Tuesday, July 7, 2020 - Author: Parviz Yari
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| The historic Babek Castle is located at an elevation of 2,300 metres, three kilometres from the town of Kaleybar and 180 kilometres northeast of Tabriz. |
“Disturbing public order,” “acting against national security,” “propaganda activity against the establishment through the distribution of leaflets,” and “participating in the illegal Babak Castle ceremony” are among the most common charges brought in recent years against Azerbaijani people and civil activists for attending the gathering known as the “Babak Castle Congress.”
The Babak Castle Congress, also known as the “Babak Castle Qurultay,” is held annually on the second Thursday and Friday of the Iranian month of Tir, coinciding with the birthday of Babak Khorramdin. Since the late 1990s, local people and Turkish civil activists have gathered at Babak Fortress, located three kilometres from the city of Kaleybar in East Azerbaijan Province. Participants come not only from the surrounding region but also from distant areas, often travelling to the fortress on foot. There, they express their demands through traditional music, street theatre, and public speeches.
This year, as in previous years, the ceremony was held under strict security measures and in the presence of members of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, the Basij, and plainclothes security agents.
According to reports received as the anniversary of the Babak Castle Congress approached, numerous Azerbaijani civil activists in Tabriz, Ardabil, Urmia, Zanjan, Khoy, Tehran, and several other cities were summoned by the Security Police of the Law Enforcement Force and local intelligence offices. Others were contacted by telephone and threatened with consequences should they attend the gathering.
Every year during the second week of Tir, security forces also control the roads leading to Kaleybar and permit entry only to local residents.
In recent weeks, pressure on Azerbaijani civil activists has intensified in an effort to prevent the Babak Castle Congress from taking place. Mohammad Khakpour was summoned to court; Jafar Rostami-Rad returned to Evin Prison, following the end of his temporary leave and before the gathering, to serve his thirteen-month sentence; and Sahand Maali was arrested on 10 Tir of this year [June 30, 2020].
According to Sahand Maali’s family, police officers went to the workplace of the civil activist, who resides in Sarab County, and arrested him. Maali had previously been arrested in Tir 1397 [July 2018] during the annual Babak Castle gathering by security forces in Sarab. He was accused of “propaganda activity against the establishment through the distribution of leaflets.” He had been temporarily released pending the completion of judicial proceedings after posting bail of 300 million tomans, but he was arrested again last week.
Similar charges have repeatedly appeared in cases brought against Azerbaijani civil activists in recent years, resulting in sentences that have included flogging, imprisonment, and monetary fines.
During the 2018 Babak Castle Congress, security forces similarly arrested dozens of Turkish civil activists at Babak Castle and in several cities. Amnesty International subsequently issued a statement in three languages—Turkish, English, and Persian—calling for the unconditional release of the imprisoned activists and for the acquittal of all detainees who had been released on bail.
Amnesty International reported that approximately 120 people had been arrested in connection with the Babak Castle gathering. Its report separately examined the arrests of several detainees, including Abbas Lisani, Ibrahim Nouri, Jafar Rostami-Rad, Keyumars Eslami, Hamid Adib Shafagh, Mohammad Jolani, Meysam Jolani, Ali Kheyrjoo, Mohsen Esmaili, Asgar Akbarzadeh, Rahim Gholami, Ali Vaseghi, Saeed Sadeghifar, Mehdi Houshmand, Morteza Parvin, Mostafa Parvin, Tohid Amir-Amini, Ali Rouhbakhsh, and Mohammad Azad.
The Objectives, Character, and Origins of the Babak Castle Congress
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| İbrahim Rashidi Savalan: The Babak Castle Congress Marked the Beginning of the Connection Between Azerbaijani Elites and the Masses |
“Babak, as a hero who arose from Azerbaijan and fought against occupiers, has always attracted the attention of Azerbaijani intellectuals and political activists. In 1324 [1945–1946], the armed units of the autonomous government established by the Azerbaijan Democratic Party were named the Babak Groups.
“Regarding the Babak Castle Congress itself, the available writings indicate that in Khordad 1359 [May–June 1980], a group of Azerbaijani activists gathered at Babak Castle together with Dr. Mohammad-Taqi Zehtabi. This initiative was interrupted after Dr. Zehtabi was arrested the following year and imprisoned for four years, as well as by the repressive political atmosphere of the 1980s. It was resumed in 1370 [1991].
