PAN-TURANIANISM TAKES AIM AT AZERBAIJAN: A Geopolitical Agenda Dr. Kaveh Farrokh Kaveh Farrokh: [email protected] The entire article without pictures in PDF format 1 INTRODUCTION PART I: A SHORT INTRODUCTION TO PAN-TURANIANISM pg. 9 ................. (1) A Brief Note on the Origins of Pan-Turanianism. ....................(2) Some of the Beliefs of Pan-Turanianism. ....................... (a) The Inventors of culture, language and civilization were Turks. ...................................(b) The Myth of the Grey Wolf ...................................(c) Ancient Sumeria was Turkish. ...................................(d) The culture of the ancient Greece and Anatolia is Turkish in origin. ...................................(e) The Etruscans of pre-Roman Italy were Turks. ...................................(f) Armenians are Turks. ...................................(g) The indigenous Indian peoples of North America are Turks. ...................................(h) Kurds and their Mede ancestors are Turks. ...................................(i) Tajiks are Turks. ...................................(j) Turks are the World's Main Producers of World Class Persian Literature. ...................................(k) Judeo-Christianity and Islam have Turkish origins. ...................................(l) The Northern Iranians were all Turks. ...................................(m) The Parthian language was Turkish. ...................................(n) Bosnians, Macedonians, Albanians, and Ukrainians are Turks. PART II: PAN-TURANIAN CLAIMS TO AZERBAIJAN pg. 38 ............... ..(1) Greater Azerbaijan was divided between Russia and Persia. ....................... (a) Arran & the Historical Azerbaijan. ..................................(b) The Musavats and the early Pan-Turanianists. ..................................(c) The Soviet Russians & Joseph Stalin. ..................................(d) Mr. Amin Rasulzadeh. ..................................(e) The role of Soviet Russia in 1941-1946. ................. (2) Azerbaijanis have spoken Turkish since the advent of History. ................. .........(a) Archival Information. ...................................(b) The Turkic arrivals & Manzikert. ...................................(c) Linguistic Turkification. ...................................(d) Resistance against Ottoman Turks. ...................................(e) World War One. .....................(3) Turks have been in the Caucasus for over 5000 Years. ...................................(a) Armenia, Georgia, Albania/Arran ................. (4) The Safavid Empire was Turkish. 2 ....................(5) Sattar Khan was a pan-Turanian separatist. .................................(a) Mr. Mahmudali Chereganli. .................................(b) Sattar Khan & the Constitutional Movement of Persia. .................................(c) European Intervention. .................................(d) SANAM & the Fabrication of History. .....................(6) Babak Khorramdin was a Turk who fought against Persia. ......................(7) Azerbaijanis and all who speak Turkish are Turkish by race. ...........................(a) Ziya Gokalp .................................(b) The Richards et al. Genetic Studies .................................(c) The Analyses of Colin Renfrew .................................(d) The Cavalli-Sforza et al. Genetic Studies .................................(e) Transcending the Concept of "Race" .....................(8) Iranian complacency. .................................(a) Difficulty balancing Aryan Persia with Islam .................................(b) Toleration of Anti-Persian cultural expressions .................................(c) Iran's Neglect of Persian culture .................................(d) A Bitter Tsarist Legacy PART III: THE GREY WOLVES pg. 95 .....................(1) Who are the Grey Wolves? .....................(2) Supporting Mr. Chehreganli .....................(3) Operations in Foreign Countries .....................(4) Grey Wolf Miscalculation: Greece PART IV: THE PROMOTION OF DISCORD pg. 102 .....................(1) Translating Nazi Literature to Turkish .....................(2) Anti-Armenian Literature. ..................... .(a) Similarity to Nazi Propaganda. .................................(b) Mr. Talaat Pasha & the 1915 Armenian Tragedy. .................................(c) Forgotten Gallant Turks who Saved Lives. .................................(d) Political Influence and Re-Writing History. .................................(e) The Role of Mr. Chehreganli & SANAM. ......................(3) Anti-Iranian Literature. ......................(4) The Status of non-Turkic speaking Azerbaijanis. 3 ......................(5) Racialism and Fanaticism: Cancer at an International Scale PART V: GREY WOLVES & FAILURE IN AZERBAIJAN pg. 119 ......................(1) Grey Wolf Public Relations Failures. ......................