St Mark’s Church Hall

Underground:   Edgware Rd Station

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                        Contribution:  £5.00  (All Inclusive)

                         (sandwich, drink, tea and more . . .)

245  Old Marylebone Rd,  London  NW1 5QT

St Mark’s Church Hall

10 il bundan öncə, Güney Azərbaycan Millətçi ziyalıları tərəfindən BƏZZ Qalasina yürüş və ziyarət planının təməli qoyulmuşdur.  Bəzz Qalasının ziyarəti, toplum arasında milli bir gün kimi qəbul olunmuşdur.

Yay fəslinin əvvəlləri, tir ayının 2-ci həftəsinin sonunda Ulu Babəkin doğum günü münasibətilə bağlı, Azərbaycanlılar _özəlliklə Güneylilər_ Dünyanın müxtəlif ölkələrində şadlıq törənləri keçirirlər.

Babək və Bəzz Qalasının illik Mərasimi Güney Azərbaycanda milli qurultay kimi adlandırılıb və “Güney Azərbaycanın milli hərəkatinda milli ruhun yuksəlməsində böyük rolu olmuşdur.

After his father’s death in his early teen, he was given the responsibility of his 2 brothers and mother during a traditional Zartosht ceremony in holy Odlaq (Fire-temple), which used to involve a glass of Azerbaijani wine and wearing a purple ribbon around body. 

By the age of 18, Babak had established himself in the city of Tabriz (now, the capital city of southern Azerbaijan) and was engaged in the arms trade and industry.

Later on, this engagement gave him the opportunity of travelling to different regions like Caucasia, Middle East and Eastern Europe and familiarised him with history, geography and language of countries and nations in these regions. 

During all these time, Azerbaijan was constantly invaded by the despotic Bani Abbas Arab dynasty (Khalifa) and defended itself by the leadership of Javanshir, who was Azerbaijan’s ruler since late 8th century till 815 AC.

Witnessing all these pressure being exerted to Azerbaijani people, forced Babak to join the Khorramdin movement in “Baz Qalasi” (Babak Castle), under the leadership of Javanshir in the sensational mountains of Qaradag.

His skills in the latest battle tactics accompanied by the knowledge of history and geography strengthened his position as Javanshir’s first advisor and commander during the early wars against Arab invaders. 

After successive victories against the Arab invasion, Javanshir was severely injured and consequently passed away.  Babak took over the power by the support and encouragement of Javanshir’s wife (later on married Babak), who introduced the spiritual Babak to the people of Azerbaijan as the new leader.   

Throughout the history, the role of Babak’s wife on Khorramdin movements' success, and consequently on Azerbaijan’s triumph over the Arab and Islam invasion has set an example of woman’s influence in every aspect of Azerbaijan’s society.

Now Azerbaijan had a new leader, someone who was elected by the people of Azerbaijan despite the chaos injected by the Bani Abbas dynasty in Azerbaijan.

Babak was a highly spiritual and educated person, who respected the Zartosht identity of his people. He made every possible effort to establish reasonable political and cultural relationships with the neighbouring countries; Persia and Tabarestan and also their leaders, Afshin and Maziyar respectively to construct an allied force against the Arab Khalife.

One of the most epic periods of Azerbaijan’s history was set under the Babak’s leadership between 815-837 AC. 

During these most crucial years, Azerbaijan fought against the invasion of Islam and Arab culture whilst having the constant threats of Khazar people from north of it’s territories and without any aid from neighbouring countries such as Persia, who were already colonised by the Arab Khalife more than a century ago.

In fact the constant betrayal of Persians under the leadership of Afshin during several most important battles altered the destiny of  Azerbaijan and our region drastically and as a result the negative influences of this violation still remains unhealed.

Azerbaijan’s greatest movement to preserve it’s cultural identity under Babak’s leadership had caused devastating results for the Arabs and their allies, which statistically is reckoned by the historians to be over several million casualties.

Eventually Babak, his wife and his warriors were forced to leave their command degree (Baz Qalasi) under very difficult situation after 23 years of sensational resistance.

He was betrayed by the Armenian leader and was handed over to the Bani Abbas Khalifa, whilst he had sought refugee in Qarabag mountains.

During Babak’s inspiring execution, first khalifa ordered to cut his leg’s and hand’s in order to see his paled and defeated face, but Babak rinsed his face by the drained blood pouring out of his cuts to show Azerbaijani people triumph even under such circumstances.

Babak’s sensational and legendary leadership to defend the Azerbaijani identity and interest is still pursued after nearly 1200 years in Southern Azerbaijan every year on his birthday amid glorious mountains of Qaradag by over a million people of his proud compatriots under heavy pressure of Islamic regime of Iran.

