Talysh autonomy: "Echo" response to the publication in "Nezevisimaya Gazeta"
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Date: Thu, 26 Apr 2001 22:51:46 +0300 (EEST)
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Subject: Talysh autonomy: "Echo" response to the publication in "Nezevisimaya Gazeta"
From: MINELRES moderator <[email protected]>
Original sender: Eldar Zeynalov <[email protected]>
Talysh autonomy: "Echo" response to the publication in
"Nezevisimaya Gazeta"
Someone is again "concerned" with the Talysh "autonomy"
R.Orudzhiev
Baku, 11 April 2001, Echo
As we have informed before, a non-governmental organisation "Avesta"
has been registered in Moscow. Activities of this organisation very
much remind us of events preceding declaration of Talysh-Mugan
Republic by the Talysh separatists. The leaders of "Avesta" do not
reject their connections with the self-declared regime in Lenkoran. On
28 of March "Nezavisimaya gazeta" published an article "The people
themselves should decide its fate", written by Fahraddin Abbasov, PhD
in History (as he claims). He also wrote that he use to be a head of
the People's Mejlis of the self-declared Talysh-Mugan Autonomous
Republic on Azerbaijan. On the one hand, he emphasised that nothing
can divide different peoples of our country (Turks, Lezgins, Kurds
etc.) and that Talysh are "an inseparable part of the people of
Azerbaijan" and they do not seek separation.
At the same time he is sure the Talysh autonomy is necessary, because
"a people cannot be free as long as it oppresses other peoples", and
calls for Talysh language to be the state language alongside Azeri.
Quite a bizarre thought. Talysh are so deeply melted with the Azeris
that one can hardly speak of any discrimination. Even to Talysh
themselves such statements should sound strange. A different question
is preservation of linguistic and cultural peculiarities of the
people. During the Soviet era, when a policy of assimilation of small
peoples was tacitly considered correct, as well as now, when human
conditions are so difficult, nothing has been done to open national
schools, printing newspapers etc. in the places where Talysh are
living in compact numbers, and this is a problem that sooner or later
will have to be resolved. But it is a gross over-exaggeration to claim
the status of the state language for Talysh, and especially F.Abbasov,
being a PhD in History should know that. If one follows his logic,
Azerbaijan should have no less than 10 state languages - why should
other small peoples be considered of less value than Talysh? The crux
of the matter is that only Azeri language now serves as a national
language in the country and Abbasov knows that.
Nevertheless, his article is full of contradictions, which can be
easily visible to anyone familiar with the "nationality question" in
Azerbaijan. Officials of Azerbaijani Embassy in Russia were also
surprised when such well-known newspaper published an article about
"Avesta." When Farhad Agamaliev, the press-secretary of the Embassy,
tried to find out the reasons for publishing the article, the
"Nezavisimaya" gave no clear answer, saying that the article presents
one of the perspectives of the problem. Either the editorial board is
not familiar with the situation of Talysh in Azerbaijan, or someone
was interested in such publication in a well-known newspaper. The
question is - who was interested? Many are inclined to see the
manipulations of the Russian political establishment. None within our
Ministry of National Security was moved by the reincarnation in Moscow
of the idea of "autonomous Talysh statehood", or at least the
press-service of this office did not have any information about
"Avesta" or about its leaders. Nevertheless, the press-secretary of
our embassy in RF does not see this publication as a demonstratively
adverse step on the part of Russia. "We want to believe that Russia no
more plays those games she practices on us just few years ago, for
example when supporting ex-president Mutalibov," says F.Agamaliev.
During the recent years relations between our countries have improved
considerably and Russia would not endanger progress in the inter-state
relations, which started to appear after Putin's visit to Baku.
The article obviously was aimed to test our nerves and we see it as a
challenge against Azerbaijan, though finding its authors is rather
difficult now and they well might be outside of Russia. Official
registration of "Avesta" and this publication do not prove mass
membership of this organisation. It is quite possible that none, apart
from F.Abbasov himself and few others, takes part. One can remember
the last year, when the Moscow press has "widely" announced the
creation of Mutalibov Foundation, though later it appeared that it had
only 14 individuals, and later only 9, because 5 have left the
organisation.
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