Maybe when chiefs of tractor Manufacturing Co. (ITMCO) decided to establish a football club in Tabriz city in 1970, they didn’t think that this football club will be converted to tribune of Azerbaijani people and it will be more than football club. Tractor Football Club (Persian: تراکتور, Azerbaijani: تراختور) is an Iranian football club based in Tabriz. Red wolves play in Iran's Pro League. Average number of spectators at home games in Sahand stadium (Yadegar-e-Emam , this name is governmental name, but popular and current name for this stadium is Sahand) is more than 60,000. Even, nearly the number of tractor fans in games external like in Tehran is equal with the number of fans of home's teams. For example, the number of all fans at the games of tractor with Esteghlal and Persepolis teams was 80000 in last year, which half of them were tractor fans. One of their slogans in stadiums, which emphasise necessity of implementation of fifteenth article of Iran's constitution, is call for education of mother language (Türk dilində mədrəsə--olmlıdır hər kəsə) and another slogan relating to environmental disaster of Urmiyeh (Urmu) lake ask for saving of this lake from drying out."gəlin gedax ağlıyax—urmu gölün doldurax" that means : Let's go and cry--- fill lake up with our tears. Other slogans, for example, "viva the Azerbaijan" (Yaşasın azərbaycan), "long live Azerbaijan -- shame on enemies of Azerbaijan" (azərbaycan var olsun--istəmiyən kör olsun) and "Azerbaijan is our land—tractor is our red wolf"(Azərbaycan yurdumuz—tiraxtur boz qurdumuz) which have national meaning for Azerbaijani Turks. But this team and its fans have faced with harsh and ruthless actions of security forces in this two year.
ادامه مطلب ..."Another Catalonia in Iran"-Tiraxtur FC Embodies the Spirit of South Azerbaijan
The South Azerbaijan is historical region in the northwestern Iran, where majority of the Azerbaijani Turks live. This region is surrounded with the Caspian Sea in the east, Turkey in the West and the Republic of Azerbaijan (North Azerbaijan) and Armenia in the north. The Azerbaijani population of Iran is mainly found in the northwest provinces: East Azerbaijan, West Azerbaijan, Ardabil, zanjan, and in some regions of Kordestan, Hamadan, ghazvin and Markazi. Many others live in Tehran, Karaj and other regions. Iranian government has been targeting the language and the religion of the Iranian Turks, who are one of the most fundamental elements of the country, continuously for approximately 100 years. The Persians who are dominant in Iran never gave up their policy against the Turks. This stance of the Persians creates a serious discomfort among the Southern Azerbaijanis. The comic strip crisis happened on May 2006 showed the power of the Iranian Turks to the Chauvinist Persian government of Iran in one sense. It is understood from the latest developments in Iran that the lesson was not learnt from those incidents, the pressure on the Southern Azerbaijani people continue and the “logophobia” that bothers the Iranian government became more chronic.
ادامه مطلب ...