'Iranian Barcelona' tastes Fenerbahçe's bitter fate

Hürriyet correspondent Ç?nar Oskay and photojournalist Sebati Karakurt write about the unfortunate league final for Tractor Sazi Tabriz, an Iranian football club with its Azeri fans who sport Turkish nationalist symbols. Some 20,000 Iranian Azeri fans who we travelled with to Tehran from Tabriz just got carried away in the stands when Tractor Sazi Tabriz scored its third goal against Esteghlal on May 10.

In the stadium?s VIP section where we were hosted by officials on our tour of Iran to report about the country before the June 30 deadline for the nuclear deal between Tehran and six world powers, we were able to hear the Azeri chants, which any Turk can understand: ?Long live Azerbaijan; let those who do not want you to live, go blind!?

Tabriz is the capital of Iran?s East Azerbaijan province and its red-and-white colored football club?s supporters unfurl Turkish flags in matches and sport nationalist symbols, like Turkey?s ?gray wolf? gesture, as their nickname is the ?red wolves.?

?Tabriz, Baku, Ankara. Persia is so far away to us,? they chant in rhyming Azeri words. Banners in the Tehran stadium read phrases like ?How happy to be a Turk,? ?Southern Azerbaijan is not Iran? and ?Stop Persian fascism.?

The Azeris are actually the largest and the most adapted, peaceful minority in Iran. There are many Azeris in the top echelons of the government. 

However, after the collapse of the Soviet Union, Tehran decided to put Kurds between its own Azeris and the new Azerbaijan state. It also adopted repressive policies against Turkish culture.

Times change, though. In a Tabriz restaurant, there is an Azeri waitress speaking with an Istanbul-accent that she learned from Turkish television dramas....