,892 to 19,472,805. However in the article it under estimates this figure by 693,892 - 1,472,805. Therefore the article needs to be updated. As always this is only one source, feel free to present other sources. Thank you, regards, Tugrul Irmak. Tugrulirmak (talk) 11:18, 13 April 2011 (UTC)

Please discuss before doing any edits

Please do not edit war as is happening at the moment. Present the information you wish to place on the discussion page first then we can reach a consensus then go from there. Edit waring is both counter-productive and damaging to the spirit of wikepedia. Please present reliable sources and we will discuss them.

Thank you. Tugrulirmak (talk) 11:08, 13 April 2011 (UTC)

30 Million is a nationalistic figure - not WP:RS

I notice some user [2] has in the past few weeks constantly changed the statistics, without discussion. There are RS sources that reject this number outright:

• Azerbaijan since independence; "Estimates from sources close to the Iranian government tend to mention the number 15 million; nationalist Azerbaijani sources talk of close to 30 million, or even more. ...the figure 20 million often mentioned in the literature is likely no exaggeratgion"(Svante Cornell (2010), "Azerbaijan since independence", M.E. Sharpe, 2010). It should be noted Cornell is biased against Iran and is no way a pro-Iran source.

However, it should be noted that the library of congress (estimates 16% of the population) is not associated to the Iranian government.

• Jacob M. Landau (1995), Indiana University Press, 1995. "Pan-Turkism: from irredentism to cooperation ", : "It has, however, a considerably longer frontier with Iran, on the other side of which live another 8-10 million Azeris, a fact which has nourished a vocal irredentist movement aimed at shaping a united Azerbayjan",
• Library of Congress, Library of Congress – Federal Research Division. "Ethnic Groups and Languages of Iran". http://lcweb2.loc.gov/frd/cs/profiles/Iran.pdf. Retrieved 2009-12-02. 16% estimated in 2009.
• Kenneth Katzner, The Languages of the World, Routledge, Published 2002. Total population of Iran: (65 million) Persian: 40 million, Azeri (10 million), Luri (3 million), Kurdish (5 million) ..etc.[3].

Other conventional estimates:

• CIA factbook: 25%
• Tadsuez Swietchowski (against somewhat biased against Iran): "Swietochowski, Tadeusz; Collins, Brian C. (1999). Historical dictionary of Azerbaijan. Lanham, Maryland: Scarecrow Press, Inc. ISBN 0-8108-3550-9. pg 28: "15 million (1999)" ". (This 15 million in 1999 is the same as the CIA factbook figure).

Note also actual statistics done in Iran:

• http://www.terrorfreetomorrow.org/upimagestft/TFT%20Iran%20Survey%20Report%200609.pdf ""Independent and uncensored nationwide surveys of Iran are rare. Typically, polls

in Iran are either conducted or monitored by the Iranian government and other affiliated interest groups, and can be untrustworthy. By contrast, our poll—the third in a series over the past two years—was conducted by telephone inside Iran over May 11th to 20th, 2009, with 1,001 interviews proportionally distributed covering all 30 provinces of Iran, with a margin of error of +/- 3.1 percent". Note this is statistics that with a 99% confidence level has a +/- 3.1% error. The Azerbaijani population is put at 21.6%, so the margin of error would 24.7% to 18.5%.

• Mehrdad Izady [4] referts to Iranian census of 2001 as well and provides an estimate of 19%.
• There is an Iranian census from 1986 that 82% of Iranians speak Persian and 86% of these speak only Persian. Of course this might include Iranians from other backgrounds that speak Persian[5][, but it makes the figure of not
• Provincial statistics in Iran: [6]. The population of provinces that speak more than 95% Azerbaijani are East Azerbaijan, Ardabil and Zanjan. Together they make 5.5 million people. If we add half of West Azerbaijan, this figure becomes 7 million. In Hamadan, the number of Azeri speakers per actual statistics done by the province is 30% (Azerbaijani) -70% (Persian, Laki/Luri/Kurdish) [7]. In Qazvin, there is also an Azerbaijani population but majority is not Azerbaijani (Mohammad Jalal Abbasi-Shavazi, Peter McDonald, Meimanat Hosseini-Chavoshi, "The Fertility Transition in Iran: Revolution and Reproduction", Springer, 2009. pp 100-101: "The first category is 'Central' where the majority of people are Persian speaking ethnic Fars (provinces of Fars, Hamedan, Isfahan, Markazi, Qazvin, Qom, Semnan, Yazd and Tehran..." ). One can confirm by visiting the area themselves or look at the local state statistics: [8]. However, for the sake of the argument, lets exaggrate and put 2 million for Hamadan and Qazvin. That turns into 9 million. Let us exaggerate more, and put 3 million outside of Tehran from nowhereland and these area just mention, and this becomes 12 million. Finally lets exaggerate about Tehran and consider out of the 13.4 million, that 8 million are Azeris. This exaggerated value becomes 20 million based on provincial statistics [9].

However, in reality there is 7 million in Ardabil, Zanjan, East Azerbaijan and half of West Azerbaijan (the other half or more is Kurd): [[10]. The numbers in Hamadan and Qazvin are 30% and 20% respectively, and that of other provinces outside of Tehran is at most 1 million. This gives: 9.2 million (roundedup). Lets round this more up to 10 million. Finally, in Tehran, 98% of the population known Persian and 67% identify as Persian based on comprehensive statitics that has been done already: [11] [12]. Also most Azerbaijanis in Tehran speak Persian as it is the cities language, and have intermingled with Iranians of other areas. Outside of the 67% in Tehran, there are many Iraqi, Afghan refugees and Iranians from other provinces (Kurds, Baluchs, Lurs), but for the sake of the argument we will say 33% which is 4.4 million. So the total (again rounded up several times) is 14.4 million out of 70 million or around 20-21%, which also agrees with the actual statistics provided by survey from a US organization: [13] (has a 3% margin of error with 99% confidence).

• So given this, the figure 30 million is a high exaggeration and as one source put it, it is a "nationalistic figure", and thus has no place in Wikipedia. Random websites that mention such a statistics are unreliable and per Wikipedia:Verifiability, "Exceptional claims require high-quality sources." and "claims that are contradicted by the prevailing view within the relevant community, or that would significantly alter mainstream assumptions".

A note on out-dated statistics:

• The newspaper article from 1922 is both outdated and non-RS (published in non-peerreview popular journal) and itself does not making claims on percentages. The author claims it is all a conjecture and a detailed study is needed. So not WP:RS.
• Just as the following from 1890 would be outdated: "Persian question, by the Hon. George N. Curzon, 2 v. illus., plates, ports., maps (1 fold.) 23 cm., London, New York, Longmans, Green & co., 1892.). Based on the Russian scholar Zolatoraf who used official Iranian documents in 1888, the population of Iran was recorded as six million people, half of these were Persian, 1 million Turk/Tatar (the term Turk/Tatar was used for the speakers of Azeri-Turkish language), Lurs 780,000, Kurds 600,000, Arabs, 300,000, Turkmans 320,000." [14] (p 494).

So modern sources at least from 90s to 2000s should be used in the article and the figure of 30 million for 2010 is a non-RS "nationalistic figure", and needs several reliable scholars (Full professors doing research in the area (e.g. Abrahamian..) not lecturers in USA/Canada etc.) from serious academic backgrounds to make such a claim.--Khodabandeh14 (talk) 04:51, 15 April 2011 (UTC)

Kasravi 1922 article

I already discussed the 1922 Kasravi article:[15] which is translated by Professor Evan Siegel. Via email (which can be forwared to wikimedia foundation) he states: ""Thanks for your interest in the article. I think you're right about the statistics. They're completely impressionistic. All indications are that writing in Azeri Turkish was fairly non-existent in Iran. It was developing in the Caucasus. I think it's significant that he never published this article in Persian. It shows that he kept his feelings about Azeri Turkish literature to himself among Iranians. And, as you said, he made a sharp change as a result of pan-Turkish provocations.".

