An Israeli academic has added fuel to the fire between Iran and its Turkic neighbours by urging his government to support the independence of Azeris from Iran as both a “moral obligation and strategic necessity,” he wrote on March 25.

Mordechai Kedar of Bar-Ilan University's Begin-Sadat Centre for Strategic Studies wrote in The Jerusalem Post and later republished in Russian and Azerbaijani that Tel Aviv should target Tehran’s control over its northwestern region. Kedar’s opinion article further enflames relations between Baku and Tehran, which has been gradually improving in recent months following a shooting in the Azerbaijani embassy in Tehran in 2023, which claimed the lives of two people.

He claims that while millions of ethnic Azeris in northern territories gained independence with the Republic of Azerbaijan after the Soviet collapse in 1991, millions more remain under “Iranian rule” where their culture and language face “systematic suppression.” Iran (Persia) lost control of what is now Azerbaijan and Armenia by 1828 in two humiliating wars, which ultimately led to the Treaty of Turkmenchay where it ceded the territories north of the Aras river to Russia.

Kedar suggests Iran’s East and West Azarbaijan, Ardabil and Zanjan provinces, where ethnic Azeris form the majority population, face restrictions on using their native Turkic language in education and public life due to Persian being the lingua franca introduced by the former Pahlavi monarchy and a policy continued by the current Islamic Republic.

The Current President of Iran, Masoud Pezeshkian, and Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei are both ethnic Azeris and speak the language publicly on several occasions in the media. The article was also released the same day Iran’s Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi visited Armenia for security talks with Baku’s local rival, and when Pezeshkian was visiting his home city of Tabriz just south of the Azerbaijan border.  

Kedar writes, “conditions deteriorated following Iran's 1979 Islamic Revolution,” with Azeris living under “double oppression” of Persian supremacy and the Islamic Republic.

Kedar argues that “Israeli support for South Azerbaijani independence” could inspire similar movements among other Iranian minorities, including Kurds, Baluchis, Arabs and Turkmens, potentially initiating the Islamic Republic's disintegration.

"Considering the suffering of South Azerbaijan's population and the geopolitical benefits for Israel, supporting their independence is not just a moral obligation, it's a strategic necessity," the article concludes.

Following the article and growing anti-Iranian rhetoric, Mehdi Tabatabai, the Deputy for Communications and Information at the President's Office, commented on the importance of Tabriz and Azerbaijan province to Iran in a post on the X social media platform.

Tabatabai wrote: "Azerbaijan is Iran's head and Tabriz is Azerbaijan's heart. In the vast geography of cultural Iran, Tabriz has enjoyed such value and importance that no one with minimal historical awareness can deny this close connection. Especially in the last one hundred and fifty years, when the most prominent developments in Iran have their roots in Tabriz."

Kedar's article also came as the Islamic Association of Urmia University denounced recent events in the northwestern city as a deliberate attempt to foment ethnic tensions, describing them as a "new enemy conspiracy," Daneshjoo news agency reported on March 26.

"From Kurd to Turk, from Gilak to Lor, from Persian to Arab, and from the roaring shores of the Caspian to the Persian Gulf, we are all Iran and Iranian," the statement read, invoking national unity amid apparent ethnic tensions.

The group specifically accused both Kurdish separatist organisation Komala and pan-Turkish activists of attempting to "draw the Muslim community, who have lived as brothers for years, into the fire of division."

According to the statement, the situation was contained thanks to the "vigilance of the honourable people of Urmia," though it warned citizens to remain alert to "new tactics" aimed at creating divisions.

"Note that at a time when Israel has resorted to killing children and does not have the power to confront Iran directly, it has decided to destroy Iran's Islamic system from within," the statement claimed, linking local tensions to regional conflicts.