Khordad events or why did National Rebellion day happen?
(Khordad events or why South Azerbaijani Rebellion in Iran has happened; Racist caricature scandal in Iran)
“Events of 1st Khordad” or “National Day of Mutiny” are one of the biggest and most turbulent protests of Azerbaijani Turks against the Iranian authorities. Many South Azerbaijani activists regard these protests as National Awakening Day, and in their opinion, the events that led to these protests and their furtherance of them have drawn certain boundaries between Azerbaijani Turks and Persians in Iran.
The wave of protest that wrapped up South Azerbaijan and Tehran was caused by a caricature published on May 12, 2006, in the Iran-e-home newspaper, the news agency of the Islamic Republic of Iran (one of the top three newspapers in Iran during the events).
Cartoonist Mana Neyestani and the newspaper’s editor-in-chief Mehrdad Ghasemfar were arrested during the events. Mana Neyestani was found guilty of discrediting ethnic groups in the country, a publication humiliating the public and contrary to reality, and was arrested and sent to Tehran’s famous Evin prison. However, for unknown reasons, he was temporarily released from custody after 3 months and fled to France with his wife. He has written a book entitled “Iran’s Metamorphosis” about his three months in prison.
The purpose of writing this article is to share with you a caricature or story that caused such turmoil among Azerbaijani Turks in Iran.
The caricature was published in the aforementioned newspaper’s weekly Friday supplement in the section on children and adolescents on May 12, 2006, with the heading “What To Do To Avoid Cockroachization of Us by Cockroaches”. At the beginning of the cartoon, in the first picture, a boy asks the cockroach in the language of cockroach: soosoo soosking sisko sooski sooskung (in Persian “soosk” means cockroach). In response, the cockroach asks: Namana? (Azerbaijani. Nəmənə?, in South Azerbaijan and in the Republic of Azerbaijan in several places this word is used in the meaning of “what?”). The boy understands nothing from the cockroach’s speaking and the caricature or story continues in this way:
The hot summer days are approaching. Again, cockroaches will wrap around us. Cockroaches are not animals that we should fear. But the problem is that they are faceless, and human does not know what to do with them. For this, I need to teach you a few tactics in order to avoid your cockroachization in front of the cockroaches. The thing is that cockroaches do not understand human language. Because of the hardness of the cockroach language’s grammar, 80% of the cockroaches will choose to speak other languages instead of their own. If cockroaches cannot understand their own language themselves, how can you understand it?! For that matter, there is no possibility for verbal discussion with them, and sweet methods that include violence are unalterable.
Image 1: The first comic that started the whole story
According to the context, “discussion with cockroaches” which is considered to be the first method is portrayed as pointless and therefore lays the foundation for the next method: “unalterable sweet methods that include violence”. The following are the sweet methods:
Second method: Since cockroaches are mainly fed through human waste, they live in sewers. For a short while, use gardens or treesides for your natural toilet purposes instead of restrooms. As a result, not only your trees will grow better, but also you will cut the feeding source of the cockroaches and they will die and “go extinct”.
Third method: Cockroaches are eating our product (waste). Some other animals like chickens, birds, frogs, and lizards are eating cockroaches. In order to make cockroaches go extinct, you can keep one of these animals in your restrooms. They will go extinct in two months.
Fourth method: One of the nightmares for cockroaches is slippers. Even millions of years earlier human beings (troglodytes) used this weapon to get rid of cockroaches. Once they get hit by slippers, cockroaches fall on their back and try to get up. At this moment, tickle them with a chicken feather. They love to get tickled and laugh. At this exact moment, hit them hard enough so their water split around.
Image 2: Fourth method in the story
Fifth method: In order to get rid of them, insect repellents could also be efficient. These drugs are usually either in gas or liquid form. You can pour the liquid one in your toilet. And the gas ones can be sprayed into the toilet. The ones in the form of dough should be used for the purpose of eating.
Sixth method: If you’re not in a position to use slippers or repellents, then there is no other way to fight them other than bare hands. You can use tactics of wrestling in order to finish them. If you find it inefficient don’t worry, we have got weaker in wrestling lately and they seem to get stronger.
Seventh method: Find the strongest cockroach (or the most respected one) and embarrass them in front of others. For example, fill out a bottle with water and put it on top of them. Then order them to carry it on their 4 legs (yes four legs because they got 4 legs). And then to make it a lesson, make everyone watch it. For some, this could be very humiliating and could make them even more furious, therefore resulting in unexpected results. So, it’s best to finish the job with a. slipper in the beginning.
Eighth method: Cockroaches get married soon as they hit puberty and start heavy reproduction. Therefore, their number grows constantly and fast. In order to fight them, it’s obligatory to make marriage rules harder for them. If you increase rents and deposits as high as five times so they won’t be able to afford your toilet, no one will give their daughters to these beggars. If the army also helped and gathered them to serve, that would be amazing, because until their service time (2 years) is over they’d be dead anyways.
Ninth method: After everything is tried and they still survive, you don’t have any option but to live together in a peaceful environment. But you can still continue to not stand them. You can try taking them to plastic operation and make them look like nightingales or sparrows.
The official government stated that 330 people were detained and four of them were killed. However, according to Amnesty International organization, the number of people who were jailed or killed was thousands, not hundreds like it was assumed.
