Hail to Heydarbaba: a comparative view of popular Turkish & classical Persian poetical languages

Abstract

Muhammad Husayn Shahriyar (1906-1988) is one of the most famous contemporary poets in both the Persian and the Azerbaijani Turkish (Azeri)l languages. He was born in Tabriz, his mother-tongue being Turkish, and received his preliminary religious training in Arabic at a traditional madrasa. As part of the policy of eradication of the spirit of resistance and rebellion repeatedly welling up in Azerbaijan-further intensified after the reform movement of the Constitutional Revolution (1905-1911) had been extinguished-the Azerbaijani population of Iran was at this time discouraged and estranged from its identity, culture and language. The Pahlavi regime that came to power in 1925 was founded on an extreme Persian nationalism: no Azerbaijani was allowed to speak his native Turkish tongue in schools, government offices or other premises, or at any official meeting. These measures were to be partially relaxed only at times of national catastrophe or political crisis. Following the Allied occupation of Iran and the abdication of Riza Shah Pahlavi in 1940, this oppression temporarily disappeared along with its chief instigators. The Soviet forces occupying Iranian Azerbaijan made use of the native people's yearning for their mother tongue to win that people to their own political cause. Exploiting the Azerbaijanis' native but hitherto inhibited urge to express themselves in their own language, the Soviets tolerated and even encouraged publication in Turkish. Since the people of northern Azerbaijan (then a part of the USSR) speak the same Turkish dialect as those of the southern, Iranian, part, theatrical works by famous playwrights from the north, along with other cultural performances, could be staged and fully appreciated. Meanwhile in the political arena the Azerbaijani Democratic Party won control over the local government of the province in 1945 and Turkish became the language of all official transactions. The contents of publications permitted by the Soviet military authorities could naturally not be allowed to contradict the occupying forces' ideology and policy. Under these conditions, leftist tendencies were understandably predominant in Turkish-language writing and poetry. This peculiarity later served as an excuse for re-establishing the old ethno-linguistic suppression. The USSR finally evacuated Iranian Azerbaijan in 1946. In the wake of their withdrawal, the Tehran government staged a punitive expedition. Both during and after this professedly anti-communist witch-hunt, the Turkish language was incriminated as the essential instrument of the 'red devil'.