Sima Didar, an Azerbaijani cultural activist, former editor in chief of the student journal Yashmaq and wife of political prisoner Ali Reza Farshi, was arrested in Tabriz on Thursday June 18.

Systematic violations of human rights toward Azerbaijanis in Iran continued in May 2009 during the run-up to the Iranian presidential election. Scores filled the streets in protest of the government’s flagrant abuse of international human rights laws, government filters of the internet, arbitrary detentions of Iranian minority activists and insulting remarks made by former President Khatami about ethnic Azerbaijanis.

Tens of Azerbaijani activists are still in custody after more than two weeks of detention by Iranian intelligence officials.
Activists were arrested after publicly protesting a video that emerged on the internet showing former President Mohammad Khatami insulting ethnic Azerbaijanis. In the backlash, hundreds of Azerbaijani student activists poured into the streets to demand a formal apology from Khatami.

Azerbaijani activists Behnam Sheykhi and Mahmud Ojaghli were detained on June 9, 2009 by Tehran Ministry of Intelligence (Ettelaat) officers in Eslamshahr and then transferred to an Ettelaat detention facility.Behnam Sheykhi was arrested for spraypainting slogans that read "Azerbaijanis Demand the Application of Articles 15 and 19,” on the walls of various buildings, including those of the Musavi campaign headquarters in Eslamshahr.

The campaign of Mir Hossein Mousavi – himself a member of the Azerbaijani minority - has attracted allegations of racism after a video posted on YouTube on 14 May allegedly showed former President Mohammad Khatami (who supports Mr Mousavi) making comments belittling Iranian Azerbaijanis. Mr Khatami has since stated that the video was a fake. In the days after the video surfaced, hundreds of Azerbaijani activists held rallies and organized protests, demanding an apology from Mr Khatami. Some have been arrested and are being held in incommunicado detention.

VANCOUVER – Protests have erupted this week in three Iranian cities after former Iranian president Mohammed Khatami made degrading comments about the Azerbaijani minority in Iran.
On May 14th, a video emerged on the Internet which showed Khatami belittling ethnic Azerbaijanis at a gathering of Iran’s reformist politicians, referring to the ethnic group as a community of unintelligent and foolish people.

Iran’s presidential election on 12 June, will take place against a backdrop of discrimination, worsening repression of dissent and violent unrest.

RFE/RL) -- Hundreds of ethnic Azeri students in several Iranian cities have gathered at rallies to express anger over perceived discrimination that was highlighted in a YouTube video that appears to show former Iranian President Mohammad Khatami making an ethnic joke at their expense, RFE/RL's Azerbaijani Service reports.