Iranwire – Iranian authorities have arrested at least 10 Azeri activists over the past three days, IranWire has learned, amid a growing crackdown on ethnic minority rights.
No information was immediately available regarding the reasons for the arrests or the charges the activists face.
Those apprehended include Morteza Parvin, Saeed Minaei, Vodod Asadi, Salar Taherafshar, Ayaz Seifkhah, Baqer Hajizadeh, Saeed Jamalzadeh, Araz Aman, Kamal Nouri and Abdullah Vahedi.
They were arrested in the northwestern cities of Ardabil, Urmia, Tabriz and Astara, as well as in Eslamshahr, Tehran province.
A growing number of Azeri activists have been arrested since September last year, coinciding with the first anniversary of the Woman, Life, Freedom protests.
Those arrests were mainly carried out by agents from the Ministry of Intelligence, and some of those detained are still being kept in the detention center of this institution in Tabriz and in Meshginshahr’s prison.
According to the Human Rights Activists in Iran (HRA), security forces arrested 324 ethnic rights advocates last year.
Ethnic minorities in Iran face discrimination which curtails their access to education, employment and political office, and are also subjected to arbitrary detention, unjust prosecutions, torture and other ill-treatment.