Azerbaijan is a bastion of tolerance, according to the country’s leader, Ilham Aliyev. But members of national minority groups in Azerbaijan may beg to differ.

On the international stage, Aliyev has often touted Azerbaijan’s diversity. “In Azerbaijan, we cherish and support multiculturalism as a way of life,” the Azerbaijani president said in a speech to the UN General Assembly in 2021. “Azerbaijan is considered as an example of tolerance and peaceful coexistence of representatives of various religious and ethnic groups living in our country.”

The same sense of official backing for cultural differences was not readily evident on February 21, International Mother Language Day, which, accordingto the UN, is an occasion to celebrate linguistic diversity.

According to local media reports, members of Azerbaijan’s relatively small Talysh community were prevented from holding a child-oriented event in connection with Mother Language Day in the southern city of Lankaran, which has a high concentration of Talysh residents. 

Konul Rasul, co-organizer of the would-be event and a head of an online Talysh-language media outlet called Hirkon, told Meydan TV that the event was originally planned for late January, but a day before the ceremony was to occur, the local deputy police chief notified organizers that the gathering, if it proceeded, would be illegal. When pressed to cite a specific regulation that the event would violate, the police official did not respond, Rasul said.

Rasul explained the planned gathering was a cultural celebration and had no political undertones. She added that the plan was to make a video of the event and post it on Mother Language Day. 

“Two months ago, we created a community of Talysh women from different parts of the world. There are 17 women in our union. We created a group called "Rushna" [meaning light in Talysh] on WhatsApp,” she said. “We decided to find little children who recite poetry in Talysh on social media and give them gifts. We found 12 children. We decided that instead of going to those children's homes one by one, we should all gather in a cafe in Lankaran, hold a small event and present our gifts.”

On February 23, Azer Badamov, an Azerbaijani MP, questioned the purely cultural nature of the disrupted event. He insinuated in a media interview with the Pravda.az news outlet that organizers could use it to discuss government policies concerning national minorities. “It is not right to organize actions aimed at creating dissatisfaction in this matter, when our president attaches great importance to the issue of tolerance,” Badamov was quoted as saying. “I understand this as opposition to state policy. … Our country is governed by laws. … Arbitrarily gathering people in cafes and promoting unknown purposes under the guise of holding a Mother Language event is against the law.”

Though organizers stepped back from holding the event, police still summoned the cafe owner who had agreed to host the ceremony and closed his cafe for two days. Organizers searched for another space in the days leading up to February 21, but no other venue in town agreed to host the gathering. Eventually, they convened in a local poet’s house. 

“We are not a political organization, we do not engage in politics. The little children would have recited poetry in their native language, and we would have given them gifts,” Rasul lamented. 

In a satirical social media post, an opposition politician, Cemil Hasanli, derided Badamov’s claim that organizers were gathering for “unknown” purposes. “f that is the case, parents should then agree with authorities on which language they should sing lullabies to their babies, and in which language and on which topic grandfathers should tell stories to their grandchildren. Otherwise, it is impossible to play unknown lullabies in the country and tell stories about unknown topics in the land of strange demons,” Hasanli wrote.

An Interior Ministry statement given to Meydan TV said the decision not to hold the event was made by the person renting the cafe. “Regarding this matter, no one was detained by the police, and the operation of the public catering facility was not banned. Allegations are baseless, personal opinions,” the statement read. 

Members of over 10 ethnic groups live in Azerbaijan, comprising roughly 5.2 percent of the country’s overall population of 10 million, accordingto the 2019 census. Given the small numbers of most minority communities, many shareacommonfear of losing their language sooner or later. Observers differ on government responsibility for declining numbers of minority-language speakers. Many believe globalization is mostly to blame, but some suggest official neglect plays a role.

The Lankaran non-event creates an impression that officials are actively attempting to suppress minority languages and identity, some Azerbaijani rights activists contend. They are quick to point out that beyond mere statements about tolerance, the government is a signatory to the Council of Europe’s Framework Agreement on the Protection of National Minorities, which obligates Baku to protect and promote minority languages. 

“Can people not gather and speak and hold an event in their mother tongue?” asked rights defender Rufat Safarov in an online commentary posted on Facebook, addressed to the government. “Such steps do not strengthen the foundations of the state, but rather weaken it.” 

“The language and culture of the peoples living in Azerbaijan are the common spiritual wealth of the country. The duty of the state is not to draw blood from a place that does not itch, but to protect this rich spiritual wealth and take care of its development,” Hasanli asserted.