Iran newspaper cockroach cartoon controversy

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Cartoon that started the controversy. The boy tries to address the cockroach using different forms of Soosk (Persian word for cockroach) and it answers Namana? (Azeri language, or Persian slang, for What?)

The cockroach also spoke in Persian.

The cockroach cartoon controversy of "Iran weekly magazine" arose over a cartoon, published in the Iranian holiday-magazine of Iran-e-jomee, drawn by the cartoonist Mana Neyestani, an ethnic Iranian Azeri^[1][2][3][4]. The cartoon, published in the children's section of the newspaper on May 12, 2006, allegedly insulted the Azerbaijani people by depicting a child speaking in Persian to a cockroach, which was replying in the Azerbaijani language, saying "namana?" ("what?"). However, namana is also a slang word used in Persian. In other sections of the cartoon, the cockroach also speaks in Persian (the second picture).

Contents of the article

The article which the cartoons are part of, is transliterated "How to stop cockroaches make us cockroach". It is a comedic article in a children's weekly newspaper. The text of the paragraph in image 1 is translated as follow:

Using the key words "dialogue" (گفتمان), and "violence" (خشونت ورزی) plus mentioning the problems in understanding their own conversation , is pointing to the reformist's nomenclature vs. conservatives in Iran .The famous reformist motto "dialogue between civilizations" that former president of Iran , Mohammad Khatami was insisting on it , was a source of criticism among intelligentsia , because they thought when it was not possible to have dialogue and mutual understanding between Iranians themselves (conservative-reformist) , how would that be possible to have such a conversation between Iran and the western civilizations?^{[citation needed]}

The part that some Azeris found insulting talks about giving a chance to dialogue with cockroaches before resorting to violence, "even so they don't understand human language". Then adds "in fact they don't understand their own language and its grammar, so much so that eighty percent of them prefer to speak in other languages". In the related cartoon, a child is speaking in "cockroach language" to a cockroach, but the cockroach replies "namana?" ("what?"). Namana can be both an Azerbaijani word or a slang word used in Persian. In other sections of the cartoon, the cockroach speaks in Persian.

Aftermath

The controversy resulted in massive riots throughout Iran in May 2006, most notably in the predominantly Azerbaijani-populated cities of Tabriz, Urmia, Zanjan and Naghadeh and number of smaller towns . The riots were violent in some cases, with protesters damaging public buildings and throwing stones, prompting the reaction of the Iranian police.^[5] Such riots have been occurred before in recent years in many Persian and non-Persian cities of Iran as well as Tehran, Mashhad, Arak, Shiraz, Qazvin, Isfahan, Sabzevar, Ahvaz, and Zahidan. In the current case, the violence clearly had ethnic components, but the far greater causes of the poverty and unemployment that vexes members of Azeri ethnic groups, are government corruption, inefficiency, and a general sense of lawlessness, which all Iranians, including Persians, must confront. Amnesty International claims that "hundreds, if not thousands, were arrested and scores reportedly killed by the security forces,"^[6] while the Iranian authorities say 330 people were arrested during the protests, and four demonstrators were killed.^[7]

The Iranian government promptly responded to the events by temporarily shutting down the Iran newspaper, arresting the cartoonist and the editor-in-chief of the newspaper, Mehrdad Ghasemfar. It further accused "outside forces in playing the nationalistic card".^[8]

Possible foreign interference

See also: Iran's ethnic minorities and foreign interference

Iran's predominantly Azeri northwestern region is an area that is acknowledged as being ripe for covert operations.^[9] Emad Afrough, head of the Majlis Cultural Commission at the time, said that pan-Turkists were involved in creating the tensions.^[10] Other members of the Iranian government blamed it on the United States, Israel, and the United Kingdom, suspecting the incitement of ethnic strife in Iran. The United States has itself confirmed that it is conducting covert operations in Iran and is allied with Iran's neighbor, the Republic of Azerbaijan.^[9]

Abbas Maleki, a senior research fellow at Harvard University, stated:^[9]

I think that when President Bush says all options are on the table, the destabilization of Iran's ethnic provinces is one of them. Don't forget, Mr Mahmudali Chehregani, one of the pan-Turkist leaders agitating for a separatist Azeri agenda, was in Washington last year by invitation of the Defense Department.

Reuel Marc Gerecht, a former CIA operative, had stated in the early 1990s:^[9]

Accessible through Turkey and ex-Soviet Azerbaijan, eyed already by nationalists in Baku, more westward-looking than most [of] Iran, and economically going nowhere, Iran's richest agricultural province was an ideal CIA [covert action] theater.

According to Touraj Atabaki, well-known expert on Iran's Azerbaijani minority, there might be some truth behind the Iranian government's allegations of a foreign plot, yet the responsibility for the unrest lies first and foremost with the central government.^[11]

Alleged Grey Wolf involvement

The Grey Wolves are a secular ultra-nationalist militant group based on the ideology of pan-Turkism, and named as a terrorist organization by Martin Lee^[12] and Khitij Prabha of the Indian Institute for Defense Studies and Analyses (IDSA)^[13]. The Grey Wolves are associated with the Turkish Nationalist Movement Party (MHP), and operate in Turkey, Azerbaijan, Europe, and other locations where the Grey Wolves take up the "Turkic cause". There were suspicions by Iranian officials in Iran that pan-Turks were involved in inciting the protests^[10].

Video and pictures showing some protesters exhibiting the pan-Turkic Grey Wolves symbol^{[citation needed]} which is also common amongst radical nationalists of tukey.^[14][15][16].

A Iranian leftist source complains that there is no doubt that pan-Turkist movements, followers of Ataturk and Elchibey, Grey Wolves and followers of Chehregani tried to hinder the protestors from the path of democracy and misuse the protest for pan-Turkist slogans. ^[17].

References