This magnificent festival is not just about dance and poetry, though. There is more to it than meets the eye. People come here with their musical instruments, songs, dances, and poems to redefine themselves by means of their own culture, their own language, on their own terms. This is about the survival and resistance of an entire people in defiance of an internal colonial force determined to annihilate its very existence. By annihilating their means of communication, their language, their culture, and their historical rootedness the government seeks to annihilate the Azeri people’s authentic means of self-definition and self-expression. It is not surprising that the people’s slogans attest to their devotion to the language and identity to which they belong:

Azerbaijan is not dead                                     Azərbaycan ölməyib

It has not abandoned its identity                      Özlüyündən dönməyib

Azerbaijan is awake                                         Azərbaycan oyaqdır

It preserves its existence                                  Varlığına dayaqdır

My mother tongue will not die                           Ana dilim ölən deyil

It will not be supplanted by other tongues           Özgə dilə çönən deyil

The Azerbaijanis come to the Babek Qalasi to announce to the entire world that they exist as a people; that they are conscious of their own history and validate their historical heroes; that they are able to define themselves by means of their own culture; to articulate their condition through their own language. Here the real living history of the people of Azerbaijan comes face to face with the official/national history of the ruling elite, a history fabricated during the Pahlavi era, and reinforced in the Islamic Republic. This is where the culture of resistance explodes through artistic talents, intellectual creativities, and in the songs and poems of the masses of people. The festival becomes a moving, breathing manifestation of history, culture, and all sorts of communal activities, where the latest published books are exchanged; the clandestinely printed articles and pamphlets are distributed; the latest CDs and tapes are sold. Here, songs, poems and ideas of liberation are smuggled from tent to tent.  The Iranian government finds all these cultural paraphernalia, musical products and literary activities extremely dangerous. Why? Because they are produced in the forbidden tongue of the people of Azerbaijan, the Azeri-Turkic: an endangered language that the government has openly condemned to death by forbidding it to become a language of education, of instruction, correspondence, and governance.

Last year, the Iranian government was determined more than ever to prevent the people of South Azerbaijan from celebrating the birthday of their historic hero. So it brought out its repressive forces to the Babek Qalasi. Local activists estimate that there were over 40,000 revolutionary guards, Basiji militia, and plain-clothes secret service agents temporarily stationed around the Fortress of Bezz, apparently to engage in military exercises. They put up checkpoints at all major roads and alleys leading to the town of Kaleyber. They harassed the pilgrims at every opportunity they got. They confiscated the drivers’ registration and car ownership documents. They wrote down the license plate numbers of the cars carrying passengers and pilgrims. They interrogated the pilgrims inside the cars, buses, and in their tents. They rented, before hand, hotel rooms, hostels, and rental spaces where the pilgrims were going to stay. They marked the open areas around the Qala as spaces reserved for military exercises. They pitched large khaki tents in every available nook and cranny.

The government also dispatched groups of religious fanatics to perform the ritual of chest and back beating to mourn the death over 13 centuries ago of Hazrat-e Fatemeh, the daughter of the Prophet Mohammad, the anniversary of whose passing apparently coincided with the birthday of Babek. So the mourners came in black shirts, with mournful faces and long beards. There were thus rituals of mourning, accompanied by shrill chants of the eulogy speakers; the performers of “shaxsey” and “vaxsey,” where the names of Imams and holy figures were chanted in one voice, in an attempt to invoke their sacred memory. In the midst of the commotion and mourning frenzy, a Basiji militia fell down a cliff, and having broken some limbs, drowned in a pool of water underneath.

The pilgrims came, nonetheless. They sought shelter in people’s houses, in whatever empty spaces they got, and they pitched their tents among the tents of the military personnel, in the belly of the beast, as it were. In the dead of night, many a pilgrim was taken away, for questioning, interrogation, and who knows what. Some were released later on; some are still gone, without a trace. Various reports indicate the number of detainees to be in hundreds, among whom are women and young students. The government used all the tricks in the bag of all dictatorships to prevent this event from taking place. From intimidation to psychological warfare to open arrest and detention, it used all it could to prevent the Azeris from participating in this festival of commemoration and remembrance. But the tricks did not work; the intimidations, coercions and detentions failed.  The people came out to defy the culture of fear, threat, and oppression. And they succeeded.

As usual, the dominant Fars-centric media and press censored the event. This dominant media, particularly its extension abroad, is run by a bunch of pseudo-democrats and pseudo-intellectuals who dismiss the legitimate demands of non-Persian communities as backward, traitorous, and reactionary demands. They brand the democratic struggle of these communities to restore their human rights as inspired by the imperialist powers and ill-intentioned neighbors. They do not see it as problematic that their language (Farsi) has masqueraded itself as the national, official, and mother tongue of the majority of people in Iran. They regard it as perfectly normal to impose their mother tongue on others. But when a non-Persian community asks for its right to education in its own language, that community becomes pan-Turkist, pan-Arabist, or pan-Kurdist. It is perfectly normal for them, for the Persians, that is, to talk about ‘the greater zone of Iranic culture,’ to share the latest literary and artistic innovations with other Farsi-speaking groups in Afghanistan, Tajikistan, and elsewhere. But when an Iranian Azeri expresses his/her love for the language, music, and literature developed by his/her co-ethnics in the Republic of Azerbaijan north of the border, this Azeri becomes a separatist, a traitor disloyal to Iran’s territorial integrity.

