The book “The Status of Minorities in the Republic of Azerbaijan from the Perspective of International Law” is authored by Dr. Ahmad Kazemi, a professor of international law at the university and a senior Eurasian researcher. It is organized into four parts, sixteen chapters, and spans 608 pages.

 Author:

– Dr. Ahmad Kazemi, Professor of International Law at the University and author of the book “The Concept of Minority in International Human Rights Documents”

 Publisher:

– Applied Research Publications

 Language:

– Persian

Year of Publication:

– 1403 (2024)

Edition:

– 1st

 Number of Pages:

– 608

This book adopts an “international legal” approach and utilizes sources in Persian, English, Russian, Azerbaijani, and Turkish (Istanbul dialect). It is based on approximately three decades of research and the author’s archive, alongside five years of fieldwork in the Republic of Azerbaijan. The book examines the condition of various minorities in Azerbaijan from the perspective of “the right to existence, collective identity rights, cultural rights, religious rights, linguistic rights, economic rights, right to communication, right to effective participation, right to equal integration, and the right to self-determination.”

The book’s four sections combine theoretical and legal discussions on minorities with case studies on the rights of minorities in Azerbaijan:

–  Part One:  Examines the concept of “minorities in international human rights documents,” including “the status and concept of minorities in international law,” “minority rights in international human rights documents,” and “Azerbaijan’s legal approach to minorities.”

–  Part Two:  Focuses on “the status of ethnic, linguistic, and national minorities in Azerbaijan from an international law perspective,” discussing groups like Armenians, Lezgins, Avars, Udis, Tats, Kurds, the minority groups of Shahdagh (Khinalug, Budukh, and Kryz), Rutuls, Tsakhurs, Romas, Georgians, Ingiloys, Russians, Molokans, Ukrainians, Turkmens, Tatars, Circassians, Meskhetian Turks, Ossetians, Kakhetians, and Dargis.

–  Part Three:  Discusses “the status of religious minorities in Azerbaijan from an international law perspective,” including “the situation of Sunni Muslims, Wahhabis, and the Baha’i Faith in Azerbaijan,” “the status of the Jewish minority in Azerbaijan from an international law perspective,” and “the status of Christian, Assyrian, Zoroastrian, and Krishna minorities in Azerbaijan from an international law perspective.”

–  Part Four:  Covers significant topics such as “reports from international institutions, reverse minority Shiites, and the impact of Pan-Turanism on the status of minorities in Azerbaijan.”

The book “The Status of Minorities in Azerbaijan from the Perspective of International Law” examines the legal and scientific status of all four recognized minorities. It emphasizes that minorities in Azerbaijan can be divided into two categories based on their enjoyment or lack of enjoyment of the ten rights of minorities: selected minorities, such as the Jewish minority, and ordinary minorities, such as the Talysh. The concluding point highlighted is that “the situation of ordinary ethnic, linguistic, and national minorities in Azerbaijan has a direct correlation with the ethnic and religious policies governing Azerbaijan, which have shifted from de-Shi’itization to pan-Azerism, pan-Turkism, and pan-Turanism. Until there is a fundamental change in these overarching approaches, there will be no guarantee for the recognition, promotion, and enhancement of minority rights in Azerbaijan.”

 Preface by Dr. Ahmad Kazemi:

“The Republic of Azerbaijan (historically Aran) is considered a small oil-rich country in terms of area and population but is demographically very diverse; it hosts more than 35 ethnic, religious, linguistic, and national minorities. According to the ‘Declaration on the Rights of Persons Belonging to National or Ethnic, Religious and Linguistic Minorities’ (1992), minorities include ethnic, religious, linguistic, and national minorities, collectively referred to as the ‘four conventional minorities.’ Azerbaijan is one of the countries that have all four types of minorities. The ethnic and linguistic diversity in Azerbaijan is significant relative to its size and population. Most of these ethnic and linguistic minorities have a long history of residence in the area known as Azerbaijan since 1918, thus constituting historical and indigenous minorities of this region.

