The Democratic Movement in Iran's Azerbaijan Province in 20th Century: a Critical Analysis

In the analysis of the democratic movement of Iranian Azerbaijan, the present paper tries to reach to the conclusion that this movement emerged due to socio-political and economic backwardness of this region as well as lack of land reforms, education and health care. This movement although could not reach to its ultimate aim of correcting these issues due to its short tenure of one year in power (1945-46) however it revives and gave a new soul to the Azeri language that led to its acceptance among the native people. Despite the viewpoints of some of the researchers that the movement culminated with the backing of the erstwhile Soviet Union, it must be said that this was purely native based on the desire of local people. Soviet Union initially supported the movement but because of the pressure from the central government of Iran and the Western powers (Britain and the United States), it deceived the movement the time it was on the verge of success. The current paper tries to prove that it was such pressure that led to the collapse of this movement and accordingly I think the West succeeded by giving vague and hidden promises to the USSR for taking out its support from the democratic movement of Azerbaijan.