Ebrahimi Amir and the other user who appeared after four months right after canvassing here: [16] who falsified numbers (Kasravi never mentions 30 million Azeris in modern Iran) [17], wants to make two points:

• The first point is what is the Turkic component of Azerbaijanis and how much it is. Whatever it is, the Kasravi source from 1922 is out-dated as is Kasravi 1925 (with radically different opinions). Besides just putting a long copy & paste (copy right violation), one should also note that: a) The article is written in 1922 in a non-peer reviewed journal. 2) Kasravi makes significant changes in his thesis in his book on 1925 "Azari ya Zaban-e Baastaan Azarbaijan". c) Kasravi was a popular writer but had no academic position and some of his theories are accepted while others are rejected (his negative view on say Rumi, Hafez, Sa'adi or religion and etc.). The only place that the 1922 article belongs to is really in the article about Ahmad Kasravi. Kasravi overall is a controversial figure, but the theories that he brought that have been accepted with regards to scholarship (verified by modern scholars) of course deserve weight. It should be noted that despite popular belief, other authors such as Markwart, Mohandas-Abdullah and Abbas Eqbal Ashtiyani had all mentioned the old Azari or Fahlavi language before Kasravi. Kasravi simply elucidated the sources more, but in a travel by a certain Mohandas Abdullah in 1900, the author (Mohandas Abdullah States):"The old sources indicance the people of Azerbaijan spoke a language called Azari which appears to be from the Iranian branch", this is 25 years before Kasravi. Or Abbas Eqbal Ashtiyani with regards to editing the Divan Obayd Zakani which had quoted a Fahlavi poem from Homam Tabrizi, states;"This is the old language of Tabriz".. and Markward also states: "The old language of Azerbaijan was Fahlavi...". Note by Fahlavi, they mean Fahlaviyyat of the Islamic era where in Azerbaijan, it was also called "Azari" or Fahlavi-e-Azari. Now Kasravi in his "Azari or Old language of Azerbaijan"(written 3 years after the 1922 article and actually praised by orientalists in peer-review publications and academic press books while his 1922 was forgotten) has on page 18: "In the Safavid era, Turkish all the sudden became majority and the Old Azari died out" and on pgs 16-20, he constantly refers to change of language due to rulers being Turcophone Whatever his theories, all these issues have been studied in more detail since 1925 and Kasravi's 1922 article. So it has no point being here, and his 1922 article is obviously supplanted by his more peer-review book of 1925 ("Azari ya Zaban-e Baastaan Azarbaijan") (also available on the internet for free).

• The other issue that the the two editors wanted to push (and they were constantly asked to enter discussion which they did not) wants to use is about Census. First Kasravi's article is from 1922 and he states: "It is difficult to decide these days whether there are more Turks than Persians. This can only be decided after a census is taken which distinguishes Turks from Persians, but the Iranian government has not to this day conducted such a census of its citizens or the population of its provinces, let alone distinguish Persian from Turk. ".[18]. This part was conviently left out: [19]. Secondly when estimating populations from early 20th century, we do not use a vague source which the author is unsure of. I would point out that Professor Ervand Abrahimian (2008) in his book has a rough estimate of a census of Iran's population in 1900: [20]. As the translator E. Siegel told me via email with regards to the statistics: "They're completely impressionistic.". But to put 30 million based on what Kasravi states in 1922 is simply a gross vandalism.

• Overall, Kasravi is a very interesting person, however a translation of a 1922 article or even his book "Azari ya Zaban-e Baastaan Azerbaijan" can be discussed in his own article. He made some contributions to history but all of those have been improved or modified. There is no way they can be considered modern sources with the much new information and advancements since 1922 in the field of historiography. Specially, the 1922 article was not referenced as a serious. And again, unlike what some have claimed, people before Kasravi have mentioned "Fahlavi" or "Azari" Iranian languages being replaced by Turkish in Azerbaijan (e.g. Abbas Eqbal Ashtiyani, Markwart, Mohandas Abdullah etc.). His best contribution is probably Shahriyaraan-e Gomnaam which was pioneering work as well as the history of the constitutional revolution. But the 1922 article in a popular newspapers besides not being WP:RS is outdated and supplaned by Kasravi's 1925 book, which today is outdated due to 10x more information and books. --Khodabandeh14 (talk) 07:09, 15 April 2011 (UTC)

(e/c)Thank you for explaining your revert. I've read the preface of the 1998 article and agree with removing that quote, or at least putting it into a better context. However there are two other paragraphs that are being removed.[21] Let me know if the removal of those paragraphs is justified in discussion above, and I will catch up before commenting again. John Vandenberg ^(chat) 07:12, 15 April 2011 (UTC)

Oops. Yes you are correct, the other two paragraphs have nothing to do with the 1922 article.. Unfortunately the article was hit with a lot of vandalism and I tried to delete the very long quote, which then went over to other parts of the text. I have restore those two pagraphs that were unrelated to the discussion. Also the link for the article (the journal may be reliable but that specific article is a translation of a 1922 source for study of Kasravi and not meant to be the opinion about current historiography). Thanks.--Khodabandeh14 (talk) 07:20, 15 April 2011 (UTC)

Al Mas'udi, Kitab al-Tanbih wa-l-Ishraf, De Goeje, M.J. (ed.), Leiden, Brill, 1894, pp. 77-88

"The Persians are a people whose borders are the Mahat Mountains and Azarbaijan up to Armenia and Aran, and Bayleqan and Darband, and Ray and Tabaristan and Masqat and Shabaran and Jorjan and Abarshahr, and that is Nishabur, and Herat and Marv and other places in land of Khorasan, and Sejistan and Kerman and Fars and Ahvaz...All these lands were once one kingdom with one sovereign and one language...although the language differed slightly. The language, however, is one, in that its letters are written the same way and used the same way in composition. There are, then, different languages such as Pahlavi, Dari, Azari, as well as other Persian languages"

This quote features in the article however it is from the source: Al Mas'udi, Kitab al-Tanbih wa-l-Ishraf, De Goeje, M.J. (ed.), Leiden, Brill, 1894, pp. 77-8)

This was written in 1894. Now according to Khodabandeh "The first point is what is the Turkic component of Azerbaijanis and how much it is. Whatever it is, the Kasravi source from 1922 is out-dated as is Kasravi 1925" which is obiviously true for a source which dates back 90 or so years, it is considered stale and has the chance of not matching with current data. However Al Mas'udi's source is from 1894 and thus is more stale than Mr Kasravis, this source can not be used to develop an opinion about the current state of matters. It therefore should be removed; after all we want consistency in our articles do we not? Tugrulirmak (talk) 10:20, 15 April 2011 (UTC)

With regards to Kasravi, his article in 1922 was published in a non_RS popular newspaper and supplaned by his 1925 wortk. But please stop WP:OR. Al-Masu'di is 10th century (1000 years ago) source so it is primary source, not a secondary. It doesn't matter if the book of his was translated and published in 1894 just like Herodotus's book might be published 100 years ago. It is fine to quote primary sources from 10th century just as it is fine to quote Herodotus, Pliny or etc as long as secondary sources support such a quote or general statement as well. Wikipedia handles primary sources differently, and although caution is needed (should be checked if secondary sources make the same statement), it is generally fine to quote it. Not only Kasravi 1925 has mentioned the al-Masu'di quote, this quote but so have modern authors.

• "Al-Mas'udi (d. 956) mentions Azari alongside Dari and Pahlavi" (Louise Marlow, "Iranian languages", Medieval Islamic Civilization: A-K, index , edited by. Josef W. Meri, Jere L. Bacharach, 2006.
• "Āḏarī (Ar. al-āḏarīya) was the Iranian language of Azerbaijan before the spread of the Turkish language, commonly called Azeri, in the region...The next testimony is the statement by Masʿūdī (d. 345/956) which points to the original unity of the language of the Iranians and its later differentiation into separate languages, such as Fahlawī, Darī, and Āḏarī—obviously the most prominent Iranian dialects in his estimation (Tanbīh, p. 78). "(E. Yarshater, "Azerbaijan: The Iranian language of Azarbaijan", ("Azari, the Old Iranian Language of Azerbaijan", Encyclopædia Iranica, op. cit., Vol. III/2, 1987).
• "Azarbaijan was the domain of Adhari, an important Iranian dialect which Masudi mentions together with Dari and Pahlavi."(Lazard, Gilbert 1975, "The Rise of the New Persian Language" in Frye, R. N., The Cambridge History of Iran, Vol. 4, pp. 595-632, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. pp 599 )

So I hope you see the fundamental difference and also the quote was there when the article had FA status. --Khodabandeh14 (talk) 14:52, 15 April 2011 (UTC)

The use of primary sources are not encouraged in wikipedia and one as old as 1000 years is just stale as a source can get. An oppinion stated 1000 years ago has no value as it is in not context in match with todays knowlege not in this article any way. Tugrulirmak (talk) 16:51, 17 April 2011 (UTC)

There is no problem with it as secondary sources have confirmed. "primary sources that have been reliably published may be used in Wikipedia" [[22]]. Since we ave secondary sources to support the primary source, there is no issue about quoting the primary source, since these secondary sources are more reliable than Wikipedia itself (which is tertiary source). If there was no secondary sources supporting the primary source, then your argument might or might not be valid. But the secondary sources have confirmed and quoted this primary source, so there is no argument. --Khodabandeh14 (talk) 17:25, 17 April 2011 (UTC)

Population of Azeris

According to Prof. Amikam Nachmani of The Begin-Sadat (BESA) Center for Strategic Studies who is in association with the political science department at Bar-Ilan University in Israel.

