Chehregani's father was arrested and tortured on charges of treason and separatism during the era of the Shah. Chehregani himself entered politics after his course teaching Turkish linguistics was closed by Iranian authorities. Chehregani was arrested by agents of Iran's Ministry of Intelligence in December 1999, effectively preventing him registering as a candidate for the Majlis election within the specified time. He was tried by a revolutionary court on charges including smuggling shampoo, and sentenced on 18 February 2000 to six months' imprisonment. Amnesty International believed that "he has been imprisoned to suppress the non-violent expression of his conscientiously held beliefs, and as such was a prisoner of conscience". Chehregani went on a hunger strike on May 19, in protest at his unfair trial. He was transferred to the prison hospital on July 23, suffering from internal bleeding, and subsequently released from Tabriz prison on July 27, 2000, after six months in detention, when his condition had stabilised. Iran lifted a travel ban on Chehregani in 2002, allowing him to meet with high-level government figures in Turkey and the United States. Since 2002 he lives in exile in the United States.
In his speech in Center for Strategic & International Studies in Washington, DC, Chehregani declared the goals of his movement as follows: "We support the territorial integrity of Iran and do not seek unification with Republic of Azerbaijan or Turkey. We do not wantto live under the Islamic regime; we want democracy in Iran. We envision Iran in a federalist form that respects the rights of Azerbaijani Turks." However, Chehreganli has several times explained his objective was the absolute separation of Azerbaijan from Iran. Chehregani has previously affirmed many times that federalism is an excuse for separatism and that he is a separatist. He and his group have also set their aims on non-Azeri inhabited areas, specially areas inhabited by various ethnic groups including Kurds, Talysh and other Iranians. Chehregani also considers the predominantly non-Azerbaijani provinces as Hamadan and Qazvin as part of Azerbaijan. Chehregani, in an interview with GunAz TV, has claimed that he sees provinces which are not majority Azerbaijani, such as Qazvin, Tehran, Arak and parts of Gilan and Kordestan as part of Azerbaijani territory. Chehregani also used the word "Fars Kupaklari" on multiple occasions to refer to Iranian Persians on CNN Turk.
He and a group of Azerbaijani nationalists wrote a letter to then president Khatami asking him to limit Kurdish immigration to Azerbaijan from other regions of Iran and has called Kurds in Western Azerbaijan as the guests of Azerbaijanis. He considers the Kurds, who does not Azerbaijani Turkic as traitors and Kurds in general as guests in Azerbaijan and has recently claimed that "There are 500,000 Kurdish immigrants in Southern Azerbaijan. If they behave normally, there will be no problems, otherwise they will have to leave the same way as they came".
Iraq
He and His group has also advocated the invasion of Northern Iraq by Turkey and considers Mosul and Kirkuk to be ancient Turkish lands under Kurdish occupation.
