IRANIAN M.P. FLIPS OVER AZERI INSULTS...

An Iranian Member of Parliament from Tabriz, Seyed Mohammed Reza Tajoddni, recently called on the Iranian Foreign Ministry to formally protest what he called"recent interventionist and anti-Iranian remarks, including cartoons, insulting Iranian officials".

Readers might remember that on May 16th of this year an article entitled "The Struggle Against Cockroaches" appeared in the Iran Daily. In the cartoon that accompanied the article (above left),the cockroaches were speaking in the Azeri Turkish dialect. Naturally this enraged the ten million Azeris living in Iran. Their anger was not mullified by the subsequent arrest of the "cockroach cartoonist" by the Iranian authorities.

Soon after, thousands of Azeris took to the streets of Tabriz in protest. (above right) During the demonstration the protestors called for the unification of North and South Azerbaijan and chanted "Death to Persian Chauvanism".

Talking cockroaches??? Isn't anything sacred nowadays???