“I am going. This country, this world is not for me… I am going to become happy… Tell mom that I love her so much. You are all responsible for my death. This world is not strong enough to bear my colors. Farewell.”
These were the last words of İsa Şahmarlı, president of the “Azad LGBT” organization and LGBT activist. He committed suicide by hanging himself with a rainbow flag, at the age of 20… He had an innocent wish: “I hope that I will one day see LGBT flags in the Baku sky. What I really want to see is a gay couple walking freely in Baku.”
İsa Şahmarlı, 20-year-old LGBT activist in Azerbaijan, hanged himself yesterday with a rainbow flag.
The president of the Azad LGBT group was found dead by his friends in the office where he worked.
“You are all responsible of my death”
Before committing suicide, Sahmarli shared a note from his Facebook account: “I am going. This country, this world is not for me… I am going to become happy… Tell mom that I love her much. You are all responsible of my death. This world is not strong enough to bear my colors. Farewell.”
“Rainbow Flags Will Be in Baku Sky”
Şahmarlı once said in an interview: “I hope and I will see one day that LGBT flags will be in Baku sky. What I really want to see is a gay couple walking freely in Baku.” He also emphasized in another interview that family pressure drives many LGBT teens to suicide.
İsa’s friends and those against homophobia will attend his funeral today. There will be a press release on Sunday in Ankara by Anka LGBT, as well.
The Trevor Project, USA, Fridays (4:00 p.m. – 8:00 p.m. ET / 1:00 p.m. – 5:00 p.m. PT): Text the word “Trevor” to 1-202-304-1200. Standard text messaging rates apply.
If you know of any other suicide resources where you live or work, please do let us know so that we can add them to our website. To contact us, email us at , or see https://lgbtinewsturkey.com/about/.