"Between 33% and 40% of Iran are of Azeri origins; other estimations vary from 8million to 25 million"

This new information should be added.Tugrulirmak (talk) 11:32, 20 April 2011 (UTC)

• Please read the post I made above that 30 million is a nationalistic figure with RS sources.
• The person you are quoting is not a Professor but a lecturer (two very different positions).
• On your quote, these are wild estimations, as it mentions 8 million, then 25 million and etc. I already brought sources that claim 30 million is the nationalistic figure, so such sources are actually exceptional claims. Your source shows that it has not done any studies and to put a figure between 8 million to 32 million based on one author, is an exceptional claim. Both 8 million and 32 million seems to be quoting fringe sources as these are not conventional.
• Note Wikipedia policy: "Exceptional claims require high-quality sources" and "Red flags that should prompt extra caution include: surprising or apparently important claims not covered by mainstream sources"[23].
• The BESA center does not seem like an academic insitution and seems very biased towards seeking national interest of a country. So it is not an academic organization
• One can also find for example on the google books: "Kurds, who constitute one-third of the population of Turkey..." [24] and "Mutlu, however, concluded that although the number of Kurds in the west had increased from one-fifth of their total population throughout Turkey in 1965 to one-third in 1990" [25] and "Kurdish people will make up 40 percent of the population in the year 2010...". Just because a google book exists, does not make it reliable for Encyclopaedia. In the numbers you brought, the RS sources mention it is a nationalist figure. Although they do not mention anything about the 8 million, but that seems low, because 8 million today would be the population of Azeri-speaking provinces and adjacent areas that speak Azeri (see my post above about nationalistic figures).
• Given the fact that the author you mentioned has done no analysis, and the sentence (a single sentence and no depth) is not sourced (with any reference), I think such sources need to be examined in light of other sources. Basically, stronger sources like Swietchowski which specialized on the topic of modern Azerbaijanis is better than the source which is not about Iran.
• Plus I brought sources clearly stating that the 30 million is a nationalist figure (33%) (see above). [26] (Azerbaijan since independence; "Estimates from sources close to the Iranian government tend to mention the number 15 million; nationalist Azerbaijani sources talk of close to 30 million, or even more. ...the figure 20 million often mentioned in the literature is likely no exaggeratgion"(Svante Cornell (2010), "Azerbaijan since independence", M.E. Sharpe, 2010). ) (This book is written by the way by anti-Iran biased person, but again more specialized on the topic as it has a half page discussion).
• I also brought actual census work (not imaginary work) that has been done in the same link by US based organizations which should clearly make any off-set figure as an exceptional claim which would mean it requires a detail analysis rather than one sentence. The relative perctage of error would be +/-3.1% and even 5-6% is acceptable within the margin, but 15% or 20% is a statistical impossibility.
• I would read the above post [27] carefully as I have broken down numbers based on provinces. Provincial statistics in Iran: [28]. The population of provinces that speak more than 95% Azerbaijani are East Azerbaijan, Ardabil and Zanjan. Together they make 5.5 million people. If we add half of West Azerbaijan, this figure becomes 7 million. In Hamadan, the number of Azeri speakers per actual statistics done by the province is 30% (Azerbaijani) -70% (Persian, Laki/Luri/Kurdish) [29]. In Qazvin, there is also an Azerbaijani population but majority is not Azerbaijani (Mohammad Jalal Abbasi-Shavazi, Peter McDonald, Meimanat Hosseini-Chavoshi, "The Fertility Transition in Iran: Revolution and Reproduction", Springer, 2009. pp 100-101: "The first category is 'Central' where the majority of people are Persian speaking ethnic Fars (provinces of Fars, Hamedan, Isfahan, Markazi, Qazvin, Qom, Semnan, Yazd and Tehran..." ). One can confirm by visiting the area themselves or look at the local state statistics: [30]. However, for the sake of the argument, lets exaggrate and put 2 million for Hamadan and Qazvin. That turns into 9 million. Let us exaggerate more, and put 3 million outside of Tehran from nowhereland and these area just mention, and this becomes 12 million. Finally lets exaggerate about Tehran and consider out of the 13.4 million, that 8 million are Azeris. This exaggerated value becomes 20 million based on provincial statistics [31]. However, in reality there is 7 million in Ardabil, Zanjan, East Azerbaijan and half of West Azerbaijan (the other half or more is Kurd): [[32]. The numbers in Hamadan and Qazvin are 30% and 20% respectively, and that of other provinces outside of Tehran is at most 1 million. This gives: 9.2 million (roundedup). Lets round this more up to 10 million. Finally, in Tehran, 98% of the population known Persian and 67% identify as Persian based on comprehensive statitics that has been done already: [33] [34]. Also most Azerbaijanis in Tehran speak Persian as it is the cities language, and have intermingled with Iranians of other areas. Outside of the 67% in Tehran, there are many Iraqi, Afghan refugees and Iranians from other provinces (Kurds, Baluchs, Lurs), but for the sake of the argument we will say 33% which is 4.4 million. So the total (again rounded up several times) is 14.4 million out of 70 million or around 20-21%, which also agrees with the actual statistics provided by survey from a US organization: [35] (has a 3% margin of error with 99% confidence). --Khodabandeh14 (talk) 14:48, 20 April 2011 (UTC)

The official sources based on the American or Canadian governments are the most reliable and accurate ones. We should follow the neutral sources based on WP:RS. Regards, *** in fact *** ( contact ) 08:30, 27 April 2011 (UTC)

Please stop edit waring.

Both users please stop edit waring. State clearly what your argument is first in the talk pages then support your argument by credible sources then we shall discuss them all in good and civil maner. If the change is correct one to make we will make a draft here by collective work. So please stop edit waring, it gets us no where it is counter productive without a proper discussion it only takes someone to click undo to revert the change. Thank you, regards, Tugrul Irmak.Tugrulirmak (talk) 17:59, 25 April 2011 (UTC)

Azeris are Turkified Kurds

Azeris are the closest to Kurds geographically, historically but ofcourse it is sexier to be closed to Persians than to Kurds who still struggle for own country ! So many Azeris might not admit this. The theory about the Cauasian-Iranic mix origin of Azeris is exactly the same as Kurds, and the ancient Azerbaijan was part of Greater Media. Persians were not even close to the Medes before Cyrus took over his grand-father's kingdom. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Diyako2000 (talk • contribs) 11:18, 17 June 2011 (UTC)

No! Azeris are Americans how can you not know this fact!Tugrulirmak (talk) 09:14, 18 June 2011 (UTC)

LIES

STOP this Pan-turkist propaganda, I'm Azeri with grandparents born in Baku and it's common sense for most of us, that we are NOT Turkic people, we SPEAK Turkic Language because Oghuz turks once upon a time occupied our region, but that's about it. We are 100% Iranic/Caucasian people and have always been so. I'm so sick of reading this crap written by Anatolian Turks to spread their political agenda and influence... CHANGE THIS NOW PLEASE. And also, this article focuses too much on the Republic of Azerbaijan and not enough on Iran, when most Azeris LIVE IN IRAN. This is ridiculous. Who is seriously writing this article? There needs more pictures of Iranian Azeri singers/actresses...— Preceding unsigned comment added by 70.68.163.64 (talk) 20:01, 20 June 2011 (UTC)

Yes indeed, you are an Azeri... Just out of interest which university do you attend? By any chance is it the University of Tehran? By the way there is the Iranian Azeris article if you are interested you may wish to post there too.Tugrulirmak (talk) 14:49, 21 June 2011 (UTC)

main picture

i not liking main picture. why elli and nikki? they winnig one time eurovision and now they can be as big as rasulzade? but no picture of uzeyir hajibeyov? wow come on, this is not hollywood. i thinking better to have more cultural and science people in main picture than so much politics. i suggesting: mammed amin easulzade, rashid behbudov, kerim kerimov, fikret amirov, muslim magomayev, gara garayev, uzeyir hajibeyov, azi aslanov, samad vurgun, sami yusuf BabəkXürrəmi (talk) 06:11, 16 July 2011 (UTC)

I am not sure if it's appropriate to have photos of president or first lady as featured photos. It should be photos of famous people who are not currently in government, me thinks. --Agasalim (talk) 09:50, 23 July 2011 (UTC)

Inflated numbers once again

The source Ibrahimi Amir added about 30 million in Iran are all nationalistic figures:

