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Our Ref.:
228/2002
Date:
03/01/2003
Middle East
Section
Amnesty
international
London
United
Kingdom
Dear Mr
Dyke
May we draw
your kind attention to our letter (reference no. 225/2002 dated 06/11/20020
addressed to your good self) that appeals for assistance to protect the rights
of Mr. Ali
Suleymani, one of the
writers of Shams-I-Tebriz weekly, which used to be published in Tebriz capital
of Southern Azerbaijan
After a month
of intensive interrogation in prison, he was officially charged on 08/11/2002.
Shortly after that, he was released on 20 million tuman ( 24 Thousand US dollar)
bail because of kidney failure under torture and to ease public pressure. His
trial will be on 08/01/2003 in Erdebil city. Like many other advocates of
Southern Azerbaijanis rights he was accused of Pan-Turkism, separatism, inciting
nations against each other and meeting with some human rights organisations in
Baku. In order to frighten our rights activists they deliberately prolong the
trials until the dust is settled and then hand down heavy sentences. We call
upon you to send an observer to oversee his trial in order to prevent repetition
of previous scenarios.
We would like
to remind you the initial verdict in trial of Ali Hamed Iman, editor-in-chief of
Shame-I-Tebriz weekly. He was found guilty on 18 counts, sentenced to 74 lashes,
7 month of impairment and half a million tuman (800 USD) fine and temporary
closure of his weekly. On his appeal court the judge sentenced him to 2 years
imprisonment, 5 million tuman (7 thousand USD)fine to be paid in cash,74 lashes
and permanent closure of the weekly. As he continues to fight against injustice
he has once again been summoned to attend Iranian court on different charges on
12/01/2003. It is feared that they might impose even harsher sentences upon
him.
We call upon
you to examine his trial and discover for yourself that he has only defended
Azerbaijanis rights within the boundary of Iranian constitution.
We should also
emphasis that as the national movement of Azerbaijanis of South is gaining
momentum Islamic Republic of Iran inserting more pressure on rights activists.
We would also like to reiterate that their demands are in complete accordance
with international law. In 2002 alone some 1000 Azerbaijanis were arrested and
imprisoned/ sentenced to suspended prison terms, or threatened with dire
consequences of their activities in order to frighten them off the political
arena. During last month’s events so many of our young compatriots were
arrested. Some such as Mahmud Fezli , Erkin musevi , Ayet Mehrelibeyli ,Eziz
purveli ,Teymur Nesirifer, yusif Shahabniya (in Tebriz prisons) Hemid Zemani and
Huseyn Elilu (in Urmu’s prison) are still in prison. Score of these detainees
has gone on hunger strike to protest against the torture and imprisonment. As we
mentioned in our letter no. 114/2000 dated 03/07/2000 QulamRza Emani was handed
down a heavy sentence. Mr Dindari of city of Hemedan was assassinated because of
his intensive campaign for raising awareness among Azerbaijani Turks of their
rights.
Rza Qeffari a
well known Azerbaijani linguist, writer of score of scientific articles about
Azerbaijan in our national language , 45 years old organiser of Azerbaijani
symposium in Sherefxana( West of Tebriz) in 1998 died in mysterious
circumstances. Recently
Southern Azerbaijani intellectuals once again have been in the firing line and
so-called pressure groups are attacking their work place and homes. Scare
mongering and creation of atmosphere of terror have been intensified.
We call upon
you to do your utmost to assist us in improving the situation. Please send an
envoy to observe the conditions and treatment of political prisoners in Southern
Azerbaijan.
Yours
sincerely,
Committee for
Protection of World Azerbaijanis Rights (KPWAR)
Chairman
Boyuk
Resuloglu
Date:
19/08/2002
No:221/2000
To:
Dr Walter Schwimmer -
President
of Council of Europe's Parliamentary Assembly
To:Dr.Mary
Robinson-
High
Commissioner of UN on Humann Rights in Geneva- Switzerland
Your Excellency
It is a no longer a hidden fact that rights of over
30 million Southern Azerbaijanis in Islamic Republic of Iran are grossly
violated. This shameful reality of violation of rights of our compatriots, to
the extent that they are even deprived of education in their own mother tongue,
is in sharp contrast with European democracy, UN conversions and international
conscious. We have been involved in a campaign of disclosing institutionalised
racist policies of Islamic Republic of Iran, against Southern Azerbaijanis and
her assimilation tactics for the past years. The bitter reality is, this brutal
policy of cultural genocide is taking place by a very regime, that is an
advocate of dialogue of civilisations. In order to eradicate this injustice
imposed upon us, our peace-loving nation has intensified its just struggle in
recent years, by democratic means.
