Representatives of the Iranian-speaking minority of Pars (Tats) of Azerbaijan could not take part in the annual sitting of the Supreme Council of the Persian native Speakers Association that opened in Dushanbe, Tajikistan. Meanwhile representatives from Iran, France, UK, Spain, Netherlands and the US participated in the forum. According to the census of 1989 about 30 000 are residing in Azerbaijan, however in 1920 their number reached 125 000. The tats prefer to call themselves Parses. Due to the data provided by the activists of the Pars movement, about 2 million of people of tat origin are living in Azerbaijan at present. Many of them prefer to conceal their ethnicity, as it becomes the object of ridicule. Assimilated tats make the majority of the population of Shirvan and Apsheron regions of Azerbaijan.