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| Ayaz Ibadi, political activist |
The conference titled "Azerbaijan and the Process of Shaping Sustainable Democracy," held recently at Berlin's Humboldt University, focused on issues related to Iranian Azerbaijan and the socio-political situation in Iran.
In an interview with VOA, Ayaz Ibadi, a member of the Azerbaijan Democracy and Development Center and one of the main organizers of the conference, discussed the event’s purpose, organizers, and goals. He also addressed criticisms raised by some activists regarding the conference.
Ayaz Ibadi explained:
“At the outset, the main parties working on South Azerbaijan-related issues were the Azerbaijan Democracy and Development Center and the Azerbaijan Democratic Party. These two played leading and central roles in organizing the conference. However, in addition to these, there were numerous independent activists from across the spectrum, including those supporting independence and those advocating for a federal Iran. All these individuals participated in the organizing committee and played active roles.”
Ibadi noted that representatives from groups across a wide political spectrum attended the event. Among them were parties representing Baluch, Arab, Kurdish, Turkmen, and Lur communities, as well as members of some Persian-centric organizations who participated as observers.
One of the primary goals of the Berlin conference, according to Ayaz Ibadi, was to communicate the demands of Iranian Azerbaijan to other political factions in Iran:
“All organizations within the Azerbaijani National Movement are, I can say, isolated. We do not reach out to organizations outside the movement. Until now, we have neither sought nor received the support of other nations within Iran. Nor have we successfully conveyed our message to leading global powers. If we have spoken out, our prevailing narrative has often not allowed us to voice our demands because it has been somewhat excessive. We have mostly operated with an independence-focused narrative. One of the aims of our seminar was to strengthen our connections with Iran's other nations and convey Azerbaijan’s demands to them,” he said.
One of the main criticisms voiced by some activists affiliated with the Azerbaijani National Movement regarding the conference held on May 4 was that it was conducted in Persian rather than Turkish. Ayaz Ibadi responded to these criticisms.
“The audience of our conference was not just the people gathered in that room or the organizing committee, so the question of why the speakers and organizers, being Turkish, spoke in Persian is misplaced. That was not the target audience. There were about 100 participants in that room. Even if all of them had been Turkish—which they weren’t—our target audience was not only those present in the room. Our target audience included other forces in Iran, such as political parties of other nations. Around 30 non-Turkish parties representing other nations in Iran participated. If we had spoken in Turkish, they would have left within the first minute, and it would have been disrespectful to them.
Secondly, through media coverage, the conference’s audience extended beyond Azerbaijanis to include Iranian opposition groups and representatives of other nations. Our goal was to voice Azerbaijan’s demands to them. If it had been conducted in Turkish, to whom would we have communicated our demands?” he explained.
Link to the original interview in Turkish on the Azerbaijani section of Voice of America:
Ayaz İbadi: Konfransımızın hədəflərindən biri İranın digər millətləri ilə əlaqələrimizi gücləndirmək idi