Hoping to highlight the
plight of our nation we wrote a letter to Secretary General of the United
Nation, Mr. Kofi Anan on 11.02.2000 (Reference No. 098/2000) and attached a
fifteen page explanatory document in support of our allegations. We would
like to attach another copy of those documents, plus a map of Islamic Republic
of Iran with the areas where Azerbaijani Turks live and a statistical table
derived from Islamic Republic of Iran's sources in 1997. Council of Europe's
representative's officials visits to Tehran in July encouraged us to open
another avenue to campaign for legitimate rights of our nation. We are
certain that this will not be your last envoy in Tehran, therefore we have a
duty to provide you with facts and documents about Azerbaijanis living in
Islamic republic of Iran and plead for your intervention to prevent a major
catastrophe from happening.
Your Excellency,
We are writing to urge you upon assisting us in freeing our compatriots, whom
have been detained by Iranian Intelligent officers, in recent weeks and inform
you of enormous pressure exerted on us by Iranian regime. Our nation has risen
up to restore their long overdue legitimate rights. Every year a huge mass of
our compatriots gathers in Babek Castle on the occasion of his Birthday. Babek
national hero of Azerbaijanis has fought an honorable fight against Arab
invaders 1200 years ago, to rid his people of occupational forces.
In order to discourage people from peaceful march towards the
Babek castle on 4and 5th of July of this year, Iranian regime stepped up it's
antidemocratic actions by arresting hundreds of organisers and participants.
Despite all these efforts hundreds of thousands of our compatriots took part in
the march to voice their dissatisfaction with the current situation once again.
What we most fear is detention of prominent Azerbaijanis who participated in the
march and subjecting them to various known inhuman methods for discouraging them
from participating in this yearly event. Please be ware that today's tragedies
if ignored, can be prelude to tomorrow's massacres. Based on the information we
have received so far in order to halt this movement, Iranian Regime has taken
following desperate actions:
1. On the first of July scores of
people were arrested in Tebriz, Urmiya, Qezvin and Zenjan. We have the name of
some of these detainees who are still in prison.
Elyas Yekani, Ashiq Jebrayil and Mahammad Bastanichi
were released on bail while Adigozel
Eghdam
is still in jail. Those released on bail are expecting long jail and heavy fines
in court if international communities do not intervene.
2. Some 79 Southern Azerbaijani Rights activists of Urmiya, Zenjan, Tebriz,
Erdebil and Tehran have been ordered to report themselves to Iranian
Intelligence offices and forced to a written commitment not to attend the march.
(
Hasan Ark, Yusif Dasran, Hasan Azerbaijan, Manuchehr Azizi, Hamid Shafayi,
Mahammad Reza Nasiriyan, Ali Mahmudi, Ahmad Heydaroghlu, ve …)
3.
All transportation companies in Southern Azerbaijan were ordered not to take
passengers to the castle by threatening non-obedient companies with prosecution.
Iranian regime by taking these preventive measures was hoping to lower the
number of participants to 30-40 thousands, but to their disappointment up to a
million people marched to the Babek Castle and security forces had no option but
to withdraw from the scene.
4. All vehicles that were heading towards
the castle stopped, searched, their registration numbers were taken, and
passengers were filmed by numerous checkpoints set up by security
forces.
5. After the events fifteen participants including
three ladies were arrested. Later on three were released, 5 were handed over to
revolutionary court, 7 were taken to an unknown location (
Zohreh Vafayi, Mahmud Yekanli, Jamshid Azari, Mahni Zenjanli and…)
6.During the days of Babek, Northern Azerbaijani (Azerbaijan
Republic) tourists were mistreated and passports of some of them were
confiscated on suspicion of attending the march. Two ladies and three gentlemen
have lodged a complaint about behaviour of Islamic Republic of Iran's officials
to CPWAR.
7. Head of Iranian revolutionary court in Tebriz known as
Mahmudi extraordinarily admitted the mass participation of people in the march
and used scare-mongering tactics by threatening participants of next years to
dire consequences of their action. He branded the participants Panturkist that
can carry the death penalty if convicted in court of law.
8. One
month after the big march, Iranian Secret Police is continuing to arrest those
whom have been spotted in the scores of films they have taken of the event. Some
Azerbaijani Cultural Centers which have previously managed to obtain license for
their activities were now closed without any explanation.( Goverchin Cultural
Centre in Erdebil)
We believe international community and
council of Europe have moral and legal obligations to prevent a catastrophe from
happening. Our only defence is international public opinion.
May we thank you for your time and attention.
The
World Azerbaijanis Rights Defence Comitee
Boyuk
Rasuloghlu
Cc: To Dear friend Mr. Drewery Dyke - Amnesty International London