ياشاسين آذربايجان - Long live Azerbaijan

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Under the pretext of “authority”, the Islamic Republic of Iran denies the national and human rights of all none Farsi-speaking nations and on this ground the national and human rights of the 30 million Southern Azerbaijanis have been continually violated including the basic right of education in the mother language. The facts presented in this Communication shows that Iranian authorities even politicises customs and traditions of Southern Azerbaijanis. For instance, the information presented in the case of Mr. Vedud Esedi clearly shows that the Iranian authorities reacted to the decorative colours on their wedding cake and this reaches to the extent that the authorities are persecuting on the various grounds including singing songs and speaking in mother language during the wedding ceremony.

No: 498/2008
Date: 2 August 2008

The Office of High Commissioner for Human Rights, Geneva

Please circulate this letter to the following:
• Working Group on arbitrary detention (also for Fair Trials);
• Special Rapporteur on the promotion and protection of the right to freedom of opinion and expression
• Special Rapporteur on contemporary forms of racism, racial discrimination, xenophobia and intolerance
• The Independent Expert on Minority Issues, and
• Special Rapporteur on the independence of judges

CC: Mr Dyke and Mrs. Harrison, Amnesty International, London
Also: Human Rights Watch and Human Rights Server

Dear sir/madam;

GENERAL COMMUNICATION 3 RECENT ESCALATION OF REPRESSIONS BY IRANIAN AUTHOIRITIES IN SOUTHERN AZERBAIJAN

Please find enclosed General Communication 3 concerning repressions inflicted recently by the Iranian authorities against Southern Azerbaijani students. Although the backlog of our information to be sent to you goes back until January 2008, we have to give a priority to recent events. The following information is provided:
Table 1 presents an outline of the information on the recently detained students; and
Table 2 present the translation of a letter by the parents of one of the victims named in Table 1.*

Under the pretext of “authority”, the Islamic Republic of Iran denies the national and human rights of all none Farsi-speaking nations and on this ground the national and human rights of the 30 million Southern Azerbaijanis have been continually violated including the basic right of education in the mother language. The facts presented in this Communication shows that Iranian authorities even politicises customs and traditions of Southern Azerbaijanis. For instance, the information presented in the case of Mr. Vedud Esedi clearly shows that the Iranian authorities reacted to the decorative colours on their wedding cake and this reaches to the extent that the authorities are persecuting on the various grounds including singing songs and speaking in mother language during the wedding ceremony.

The recent events clearly show that, there is no law-and-order and a sense of security among Southern Azerbaijanis inflicted by the aggressive operations by security agents, particularly those directed against the students. The ongoing situation has created fear among the intelligentsia. Repression in this scale has reached a new dimension and thus the Iranian authorities are appeased by the silence of international human rights organisations and libertarian individuals.

The defence of the individuals named in this Communication can only be achieved by mandates entrusted to you and we thank you in advance for your attention and subsequent actions.

Yours faithfully;
Mr. Eli Tashkent
The Committee for the Defence of the Rights of World Azerbaijanis

* For details, please [1] click here