Ibrahim Al-Marashi and Tanya Goudsouzian
In the aftermath of the Second Nagorno-Karabakh War, a military parade in Baku, steeped in triumphalism, triggered controversy in Iran when a nationalist poem referencing the Aras River and the idea of ‘South Azerbaijan’ was performed and broadcast. In Iran, it was widely seen as hinting at territorial claims on its northern provinces and infuriated officials, who quickly condemned it as a challenge to Iranian sovereignty. Public reaction, including among Iranian Azeris, rejected the notion that a shared language or culture with Azerbaijan could constitute grounds for irredentist political aspirations. Rather than stirring cross-border solidarity, the stunt backfired and reinforced a sense of Iranian national identity.
A recurring blind spot in how Iran is read from the outside is the tendency to treat ethnic identity as a set of ready-made political blocs waiting to be activated. In reality, these identities are embedded within a national framework forged through centuries of state formation, shared religion, and extensive social mixing.
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