(2) Hostility to Grey Wolf Activism among Iranian Azerbaijanis. jan. ......................(3) Tepid Reception in the Republic of Azerbai PART VI: GEOPOLITICAL INTERESTS & PETROLEUM DIPLOMACY pg. 122 ......................(1) The Bernard Lewis Project. ......................(2) Geopolitics & Petroleum Diplomacy. .................................(a) The Role of British Petroleum and Oil Companies .....................................(b) Dismantling Geopolitical Obstacles: Dismembering Yugoslavia ......................(3) Is Oil Running Out? ......................(4) Manipulating Scholarship in the West: pg. 134 .................................(a) The ATC. ......................................(b) CSIS. ......................................(c) Dr. Brenda Shaffer. ......................................(d) A Personal Experience. .......................(5) Geopolitics & Re-inventing History: The Macedonia Example. ........................... ..(a) Changing Skopje to the Republic of Macedonia. ..........................................(b) Retroactive De-Hellenization & Petroleum Diplomacy. ..........................................(c) South Slav Macedonian Nationalism. ........................(6) Geopolitics and Psychological warfare. ..........................................(a) Manufacturing Victims. ..........................................(b) False Flag Incidents. .........................(7) Manipulation of Western Media. .........................(8) Iranians as Negative Propaganda Targets. .........................(9) Turkey & The Republic of Azerbaijan: Victims of Geopolitical Manipulation. .........................(10) The Iranian Experience with Geopolitics & Petroleum Diplomacy. ...........................................(a) The Same Old Story? 4 ...........................................(b) The Partitioning Agenda Continues ...........................................(c) Supporting Racism to further The Bernard Lewis Plan .........................(11) A Final Note. REFERENCES WEBSITE REFERENCES PART VI REFERENCES: DIMINISHING PETROLEUM RESOURCES FURTHER NOTES: THE FUTILITY OF RACIALISM FOOTNOTES 5 INTRODUCTION Pan-Turanianism is a racialist movement that not only threatens Iran, but Greece, Armenia, Russia, Ukraine and even (to a more limited extent) China. If unchecked, Pan-Turanianism may become as dangerous to international peace and stability as Islamic fundamentalism has became today. Geopolitics and petroleum diplomacy is using pan-Turanianism to promote a nefarious and self- serving economic agenda (Part VI, items 1-4). Pan-Turanian activists, supported by politically motivated western academic outlets (See Part VI, items 4), are literally re-narrating world history (Parts I & II), and in this quest, have tragically misled many well-intentioned but naïve individuals (Parts III & IV). Many believe in a series of facts, events and a past history that never was. Veracity is falling victim to racialism, especially in the inherent anti-Persian agenda propelled by geopolitical Petroleum diplomacy. Before we undertake this long discussion of pan-Turanianism, we must clearly distinguish between the people, culture and history of the Turkish people in Turkey from pan-Turanian philosophy. Anyone who has traveled to Turkey can attest to the warmth and hospitality of the Turks. The Turks are an ingenious people; one only needs to look at the breathtaking palace of Dulmebahce, built by the distinguished Boyrum family, well steeped in Venetian/Italian, Greek, and Persian architectural styles. Turkish cuisine and culinary arts are legendary and speak for themselves. Turkish martial abilities and military achievements are a fact of history, and their ability, under Mustafa Kemal Attaturk, to reconstitute the dismembered Ottoman Empire into the modern Turkish Republic in the aftermath of the First World War is a noteworthy achievement. The Turkish Republic has been a vibrant democracy since its inception in the 1920s. On a personal level, I have enjoyed deep and rewarding friendships with Turks, whom I have seen to be steadfastly loyal, dependable, straightforward, honest, and caring (many of my friends, as well my sister in law, Suzen, are Turkish). My multilingual grandparents also spoke Turkish, with my grandfather being able to translate Persian books to Turkish and vice versa. Like many Iranians, much of our roots can be traced to the north and west of Iran as well as the Caucasus (see photo of my father Fereydoun/Feridun in Georgian national costume in the late 1920s): 6 As one of the great peoples of history, the Turks have many mighty achievements to their credit. It is for this reason that, as a great people, Turks have no need to appropriate the achievements of others. At the popular level, a large but unspecified number of Turks (both highly educated and laypeople) have a high regard for Iran as well as Greece, and have no desire for any type of confrontation. Many Turks also wish to heal the historical wounds that have occurred between them and the Armenians – there are many calls for dialogue. It must be made clear once again that the majority of the people of Turkey do not support pan-Turanianism. Pan-Turanianism represents a minority opinion at best. The majority of Turks are disinterested in chauvinistic violence and expansionism. Nevertheless, it is an alarming fact that pan-Turanian activists have made significant inroads among many of Turkey’s highly educated scholars, politicians (e.g. the late Turgut Ozal), businessmen, students and laypeople (see Part III). 