FROM: TODAY.AZ on June 3, 2006

Azerbaijanis are staging protest actions in Tabriz, Sulduz, Miyane, Ardabil, Urmia and Zenjan cities in Iran.

They are protesting against the Iran Daily publishing a caricature insulting entire Azerbaijanis.

The Iranian authorities brought 20 thousand guards and police forces to Tabriz to disperse the protesters. The South Azerbaijan National Revival Movement (SANRM) Baku bureau spokesman Aghri Garadaghli told APA that there are about ten thousands of protesters in Tabriz. Bloody clashes started between the forces and demonstrators accompanied by firing gun. It is not ruled out that special provokers among the protesters fired gun.

Garadaghli also said that Iranian low enforcement bodies are using torture on the detained Azerbaijani demonstrators making them say that the US and other Western states are behind these protests. Four protesters died of severe torture in the past two days.

There was an armed clash between the Iranian military forces and the demonstrators during the protest action in Miyane city. There is no exact information about number of the killed and injured. According to the latest reports, law enforcement bodies arrested 1,700 Azerbaijani protesters in Tabriz, 1,500 in Ardabil and 1,000 in Tehran. The SANRM reports that demonstrators Ms. Hajar Sultani and Sirus Huseyninijad underwent severe torture and they are in bad health now. However, they have not been hospitalized yet.