Azerbaijan State Security Service kidnaps Russian citizen of Talysh origin

Talysh historian Zahiraddin Ibrahimov reportedly disappeared on 26 March in Yekaterinburg, Russia. Shortly afterwards, his relatives in the Lankaran district in southern Azerbaijan received a letter from Azerbaijan’s State Security Service (SSS), which listed several charges against Ibrahimov, including treason.

Ibrahimov has lived in Russia for more than twenty years; he received citizenship in 2002. His friend Ali Aghayev, a Talysh blogger who lives in exile in Sweden, told OC Media that they have known each other since 1989.

‘They planned this detention before with the Russian authorities. Because on 26 March, the SSS prepared a letter to [Ibrahimov’s] village, and this letter was received on 9 April, yet he disappeared on 26 March’, Aghayev said.

Talysh people are Azerbaijan’s largest minority, estimated to be at least 500,000 and up to one million, but have long struggled to secure their own ethnic autonomy and civil rights, including the ability to access education in the Talysh language.

‘Zahiraddin [Ibrahimov] was a member of the opposition party Popular Front, and I was a member of Musavat [also an opposition party]. He was a historian and wrote about Talysh history, [and] our culture’, Aghayev said.

The last time Ibrahimov tried to visit Azerbaijan was in 2014, but was not allowed to enter at the airport in Lankaran.

‘He was detained and sent back with another plane. Since 2014, he has never visited Azerbaijan. Zahiraddin was also a blogger, and he has a YouTube channel where he has a programme in the Talysh language’, Aghayev said.

According to registration information in Russia, Ibrahimov was one of the founders of the Centre of Talysh Culture, which was established in 2012. He was also the founder of the Talysh National-Cultural Autonomy of the Sverdlovsk Oblast organisation, which was established in 2021.

Sayyara Aliyeva, a state-guaranteed lawyer, told OC Media that she attended Ibrahimov’s interrogations, during which he allegedly spoke about his connection with Armenia.

She additionally claimed that Ibrahimov had confessed to receiving $200–$400 from someone in Armenia.

Aliyeva stated that she did not exactly remember when the SSS had asked her to defend Ibrahimov’s rights in court, but she stressed that her defendant was in a good mood and that he was not tortured while in pre-trial detention.

However, she noted that none of Ibrahimov’s family members met with him while he was detained.

‘They should follow the rules and should contact the investigator whose name is Fuad. Once a week, one person can be designated to bring [Ibrahimov] clothes and meals’, Aliyeva said.

According to Aliyeva, it did not matter that Ibrahimov was a Russian citizen because he was accused of treason and had been registered in Azerbaijan.

‘He was on the wanted list, and not only he, but other Talysh people were also on the wanted list. He was on the wanted list for several years’.

‘I don’t know whether he was kidnapped somewhere, but during the interrogation, he confessed to what he did in 2018, 2019, and 2020, and he spoke about Talysh rights, about the Talysh organisations, and about the violations of Talysh rights. He spoke about dumb, stupid things [referring to Ibrahimov’s statements regarding the Talysh people]. We are all [just] Azerbaijanis,’ Aliyeva said OC Media.

The subject of Talysh rights and culture have been a sensitive subject for the Azerbaijani authorities for decades. In 1993, a short-lived separatist entity in southern Azerbaijan emerged calling itself the Talysh-Mughan Autonomous Republic. Its leader was soon arrested.

Since then, Azerbaijan has frequently arrested Talysh activists and cultural figures, including on charges of treason.

In 2024, Azerbaijan arrested two researchers on charges of treason, including ethnic Talysh researcher, Igbal Abilov and researcher and writer Bahruz Samadov.

In October of that same year, Azerbaijan sentenced ethnic Talysh activist Mirhafiz Jafarzade, who advocated for the creation of Talysh school textbooks in Azerbaijan, to 16 years in prison on charges of treason.

Azerbaijan sentences Talysh activist to 16 years in prison for treason

Ethnic Talysh activist Mirhafiz Jafarzade, who advocated for the creation of Talysh school textbooks in Azerbaijan, has been sentenced to 16 years in prison on charges of treason. Jafarzade, who is also a Russian citizen, was found guilty of treason in the form of espionage on Thursday. Jafarzade was detained by the authorities in November 2022. That day, pro-government media reported that the trial had determined that Jafarzade worked ’in secret cooperation with foreign special services

OC MediaAytan Farhadova