Annual Reports October 2022 -

NATIONAL SECURITY CRIMES, 2022 IRAN PROTESTS, AND AZERBAIJANIS

Introduction

The present report is a brief reflection of the current status of human rights of the Azerbaijani Turk population in Iran by looking at the 2022 Iran protests in the Azerbaijan region. The main theme of this report is around national security and the Azerbaijani Turks as ethnic minorities being prosecuted under the “crime against national security”.

The first part of this report will present the concept of national security crimes in the criminal law framework of the Islamic Republic of Iran and provide a series of Azerbaijani Turk activists arrested and accused of this crime.

The second part of this report will mainly focus on the 2022 Iran protests in the Azerbaijan region of Iran and a collection of verified names who have been arrested.

There is also an appendix attached to this report, presenting a list of Azerbaijani Turk activists arrested in previous years to determine if national security was a common accusation for arresting these activists and when exactly the national security crime accusations started.