• War and peace in the Caucasus: ethnic conflict and the new geopolitics Author Vicken Cheterian, Publisher Columbia University Press,2008, ISBN 0231700644, 9780231700641, Length 395 pages, (30 million)
  • It says 13 million not 30 Million"
• The Current digest of the post-Soviet press, Volume 48, Issues 28-52 Author American Association for the Advancement of Slavic Studies, Publisher American Association for the Advancement of Slavic Studies, 1996, Original from the University of Virginia, Digitized Feb 22, 2011, (30 million)
  • The source does not mention an author but is quoting Chehregani in a news source.
• "Documents: working papers, 2003 ordinary session (second part), 31 March - 4 April 2003, Vol. 4: Documents 9730-9772 Author Council of Europe: Parliamentary Assembly, Publisher Council of Europe, 2004, ISBN 9287152896, 9789287152893, Length 236 pages (30 million) "
  • This is a motion of the Azerbaijani government given to Pace. Nothing official.
  • [36] (that is a motion by Azerbaijani government parliment members, does not meet WP:RS).
• "Nationalism & ethnic politics, Volume 8, Issues 1-4 Authors Nederlands Instituut te Rome, Netherlands. Ministerie van Cultuur, Recreatie en Maatschappelijk Werk, Taylor & Francis, Publisher Frank Cass, 2002, Original from the University of Michigan, Digitized Jul 19, 2010 (30 million) "
  • This source is quoting Johragani (Chehregani). Again inflated figures and WP:fringe
• Turkey-Iran relations, 1979-2004: revolution, ideology, war, coups and geopolitics Author Robert W. Olson, Publisher Mazda Publishers, 2004, ISBN 1568591144, 9781568591148, Length 284 pages (30 million)
  • This is again quoting NLMSA (a separatist organization).
• Encyclopedia of language & linguistics, Volume 1 Authors E. K. Brown, R. E. Asher, J. M. Y. Simpson Edition 2, Publisher Elsevier, 2006, Original from the University of Michigan, Digitized Aug 10, 2010, ISBN 0080442994, 9780080442990 (30 million)
  • This source mentions 13-30 million..given the wide disrespency, the 30 million it quotes is likely the nationalistic figure. It falls under clear WP:fringe.
• Parliamentary Assembly Working papers 2003 Ordinary Session (Second part) / March 2003 Volume III Publisher Council of Europe, ISBN 9287151776, 9789287151773 (30 million)
  • This is again an Azerbaijani government motion. [37] (that is a motion by Azerbaijani government parliment members, does not meet WP:RS). Fringe.
• Parliamentary Assembly Orders of the day / Minutes of proceedings 2003 Ordinary Session (Second part) / 31 March4 April 2003 Publisher Council of Europe, ISBN 9287152047, 9789287152046 (18 million)
  • Same motion recopied. [38] (that is a motion by Azerbaijani government parliment members, does not meet WP:RS).

Given all this, I have re-added the 30 million as nationalistic figure and also added the Iranian Government figure as well (based on Izady map)..The four PACE motions were removed as they are not studies but a motion by a government. Thanks--Khodabandeh14 (talk) 02:21, 10 October 2011 (UTC)

Khodabandeh, you may disagree with other unofficial figures provided, but labeling those who use them as nationalists is contentious and violates WP:PEACOCK. For example, in this particular case, anyone vehemently disputing the unofficial figure could equally be interpreted as a nationalist of "the other side". So I replaced the "nationalist figures" with word "other unofficial figures". Thanks. Atabəy (talk) 22:32, 10 October 2011 (UTC)

Khodabandeh, is this reference a political organization too? it cites up to 27 million Azeris in Iran. Atabəy (talk) 01:24, 11 October 2011 (UTC)

It is not an expert source.. it also mentions 900,000 Lezgins .. It provides an estimate from both mainstream and nationalistic figures. Anyhow, provincial statistics are available every 10 years in Iran. The 2010 provincial statistics (even if we assume 1/3 of Tehran) makes around 11 million (see previous posts). And there has been uniform random sampling with this regard by American organizations. Irans government has also done figures but somehow these are not known [39].. be that it may, I think the CIA factbook and library of congress are fairly neutral for Wikipedia. My main contention was quoting motions or news reports from Chehregani, without mentioning political organizations. --Khodabandeh14 (talk) 07:20, 11 October 2011 (UTC)

Please attantion to WP:FIVE and WP:NPOV. "All Wikipedia articles and other encyclopedic content must be written from a neutral point of view. NPOV is a fundamental principle of Wikipedia and of other Wikimedia projects. This policy is non-negotiable and all editors and articles must follow it." Many sources claims that South Azerbaijan have 30 million people, so it's better write in article.--Ebrahimi-amir (talk) 09:42, 11 October 2011 (UTC)

Those are sources quoting nationalists, and mentioning Pace motions. They are discussed above. Quoting a book that quotes Chehregani and not mentioning it is forgery.--Khodabandeh14 (talk) 11:58, 11 October 2011 (UTC)

Khodabandeh, avoid using WP:PEACOCK definitions, such as "nationalists" in labeling authors. You may feel it is alright to do so because of your opinion, but it may sound inflammatory for other contributors who do not share the same. Atabəy (talk) 17:50, 11 October 2011 (UTC)

There are sources that mention him as a nationalist "supporters of Azerbaijan and of Azeri nationalism, including Johragani's NLMSA and the UAM"[40]. --Khodabandeh14 (talk) 18:55, 11 October 2011 (UTC)

Please avoid WP:PRIMARY. I think the sources is sufficient to prove the issue. --Ebrahimi-amir (talk) 05:08, 12 October 2011 (UTC)

Khodabandeh14, there are many reliable sources referring to Iran as a state supporter of terrorism, this is not the ground to call it a terrorist state in Wikipedia article. Similarly, labeling a group of people that you disagree with as nationalists, using WP:PEACOCK wording, is not constructive in the Wikipedia article. Atabəy (talk) 14:13, 12 October 2011 (UTC)

• Atabey: Wikipedia's policty on terrorism is clear. Not on "nationalism" if it is sourced by independent authors. Either way, we have political organization not nationalism which is fine.

@Ibrahimi Amir: WP:primary has nothing to do with the discussion. If a book is quoting Johragani's opinion on population, then it must be attributed to Johrangani through the book. Thanks--Khodabandeh14 (talk) 14:37, 12 October 2011 (UTC)

Khodabandeh14, Contentious labels applies to all statements that are value-laden labels that may express contentious opinion and are best avoided unless widely used by reliable sources to describe the subject, in which case use in-text attribution. In this case, calling people who raise voice for the rights of Azerbaijanis in Iran are labeled as "nationalists" or "foreign agents" only by a group of people, with clearly opposite POV, who try to attach such "value-laden label" to form a favorable political opinion. Atabəy (talk) 16:13, 12 October 2011 (UTC)

WP:SOAPBOX.."nationalist" or "separatist" is not a contentinous label. The title of the organization is "National Awakening Movement" which is equivalent. Be that it may, it is a political organization which is now mentioned here. --Khodabandeh14 (talk) 16:44, 12 October 2011 (UTC)

"National" and "nationalist" are two different terms, with different meanings and applications. Your arbitrary labeling of authors, and even Wikipedia contributors for their opinion, as nationalists is clearly WP:PEACOCK. Atabəy (talk) 16:47, 12 October 2011 (UTC)

The organization is separatist as cited by reliable sources. But I am not going to engange in more WP:FORUM topics here as "political organization" is acceptable. --Khodabandeh14 (talk) 16:52, 12 October 2011 (UTC)

DNA POV

There are two links in the article, one of which is dead and the other pointing to another dead link news release from Iranian Student News Agency (in Farsi), saying that some Professor Bonab, who claims to be Iranian Azerbaijani, asserts: "The study found that the Azerbaijanis of Iran do not have a similar FSt and other genetic markers found in Anatolian and European Turks. However, the genetic Fst and other genetic traits like MRca and mtDNA of Iranian Azeris were identical to Persians in Iran." Such unscholarly POV with a purely nationalist political flavor (i.e. why compare only to Anatolian Turks and not Caucasians, for example, instead drawing conclusion that Azeris are closer to Persians?!), with obviously non-working links, should be removed from the article. The information clearly violates WP:RS and WP:OR. Atabəy (talk) 17:19, 10 October 2011 (UTC)

Well , it seems that we were having a talk about this topic in here. The answer will help to improve this article . Thankyou --Alborz Fallah (talk) 12:51, 12 October 2011 (UTC)

Map

Yerevanci, the map inserted in the article is not reliable. The regions of Azerbaijan under Armenian military occupation are not recognized as "de-facto Nagorno-Karabakh Republic" by any state, including Armenia. Hence insertion does not only violate neutrality but is also WP:OR. Atabəy (talk) 17:38, 19 September 2011 (UTC)

OK. I got your point.

Please read the following excerpts from De facto and De jure articles.

De facto is a Latin expression that means "by [the] fact." In law, it often means "in practice but not necessarily ordained by law" or "in practice or actuality, but not officially established."

De jure is an expression that means "concerning law", as contrasted with de facto, which means "concerning fact".

The terms de jure and de facto are used instead of "in law" and "in practice", respectively, when one is describing political or legal situations.

So, Nagorno-Karabakh (including it's occupied rayons of Azerbaijan) is de jure part of Azerbaijan. This is recognized by everyone, as you said including Armenia. No one denies the juridical belonging of that territory to the Republic of Azerbaijan.

BUT, Self-proclaimed "Nagorno-Karabakh Republic" is de facto independent. No one including Azerbaijan can't deny this fact.

