Azerbaijan People's Government - History

History

To supply the Soviet forces with war material through Iran, British and Soviet troops jointly occupied the country in August 1941. Soviet forces from the Armenian SSR and the Azerbaijan SSR and British and Indian forces from Iraq entered Iranian territory and soon took the control of the country. In September, the British forced Reza Shah to abdicate in favor of his son Mohammad Reza Shah Pahlavi, who ruled until 1979.

With the dethronement of Reza Shah in September 1941, Soviet troops captured Tabriz and northwestern Persia for military and strategic reasons. Azerbaijan People's Government, a puppet government set up by the Soviets, under leadership of Jafar Pishevari was proclaimed in Tabriz. The party, which was created by the direct order of Joseph Stalin, capitalized on some local people's dissatisfaction with centralization policies of Reza Shah. With northern Iran under Soviet occupation, Stalin made plans to "spread Socialism" by creating separatist puppet states. The Kurdish Republic of Mahabad was one such state and the Soviets decided to create a separatist state for northern Iran's Azeri population as well. During this time, a revival of the Azerbaijani literary language, which had largely been supplanted by Persian, was promoted with the help of writers, journalists, and teachers from Azerbaijan SSR. In the quest of imposing national homogeneity on the country where half of the population consisted of ethnic minorities, Reza Shah had previously issued in quick succession bans on the use of Azerbaijani language on the premises of schools, in theatrical performances, religious ceremonies, and, finally, in the publication of books. These directives were issued despite the fact that Reza Shah's mother Noosh Afarin and his wife Taj-Al-Molook Ayrimlu were both of Azerbaijani descent.