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 The Right to be Azerbaijani
I'm old now but if I had
the chance to live my life all over again, I would do the same
thing despite the hardships, the cold, hunger and abuse that
I have had to endure. Through it all, I never lost my pride or
dignity as an Azerbaijani." Ismikhan
Rahimov, 73,
reflecting upon the seven years he spent in Siberian labor camps,
beginning in 1948 when he was 22, until shortly after Stalin's
death when he was released. Rahimov, an English language professor
is one of the most favorite, esteemed and sought-after instructors
in Baku. |
"You cannot begin to know
the pain I have suffered all my life for being branded a political
prisoner and sent by Stalin to a labor camp in Siberia. Even
after I was freed, the KGB spied on me for 35 years, up until
the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991. My friends and I were
accused of speaking Azeri and of wanting to separate Azerbaijan
from the Soviet Union. They sentenced us to 25 years of hard
labor. Nobody ever expected us to come back alive.