To the Assembly of the United Nations and the International Human Rights Organization

To the attention of Mr. Annan and the representatives of the world’s United Nations

Dear Ladies and Gentlemen,

We would like to thank you for denouncing the human rights violations and the oppression of non-Persian ethnic groups committed by the Iranian government. These lines are intended to draw your attention to the fate of the Turkmen people, asking you to take decisive steps in order to stop the cultural genocide of the non-Persian nations and cultures in Iran.

The history and culture of the Turkmen nation dates back more than five thousand years. This people has dwelt for ages in its historic settlement area, which is situated in the Republic of Turkmenistan, in the northern areas of Iran (Turkmensahra with a population of about 2 to 3 million residents) and in the northern areas of Afghanistan.

Archaeological, historical, ethnological and anthropological research demonstrates that our ancestors have created great civilizations, such as Anau, Altyn-depe, Margush Margiana and that they have laid the foundation of the first democratic federal states, such as the Seljuks or the Parthians.

Due to the colonial policies of the world powers (Russia and Great Britain) in the 18^th and 19^th century, the natural and historical border of the Turkmen people was obliterated. Under the treaty of Akhal in 1881, the occupied areas of Turkmenistan were divided to be annexed by Russia, the Kadar government (today’s Iran) and Afghanistan.

But our people never accepted this division and lived as one together with the people in the separate state Turkmenistan in the North until 1925. At about this time, the Persian Shah Riza launched his occupation of Turkmensahra (South Turkmenistan). In a secret letter, the occupiers referred to our people as “vermin” and “savages” (see secret Iranian state archives under number 923), of which at best 200 were able to speak the Persian language, although making up a population of 300 000 people. In order to civilize them, the culture and language of this people had to be eradicated and replaced with the Persian language and culture.

At that time, there was not a single Persian family living in that region, as is testified by this letter. The Turkmen people had come into cultural contact with Russia and Europe by trading via the trade routes across the Caspian Sea and other cross-country routes.

The racially motivated government in Tehran tries with all its might to implement the cultural and ethnic genocide of the Turkmen people by means of the following methods:

1) Destruction of our mother tongue and its replacement by the Persian language. This inhuman cultural genocide has been continued after the constitution of the Islamic Republic of Iran. To give an example, the schools instruct the Turkmen families to use the Persian language even at home when they talk to their children.

2) The occupation of about 90 percent of Turkmen cultivable land by migrants with colonial or racist motives

3) Defamation and humiliation of our national pride and dissemination of drugs among Turkmen families by the central government. Turkmen men and women alike are forced to marry into non-Turkmen ethnic groups so that they lose their national identity.

4) In Turkmensahra, all public offices are held by foreign migrants. This forces the younger generation to migrate to Persian cities and absorb the Persian culture.

5) The vast majority of people in charge of the government bodies are migrants who treat the Turkmen people in a racist way.

6) Many young people fall prey to drug addiction or they commit suicide in order to escape from their intolerable social situation. By now it has become normal for many young people to get killed for their small income from fishing in the Caspian Sea or simply to disappear. More than 90 percent of the women who are required under birth control to have an abortion are Turkmen women. This inhuman practice must be investigated by international institutions.

7) Racist insults directed towards the non-Persian ethnic groups, namely the Turkmen or Arabic population, abound in the Iranian mass media.
In recent times, for instance, hate and contempt for the Turkmen population has been instilled in innocent children by means of animated cartoons. In these films, the history of the Turkmen ethnic groups is deliberately distorted.

In view of these facts, we would like to ask you to put this genocide in Iran on the agenda of the United Nations as a third charge against the Iranian government in addition to the charge of seeking nuclear armament and aiding and abetting international terrorism. We would like to ask you to take decisive steps to prevent the destruction of the language and national culture of the non-Persian ethnic groups in Iran.

Yours faithfully,

The national democratic movement of Turkmenia (Turkmenlik)

www.turkmenlik.org

25.MAR.2006