An alternative report
prepared by the Public Council of the Talysh People in Azerbaijan
on implementation of CE Framework Convention for the Protection
of National Minorities in the Republic of Azerbaijan for the
protection of Talysh people, covering the period of 2016 – 2021
years
Statement by The Talysh Public Council of Azerbaijan in the Republic of Azerbaijan on current status of the Talysh language and requesting urgent measures in this direction
A man in a black, no-tie suit walks towards a house surrounded by a group of men in white shirts. Notes of traditional Azerbaijani music dissolve in the air - it’s the vağzalı, played when a bride leaves her parents’ house to join her future husband. The man is Farail Abbasov and he is getting married. One by one every man approaches the groom, hugs him, congratulates him, and then the dance starts.
Closer to the house women in colourful dresses are waiting for the groom. One of them takes a tray with three glasses of water and Farail has to drink one before entering the house. Then the women kisses him and dances around him. In a sign of respect, he kisses the oldest of the group.
With friends and relatives, including his nine siblings, he makes his way to the reception venue - a simple pavilion with tables and chairs - all wrapped in an ocra canvas and fuchsia ribbons. To enter the tent he cuts a red ribbon and folk mugam starts. And with it, the dances go on until early morning hours.
The chief editor of the Tolyshi Sado newspaper, former ‘prisoner of conscience,’ Hilal Mammadov, was called on September 19 to the Nizami police station, where he was presented a claim in connection with his participation in the opposition rallies and demanded an end to his ties with the opposition. Mammadov said in response that he realized his freedoms and did not intend to limit them.
Mammadov told Turan that yesterday about 15.00 a local policeman summoned him to the deputy chief of the 25th police station of the Nizami District Police, Elnur Aliyev, for a conversation.
They came together to the office, and only an hour later Aliyev received Mammadov, and they had a short 2-3 minute conversation, during which the officer asked for what Mammadov was previously sentenced.
Interrogation of Hilal Mammadov who is interviewed as a witness at the closed process of the Court on the Grave Crime from June, 2nd, 2008 (16-00 – 18-00) with regards to the case of the editor-in-chief of the newspaper «Тolishi Sado» («the Voice of Talysh») Novruzali Mammadov and the responsible secretary of the newspaper Elman Guliyev, accused under the Article 274 (« High Treason»).
Part 2
The judge: Well, Hilal Mammadov. Olease, express your attitude on this question.