Also, you can see that so-called "Nagorno-Karabakh Republic" is labeled as de jure part of Azerbaijan. So don't think that it is labeled as separate country. --Yerevanci (talk) 19:44, 20 September 2011 (UTC)

Well, the article is not about political status, de facto or de jure, but about Azerbaijani people, an ethnic cultural group. Hence this controversial map, which brings up a political POV of one side of Armenian-Azerbaijani conflict, with a flavor of original research, is irrelevant to the article as well as any relevant template. Meanwhile, if a map is desired in the section of demographics, then the map of ethnic distribution in Caucasus, which I provided from a neutral source, can be used.Atabəy (talk) 20:16, 20 September 2011 (UTC)

OK. I don't want to argue something like this, where I have to explain that labeling a de facto independent region's map isn't POV, so I made another map, that should be acceptable. I just want to say that my point wasn't to show NKR on the map, but to show reality, which is seen as POV by you. That's your problem. I don't care. The reality is different. Here is the new one. Is this acceptable for you???

--Yerevanci (talk) 00:46, 22 September 2011 (UTC)

It doesnt consist with other ethnic maps. For example in this map you see that Azerbaijanis are also the majority in Urmia (Iran) and on the west side of Lake Urmia. Neftchi (talk) 09:59, 24 September 2011 (UTC)

OK, Scooter20 used this map which was produced by CIA in The University of Texas at Austin. You can check it. Som I don't think that you have problems with CIA neutrality concerning the distribution of Turkic-speaking people in Iran.--Yerevanci (talk) 13:35, 24 September 2011 (UTC)

What about Azerbaijanis living prior to the Karabakh conflict, that is most relevant to depict. Neftchi (talk) 08:34, 27 September 2011 (UTC)

If you want you can add. But you should notice that the map is called "Distribution of Azerbaijanis in the Caucasus and the Middle East" and doesn't have the word "historical". You can make another map saying "Historical distribution of Azeris...". This map shows the current situation. And it is based on neutral and relianle sources, so you don't have any right to delete it. --Yerevanci (talk) 23:29, 27 September 2011 (UTC)

Azeri(baijani)s have an Iranic origin mixed with Turks to explain their Turkic languages and still Azerbaijanis have a more Caucasian genetic base, thus are a mixed ethnonational group. But about the map shown the Azerbaijani are a majority of residents in easternmost Turkey facing Armenia: some of the reportedly Turkish Azeri could be Islamized Armenians whom adapted Azeri identity out of fear of persecution under the Ottoman Turks. Large numbers of Islamized Armenians morphed to Turkish Azeri emigrated out of Turkey since the start of the 20th century (1880s-1920s), peaked after World War I (1914-19) and many of them settled down in Western Europe (they are well concentrated in northernmost France with western Germany and Södertälje, Sweden), the USA and Canada. Large numbers of Azeris and Turkic Azeris in the USA are in Texas (Austin does have many Azeri and Georgian immigrants) and Southern California with east Hollywood, Los Angeles and the adjacent suburban city of south Glendale, California, but they (Soviet-era Azeris) lived often among Armenian Americans in the Los Angeles area . 71.102.3.122 (talk) 16:23, 18 October 2011 (UTC)

We are not kurd, are not persian, are not ......... WE ARE TURK, TURK ,TURK

I am from Azerbaijan. I am Azerbaijani(Turk). We never never never referred to as azeri. Azeri is Persian people and they live southern of Iran. Pan-Iranists(Persians) are hate to TURKS(Azerbaijan Turks, Turkey Turks, all turks). Qara xan 23:19, 16 oktyabr 2011 (UTC) — Preceding unsigned comment added by Qara xan (talk • contribs)

Population

The population of Azerbaijan is 8,372,373 (July 2011 est.) per CIA World Factbook. 90.6% of that is 7,585,370. Atabəy (talk) 15:12, 17 October 2011 (UTC)

Recent addition

It's better to clarify past issues of Azari elsewhere in the article, as far as I see Template:Infobox ethnic group assumes only languages spoken presently. Ehud (talk) 17:49, 1 November 2011 (UTC)

Where did you find in that page the specification "current languages". Infobox is a useless part of wikipedia. But if used, they should be used with care and neutral. Xashaiar (talk) 17:55, 1 November 2011 (UTC)

The native language of people identified as Azerbaijani (per subject of this article) is Azerbaijani (Turkic). Therefore, Azerbaijanis are recognized as a Turkic-speaking nation. So edits such as: a) adding some "Azari" language, existence of which was never substantiated by a broader reliable research; and b) changing Turkic people to Persian people in the disclaimer, constitute original research. Atabəy (talk) 22:30, 1 November 2011 (UTC)

I agree with Atabey and it seems to me that Xashaiar hasnt even bothered to read the article. The ancient Azari language is mentioned in the article, but the infobox should be about the modern situation. Another violation of the rules by Xashaiar is that he edits without consensus and even without discussion, note that this discussion was started by Ehud. Mursel (talk) 09:35, 3 November 2011 (UTC)

Everything else in the infobox is mentioned in the article. Do you have any reason (other than POV pushing) to remove "azari language" as the original language of northwestern Iran (and Shirvan) but keep other info? Your statement "infobox should be about the modern situation" is clearly self-made rule. I guess we could add Russian language too. Because it is really spoken by people in Baku. I remind that the other user in this discussion is not allowed ([41]) to make any edit on articles that could be related to Iran, Armenia, ....Xashaiar (talk) 10:38, 3 November 2011 (UTC)

Someone wants to imply something?

Wikipedia is not place of Iran's assimilationist policy. What the hell is the genetic map? What are you trying to say? This is a special thing for the Azerbaijanis on Wikipedia? Genetic analysis of people can not be encyclopedic information. This is unethical! Esc2003 (talk) 09:47, 16 November 2011 (UTC)

I think you mean the Genetic map is not Notable. By reading Wikipedia content policy , I think we can talk about the reasons to add or not to add that section (genetics).--Alborz Fallah (talk) 07:44, 19 November 2011 (UTC)

File:MEResulzade.jpg Nominated for speedy Deletion

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File:Mugham Festival 2008.jpg Nominated for speedy Deletion

An image used in this article, File:Mugham Festival 2008.jpg, has been nominated for speedy deletion at Wikimedia Commons for the following reason: Copyright violations What should I do? Don't panic; deletions can take a little longer at Commons than they do on Wikipedia. This gives you an opportunity to contest the deletion (although please review Commons guidelines before doing so). The best way to contest this form of deletion is by posting on the image talk page. If the image is non-free then you may need to upload it to Wikipedia (Commons does not allow fair use) If the image isn't freely licensed and there is no fair use rationale then it cannot be uploaded or used. If the image has already been deleted you may want to try Commons Undeletion Request This notification is provided by a Bot --CommonsNotificationBot (talk) 14:25, 1 January 2012 (UTC)

Work needed

Unfortunately, from when it was first promoted to FA status, this article has not been maintained to meet FA standards. Right now, there are a significant number of tags on the article, including citation needed tags, page needed tags and a bunch of dead link tags. There are also improperly formatted references (web refs missing publishers, Google books formatted like webpages instead of books, journal articles that give the hosting service as the publisher, etc.) and a mix of English varieties (I see both neighbor and neighbour, for example). If these issues (especially all of the tags) are not addressed, this article may need to go through the Featured Article review process. Please let me know if you have any questions, Dana boomer (talk) 20:08, 24 December 2011 (UTC)

This article will be taken to featured article review in one week if editors fail to address the issues of bias, reliability, prose, images, comprehensiveness and formatting that beset this article. It doesn't seem to meet any of the featured article criteria. DrKiernan (talk) 09:44, 15 January 2012 (UTC)

Offtopic

This information should be checked for WP:NPOV and WP:OFFTOPIC before further inclusion. I do agree that at least corruption exists, but in this case verifiability alone is insufficient. Brandmeister t 21:18, 12 February 2012 (UTC)

Infobox

Why has the picture in the infobox been changed ?! In fact 13:48, 30 November 2011 (UTC)

There is no consensus about changing the picture in the infobox. In fact 07:53, 22 February 2012 (UTC)

Images should not be duplicated in the same article. The image was changed because it is unnecessary to show the same image twice. DrKiernan (talk) 08:37, 22 February 2012 (UTC)

Then may I ask you who decides whose pictures should be included in the infobox ?! In fact 08:42, 22 February 2012 (UTC)

Why do we have to use a picture anyway ?! look at Kurdish people and Persian people as an instance. In fact 08:52, 22 February 2012 (UTC)

I just omitted the controversial image from the article. However if it is necessary to have a picture in the infobox, we should find a neutral one. Thanks. In fact 09:14, 22 February 2012 (UTC)

I guess you are all busy dealing with the numbers that you do not pay attention to the point which I have mentioned here:

The picture was changed in here without any prior discussion. Then I started a topic here and have waited since then ! In fact 11:50, 22 February 2012 (UTC)

Number of Azeris in Iran

User:Pejman47 delete [42][43] the refrence of South Azerbayjan population without any talk. The reference that used in article:

18.5 to 27 million

• Encyclopedia of the Stateless Nations: S-Z Approximately (2002e) 18,500,000 Southern Azeris in Iran, concentrated in the northwestern provinces of East and West Azerbaijan. It is difficult to determine the exact number of Southern Azeris in Iran, as official statistics are not published detailing Iran's ethnic structure. Estimates of the Southern Azeri population range from as low as 12 million up to 40% of the population of Iran - that is, nearly 27 million.

