Query response on Iran: Information about the Talysh community (rights and treatment) [a-10175]
16 May 2017
This response was prepared after researching publicly accessible information currently available to ACCORD as well as information provided by experts within time constraints and in accordance with ACCORD’s methodological standards and the Common EU Guidelines for processing Country of Origin Information (COI).
This response is not, and does not purport to be, conclusive as to the merit of any particular claim to refugee status, asylum or other form of international protection.
Please read in full all documents referred to.
Non-English language information is summarised in English. Original language quotations are provided for reference.
The Jamestown Foundation (JF) describes the Talysh, in a February 2015 article, as speakers of an Iranian dialect who follow Shiism and number approximately 100,000 in Azerbaijan and about 400,000 in Iran (JF, 3 February 2015). The Unrepresented Nations and Peoples Organization (UNPO) writes in its Alternative Report to CEDAW in 2015 that “the Talysh community is predominantly located in the South of Azerbaijan, as well as the Northwest of Iran”, and puts the total number of Talysh in Azerbaijan and Iran at approximately 540,000 (according to an official census). UNPO adds that the minority group itself claims the number to be 1 million persons. (UNPO, 2015, p. 4)
Vahid Rashidvash, a scholar at the Department of Iranian Studies at Yerevan State University in Armenia, describes the Talysh in a paper on Iranian Ethnic Groups, published in the International Journal of Humanities and Social Science in August 2013, as follows:
“Talysh of Iran are an Iranian people very limited and Sporadic living near Alborz Mountains in Iran especially in the south of Qazvin province. Talysh of Iran use the Tati language Iran is a group of northwestern Iranian dialects which are closely related to the Talysh language. Persian and Azeri are also spoken. Talysh of Iran are mainly Shia Muslims and about 300,000 population.” (Rashidvash, August 2013, p. 224)
The same paper contains a map with the ethno-religious distribution in Iran that shows the Talysh settlement areas in the nortwestern border region to Azerbaijan (Rashidvash, August 2013, p. 226).
The Unrepresented Nations and Peoples Organization (UNPO) mentions in March 2006 that the Talysh in Iran reside in the province of Gilan where they live in “cities such as Astara, Masal, Someie-Sara, Masule, Fuman, Djongandan and others”. There are also “a few Talish settlements in the Iranian province of Ardebil.” (UNPO, 5 March 2006)
Among the sources consulted by ACCORD no further information could be found on the Talysh community in Iran.
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References: (all links accessed 16 May 2017)
· JF - Jamestown Foundation: Is Moscow Putting the Talysh in Play
Against Azerbaijan? Eurasia Daily Monitor Volume: 12 Issue: 21 (Author: Paul
Goble), 3 February 2015 (available at ecoi.net)
http://www.ecoi.net/local_link/295849/431087_de.html
·
Rashidvash, Vahid: Iranian People: Iranian
Ethnic Groups. In: International Journal of Humanities and Social Science Vol.
3 No. 15; August 2013
http://www.ijhssnet.com/journals/Vol_3_No_15_August_2013/24.pdf
· UNPO - Unrepresented Nations and Peoples Organization: Background
and Present Situation of the Talysh, 5 March 2006
http://unpo.org/article/3910
· UNPO - Unrepresented Nations and Peoples Organization: Alternative
Report, 2015 (published by CEDAW, available at ecoi.net)
http://www.ecoi.net/file_upload/1930_1422610477_int-cedaw-ngo-aze-19229-e.pdf
