Alirza Quluncu, BBC Persian, 1st August 2018
 |
| Babek Castle, Kalibar, East Azerbaijan. |
The annual gathering at Babak Castle, located in the Kalibar County of East Azerbaijan province, began in the late 1990s.
At that time, civil rights activists of the Turkish community were looking for platforms and opportunities to express their demands from the government and communicate their messages to various layers of society. A group of political activists in Azerbaijan, who had hoped for political and cultural openness from the "Reformist government," soon became disillusioned and had to choose between joining the ranks of the reformists or continuing to work within the framework of ethnic and linguistic rights. Additionally, the bloody events of July 18 and 20, 1999, at the Tehran and Tabriz universities, especially the more intense repression in Tabriz and its limited media coverage, showed that security agencies had greater leeway to suppress protests in peripheral areas outside the capital.
In this context, according to Turkish activists, a group of them, led by Mohammad Taghi Zehtabi, a survivor of the Azerbaijan Democratic Party, began organizing an event called "Qorultay" or the Babak Congress on the occasion of "Babak Khorramdin's Birthday" at Babak Castle. Zehtabi, a historian and professor of Turkish language and literature, had become a well-known figure in various cities of Azerbaijan, particularly after the publication of his extensive book "The Ancient History of the Turks of Iran" in Turkish.
The Babak Congress, held on the second Thursday and Friday of summer, quickly gained attention from various segments of the people in the Turkish-speaking cities. As seen in numerous images and videos from the event, this gathering initially appeared more as a cultural festival. Men and women from various age groups, often in family groups, would set up tents in the lush, green area of the Qaradag region. Ashiqs (folk musicians) and music groups from East Azerbaijan, West Azerbaijan, Ardabil, Zanjan, and even Tehran and other central areas performed. Some artists and ordinary people would dance in small and large groups, and others would recite Turkish poems.
In July of 2002 and 2003, a group of theater actors from Ardabil performed "Tepe Göz," one of the epic stories from the "Dede Korkut Book," as a street theater at Babak Castle. During these years, alongside a significant increase in the number of participants in the Babak Castle gathering, the emphasis on Babak Khorramdin's historical significance as a symbol of resistance against oppression grew, and the political and protest nature of the event also intensified. A large crowd marched from the foothills of the mountain towards the castle, chanting slogans and carrying banners and placards. Brochures containing the demands of the Turkish community and a list of economic issues in the Azerbaijan region were distributed among the people.
One of the central issues in the slogans raised during these events was identity. The organizers of the gathering paid attention not only to the content and slogans of the banners but also to the language and alphabet used. The use of English and the Latin alphabet for some Turkish writings on the placards indicates that the activists sought not only to convey their demands to the government and garner public support but also to attract the attention of international media, particularly Turkish-speaking media from countries such as Turkey and Azerbaijan. In one image from the 2003 gathering, participants carried a banner that read in Turkish, using the Latin alphabet: "We are Turks. We are not Azeris."
As the protest nature of these gatherings became more pronounced, the security apparatus of the Islamic Republic took measures to prevent the events from taking place. Arrests increased in the lead-up to the gatherings, and many people were detained while heading toward Babak Castle. Those arrested often faced charges such as "disturbing public order," "engaging in activities against national security by participating in the illegal Babak Castle event," or "promoting Pan-Turkism," and were sentenced to long prison terms.
Amnesty International deemed the accusation of promoting Pan-Turkism as "vague." According to the human rights organization, during the 2005 gathering, at least 21 detainees were sentenced to prison terms of up to one year. In July 2005, military and security forces completely blocked the routes leading to Babak Castle, and to disperse the crowd, they beat people. That year, only a few people, including Akbar Alami, the representative of Tabriz at the time, managed to reach the castle. After participating in the annual gathering, Alami criticized the "policing and security measures" surrounding the event in an interview with the Mehr News Agency.
After the 2006 Iran newspaper cartoon controversy and the subsequent widespread arrests during the June 2006 protests, the Babak Castle gathering lost some of its prominence. However, urban protests in Azerbaijan continued intermittently on various occasions, such as protests for linguistic rights on International Mother Language Day in March and during the reopening of schools, as well as protests related to the drying up of Lake Urmia. In recent years, most of the street protests in these areas have been reactions to ethnic and racial insults in television programs and other media.
The limitation of street protests to sporadic and reactive demonstrations in recent years, due to systematic state repression on one hand and the gradual disengagement of the younger generation from effective civil-political activities—leading them to turn to football stadiums on the other hand—has sparked a renewed discussion about the need for effective platforms and opportunities to address legal demands in various gatherings, including the Babak Castle event in Azerbaijan.