The Unrepresented Nations and Peoples Organization, or simply UNPO is an international organization established to facilitate the voices of unrepresented and marginalised nations and peoples worldwide. It was formed on 11 February 1991 in The Hague, Netherlands. Its members consist of indigenous peoples, minorities, and unrecognised or occupied territories.
Talish-i Gushtasbi is the historical name of the northern Talish area, presently a part of the Republic of Azerbaijan. During the Abbasid Caliphate, there was a region called Gushtasfi. People of northern Talysh are of Iranian stock and speak a northwestern Iranian language called Talysh. The chief cities of the mentioned area are Lankaran, Lerik, Masally and Astara. Talysh language speaking people lives mainly in Astara, Lerik, Lankaran, and in Masally constitutes only small part of population.
Forced assimilation is the involuntary cultural assimilation of religious or ethnic minority groups, during which they are forced to adopt the language, national identity, norms, mores, customs, traditions, values, mentality, perceptions, way of life, and often the religion and ideology of an established and generally larger community belonging to dominant culture by a government. The enforced use of a dominant language in legislation, education, literature, and worship also counts as forced assimilation. Unlike ethnic cleansing, the local population is not outright destroyed and may or may not be forced to leave a certain area. Instead, the assimilation of the population is made mandatory. This is also called mandatory assimilation by scholars who study genocide and nationalism. Mandatory assimilation has sometimes been made a policy of new or contested nations, often during or in the aftermath of a war. Some examples are both the German and French forced assimilation in the provinces Alsace and Lorraine, and some decades after the Swedish conquests of the Danish provinces Scania, Blekinge and Halland the local population was submitted to forced assimilation, or even the forced assimilation of ethnic Teochews in Bangkok by the Siam government during World War I until the 1973 uprising.
The Talysh people are an Iranian ethnic group indigenous to the Talish region shared between Azerbaijan and Iran which spans the South Caucasus and the southwestern shore of the Caspian Sea. They speak the Talysh language, one of the Northwestern Iranian languages. It is spoken in the northern regions of the Iranian provinces of Gilan and Ardabil and the southern parts of the Republic of Azerbaijan. The areas in the Republic of Azerbaijan where Northern Talysh is spoken was historically known as Talish-i Gushtasbi. In Iran there is a Talesh County in Gilan Province.
Talysh-Mughan, officially known as the Talysh-Mughan Autonomous Republic, was a short-lived autonomous republic in Azerbaijan that lasted from June to August 1993.
International organizations have frequently alleged that Azerbaijan has violated human rights standards established in international law.
This article focuses on ethnic minorities in the Republic of Azerbaijan.
Novruzali Khanmammad oğlu Mammadov was an Azerbaijani philologist, journalist and activist of Talysh ethnicity. He was the founder and editor of the now-defunct newspaper Tolyshi Sado. Mammadov also worked at the Nasimi Institute of Linguistics of the Azerbaijan National Academy of Sciences and headed a Talysh cultural center, which was closed after his imprisonment.
Alikram Hummatov or Ali Akram Hummatzade was an Azerbaijani Talysh military commander and political activist. He was the president of the self-proclaimed Talysh-Mughan Autonomous Republic in 1993 and was imprisoned in Azerbaijan. He was considered as a political prisoner by international organizations including Amnesty International and the Council of Europe. After demands from the Council of Europe, Hummatov was granted retrials, yet according to Human Rights Watch report, the authorities conducted him inside prisons, and with procedural violations. He was pardoned in 2004 and stripped of his Azerbaijani citizenship; he lived in exile in the Netherlands.
Hilal Mammadov is an Azerbaijani journalist and human rights activist. He is the chief editor of the Baku-based newspaper "Tolyshi sado", the only newspaper in Azerbaijan printed in the minority Talysh language. After Novruzali Mammadov died in custody, Hilal Mamedov became a second community leader for the Talysh people. He is also known as the author of the meykhana video Ty kto takoy? Davay, do svidaniya! which became an Internet meme both in Azerbaijan and Post-Soviet states.
Caucasian Knot is an online news site that covers the Caucasus region in English and Russian. It was established in 2001 and Grigory Shvedov is the editor-in-chief. It has a particular focus on politics and on human rights issues, including freedom of the press.
Tālīsh is a historical and geographical region near the southwestern coast of the Caspian Sea, an area of compact residence of the Talysh people. It got its name from the ethnonym of the Talysh people inhabiting it.
The Talysh People's Party —political party of the Talysh people, founded in 1991 in Azerbaijan.
Talysh assimilation is one of the propaganda narratives created by the authorities of the Azerbaijan SSR and Soviet ethnographers, alleging the alleged complete and voluntary assimilation of Talysh people into Azerbaijanis in Soviet Azerbaijan. The narrative was created to justify the assimilation policy of the leadership of the Azerbaijan SSR towards the Talysh people and was distributed through various means, including encyclopedias, maps and textbooks. A similar policy was also pursued in relation to the Tats, Georgian-Ingiloy and other peoples of the Azerbaijan SSR.
Afgan Mukhtarli is an Azerbaijani journalist, human rights defender and a former political prisoner.
The Tartar Case is a case of large scale torture that took place in Azerbaijan, dealing with Azerbaijani military personnel accused of treason in 2017 in the aftermath of the Nagorno-Karabakh war in April 2016. According to the authorities and human rights defenders, more than 400 people were subjected to torture in the course of the case. The Azerbaijani authorities claim one person was killed as a result, while human rights defenders say the number is about 13, and many were wrongfully convicted and given hefty prison sentences.
Akhundov Shirali was a Talysh public politician, revolutionary, deputy chairman of the Regional Council of the Mugan Soviet Republic and сhairman of the Lankaran district executive Committee.