• Nationalism & ethnic politics, Volume 8, Issues 1-4 Authors Nederlands Instituut te Rome, Netherlands. Ministerie van Cultuur, Recreatie en Maatschappelijk Werk, Taylor & Francis, Publisher Frank Cass, 2002, Original from the University of Michigan, Digitized Jul 19, 2010

• Turkey-Iran relations, 1979-2004: revolution, ideology, war, coups and geopolitics Author Robert W. Olson, Publisher Mazda Publishers, 2004, ISBN 1568591144, 9781568591148, Length 284 pages (30 million).pp 76: "in Ankara, Johragani denounced 'Persian' chauvanism and their violation of human rights against the '30 million Azeri of Iran"

13-30 million

• Encyclopedia of language & linguistics , Volume 1 Authors, E. K. Brown, R. E. Asher, J. M. Y. Simpson; Edition 2; Publisher Elsevier, 2006; Original from the University of Michigan; Digitized Aug 10, 2010; ISBN 0080442994, 9780080442990
• Establishing security and stability in the wider Black Sea area: international politics and the new and emerging democracies, NATO Science for Peace and Security, Volume 26 of NATO science for peace and security series: Human and societal dynamics; Authors Peter M. E. Volten, Blagovest Tashev; Editors Peter M. E. Volten, Blagovest Tashev; Publisher IOS Press, 2007; ISBN 158603765X, 9781586037659 --Ebrahimi-amir (talk) 16:53, 1 January 2012 (UTC)

User:Kurdo777 change the population of South Azerbaijan with out any discussion. Some of users try to show South Azerbaijan people statistic low. They don't attention to academik source. I think that they follow Aranism that was explain in Iran and the challenge of diversity:Islamic fundamentalism, Aryanist racism, and democratic struggles by Alireza Asgharzadeh. Ebrahimi-amir (talk) 05:24, 22 February 2012 (UTC)

The figures were changed to numbers that are not found in the sources provided, and therefore it is right to remove them and put back the figures actually found in the sources. DrKiernan (talk) 08:37, 22 February 2012 (UTC)

Wikipedia is not a WP:Crystal, population figures should be based on official sources, and broader academic consensus (ie what MOST academics say), not based on "guess estimates" and opinions of a couple of scholars whose views are clearly WP:Undue on this issues when the VAST MAJORITY of the academic sources put the numbers at 16-18 million. Kurdo777 (talk) 10:29, 22 February 2012 (UTC)

"Encyclopedia of the Stateless Nations" is not an academic source. The other sources cited are clearly non-specialist non-official sources that contradict the VAST MAJORITY of the OFFICIAL AND ACADEMIC SOURCES, which will be listed below shortly, and are therefore a violation of WP:UNDUE. Kurdo777 (talk) 10:53, 22 February 2012 (UTC)

Foreign Minister Ali Akbar Salehi: "near 40 percent of Iranian are Turks" [44]. It's official document of Iran. --Ebrahimi-amir (talk) 11:14, 22 February 2012 (UTC)

Official numbers means the Iranian census numbers or goverment sources like the CIA Factbook/Congress Library. A politician's knee-jerk statements neither have any value on Wikipedia, nor can be used as a source. Kurdo777 (talk) 11:43, 22 February 2012 (UTC)

Also, I just checked the Persian-language source, you're actually misquoting Salehi, he doesn't say "near 40 percent of Iranian are Turks", he says "40% of Iranians know how to speak Turkish" which is actually true to some extent, as a lot of Iranians watch Turkish soap operas or go to Turkey every year for vacationing and therefore know the language, but that doesn't make them ethnic Turks. Million of Kurds who live in Azerbaijan, Iran and Turkey, speak Turkish too, but that doesn't make them ethnic Turks either. Salehi is talking about language, not ethnicity. Kurdo777 (talk) 12:19, 22 February 2012 (UTC)

This is what the MAJORITY OF OFFICIAL/ACADEMIC SOURCES say about the population of Iranian Azeris. I've listed a dozen or so such sources below that put the number of Azeris in Iran between 14 to 20 million. That range has BROAD ACADEMIC CONSENSUS and that's what we should use in Wikipedia as well.:

• CIA fact book => ethnic groups of Iran: Persian 61%, Azeri 16%, Kurd 10%, Lur 6%, Baloch 2%, Arab 2%, Turkmen and Turkic tribes 2%, other 1% (2008 est.)

Total population of Iran: 78,868,711

++++++++++++++++++++++++++

• "the US marine corps intelligence cultural field guide estimates Azerbaijanis to number 20 million or 31 percent of Iran's population compared to 35 million Persians"

Title Azerbaijan Since Independence Studies of Central Asia and the Caucasus Author Svante E. Cornell Publisher M.E. Sharpe, 2010 ISBN 0765630036, 9780765630032 page: 460

++++++++++++++++++++++++++

• "according to the CIA, 24 percent or 15,643,140 of Iran's population of 65,179,752 in July 1999 was Azeri, compared to 90 percent or 7,117,402 of Azerbaijan's total population of 7,908,224 ....two years later an Iranian publication reportedly put the number of Azeris at around 20 million close to the Turkish estimates"

Title Persian dreams: Moscow and Tehran since the fall of the Shah Author John W. Parker Publisher Potomac Books, Inc., 2009 ISBN 1597972363, 9781597972369 page: 365 & 366 (footnotes!)

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

• "... to the Iranian state by the Sunni and Azri minorities who constitute 15% and 25% of the Iranian population respectively"

Title Persistent permeability?: regionalism, localism, and globalization in the Middle East International political economy of new regionalisms series Authors Bassel F. Salloukh, Rex Brynen Editors Bassel F. Salloukh, Rex Brynen Contributor Bassel F. Salloukh Edition illustrated Publisher Ashgate Publishing, Ltd., 2004 ISBN 0754636623, 9780754636625 Page: 107

++++++++++++++++++

• "the CIA factbook 1992 states that Azeris make up 25 percent of Iran's population or 14 million"

Title After Empire: The Emerging Geopolitics of Central Asia Author Jed C. Snyder Editor Jed C. Snyder Publisher DIANE Publishing, 1997 ISBN 0788146661, 9780788146664 Page: 161 (footnote)

++++++++++++++++++

• "Turkish-speaking and Shi'i Azeris, who constitute 20 percent to 25 percent of the population of Iran"

Title Who rules Iran?: the structure of power in the Islamic Republic Author Wilfried Buchta Publisher Washington Institute for Near East Policy, 2000 Original from the University of Michigan Digitized 28 Aug 2008 ISBN 0944029396, 9780944029398 page:103

++++++++++++++

• "...in Iranian Azerbaijan in the country's north, which is populated by more than 25 million (azei0 Turkic-speaking ethnic Azeris. representing over one third of Iran's entire population..."

Title Energy security challenges for the twenty-first century Contemporary military, strategic, and security issues Author Gal Luft Editors Gal Luft, Anne Korin Edition illustrated Publisher ABC-CLIO, 2009 ISBN 0275999971, 9780275999971 Page: 117

+++++++++++++

• "more than 20 million Azeri in the northwestern provinces of Iran, approximately one third of the Iranian population."

Title American oil diplomacy in the Persian Gulf and the Caspian Sea Author Gawdat Bahgat Edition illustrated Publisher University Press of Florida, 2003 ISBN 0813026393, 9780813026398 page: 157

++++++++++++++

• "that Iranian Azerbaijan with its estimated population of 20 million"

Title Turkey's foreign policy in the 21st century: a changing role in world politics Authors Tareq Y. Ismael, Mustafa Aydın Editors Tareq Y. Ismael, Mustafa Aydın Contributor Tareq Y. Ismael Publisher Ashgate Publishing, Ltd., 2003 ISBN 0754635015, 9780754635017 page: 149

++++++++++++++

• "because Iran is home to 20 million Azeris, almost three times the population of Azerbaijan"

Title The Caspian Sea Region and energy resources Authors Bernard A. Gelb, Terry Rayno Twyman, Library of Congress. Congressional Research Service Edition illustrated Publisher Nova Publishers, 2004 ISBN 1590337107, 9781590337103 Page: 39

+++++++++++++

• "...The remainder of Iran's population are Azeri Turk (24 percent)..."