“During the early 1990s, similar congresses emerged in many Turkish-populated cities. Among them were the Hakim Tilim Khan congresses, held in Saveh during the first week of Mehr 1370 [late September 1991] and the final week of Shahrivar 1371 [September 1992]. Programs were also organized to condemn the Armenian government’s occupation of Karabakh, although each of these initiatives was discontinued for various reasons. Only the Babak Castle Congress survived into the late 1990s and developed into a massive popular gathering.
“All these ceremonies were rooted in the dissatisfaction of Turks with the country’s prevailing political and cultural conditions and in their efforts to revive their own identity.”
Responding to a question about the objectives and character of the Babak Castle Congress, Rashidi says:
“In brief, Azerbaijani activists at that time were searching for a platform through which they could articulate their demands to the government and communicate their voices to the broader society. Because the government refused to provide platforms such as publications and associations in regions inhabited by ethnic minorities, and because widespread social media did not yet exist as it does today, Azerbaijani activists concluded that organizing such congresses was an appropriate means of speaking publicly about humiliation and discrimination.
“They also regarded these gatherings as a way to revive an identity that had long been excluded from official institutions and government departments.”
The Babak Castle Congress: A Voice That Was Suppressed
The well-known Turkish writer and poet describes the Babak Castle Congress as a megaphone for expressing the demands of the Turkish population:
“By the early 2000s, nearly a decade had passed since the annual ceremony had first begun. As a result, broad sections of the population had become aware of the gathering. Because people recognized that the issues and demands raised during the ceremony corresponded to their own concerns, they began joining it.
“At the same time, the presidency of Mohammad Khatami brought a relative opening of Iran’s political environment. This allowed Turkish activists to leave behind a period in which they had no public platform. Through the publication of periodicals and the organization of congresses, they established greater contact with the population and attracted a much broader constituency.
“While Khatami’s first presidential term was characterized by hope for governmental reform and the movement of Azerbaijani activists toward formal, officially authorized spaces, his second term became a period of disappointment and protest because of the bureaucratic gauntlet involved in obtaining permits and the arbitrary supervision imposed on authorized activities.
“For this reason, Turkish activists increasingly preferred to organize programs that provided greater freedom of action and carried a stronger protest dimension. During this period, a remarkable consensus emerged among Azerbaijani activists and the broader population: we must express our demands not through repeated requests, but by speaking loudly. Babak Castle became that megaphone.”
Rashidi states that “the Babak Castle Congress marked the beginning of the connection between Azerbaijani elites and the masses.” Explaining when and why the establishment became increasingly sensitive to the congress, leading to arrests, the securitization of the gathering, and the closure of roads leading to Kaleybar, he says:
“As the ceremony expanded during the final years of Khatami’s presidency, it was increasingly subjected to policing and security measures. Last year, Dr. Alami, a former member of parliament representing Tabriz, referred again to the Babak Castle ceremony in one of his writings and reminded officials of the security measures that had been used against it.
“He noted that forests near Babak Castle had burned for several consecutive days that year without the authorities taking even the slightest action to extinguish the fire. Criticizing the government’s inaction, Dr. Alami wrote that officials should now imagine that a group of people was planning to hold a ceremony at Babak Castle and should rush to smother the fire with the same determination they had previously shown in suppressing those people.
“According to most analysts of Azerbaijani affairs, the Babak Castle ceremony marked the beginning of the connection between elites and the masses and helped lay the groundwork for the Azerbaijani protests of Khordad 1385 [May 2006]. This was what made the security institutions particularly sensitive to the gathering.”
Finally, responding to a question about why the Babak Castle gathering has declined and attracted fewer participants in recent years, Rashidi says:
“Naturally, security measures and arrests were the primary reasons for the decline of the Babak Castle ceremony in the mid-2000s. However, following the protests of Khordad 1385 [May 2006], the promotion of Tractor Football Club to Iran’s Premier League, and, most importantly, the expansion of social media, Azerbaijani activists no longer regarded Babak Castle as their principal platform for expressing their demands.
“Instead, they began to view city streets, Tabriz Stadium, and online spaces as locations for expressing their protests and demands. Consequently, the idea of organizing the Babak Castle ceremony has become less prominent in recent years.”
Original article in Persian:
ابراهیم رشیدی: کنگره قلعه بابک نقطه آغاز پیوند نخبگان آذربایجان با تودهها بود