This summer it was really hot in Azerbaijan, and not only in regard to temperature. In the beginning of July, two youth activists and bloggers, Emin Milli and Adnan Hajizada were assaulted while dining in a restaurant in downtown Baku. They tried to file a complaint in police, but were detained instead and got two-month sentences while awaiting trial for alleged hooliganism. Since then, fifth consecutive kangaroo court behind closed doors has denied justice to them.

Reason? Criticism of the government policies. And a satirical Youtube video ridiculing government’s purchase of two donkeys from Germany for a price of 40,000 euros each.

Reporters Without Borders and Amnesty International, OSCE and European Union, UN and a number of foreign countries have stepped in, as well as Emin and Adnan’s respective Alma Maters – Saarland University and University of Richmond. Letters to the President of Azerbaijan arrive in piles. The New York Times and the London Times talk about ‘crackdown on online media‘ and ‘repressions in Azerbaijan‘. Yet, ‘don’t politicize the case’ and ‘bloggers are hooligans’ are the message coming from the authorities.

Enough negative portrayal, you think? Definitely not! Because, those who voted for Armenian entry in Eurovision Song Contest 2009 have to be interrogated to learn their real degree of patriotism. Don’t recall the Nagorno-Karabakh War? Then we will remind you.

In the middle of August, some forty people receive sudden phone calls to arrive at a local branch of National Security Ministry. And they are asked there why they voted for Armenian song. Ah, you liked it? What a terrible taste you have, by the way…

Yes, music is a national security matter in Azerbaijan, it seems. No matter that BBC, Guardian and Reuters know our vulnerabilities and the deeds of Azeri intelligence services. Besides, if you hear that the European Broadcasting Union is launching an investigation into the case – after all, if people can’t vote to the song they like, then what a contest is this? – still not enough publicity.

As we don’t like Hollywood style happy ends, then here is the third news for you – Azeri journalist and newspaper editor, as well as minority rights activist Novruzali Mammadov dies in jail where he was serving 10 years for treason charges. Spying for Iran, as well as "cooperating with linguist colleagues from the USA, Canada, Britain, Germany, and research on the contemporary Talysh language by conducting social surveys, trips, etc." Neither forget his appeal to Azerbaijan Public TV to open a program in native tongue of the ethnicity he belonged, as well as 800,000 Azeri nationals still do.

However, we should understand that it is capitalism and private groups should also get their market share of this publicity. Therefore, tomorrow World Azerbaijanis Congress is going to have a round-table named "The Action of 43 Azerbaijani Citizens Who Voted for Armenian Representative [in Eurovision] in the focus of public discussion". Attendants will be Congress members, famous intellectuals of Azerbaijan, activists from Iranian Azerbaijan, students and media people [with axes]. As if the fantastic riches of the cave have been already acquired, and all remaining is to get rid of "40 thieves". Open, Sesame!

Ethnicity was always a very sensitive issue in Iran, and my speculations about ethnic background of Iranian presidential candidates received some feedback from my Iranian readers – some of those comments were requesting clarifications or corrections, and some were adding information about things that were missing from my post. Therefore, I thought there is a need for this additional post to answer one simple question – who is who in Iranian elections.

As you perhaps know, there are four presidential candidates in upcoming Iranian elections. Two of them are conservatives and two of them are reformists. The first candidate is our old acquaintance Mahmoud Ahmadinejad (Mahmud Ahmadinezhad) who is also a main representative of the conservatives. In my previous post I have written that he was an ethnic Talysh based on this passage from Wikipedia [in-text citations removed]:

Ahmadinejad, born Mahmoud Saborjhian was the son of a blacksmith, born near Garmsar in the village of Aradan in Talysh family on 28 October 1956. The name, which derives from thread painter, a once common and humble occupation, was changed into Ahmadinejad, meaning the race of Mohammed or the virtuous race. According to his relatives, it was for "a mixture of religious and economic reasons." During the presidential campaign in 2009, political opponents have speculated that the name was changed in order to cover Jewish roots. In the 1950s, when he was still a baby, his family moved from Aradan to Narmak district in southern Tehran in search of more economic prosperity; It was during this time period that the Saborjhian family changed its name to Ahmadinejad.

Interesting enough, back in 2006, a mainstream Russian news portal Lenta.ru referred to Ahmadinejad as an Iranian Azerbaijani. However, Iranian readers categorically say that either Ahmadinejad is an ethnic Persian, or they have heard about his being Talysh from my post. Anyway, “Ahmadinejad’s ethnicity is not an issue really” writes one of the readers. 

Mir-Hossein Mousavi (Mirhoseyn Musavi) is an Iranian Azerbaijani and Mehdi Karroubi (Mehdi Karrubi) is a Lur – there are no doubts about these issues. And both of these candidates are from reformist camp. 

And finally, the fourth and last candidate is conservative Mohsen Rezai (Mohsen Reza’i) – about whom I wrote in my previous post that I didn’t know his ethnicity, but he was born in Khuzestan, Iran’s Arab province and according to his wanted profile at Interpol website, he spoke Arabic. But now, things get clearer a bit – Rezai seems to be also an ethnic Lur, but from a distinct tribe of Bakhtiaris.

Thus, as a conclusion, we can say that in this year’s presidential election in Iran three of four candidates are, for sure, representatives of ethnic minorities, while the ethnicity of the third one is still a matter of speculations.

Yesterday, American news magazine Time started one of its articles with this paragraph:

Well, it is election time in Iran and Iranians are going to elect their next president.  In this years election, there are four candidates, but two of them are considered principal: our old acquaintance, conservative Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and relatively unknown to outside world, reformist Mir-Hossein Mousavi. Mousavi is ethnic Azeri from the city of Khamene in Iranian Azerbaijan. Interesting enough, the same city from where incumbent Supreme Leader of Iran, conservative Ali Khamenei is from

As I recently described Khamene in a private email to a friend:

This years presidential in Iran is very, very special. Because maybe first time in the Islamic Republic’s modern history millions of dissent youth and Iran’s cybergeneration is going to vote. The veriest evidence can be the case of Facebook. The activities related to the elections got so alarming there that Iran blocked the social networking site. However, the government had to reverse its ban – too dangerous was to anger millions of Facebook users.

Another special thing with this election is that ethnic factor has become the top issue. Millions of Iranian Azeris sceptical about Islamic Republic’s politics suddenly discovered themselves in the center of it. As one an Iranian blogger writes:

Yes, as individuals, Azeris were always successful in Iran’s politics, but as an ethnic group, they still have plenty of problems and face immense cultural discrimination. More than 20 million, they even don’t have schools in their own language – Azerbaijani. And it is not the case with Iran’s Azeri minority only. That is why Azeris, as well as all other ethnic groups in Iran are more important in this election than economy and other matters. And that partially explains why Time has named its article cited above as Can Iran’s Minorities Help Oust Ahmadinejad?.

Interesting enough, besides Mousavi’s being an ethnic Azeri, Ahmadinejad himself, according to Wikipedia, is a representative of Talysh people, a distinct ethnic group living in Iran and Azerbaijan, while Mehdi Karroubi is an ethnic Lur, a people that inhabit Southern Iran. I don’t know what is the ethnicity of remaining candidate Mohsen Rezai, but he was born in Khuzestan, Iran’s Arab province and according to his wanted profile at Interpol website, speaks Arabic.