T he Talysh, one of the indigenous people living in the current territory of Azerbaijan, face many problems and double approaches in both social-economic, political and national-cultural life. Particularly, in the national-cultural context, the issues of raising one's own nationality, receiving education in one's own language, and having a media outlet are on the agenda. The number of Talysh living in Azerbaijan is also problematic. According to the census of 2009, the number of Talysh living in Azerbaijan was 112 thousand, whereas some researchers and local residents state that the number of speakers of the Talysh language and culture is about ten times more than mentioned (1,2,3).

Still in June 1993, the Talysh tried to establish the Talysh-Mughan Autonomous Republic in the south-eastern part of the territory of the present-day Azerbaijan, inhabited by the Talysh. However, in August of the same year, many Talysh public and political figures forced to emigrate from Azerbaijan to continue their activity in other countries after a failed attempt to establish an autonomous republic. Currently, many Talysh socio-political organizations both inside and outside Azerbaijan are fighting for the freedom and rights of their own people (1,2,3,4,5).

Violations of the rights and restrictions on freedoms of national minorities in Azerbaijan, particularly of the Talysh have been raised many times, however the country’s authorities deny it and try to present Azerbaijan with a “multicultural state” packaging. Recently, the issue of Talysh in Azerbaijan once again received a great attention when the Talysh Public Council of Azerbaijan (ATİŞ) published and sent an alternative report on “the Implementation of the Framework Convention for the Protection of National Minorities” by the Republic of Azerbaijan towards the Talysh between 2016-2021.

Still in 2000, Azerbaijan has joined the “Framework Convention for the Protection of National Minorities” and has been submitting a report on national minorities to the Council of Europe every 5 years since 2001. Non-governmental organizations are also given the opportunity to submit a report, which was used by the Talysh Public Council of Azerbaijan.

The alternative report states that the current authorities of Azerbaijan pursue a discriminatory politics, by doing the utmost to assimilate the Talysh as soon as possible. In general, the report referred to the reduction of the number of Talysh, the ban of the “Talysh” name, to the issue of getting education in Talysh, the closure of websites publishing Talysh materials and the restriction of freedom of speech, persecution conditioned by nationality, in the official data. The Council noted in the conclusion that the “Framework Convention for the Protection of National Minorities” towards Talysh is not maintained.

The report became a reason for heated discussions. Supporters of the regime were quick to deny the report claims, launching a campaign against the organizers of the report, who voiced their opinion on the issue. Moreover, they tried to consider the facts presented by the Talysh organization in the political context and described the alternative report as a separatist move (1,2,3,4).

Parliamentarians elected from Talysh populated regions in Azerbaijan, J․ Pashazadeh, R․ Guliyev accused the authors of the report of spreading fake information, noting that “the Talysh living in Azerbaijan have no problem”. Such a sharp wording by the representatives of the country’s legislature already raises suspicions, as in the opinion published after the visit of the delegation of the CoE Advisory Committee to Azerbaijan on February 4, 2019, also presented the problems of national minorities in various fields, including the Talysh problems, which was reflected in the immediate and additional proposals for the Government of Azerbaijan on February 3, 2021.

The following example can be considered to illustrate the degree of controversy in the public sphere. Political scientist G. Huseynli tried to present facts by refusing the claims in the report, stating that there is a special faculty that prepares lecturers for Talysh language and literature in the Lankaran State University, performances in Talysh are shown at the Lankaran State Theatre and so on. Lawyer A. Abilov totally denied these claims, adding that the “Talysh language” textbook was last published in 2006. Such discussions already show that there is a problem, and at least one of the parties is lying or distorting the facts.

The discussions moved to the government-opposition field as well. The representatives of the opposition, in particular, a number of members of the Azerbaijani Popular Front Party (APFP) made publications and blamed the authorities. For instance, G. Zayidov noted in one of his publications, that some say that apart from Armenians there are no problems with any other nation: “The state does not recognize either human rights or the rights of the individual nations”. In response to such harsh emphases, the rulling Yeni Azerbaijan party issued a statement accusing the APFP of strengthening separatist tendencies and spreading panic among the society.

To remove the active discussions in the public sphere on the issues of Talysh as a national minority in Azerbaijan and to divert the problem from the essence, the theses that have been known for a long time were put to work, political tone was given to the issue. In particular, some experts and representatives of political field tried to link the alternative report with the strained relations between Iran and Azerbaijan, moreover, some described this step as an “Armenian provocation” (1,2).

Mammadov, one of the members of the Talysh Public Council of Azerbaijan stressed in one of his interviews, that the publication of the report is no way related to Azerbaijan-Iran relations. The report simply has a deadline for publication and in case it isn’t published this year, the council should have wait for another 5 years. Referring to all kind of accusations, the Talysh Public Council of Azerbaijan provided details on the publication date and content of the report stressing that the aim of the alternative report is to raise once again all the problems the Talysh living in Azerbaijan face.

Thus, the report of the Talysh Public Council of Azerbaijan, the active discussions, contradictory facts and mutual accusations confirm that the problems of national minorities, including the Talysh continue to be on the agenda, but “multicultural Azerbaijan” doesn’t pay a proper attention to the issue, moreover, wants to silence and suppress any attempt to raise issues through giving a political context to the topic.