Azernews.Az

The history of Talyshes, an ethnic group in Azerbaijan, has been cast into spotlight in Iran to divert attention from protests being held by the large Azerbaijani minority in the neighboring country, says head of AssA-Irada news agency and AzerNEWS Weekly Fazil Abbasov.

Alakram Humbatov, who calls himself "the leader and defender of Talyshes", is reportedly due to visit Iran this month to attend a series of events on the history and culture of Talyshes to be held with the Iranian government’s support.

PhD Abbasov, an Orientalist, comments that the goal of raising the Talysh issue in Iran is to incite tension by means of this "Persian-speaking" ethnic group, which lives in southern Azerbaijan.

"All this aims to create an alternative to the protests by Azerbaijani Turks, who make up half of Iran’s population, over the drying up of Lake Orumieh," Abbasov said, referring to the recent protests in the Azerbaijani-populated regions over the environmental threat of the potential disaster posed to the some 14 million people who live in the area.

"Let me also mention that Iran is the title of a state, a geographic location. It is home to Azerbaijanis, Persians, Kurds, Belujis, Turkmens, Gileks, Gashgais, Arabs, and even Armenians. I wonder why the Iranian authorities, who have forbidden ethnic groups, except the small Armenian minority, to read and write in their own language and to research their history, all of a sudden are conducting a scientific event devoted to the false Talysh history. Well, when you turn to history, you can see that the word "Talysh" is traced to the Turks."

The Orientalist said that Alakram Humbatov, who was to blame for the bloodshed suffered by innocent people in the early 1990s, and a minute portion of the Azerbaijani population in the south that blindly followed him, are controlled by foreign states opposed to Azerbaijan’s independence and cooperate with Armenian terror groups.

"F. Abaszada, one of Humbatov’s closest associates, called on Russia and Iran to restore the "democratic Talysh state" while addressing the third Eurasia scientific forum in [Russian city of] Kazan in July 2010. Look, what is behind this call upon two countries that are far from being beacons on democracy?" Abbasov queried.

Humbatov attempted to establish a self-proclaimed "Talysh-Mugan republic" in 1993 in a bid to split Azerbaijan. He was subsequently charged with a number of state crimes and convicted to life in prison. In 2004, however, he was released, his citizenship was revoked and he was expelled from the country. He currently lives in the Netherlands.