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| Turkish language rights activists of Azerbaijan in Iran |
Several years ago, many language rights defenders were arrested during events held in Iranian Azerbaijan on the occasion of International Mother Language Day. These activists were later tried in a mass trial in Ahar.
According to reports from internet portals covering Southern Azerbaijan, as well as information obtained by Voice of America from those tried, the Ahar court accused some of the activists of “establishing and managing opposition groups to undermine security and destabilize the regime,” while others were charged with being members of such groups.
Among the activists tried in Ahar were Abbas Lisani, Rahim Ghulami, Asgar Akbarzadeh, Mohammad Rahmanifar, Meysam Azadi, Mansur Seyfi, Akbar Abulzadeh, Jalal Durudgari, Vahid Faizpur, Shapur Nosratpur, Meysam Colani, Ibrahim Nuri, Alireza Chengizi, Israfil Fatullazadeh, Vahid Bastami, Suleyman Kazimi, Mehdi Zincirbulagi, Beitullah Barzgar, Murtaza Safari, Arash Jafari, Akbar Jahangiri, Murtaza Shukri, Hamid Allahverdi, Murtaza Mohammadi, and Majid Nagizadeh.
According to the information, many of these activists submitted their defense statements in Turkish.
Some of these activists are also being tried for participating in the mass protests on November 9, 2015, and in rallies supporting Uyghur Turks.
Link to the original text in Turkish on the Azerbaijani section of Voice of America:
Əhərdə türk dil haqları fəallarının kütləvi məhkəməsi keçirilib