Country: Azerbaijan

Group: Talish (Talysh)

Date Finalized: 7/13/2020

Team: Leilani Alva (lead), Johanna McCombs, Maya Shrikant

Content Warning: ethnocide, discrimination, loss of education and cultural rights

Approximate Time Period: 1930-present

The Talysh people are an indigenous group that have lived in and around the Talysh Mountains for hundreds of years (Minority Rights, n.d.). The Talysh have faces many instances of governmental suppression of their culture and language, qualifying this as an instance of ethnocide. The Talysh number around 800,000 in the country (CRIA, 2015), but were not included as an ethnic group in any census data (Kotecha, 2006). In the 1930s, Talysh language schools were closed and the identity was no longer acknowledged as a result of incoming Soviet powers (Kotecha, 2006). The Azerbaijan government has ensured the exclusion of the Talysh from education opportunities and economic security. A source stated that according to UNESCO, the Talysh language is currently classified as “vulnerable” (UNPO, n.d.). The Talysh language has been removed from schools and newspapers and the indigenous villages they reside in are economically isolated (Pulitzer Center, 2019).

Data quality: 3

Sources

  1. CRIA. “CRIA ” Inspired from Abroad: The External Sources of Separatism in Azerbaijan”. cria-online.org. Archived from the original on 23 September 2015. Retrieved 17 October 2015.
  2. Kotecha, Hema (2006). “Islamic and Ethnic Identities in Azerbaijan: Emerging Trends and Tensions”Archived 5 March 2009 at the Wayback Machine, OSCE Report, Baku.
  3. Pulitzer Center (2019). “A Forgotten People: Talysh Women in Azerbaijan.” Pulitzer Center, 13 Nov. 2019, pulitzercenter.org/reporting/forgotten-people-talysh-women-azerbaijan.
  4. Minority Rights Group (n.d.). “Talysh.” minorityrights.org/minorities/talysh/.
  5. UNPO (n.d.). “Talysh.” UNPO, unpo.org/members/17338.