Title Iran's security policy in the post-revolutionary era Volume 1320 of MR // Rand Iran's Security Policy in the Post-revolutionary Era, Daniel Byman Authors Daniel Byman, National Defense Research Institute (U.S.) Editor Daniel Byman Publisher Rand Corporation, 2001 ISBN 0833029711, 9780833029713 Page: 13

+++++++++++++

• "Azaris Turkic peoples make up 25 percent of Iran's population"

Title Iran the People Lands, Peoples, and Cultures Author April Fast Edition 3, revised, illustrated Publisher Crabtree Publishing Company, 2010 ISBN 0778796477, 9780778796473 Page:19

+++++++++++++

• "Republic of Azerbaijan, 7.5 million; Iran, estimated 20 to 25 million; "

Title Reference Library of Arab America: Countries & ethnic groups, Algeria to Jordan Volume 3 of Reference Library of Arab America, ISBN 078764174X, 9780787641740 Publisher Gale Group, 1999 Original from the University of Michigan Digitized 9 Aug 2010 ISBN 0787641774, 9780787641771 Page:39

+++++++++++++++

• "Azerbaijani population of northern Iran that numbered around 20 million, more than double the 7.5 million population of Azerbaijan."

Title Russian foreign policy after the cold war Author Leszek Buszynski Edition illustrated Publisher Praeger, 1996 Original from the University of Michigan Digitized 2 Jul 2008 ISBN 0275955850, 9780275955854 Page: 143

+++++++++++++++

Kurdo777 (talk) 13:51, 22 February 2012 (UTC)

• "the Azeri minority in Iran (estimated at 25 million)"

Alex Vatanka in Europe Review

+++++++++++++

• "Azerbaijani speakers in Iran are more numerous than those in Azerbaijan (13 to 30 million in northern Iran, 6 million in the Republic of Azerbaijan)."

Brown, E. K.; R. E. Asher, and J. M. Y. Simpson in Encyclopedia of Language & Linguistics, Volume 1

+++++++++++++

• "between 20 and 30 million ethnic Azeris live in Iran"

Hasan Hasanov interviewed by fr:Anne Nivat in The challenge of integration edited by Peter Rutland

+++++++++++++

• "Iran's largest ethnic group of about 30 million according to different sources"

"Iran and the Southern Caucasus" by Huseyn N. Najafov in Central Asia and the Caucasus Journal of Social and Political Studies vol. 49 pp. 35-43

+++++++++++++

• "large number of Azerbaijanis (30 million in northern Iran and 8 million in present Azerbaijan)"

"Promoting Cooperation and Integration in the Wider Black Sea Area" by Leila Alieva in Establishing security and stability in the wider Black Sea area edited by Peter M. E. Volten and Blagovest Tashev

+++++++++++++

• "25-30 million Azerbaijanis living in Iran"

Jala Garibova and Betty Blair at Azerbaijan International

+++++++++++++

• "20 to 30 million are believed to be living in southern Azerbaijan and the rest of Iran"

Alireza Asgharzadeh in Azerbaijan: In Search Of Multiple Identities

+++++++++++++

• "18 to 30 million ethnic Azeris"

Artem Kobzev in "Relations between Iran and Azerbaijan worsening" on Voice of Russia

+++++++++++++

• "an estimated 20 to 30 million people in northern Iran are ethnically Azeri"

Damien McGuinness, BBC

+++++++++++++

• "Azerbaijan is of utmost importance given its border with Iran and the fact that close to 30 million Azeris live in that country"

Michael McMahon in "The Hill: Azerbaijan too important an ally for diplomatic ping pong"

+++++++++++++

• "Up to 30 million Iranians are ethnic Azeris"

Tim Judah in Jewish Chronicle

+++++++++++++

• "more than 30 million ethnic Azerbaijanis live in Iran"

Radio Odlar Yurdu Azerbaijan

+++++++++++++

• "There are an estimated 30 million ethnic Azeris and Turks in Iran"

Fariz Ismailzade at The Jamestown Foundation

+++++++++++++ Posted by User:DrKiernan

First of all, sign your posts. Secondly, you cannot use random political blogs and websites like azeri.org/radioazerbaijan.ca as a reliable sources on Azerbaijani topics or anywhere else on Wikipedia for that matter. You apparently have no expertise on these topics, nor any experience with the the past arbitrations and mediations dealing with these topics. There is long-standing agreement on Azerbaijani-Armenian topics to only use SPECIALIST, NEUTRAL and INDEPENDENT sources. That automatically disqualifies people like Fariz Ismailzade, Artem Kobzev, Alireza Asgharzadeh, Leila Alieva and Huseyn N. Najafov, Hasan Hasanov who are neither INDEPENDENT nor NEUTRAL on Azerbaijani issues. We don't use Azerbaijani sources for the disputed issues. We also don't use Armenian or Iranian sources by the same token. We stick with independent academic and official sources, and by that measurement, the vast majority of the qualified sources put the number of Azeris in Iran between 14 to 20 million, and you know that as well. So I strongly advise you to stop trying to push WP:UNDUE and WP:FRINGE numbers using questionable sources. This nationalistic approach has no place in an encyclopedia. Kurdo777 (talk) 08:30, 24 February 2012 (UTC)

Firstly, do not insult my intelligence or expertise.

Secondly, you have misunderstood the neutrality policy. The neutrality policy states all notable reliable viewpoints must be represented. The views of a former prime minister, US congressman, numerous journalists, academics and commentators are notable and reliable. Therefore, they must, under the policy, be represented.

Thirdly, the sources include three professors of linguistics, a US congressman, and British journalists. The information is sourced, reliable and notable. It is the removal of the information that is non-neutral, bias, undue and fringe not its inclusion. DrKiernan (talk) 08:41, 24 February 2012 (UTC)

I am not insulting your intelligence. You're a smart guy, but this topic is not an area of your expertise. That's a fact. You have no history or background on this topic or related topics. You're also unfamiliar with the the arrangement/guidelines on the Armenian-Azerbaijani topics that were the result of numerous meditation and arbitration cases, which discourage using Azerbaijani or Armenian sources on the disputed issues. Population figures are not "opinions", for congressman or journalists to comment on. There are many congressmen who have expressed ideas that are incorrect or fringe. Any information that is "sourced" does not merit automatic inclusion on Wikipedia. That's why, we must stick with what the MAJORITY of INDEPENDENT NEUTRAL ACADEMICS say and adhere to WP:UNDUE. Kurdo777 (talk) 09:08, 24 February 2012 (UTC)

Once again, I have already provided Western independent academic sources. DrKiernan (talk) 09:27, 24 February 2012 (UTC)

And they're WP:UNDUE and not representative of what the MAJORITY OF Western independent academic sources say about the population numbers. This is obviously a dispute is not resolved, you should not remove the tags until there is a resolution here. Kurdo777 (talk) 09:36, 24 February 2012 (UTC)

One way to resolve this, and avoid UNDUE, is to have two or three sets of number, one titled and covering the ACADEMIC/OFFICIAL numbers, the other covering the Congressmen/Political estimates like "Official Numbers: 14 million, Academic Estimates: 14 to 20 million, Estimate by political Groups and Azeri sources: 30 million" . Kurdo777 (talk) 09:49, 24 February 2012 (UTC)

Or better yet, we can make it into just two, one {Official Numbers) and one (Unofficial Estimates). Kurdo777 (talk) 10:11, 24 February 2012 (UTC)

I have now told you multiple times that according to Keith Brown, R. E. Asher, and J. M. Y. Simpson, who are academics, the top of the range for estimates of the number of Azeris in Iran is 30 million. Even your own sources of Gal Luft, Anne Korin and "Reference Library of Arab America" say "25 million". In fact, your own source of Luft & Korin says "more than 25 million".

Calling the CIA estimates via Jed Snyder "official" is misleading as it sounds as if they are official Iranian statistics, which they are not. DrKiernan (talk) 10:17, 24 February 2012 (UTC)

That doesn't change the fact that those are ESTIMATES from individual who are clearly in the minority among their peers, not official numbers from official reliable entities. Therefore, the numbers can not be treated equally and the reader should be able to see where the numbers are coming from. The numbers should be separated in different columns, one for official numbers from official governmental sources like the CIA Factbook or the Library of Congress, one for one for guess-estimates by qualified academics, and one for the random journalist/group/congressman. Kurdo777 (talk) 10:30, 24 February 2012 (UTC)

There are no official numbers. The figures from the federal authorities are estimates, just like those from the other authorities. DrKiernan (talk) 10:36, 24 February 2012 (UTC)

Who says there are no official numbers? There are Iranian census numbers for each province, and the CIA Factbook and Library of Congress numbers which are accurate and down the one tenth of a percentage, are based on those and other reliable sources. There has to be a difference between precise numbers that have the US goverment stamp on it and have gone through a review by specialists whose expertise is specifically this topic, and passing statements by random journalists, politicians or even linguists, sometimes in articles and books that are not primarily about this topic, claiming "there are up X and Y million Azeris in Iran" without providing sufficient substantiation. That's why we should differentiate between HARD FIGURES by OFFICIAL SOURCES and GUESS-ESTIMATES by ACADEMICS and others. There is a very simple solution for this, we list the official/goverment sources in one column with the sources listed one by one in parentheses in front of it and we list the other estimates in another columns marking them as unofficial estimates by other sources. I've seen the same method used on many other articles where there is a dispute about the numbers. Kurdo777 (talk) 11:06, 24 February 2012 (UTC)

Ali Banuazizi and Myron Weiner. If there is in fact ethnicity data from the Iranian census, then please provide a reference. Otherwise, all the figures are estimates, including those from the CIA.

