Hummatov: Azerbaijan tries to annihilate Talyshs, destroy their culture

“About 1.5 million Talyshs live in Azerbaijan, although official Baku presents their number as small,” the Talysh Department of Iranian IRIB news agency quoted the President of the Talysh-Mughan Republic (1993) Alikram Hummatov as saying in his speech in the European Parliament.

When addressing the problems of the Talyshs in Azerbaijan in his speech at the recent conference ‘Reconciliation and Peace-building in the South Caucasus’ in the European Parliament, Hummatov said in particular: “Azerbaijan has not yet ratified the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. The Talyshs have chosen a peaceful and democratic path of a struggle to liberate their historical homeland and the Talysh national movement works towards only the establishment of peace”.

According to Hummatov, “Azerbaijan has placed the name ‘Talysh’ under a taboo: Azerbaijan’s pro-government media use the term ‘Southern Region’ instead of Talyshstan, while the name ‘Lankaran Khanate’ is used instead of ‘Talysh Khanate’ in school textbooks. Any step by the Talyshs to preserve their national culture and historic heritage is labeled as separatist”.

“For more than two decades, the Azerbaijani authorities have avoided opening Talysh schools and Talysh-language radio and television in the southern regions of Azerbaijan. About 1.5 million Talyshs live in Azerbaijan, although official Baku presents their number as small. Despite the large Talysh population, the Azerbaijani authorities make great efforts to prevent the Talyshs from being part in the country’s population structure: Azerbaijan is trying to annihilate the Talyshs and destroy their culture,” Alikram Hummantov said.

We would remind you that Alikram Hummatov visited Armenia and Artsakh in October 2013. He made a speech at Iranian Studies Sub-Department of Yerevan State University, addressing the problems of Talyshs in Azerbaijan. He said in particular: “The Talyshs in Azerbaijan are deprived of basic rights. We, the Talyshs, are not respected, we are exterminated. A policy of assimilation is being carried out against us, and then they say that we are brothers. This is illogical. We want to read and write in our native language. In response to our demands, they (the Azerbaijani authorities) openly declare: “You, the Talyshs, have no future, you must be assimilated”.

In an interview with the Public Television of Artsakh, when asked by the reporter if they would again fight on the opposite side of trenches in case of a war, the Talysh national figure said: “God forbid. I don’t want the Talyshs to participate in that war. I am making an appeal from here. It will not be our war. We don’t need it. I also say to all the other peoples: Why endanger our lives that God endowed us with in a war which will not give us anything”.