A Talysh Refugee In Denver Gives Thanks In A New Land

AURORA, CO – By Susan Greene for The Colorado Independent. We are, many of us, far from home today, a holiday when a phone call is no substitute for being with family.

But home for some among us is farther than others.

The 6,762 miles that separate Yusif Sardarzade from his kin in southeast Azerbaijan are just geography. The real extent of that distance lies in the circumstances that forced him to flee, without the ability to phone home, and seek refuge in a country that is so blind to the plight of his people that he may as well have landed on another planet.

“I am Talysh,” he said through a Russian translator Monday evening. “My culture is called Talysh. My language is Talysh. Talysh. That’s what we are.”

I met Sardarzade earlier this week at an annual Thanksgiving dinner for refugees organized by the African Community Center in Aurora. He was among a broader group of dozens of people seeking refuge or asylum in the United States not just from Africa, but also Southeast Asia, Central America and other places scarred by intolerance and persecution.

But Sardarzade’s story – and that of his friend and fellow dissident seated beside him – was new to me, and likely new to most folks in this state where the two believe they are the first of their people to seek refuge.

“I hope with your help the whole world will hear us,” he told me.

Sardarzade is a 38-year-old golf pro from Lankaran, a city on the Caspian Sea that is home to hundreds of thousands of people born into the Talysh culture. The ethnic group spanning from southeast Azerbiajan to northern Iran has its own ancient language and customs that, under Soviet rule, it generally was allowed to speak and practice. But over the past few decades, the Azerbaijani government has engaged in increasingly aggressive assimilation efforts, shutting down the Talysh radio station and newspaper, prohibiting use not only of their language, but also even the mere mention of the word “Talysh,” and persecuting those who speak out for their rights.

“I will fight for my people until my last breath,” Sardarzade said.

He and his friend – an information technology specialist with whom he fled in April – are members of a group seeking autonomy so the Talysh may freely speak their language, practice their customs and preserve their culture.

That threat is so great, they say, that the government ended both their jobs in recent years and started lobbing false accusations at them and other dissidents. Sardarzade’s wife was prodded to denounce her Talysh identity and end their marriage. If threatened by police, he said he urged his father, deny me as your son.

Last winter, while the family celebrated his son’s 11th birthday at their mosque, government forces raided the party and arrested everyone there, Sardarzade says. Since that day, he says, his boy has stuttered when he speaks.

“Trauma,” he said.

READ MORE at The Colorado Independent.

Image: Talysh asylee Yusif Sardarzade (Photo by Damian Thorman)