Friday, April 08, 2005


Bulud Garachrlu ( Sahand )

Sahand was born into a poor family in spring of 1926 in Maragha, ( Iran ). He had got his primary education in Maragha and then continued his study in Tabriz.
In 1945 he was a member of youth organization of Azerbaijani Democratic Party. When the Iranian government suppressed the activity of that organization, Sahand together with all his friends was put under the arrest. Being discharged in 1947 he immediately continued his political activities for freedom of Azerbaijan and became the member of one of the underground organizations at the end of 40ies. In those very years he began his literary activities and wrote first part of his first work titled “Khatira” (“Recollection”).

In 1951 Sahand was arrested again and later together with other political prisoners he was sent into exile to Tehran prison. There he wrote poem called “Aras” in which described his dream about the freedom of motherland. In 1953 he was discharged and during the unsuccessful subsequent years was trying to find a job. Finally he managed to find some job in one of the repair shops of weaving looms. He was working as a labourer all days long and reading at nights. Also in 1953 he managed to publish his first works – “Khatira” and “Aras”. He composed poems on a great Azerbaijani epos “Kitabi Dede Gorgud” and read them in literal meetings. By such poems he tried to show the deepness and breadth of the Azerbaijani culture, literature, history and language.

It should be noted that everything that concerned Azerbaijanis, their culture, language, history and traditions was cruelly suppressed by Persian chauvinism. Persian government was holding and still holds such a chauvinistic policy in order to suppress the liberty movement of Azerbaijanis. Azerbaijani have no right to speak their native language, read their native literature, to study in their own language and etc. Till present days they are humiliated by such slogans as “Azeris have no culture”, “Azeris are not nation”, “Azeris never had history”. Not only through his political activities, but also through his poems Sahand openly showed the ridiculous policy of Iran towards the part of Azerbaijan that Iran had captured in the beginning of XIX century. Naturally since that time Southern Azerbaijan never stopped fighting for its liberty. Sahand devoted many works to the subdivision of his motherland.

In 1965 he managed to publish the first volume of his work called “Sazimin sozu”. The expression “sazimin sozu” means “the word of my saz” (saz – national Azerbaijani musical instrument). This volume was published illegally. “Sazimin Sozu” was also written on the basis of “Dede Gorgud” epos. In 1971 Sahand although illegally managed to publish the second volume of “Sazimin sozu” which was titled “Dedemin kitabi” (“The book of my father”). It is interesting to note that he did not satisfied with the simple versification of all the Dede Gorgud’s legends – at the end and in the beginning of each work he added his own “Introduction” and “Conclusion”. He linked these introductions and conclusions with the socio – political life of his motherland and his own feelings, dreams and purposes concerning the future and freedom of his nation. For all his life Sahand was struggling for liberty of Southern Azerbaijan and its reunification with Northern Azerbaijan.

In 1967 he wrote his famous poem “Armaghan” (“A Present”) and sent it to Baku. In 1968 he wrote his “Ikinchi Armaghan” (“The Second Present”) and after that he began to maintain close relationships with men of letter from Northern Azerbaijan. In the same years he wrote “Uchunju Armaghan”(“The Third Present”). As there was no opportunity for him to visit Northern Azerbaijan he could only send and receive letters from there and nothing else. Even nowadays it is very difficult and most of the times impossible for Azerbaijani from Southern Azerbaijan to visit Northern Azerbaijan. S it is natural that such a violent separation is unbearable for Azerbaijanis.

In 1969 for the first and last time Sahand managed to visit Baku. After ten years on April of 1979 Sahand died as a result of heart disease. He devoted all his life to the struggling for Azerbaijani liberty and was one of the most outstanding poets not only in Azerbaijani literature, but also in Turkey.