7 This article is also aimed at the Azerbaijanis of Iran (and other Turkic speaking Iranians such as the Qashqai) as well as the citizens of the Republic of Azerbaijan. There are serious attempts at inciting anti-Iranian sentiments among these peoples. A number of misleading terms and false historical narratives are being circulated among Azerbaijanis (e.g. “North” and “South” Azerbaijan; Azeris are a Turkic race) with the aim of inciting racialist fervour. Many of those who appear to passionately advocate the separatism of Iranian Turcophones are themselves motivated by non-altruistic motives (geopolitical gains, oil, political power, etc) (Parts II-IV, VI). The issue is pan-Turanianism, not Turks as a people, culture or society. What is being critically examined here is the philosophy of pan-Turanianism and its offspring, the racially chauvinistic Grey Wolf movement. It must be made clear that we are equally critical of the futility of other chauvinistic movements such as Nordicist/Neo-Nazi movements, Persian chauvinism, Pan-Arab chauvinism and religious Fundamentalism (Part IV, item 4). 8 PART I: A SHORT INTRODUCTION TO PAN-TURANIANISM What is pan-Turanianism? Simply put, pan-Turanianism is an ideology that aims at creating a Turkic super state stretching from the Balkans in Europe, eastwards across Turkey, Iran (Persia), the Caucasus, Central Asia up to and including northwest China (see map below): The logic behind this is that all people who speak Turkish must be incorporated into this Turkic super state (see also Atabaki, 2001, Landau, 1995, Zenkovsky 1960 and Lewis, 1962 in References). Hungarian pan-Turanianist activists go even further. They have proposed that the entire Eurasian landmass between Hungary and Norway in Europe to Japan and Korea was once an empire known as “Turania”. Apart from non-scholastic websites, no linguistic, anthropological and archeological evidence for such an empire exists. Pan-Turanian racialists and historians would beg to differ. They are impervious to logical explanations even in the face of hard evidence. Such is the case of all who are infected with the virulent virus of racialism (see C. Richards, 1997 and J. Searle-White, 2001 in References). Pan-Turanianism, like Nazi “racial sciences”, or Stalinist “History”, has failed to convince the majority of western scholarship to its cause, and has been as equally unsuccessful in Eastern Europe, with the exception of Hungary and the Republic of Azerbaijan. Much of pan-Turanian ideology is similar to pan-Germanic racism and Nazism; philosophies from which the Grey Wolves and pan-Turanian ideologues have drawn much of their inspiration (see Parts III & IV). Like the Nazis in the 1930s and 1940s, the pan Turanian Turks envision their Turan super- state (like the Nazi “Germania”), in terms of “lebensraum” (German for “living space”) for all Turkic speaking peoples. The late president of the Republic of Azerbaijan, Abulfazl Elchibey (1938-2000), a Grey Wolf sympathizer himself (see Part II, item 4), is reputed to have stated that “…the road to Turkistan runs through Tabriz”. Tabriz has been an integral part of Persia for thousands of years. (1) A Brief Note on the Origins of Pan-Turanianism. Pan-Turanianism is perhaps one of the last racialist movements that first began in the 19th century. Traditional history cites its early origins amongst Ottoman officers and intelligentsia studying and residing in 1870s Imperial Germany. The fact that many Ottoman Turkish officials were becoming 9 aware of their sense of “Turkishness” is beyond doubt of course, and the role of subsequent nationalists, such as Ziya Gokalp (see Part II, item 7a) is fully established historically. What is far less known (or acknowledged) is the role of foreign (non-Turkish) interests in the manipulation of the Turks to service wider geopolitical interests. It is truly an irony that the idea of a Turanian empire never originated amongst the Ottoman Turks, but by a man of European descent. His name was Arminius (Hermann) Vambery (1832-1913), a Hungarian Professor, philologist and traveler who worked an as advisor to the Ottoman Sultan between 1857-1863 (see Vambery in Ottoman dress at left – European attire at right): VamVamberyb-A VamVamberyb-B] 10