Turcophone Iran
The term Turcophone Iran or Turks of Iran typically applies to Iranian Azerbaijan, Fars Province (Qashqai nomads) and northern Khorasan. The Azerbaijanis, who inhabit the Âzerbâyjân provinces, form the vast majority of these Turkish-speaking Iranians: between 20 and 25% of the total population. Because of their large numbers in big cities, like Tabriz and especially in Tehran and its surrounding region, these languages are dominant in only 12% of the rural cantons (dehestân). Turkish-speaking areas are often very homogeneous (more than 90% of Turkish-speaking villages in the same dehestân) in Âzerbâyjân and in the Turkmen steppe. Because of the great dispersion of Turkish villages in the Zagros mountains, Fars region and northern Khorasan since the mid-nineteenth century, the Turkish-speaking population gradually mixed with Kurdish and Persian-speakers, especially in Tehran and suburban cities such as Karaj, Eslâmshahr and Qarchak. The Turkish-speaking population in Iran is the result of a long history that began in the eleventh century with the invasion of Iran by the Saljuki Turks and lasted to the long ruling Turkic-speaking tribes such as the Safavids (1501-1736) who founded modern Iran in the sixteenth century and the Qajars (1786-1923).