USAN observes the 21 Azer, congratulates all Azerbaijani-Americans and worldwide Azerbaijanis
The U.S. Azeris Network (USAN) extends its congratulations to all the Azerbaijani-Americans, especially those hailing from South Azerbaijan (Iranian Azerbaijan), on the ocassion of 21 Azer (21 Azar). The 21 of Azer 1324 and 1325 (12 December 1945-1946) is an important date in the history of Azerbaijan and its people. At that point in history, taking advantage of their legal, historic and moral rights, in response to the principle of self-determination and decolonization promulgated by the newly-founded United Nations (UN), and in response to the persecution from the Shah authorities, the South Azerbaijani Turks established their autonomous national Parliament (Milli Majlis) under the leadership of "Demokrat Firqesi" and declared autonomy within the Pahlavi Iran. This was in line with historic aspirations of the Azerbaijani Turks dating back to the early 20th century, when such prominent figures as Baghir Khan and Sattar Khan, led the democratic aspirations of not such the Azerbaijani Turks of the Iranian Empire, but all the people of Iran.
The autonomous entity, which was known as the Autonomous Azerbaijan Democratic Republic, officially existed for only a year, only to be violently abolished in 1946 by the brute military forces of the central government, the Shah Pahlavi's regime. Thousands of South Azerbaijani Turks were either killed, executed or forced to flee to the neighboring countries, including to the Soviet Republic of Azerbaijan and to the Republic of Turkey, and hopes for autonomous self-rule, greater freedom and democracy, and self-determination as envisioned by the United Nations of which the Pahlavi Iran was a member, were temporarily squashed.
USAN commemorates all those fallen patriots, and congratulates the entire Azerbaijani-American community, as well as all the Azerbaijanis worldwide, with this historic date, which is reminiscent of the symbolism carried by the January 20, 1990, and May 28, 1918 dates for the North Azerbaijani Turks.
The U.S. Azeris Network (USAN) <http://www.usazeris.org/> is a registered non-profit, non-partisan, non-sectarian genuine grassroots advocacy and voter education network that is facilitating political activism and efforts by the Azerbaijani-Americans and other Turkic-Americans and their associations, organizations, councils, conferences, and other formal, semi-formal and informal groups, on federal, state and local levels. USAN is the first nationwide grassroots organization uniting Azerbaijani-Americans, being created by the grassroots, for the grassroots.
