December 2, 2002 - 04:00 AMT
ARTICLE
“STOP THE GENOCIDE OF NATIONAL MINORITIES OF AZERBAIJAN”
President of Talish-Mugani Republic, Alikram Gummatov made this appeal to the Council of Europe.
For more than ten years the leader of the national-liberation movement of the Talish people, the first President of the unrecognized Talish-Mugani Republic Alikrim Gummatov is kept in Azerbaijani prison. The founder of the Talish Republic occupied by Azerbaijan was arrested and sentenced to a life imprisonment, but he continues to fight for the right of his people for self-determination. Despite his health problems and tortures, Gummatov is not going to give up his principles.
Not so long ago he was going a hunger-strike which lasted one and a half month. Then the leader of the Talishstan addressed to the Council of Europe and the Azerbaijani people a message where he confirmed his resoluteness to fight for the sovereignty of the Republic declared in August 1993, and urged them to condemn the policy of genocide of minorities conducted by the official Baku. The document questions the legality of the Azerbaijani state.

Alikram Gummatov asks a question: why can the alien tyurks have their own state, while the Talish people, which is one and a half million, is deprived of this right. The political prisoner noted that “historically Talishs, Curds, Tats Lezgins and other people lived on this land, and from the 12th century an inflow of Turkish-language tribes started”, which occupied the lands of other people and had an absolute power over them. According to Gummatov, then they started a campaign of “assimilation of all the non-tyurk peoples living on that land for centuries and being its real owners”. “The national-ethnic discrimination, oppression of non-tyurk nations and their forced assimilation, violation of their civil rights is being carried out on the level of state policy in Azerbaijan. In these circumstances, the representatives of non-tyurk nations are forced to hide their nationality. The violent pantyurkism has divided the nation and has led to formation of an antagonism between the nations of Azerbaijan. All the rights of non-tyurk nations living in Azerbaijan were being violated. Under these conditions the Talish people started to fight for its national liberation,” Gummatov writes. “If a state so openly violates the rights of its citizens, deprives them of the possibility to do business and commerce and to participate in politics, why shouldn’t we have the right to struggle against such a state?” asks the leader of Talishstan.

Speaking about the mass repressions towards the leaders of national-liberation movement, Gummatov says that “during 9 years passed from the temporal defeat of the Talish-Mugani Republic, its President is kept in prison without any juridical, political or moral bases.” Concluding his message, the leader of Talishstan demands “to stop the genocide and the process of assimilation of Talish people”.

These message of the President of the occupied Republic caused a waive of indignation in Baku. The official propaganda uses it for a new campaign of discredit against the Azerbaijani human right protectors who consider the leader of the Talish Republic as a political prisoner. Meanwhile, it is known that Gummatov is considered a political prisoner in all the civilized countries. The Council of Europe has several times demanded immediately to release the leader of the Talish-Mugani Republic.

The accusations of Gummatov are not new. The crimes described by him have become the reason for starting of national-liberation movements by Armenians, Curds and Lezgins. The precedent of establishment of an independent state by the Armenians helps to maintain the strength of mind of all the indigenous nations of Azerbaijan which fight against the Azerbaijani colonization.