PhD Student's Thesis Defense in Tabriz Halted for Speaking Turkish

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PhD Student's Thesis Defense in Tabriz Halted for Speaking Turkish

2026.08.05, 11:40

A PhD student in urban planning at the University of Tabriz says his thesis defense at the Faculty of Architecture was halted after she and several members of the examining committee spoke in their native language, Turkish (Azerbaijani), during the question-and-answer session.

Gunaz.tv

In an audio recording circulated on social media, the Azerbaijani student says that after months of research, significant expenses, and coordinating the attendance of faculty members, the university's research affairs official intervened during the defense and prevented it from continuing because Turkish was being used.

According to the student, although the professors present insisted that the defense should continue, she was not allowed to proceed, and the defense documents were not provided to the committee members for their signatures.

Protesting the decision, the student said that she had completed all of his university education in Persian, yet even a brief conversation in Turkish between himself and Turkish professors during his thesis defense was not tolerated.

She called for the incident to receive widespread public attention and for the matter to be investigated.

Turkish Azerbaijani writer and activist Hasan Rashidi reacted to the incident, writing:

"When the mother tongue of 40 percent of Iran's population (the Turks) is ignored, and they are denied even two hours of instruction per week in primary school, defending a PhD dissertation in one's mother tongue also becomes a 'crime.'"

It is worth noting that over the past century, Iran's authoritarian regimes—the Pahlavi monarchy and the Islamic Republic—have imposed Persian as the dominant language of the education system on millions of Turks, depriving millions of Turkish citizens of their right to receive education in their mother tongue.

GUNAZ.TV

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