Gothenburg, October 31 2006

     The Azerbaijani Youth Association in Sweden

The Azerbaijani Youth Association in Sweden lobbies the case of South-Azerbaijan in the British Parliament 

Between the 23^rd and 25^th of October, representatives from the Azerbaijani Youth Association in Sweden visited the British Parliament and had meetings with British parliamentarians from a number of different committees, in order to discuss the human rights of the South-Azerbaijanis in Iran. The meetings resulted in the establishment of close contacts and the agreement of the necessity of concrete actions from Great Britain in order to shed light on this subject. During their London visit, the AYAS members also met with the Iran experts of Amnesty International headquarters’, as well as with journalists such as the renowned Nicholas Jones whom has worked for the BBC for over 30 years.

AYAS´ visit in the British Parliament included meetings with Mr. Keith Vaz, the former Minister of European Affairs, today a member of the committee on Constitutional Affairs, Mr. Paul Keetch from the Foreign Affairs committee, Ms Linda Gilroy from the Defense committee, Ms. Anne Mckechin from the International Development committee and Mr. Clive Betts from the parliamentarian group on Iran as well as the committee on Local Government.

During the meetings AYAS provided the MPs with information on the systematic discrimination of the non-Persians in Iran . They illustrated examples of the Persian chauvinism in the country by pointing out that 30 million Azerbaijanis in Iran are prohibited to study in their native language and do not have a single school in their mother tongue. AYAS also raised concerns over the present negligence of the human rights situation in Iran , this due to the dominance of Iran ’s nuclear question in the international debate, and shared their hopes of renewed attention on this area soon.

The information presented was highly appreciated by the MPs who admitted the lack of knowledge in this area. They expressed their concerns and showed great interest in engaging in the question and co-operating further in this matter. Concrete actions immediately took place and will be presented in the near future. 

During the meetings with Amnesty International headquarters in London , AYAS´ members met with the two people responsible for covering Iran Ms. Kate Willington and Ms. Sima. The Amnesty reports regarding South-Azerbaijan were discussed and AYAS´ members brought special attention to the statistics about the amount of Azerbaijanis in Iran stated in the reports. Sources were presented showing that the Azerbaijanis constitute around 40% of the total population in Iran , in comparison to the 25% of the population which is written in the Amnesty reports. A detailed report specifically about the Azerbaijani movement in Iran is being prepared by Amnesty International and will be released in December later this year.

When meeting with the veteran within journalism, Mr. Nicholas Jones, the AYAS´ representatives received a thorough description of how the Media in the UK works, including a guided tour around the TV-studios of different News channels.  Mr. Jones also listened carefully to the case of South-Azerbaijan and ensured that he would continue to flow this matter.