Iqbal Abilov: For the First Time, I Have Spent More Than a Year in Azerbaijan. In Prison.

Iqbal Abilov

Researcher of Talysh culture Iqbal Abilov has written a letter to the public from the Umbaki Penitentiary Complex. We present his letter in its original form.

"When I left Azerbaijan, I was not yet eight years old.

If you add up all my visits to Azerbaijan up until last summer,

they wouldn’t amount to even a single year.

Now, for the first time since then, I have spent more than a year in Azerbaijan. In prison.

But I feel free — every morning when I wake up,

every night when I fall asleep,

every time I stand before investigators, prosecutors, and judges.

Because a person remains free as long as they allow themselves to think freely.

In their heart, at home, at university, in prison, in the street —

a person affirms their freedom before their own conscience.

Someone might think that under current circumstances my ideas were the path to prison.

But for me, they have always been the path to freedom —

the only possible path to freedom and scientific objectivity.

After my arrest, I saw with my own eyes that Chipollone,

the father of Gianni Rodari’s character Cipollino, was right:

many honorable people sit in prisons!

Thirty days after me, Bahruz Samedov was arrested for his pacifist views.

Later, human rights defender Rufat Safarov was detained for his activism.

Soon I heard that journalists I had seen at court hearings —

Farid Ismayilov, Ulviya Ali, Khayala Aghayeva — were also arrested.

Over the past year, their colleagues in independent media were imprisoned as well:

Shamshad Aga, Nurlan Gahramanli, Aynur Elgunesh, Aytaj Tapdig,

Aysel Umudova, Natig Javadli, Ramin Deko.

After them, civic activist Ahmad Mammadli was also arrested.

Because of their long-standing social, political, and journalistic work,

Tofig Yagublu, Anar Mammadli, Akif Qurbanov, Bakhtiyar Hajiyev,

Alesger Mammadli, Ruslan Izzetli, Ulvi Hasanli,

and their colleagues at AbzasMedia are now in prison.

To paraphrase Elias Canetti —

prison as a threat is the small change of power.

All political prisoners are the corpus delicti of this lawlessness.

From here, I send my support to each of them and to their loved ones.

I express my gratitude to everyone who supports them and me —

to all activists, all domestic and international organizations.

My special thanks go to my family, friends, and loved ones,

to my lawyers Rovshana Rahimova and Fariz Namazli,

to Hilal Mammadov, the head of the committee defending my rights,

and to all its members.

Political prisoners may have different thoughts,

but I believe that everyone has the right to express their opinion freely.

Because freedom does not come through hatred,

nor merely through caring about one’s own rights,

but through the firm defense of each other’s rights."