These are often persons motivated by economic goals, although they often couch these with positive slogans and altruistic motives. these are located both inside the governmental apparatus of Iran as well as by persons not connected to any political groups, these residing mainly in the West.
Let us first focus on Iranian Persophobes who reside in the West. The first example is that of Mr. Reza Moridi. Below (in Persian – with translation in English) comes from various Persian language blogs:
Reza Moridi is an individual who presents himself as a representative of Iranians
[in Canada]. He has used their votes [Iranian-Canadians] to obtain a seat in the Iranian parliament. However in an interview with the Azarbaijan News Service of Baku [see text of that interview here], Mr. Moridi declared his allegiance to the Republic of Azarbaijan [not to Canada nor to the Iranian-Canadians he claims to represent]. Mr. Moridi also declared his support for official efforts to deny the Armenian genocide.
Mr. Moridi declares the Aliev administration as a “democracy”. This is false as the Republic is not a democracy at present with its leadership having been accused of torture (see report: “The duke and the despot: Prince Andrew’s ‘close friendship’ with brutal billionaire dictator accused of torture” , March, 9, 2011). Mr. Moridi has openly stated of his collaboration with the Republic of Azarbaijan ambassador to Canada in order to promote the interests of that state [in contrast to the interests of Canada or Iranian-Canadians].
Mr. Moridi supports post-Soviet and pan-Turkist historical narratives by referring to the historical Azarbaijan in Iran as “Southern Azarbaijan“. However Mr. Moridi shows a different face in interviews with Iranian media outlets and declares his respect for Iran’s historical and cultural integrity.
Mr. Reza Moridi, a member of the Canadian Parliament, expressing his support for the Canadian Iranian community and his support for Iran’s cultural legacy. On the other hand, despite having been voted into office with the help of Iranian-Canadians, Mr. Moridi declared his primary allegiance to the Republic of Azarbaijan [not to Canada or to the Iranian-Canadian constituents who helped get him elected]. Mr. Moridi is also careful not to tell his audience that he supports Baku’s post-Soviet Persophobic jargon (i.e. “Southern Azarbaijan”).
