Azerbaijani researcher Khalida Khalid arrested in Iran

Khalida Khalid, a researcher of literature, a citizen of Azerbaijan, was arrested in the city of Tabriz in northern Iran together with four activists of the movement for the rights of Azerbaijanis of South (Iranian) Azerbaijan.

On Tuesday, April 30, during her visit to Iran, Khalida Khalid was detained by the Iranian secret service "ETTELAAT".

Khalida Khalid went to Iran to participate in the Day of Mothers celebrated in the country and to the birthday of Azerbaijani activist Mukhammed Okhtai Rashidi. This was reported by the website "Oyannews.com", the website of Iranian Azerbaijanis opened in the United States. According to the source's report, Khalida Khalid researches works of Shakhriyar, an Iranian writer of the 20th century, an ethnic Azerbaijani.

The information about the detention of Khalida Khalid was confirmed to the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent by Magerram Gasymly, Deputy Director of the Institute of Literature named after Nizami of the Azerbaijani National Academy of Sciences (ANAS), where Khalida Khalid works.

"Khalida Khalid works at our Institute as a Junior Researcher at the Department of Foreign Literary Relations. On April 26, she left for Iran on a private visit, not on a business trip. She did not even inform us about that," Magerram Gasymly has said.

According to his story, Khalida Khalid is a native of the Lankaran District in Southern Azerbaijan, and earlier, she worked at the Lankaran State University.

Magerram Gasymly doubts that Khalida Khalid could take any action to come under suspicion of the Iranian secret services.

"She is a typical researcher. She has not even obtained an academic status. I think that some sort of misunderstanding has occurred. Today, we just learned about the detention of Khalida Khalid and appealed to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MFA) of Azerbaijan," Magerram Gasymly has stated.

The "Caucasian Knot" correspondent has been informed by officials from the press service of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Azerbaijan that the Azerbaijani General Consulate in Tabriz has been given an appropriate instruction and that it is already working on clarifying the fate of the citizen of Azerbaijan.

Officials from the Iranian Embassy in Azerbaijan stated that they had no information on the issue.