Due to the presence of ethnic and racial minorities, Azerbaijan also has a wide linguistic diversity, with many languages at risk of extinction. Azerbaijan is like a colorful mosaic of ethnicities. The spectrum of minorities ranges from those with fewer than two thousand members to ethnic and racial groups with more than one and a half million people. However, the status of these minorities is not uniform; as explained in the book, the number of dissatisfied minorities significantly exceeds the few satisfied ones.

Despite their historical presence, very little reliable information about these minorities exists, especially due to the lack of policies promoting and recognizing minority cultures within Azerbaijan and in international sources. This scarcity of information has multiple reasons. During the Tsarist and Soviet eras, state policies aimed at subduing, amalgamating, and assimilating minorities, particularly those with Iranian roots. The Soviet Union preferred to control socialist republics through their majority populations. Post-independence, Azerbaijan’s overarching state policies have not prioritized introducing, promoting, or enhancing minority rights; the multicultural approach has been selective, mostly benefiting ‘privileged minorities’ like Jews and Meskhetian Turks. Information about minorities in Azerbaijan is influenced by Soviet and Tsarist historiographical traditions, often involving fabrications and hate speech, including denial, statistical reduction, appropriation of identity elements, and Turkification of minorities.Only a handful of researchers like Gerber, Kotja, and Clifton, mainly under Azerbaijan’s commitments to the Council of Europe and the OSCE post-Soviet collapse, have been allowed limited field research on one or two minority groups, findings of which are somewhat referenced in this book. Therefore, the primary challenge in researching minorities in Azerbaijan is the paucity of sources.

This book, with an international legal approach, draws from Persian, English, Russian, Azerbaijani, and Turkish sources, based on three decades of research and five years of fieldwork by the author in Azerbaijan, examines the status of minorities from the perspective of ‘the right to existence, collective identity rights, cultural rights, religious rights, linguistic rights, economic rights, right to communication, right to effective participation, right to equal integration, and the right to self-determination.’

The book serves two main purposes: firstly, to identify the numerous ethnic, religious, linguistic, and national minorities in Azerbaijan as a reference book; secondly, to analyze their legal status beyond political approaches and within the framework of international minority rights standards, especially the ‘Declaration on the Rights of Persons Belonging to National or Ethnic, Religious and Linguistic Minorities’ adopted in 1992 by the UN General Assembly, as the most progressive document specifically addressing minority rights.

The importance of this declaration, which is derived from Article 27 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, lies in its becoming customary law that obliges all countries to implement it. Additionally, the “Framework Convention for the Protection of National Minorities,” which has been signed and ratified by the Republic of Azerbaijan, serves as a valid legal framework for assessing the status of minority rights in Azerbaijan. Notably, the term “national minority” explicitly includes all minorities in this convention, and its application is significant due to the historical context of this issue in Europe.

While some predominantly Turkic minorities like Meskhetian Turks and Kakhetians, or religious minorities like Jews, enjoy high levels of privileges and protection, most ethnic minorities like Talysh, Lezgins, Avars, Tats, and Armenians face gross violations of their rights, ranging from ‘denial of existence to systematic ethnic cleansing and cultural genocide.’ This situation was exemplified during the writing of this book when the Nagorno-Karabakh (Artsakh) region in September 2023 witnessed forced displacement and ethnic cleansing of ‘native Armenians,’ an image of which is on the book’s cover. Also, Shiites, despite constituting the majority of the population of the Republic of

Azerbaijan, given the violation of their basic rights, have been turned into “reverse minority”.

Various factors affect the situation of minorities in the Republic of Azerbaijan, which are addressed in the book. The most significant influencing variable in Baku’s approach to minorities is the “mono-ethnic” policy, which has evolved over three decades from Pan-Azerism to Pan-Turkism, and ultimately to “Pan-Turanism” since 1399 (2020).

The book is structured in four parts and sixteen chapters, with conclusions, appendices, and a photo gallery. It is hoped that this book, which took over two years to write, opens new windows for academic and intellectual communities in Iran and globally, for researchers and enthusiasts interested in legal studies on the status of the four conventional minorities in Azerbaijan. This is especially timely as there is an increasing focus on human rights issues for minorities in universities and the establishment of a ‘Minority Rights Research Center’ in Iran, operating at national, regional, and international levels. It would be appreciated if esteemed professors and experts contribute their insights via the contact email provided on my website to further develop these important studies in our academic circles.”