Will you please stop shouting in your posts. I have already pointed you at Wikipedia:Talk page guidelines. Perhaps you do not realise just how rude it is, but now that I've directly told you, you have no further excuse. DrKiernan (talk) 11:58, 24 February 2012 (UTC)

What are you taking about? I am not shouting. I am capitalizing the keywords for emphasis, that's not shouting. Shouting would be writing in all-caps. In any case, you failed to understand my point, the hard figures reported by officials sources are from official sources even if they're estimates , while the other numbers are unofficial guess-estimates by individuals. There is a difference between a hard figure reported by a goverment source and a guess-estimate claimed by an individual. At this point, I have made my points clear, and so have you. I don't see any point in continuing this debate. Let's just wait and see what the uninvolved neutral editors will have to say about this issue. If no broad interest is generated through the dispute tag by the end of February, I will file a RFC on the issue. Kurdo777 (talk) 12:58, 24 February 2012 (UTC)

There are enough academic and official source that show it. I show that Iran foreign minister Ali Akbar Salehi said: "about 40 percent of Iranian speak Turkish" "نزدیک به 40 درصد مردم ایران به زبان ترکی تکلم می کنند"

Also many academic sources approve it that DrKiernan listed them in above. I want to add other sources to those.

According to Ahmed KASRAVI (November 1922):

“ It is difficult to decide these days whether there, are more Turks than Persians. This can only be decided after a census is taken which distinguishes Turks from Persians, but the Iranian government has not to this day conducted such a census of its citizens or the population of its provinces, let alone distinguish Persian from Turk. His estimation generally inclines the author to the belief that the majority is Turks, but we will not speculate idly, but stick to the research we have conducted which we present below, with general and approximate figures.

1) Azerbaijan, which is the largest of Iran's four provinces,' and Iran's most important. It has a population of one and a half million souls, and the district of Khamse, which is generally populated, among its nomads and settled people, its villages and its cities, by Turks (along with a small minority of Mokri Kurds in Azerbaijan who speak Kurdish) who do not understand Persian until they are taught it by a teacher or an official. 2) Most villages and tribes in the provinces of Khorasan and Fars and the districts of Hamadan and Qazvin and NIraq and Astarabad are Turks, and travelers wandering the streets and alleys of Tehran have been astonished at seeing the villagers walking about speaking in Turkish. Some of these had migrated from Azerbaijan and Khamse in recent years and stay in the cities and no longer consider themselves to be from their land of origin, but from these cities. 3) As for the other parts of Iran, the majority of the people there are not Turks, but there are many among the tribesmen and villagers who are. An exception is the province of Kerman and the districts of Gilan, Mazandaran, Kurdestan, Lurestan, etc., in which there are no Turks except those who have migrated there recently, and they do not consider themselves to be true residents of these provinces. That Russian adage is true which says, "There is no reed without a knob." Indeed, Mazandaran has two Turkish tribes, along with their clans, and in Sari, the capital of that district, over twenty Turkish clans which have migrated from all over Iran and settled there, and they no longer speak Turkish. We have decided (as we have said) to explain nothing except what can be explained with Arabic numerals, and estimations and speculation are absolutely unsatisfactory.

”

Source: THE TURKISH LANGUAGE IN IRAN By Ahmed KASRAVI,latimeria: Prof. Dr. Evan Siegal, Journal of Azerbaijani Studies, 1998, Vol. 1, No 2, [6] , Khazar University Press , ISSN 1027-387

According to Alireza Asgharzadeh (2007):

“ The population of Azeris in today's world is approximately 44 million, of which 20 to 30 milliom are believed to be living in iran, over 8 million in the Republic of Azerbaijan, close to 2 million in Turkey, and the rest in countries such as Russia, Georgia, Iraq, and Ukraine. ”

Source: Iran and the challenge of diversity: Islamic fundamentalism, Aryanist racism, and democratic struggles, Author Alireza Asgharzadeh Edition illustrated, Publisher Palgrave Macmillan, 2007, ISBN 1403980802, 9781403980809, Length 249 pages, P 18. --Ebrahimi-amir (talk) 17:10, 24 February 2012 (UTC)

Alireza Asgharzadeh is not an independent reliable source on Azerbaijani topics. He is a known Azeri nationalist political activist who advocates extreme fringe theories, like calling the Elamites, Sumerians and Sassanians "Turks". (There are actually more than one hundred fringe claims and conspiracy theories in his book, which are contradicted by the scholars, dozens of detailed examples of the falsehoods can be found here, with comparative references to scholarly works) Asgharzadeh is also an assistant professor in a different field, African social studies, which has nothing to do with Iran or Azerbaijan. Asgharzadeh is so extreme, that his primary reference in his book is Nasser Pourpirar, a revisionist and an anti-Semite who denies the academically recognized historiography of Iran from Achaemenids to the beginning of the Safavid period, calling it " a Jewish invention". Kurdo777 (talk) 21:04, 24 February 2012 (UTC)

Please attantion to WP:PRIMARY. It's cleare that "Aryanist racism" don't accept the trued fact , and try to delete Azerbaijanian culture and every thing about them. ))) Another official source about Iranin languges:

“ On December 15, 2009, Iranian minister of education, Mr. Hamidreza Haji-Babayi, revealed that 70% of Iranian students were bilingual. What this means is that Farsi/Persian is the natural mother tongue to only 30% of Iranian students. In other words, 70% of Iran’s population is non-Persian. And just a few weeks ago, on 18th January 2012, during an official visit to Turkey, Iranian Foreign Minister Ali Akbar Salehi confirmed that 40 percent of Iran’s population spoke Turkish as their mother tongue. Despite this fact, the Iranian government along with the majority of Persian intellectuals, scholars and even human rights activists continue to disregard the country’s rich ethnic, racial and linguistic diversity. ”

Source: Language, Colonization and Decolonization: Examples from Iran Alireza Asgharzadeh. --Ebrahimi-amir (talk) 06:12, 25 February 2012 (UTC)

Again, what part of Alireza Asgharzadeh, a political activist and fringe theorist, who is an assistant researcher in another field, is not an independent reliable source on this topic, don't you understand? What does any of this have to do with WP:Primary? On the Armenian-Azerbaijani articles, we only cite independent western academics and specialists. Kurdo777 (talk) 18:19, 25 February 2012 (UTC)

Alireza asgharzadeh is reliable source, but you should avoid WP:PRIMARY.))) DrKiernan listed various sources for you in above[45].

• "Azerbaijani speakers in Iran are more numerous than those in Azerbaijan (13 to 30 million in northern Iran, 6 million in the Republic of Azerbaijan)."

Brown, E. K.; R. E. Asher, and J. M. Y. Simpson in Encyclopedia of Language & Linguistics, Volume 1

• "between 20 and 30 million ethnic Azeris live in Iran"

Hasan Hasanov interviewed by fr:Anne Nivat in The challenge of integration edited by Peter Rutland

• "Iran's largest ethnic group of about 30 million according to different sources"

"Iran and the Southern Caucasus" by Huseyn N. Najafov in Central Asia and the Caucasus Journal of Social and Political Studies vol. 49 pp. 35-43 ......--Ebrahimi-amir (talk) 05:43, 26 February 2012 (UTC)

It's one example for trying duplication South Azerbaijani people in outside of wikipedia:

BBC (English): 21 February 2012 Last updated at 05:01 ET -Iran nuclear tensions put Caucasus on alert By Damien McGuinness, BBC News, Tbilisi:

“ Azerbaijan, bordering on Iran, has historical and cultural ties with Tehran as an estimated 20 to 30 million people in northern Iran are ethnically Azeri. ”

[46]

And translate to farsi (BBC Farsi):

“ جمهوری آذربایجان که در مرز شمال غربی ایران واقع شده، روابط عمیق تاریخی و فرهنگی با ایران دارد و تخمین زده می شود که حدود ۲۰ میلیون نفر از جمعیت ایران آذری زبان هستند. ”

[47]

In translation "20 to 30 million people" changed to "about 20 million people".--Ebrahimi-amir (talk) 09:35, 26 February 2012 (UTC)