That is how the dominant Farsi-speaking group has always treated non-Persian activists, be it during the Pahlavi era or in the Islamic Republic. And the marginalized, oppressed minority activist has always defended him/herself by confessing that s/he is not a traitor; that s/he too is a human being and  has human rights. That is how a leading Azeri poet, Bulut Qarachorlu,  had understood the situation and articulated it under the Pahlavi rule:

 Mən demirəm üstün nəjaddanam mən            I don’t say I belong to a superior race

 Mən demirəm elim ellərdən başdır             I don’t say my people is better than others

 Mənim məsləkimdə, mənim yolumda             In my ideology, in my approach

 Millətlər hamısı dostdur, yoldaşdır                 All peoples are friends ,and comrades

 Ancaq bir sözüm var: mən də insanam           But I have this to say: I too am a human being

 Dilim var, xalqım var, yurdum-yuvam var      I too have a language, a people, a place I call home

 Yerdən çıxmamışam göbələk kimi                  I have not sprung from the ground like a mushroom

 Adamam haqqım var, elim-obam var            I am a person with rights, rooted in my people

back to 21 Azer page

Anyone who knows anything about colonialism will know that the current condition of Azeris in Iran is the condition of a colonized people. Imagine a distinct ethnic group numbering over 30 million, without a single school where they can read and write in their own language. This is a people whose contributions are not reflected in works of history, literature, anthropology, sociology, and other genres which are produced only in the dominant Farsi language. This is a people who is denied the right for self-definition, self-expression, and self-identification in its own language and through its own voice. Shockingly, even the very designation ‘Turk’ identifying this people is distorted and misrepresented as “Tork” in the dominant language, evidently to make it more convenient for the speakers of the imposed laguage.

A few years ago I was working as the editor of a bilingual (Azeri and Farsi) journal. In my capacity as the editor, I had the luxury of rendering various Turkic/Azerbaijani terms and names as they were spelled in the original language. Thus, in the Farsi section of the journal, wherever relevant, I always wrote ‘Turk’ as opposed to the Persianized version “Tork.”  Mount “Savalan” was always written as “Savalan,” as opposed to the Persianized “Sabalan.” The River Araz was always spelled as “Araz,” instead of the Persianized ‘Aras,’ and so on and so forth. So one day I ran into this rather angry-looking professor of Persian literature, with whom I had prior acquaintance. After exchanging the usual pleasantries, in a self-righteous tone he bellowed at me:

Buddy! You have to get your acts straight. What is this so-called journal you’re publishing? You can’t even spell out your own name correctly! Who has ever seen “Tork” written as “Turk” in Farsi?

Humorously I replied:

I am decolonizing my name in your colonizing language, buddy! “Turk” is how I call myself in my own language, and that is how I will write it in your imposed language. If you don’t like it, then do not impose your language on me!

Of course, I was able to engage in this act of decolonizing because I was writing from the privileged positions of exile and editor. These privileged positions had empowered me to challenge the oppressive misrepresentation of myself, my language, and my people in the dominant language.  Decolonizing acts usually start with seemingly minor acts of self-definition and self-expression. However, such acts have the potential to give rise to larger and more organized demands for such significant rights as cultural, religious, and linguistic autonomy. For instance, using demands similar to the notion of the right for self-determination, the Inuit community in Canada managed to secure an autonomous self-governing Inuit homeland in 1991. They adopted the name ‘Nunavut’ to refer to the Indigenous land of the Inuit of the central and eastern Arctic, and to the new Territory of Nunavut in Canada's eastern Arctic. In the Inuit language of Inuktitut, Nunavut means "Our Land." The Nunavut Land Claims Agreement is the largest native land claim settlement in Canadian history which establishes clear rules of ownership and control over land and resources in the new Territory, with an area of approximately two million square kilometres, or one-fifth of Canada's landmass. As they say, a journey of one thousand miles starts with a single step.

The Azerbaijani Festival of Babek is a major decolonizing movement initiated by the people of Azerbaijan in an attempt to resist the Iranian government’s politics of assimilation, and cultural/linguistic annihilation of non-Persian communities. It is imperative that Azeri intellectuals and activists articulate this festival to the world as it is, that is, without tarnishing its anti-racist spirit. Now more than ever we need to show to the world that this movement is rooted in the legitimate struggle of the Azerbaijani people for democracy, human rights, and the right for self-determination. As such, Azeri writers and intellectuals ought to try and cleanse this movement from undemocratic tendencies, signs and symbols that serve to project negative images to the outside world. The Festival of Babek is a manifestation of the living soul of Azerbaijan’s history. It embodies the continuous movement of the Azerbaijani people for equality and justice. We are all responsible to carry this movement to its final destination within the guiding principles of democracy, human rights, and anti-racist vision.