Residents in Azerbaijan, and Ardebil provinces storm government buildings

Stop Fundamentalism, May 26 – In the fifth consecutive day of riots in the Azeri speaking provinces, yesterday thousands of demonstrators took to the streets of Iran’s north-western cities staging anti-government demonstrations.

In an attempt to stop the demonstrations from spreading, anti-riot units opened fire into the crowd, killing six demonstrators and wounding dozens of others.

The riots started when a state-run daily “Iran” published a cartoon insulting Iran’s Azeri speaking people.  According to some reports, about 27 percent of Iranians speak Azeri.

Tehran University's dormitory was also the scene of anti-government protests by the students on May 23. 

A commander of Iran’s Security Forces said that the protests erupted during night time when anti-riot units were dispatched to the dormitory.

Reports indicate that the students clashed with the security forces and the protest spread to the surrounding streets.