Hello, my son! I am writing this congratulation to you from a place surrounded on all sides by barbed wire and iron bars. Perhaps you never imagined I would one day write your birthday greeting from such a place, but I had anticipated it. Because I was aware of what kind of political system exists in our country and who runs it. In our country, it has become commonplace for people who live each day as if it were their last to face repression and imprisonment at any moment…
We are here because we are the voice of those who suffer under the oppressor’s tyranny, and this fate is very much a choice of our own. Personally, I have no regrets about this choice, but I grieve over what is happening in our country. We are living in such a period of our country’s history that the life of every citizen — regardless of whether they are “involved in politics or not” — is at risk and in danger.
Every father carries the possibility and the fear of stepping out of the house for a piece of bread and never returning, of being slandered through drugs, weapons, and various methods and separated from his children for a long time. The hundreds of innocent prisoners we encounter here are those very slandered fathers. None of them were involved in “politics” or in what was happening in the country — they are workers, taxi drivers, Karabakh war veterans, and people from various walks of life who stayed silent in the face of so much injustice and went out each morning with only the hope of returning in the evening, earning a meager daily wage.
From the pain they endure, one can sense that the whip of the tyranny in our country has left deep and wide scars on their backs. They are fathers crushed — and crushed until their dignity is trampled — beneath the slogans of “political stability and public order” broadcast daily on television screens. When I listen to the story of each of these men, a famous memory of Tolstoy comes to mind: “Our mother always told us to smile at our father when he came home, because life outside is terrifying and it wears fathers out.” Yes, all of this happens every day in our country, and it is so that these things may cease that we are compelled to speak and write the truth.
It is because we spoke the truth that we have been subjected to the oppressor’s tyranny. Because we are victims of the mistakes of the generations before us, we do not want the generations after us to be victims of our mistakes either. Our struggles today — in this era of authoritarianism’s harshest and most cruel rule — exist so that you may live in a freer, more prosperous, and more dignified society and homeland.
That is why we could not stay silent as humanity was openly destroyed in a land whose poets are flatterers, whose writers are sycophants, whose intellectuals are cowards, whose artists are beggars, whose citizens are submissive, whose officials are thieves, whose courts are unjust, whose teachers are frauds, whose doctors are butchers, whose journalists are liars, and whose politicians are harmful — because future generations will also question us for what is happening today. Do not forget that those who sentence us to iron cages today are the heirs of those who exiled the Javids and Mushfigs — those who gave their lives and blood for the future of this homeland, the republicans — to Siberia, and who had them shot. Perhaps you will not fully grasp what I have written here right now, but I am certain that the time will come when you will understand these realities and agree with me.
Let me remind you of one more historical fact: when Hasan bey Zardabi passed away, a great crowd gathered at his funeral. Before that crowd, Ahmadbey Agaoglu’s famous address began with these words: “O sacred soul, now that you depart to the next world, go and seize our forefathers by the collar and say: ‘Men, what kind of Homeland is this you have left us?'” You see, we are here so as not to hand our collars over to the hands of future generations — because the vengeance of future generations is heavy. May God grant us success on this path and may He grant you happiness!
Dear Muhammad, happy birthday! Stay strong, always look forward, take your studies seriously, and gladden me with your achievements. As I wrote to Seljan, I must also remind you of the famous Spanish proverb: “If you look back and see no one following you, do not lose heart — walk your path alone.”
That path will surely lead you to your destination.
I love you, my son!
05.12.2025