Fakhraddin Aboszoda

Fakhraddin Aboszoda (1956 – 2020) was a Talysh rights activist and historian. He was a leader of the Talysh national movement. He was a chairman of the majlis (parliament) of the Talysh-Mughan Autonomous Republic within Republic of Azerbaijan.

After the creation of the Talysh-Mughan Autonomous Republic Aboszoda joined the Talysh movement. He took a central role in movement's leadership after Alikram Hummatov asked him to write the republic's constitution. He helped create the majlis of the republic, first convened in August 1993, and later became its chairman. The first orders of the majlis were the transfer of military power to the civilian authorities, official declaration of the creation of an autonomous Talysh-Mughan republic as a constituent part of Azerbaijan, and the election of Hummatov as president and the appointment of Aboszoda as head of the majlis.

After the end of the republic Aboszoda was an editor of Tolyshi Sado (1993–1995) and other Talysh newspapers, such as Tolysh and Shavnysht. Also he published a series of Talysh-Russian and Talysh-English dictionaries, the first finished since Novruzali Mammadov's Talysh-Russian-Azerbaijani dictionary in 2006.

Arrest, imprisonment and death
Aboszoda first fled Azerbaijan in 1995, fearing imminent arrest for his involvement in the autonomous republic. Like other Talysh figures, he returned in 2005, but left again in 2007 after renewed repression of Talysh activists with the arrest of Novruzali Mamedov. He lived in Russia for a long time before his arrest.

In 2018, Republic of Azerbaijan formally petitioned the Russian government to arrest and deport Aboszoda to Azerbaijan on the grounds that "he had threatened Azerbaijan’s territorial integrity and incited ethnic hostility". In September 2018, Aboszoda was detained by Russian authorities. He was deported to Azerbaijan in February 2019, in spite of a pending application for his asylum. Immediately arrested upon his arrival in Baku, nearly a year later (in February 2020) he was sentenced to 16 years in prison, being found guilty of "public appeals against the state, inciting ethnic hatred, and treason".

When studying the materials on the basis of which the accusatory decision was made, the international human rights organization Amnesty International, in its report "Azerbaijan authorities must release Talysh activists", concluded that none of these materials contains evidence of any recognized crimes in accordance with international law and standards, or contains any incitement to acts of violence. Calls for secession are protected by international law, and Abbasov exercised his right to freedom of expression in upholding his vision of an independent Talysh state.

He died in prison in 2020. The Azerbaijani authorities declared it a suicide, although shortly before his death Aboszoda had released a statement that his life was in danger.