Aylisli Controversy Reveals the True Face of Aliyev Regime
By Elmar Chakhtakhtinski
The controversy around the Azerbaijani writer Akram Aylisli’s recently
published novel “Stone Dreams” came amidst increased political
tensions and social unrest in the country. And although it created a
socio-political storm of its own, the uncivilized and hateful
over-reaction to this book does not collectively represent the
Azerbaijani society. It only reveals the real character of the ruling
Aliyev regime and its minions, unmasking their intolerant, feudal and
reckless nature.
Delayed reaction
To be sure, Aylisli’s work touches upon an extremely sensitive subject
of the still unresolved Karabakh war, with very deep and fresh wounds
on both sides. The book is focused on the horrors that befell the
Armenian victims of the Armenian-Azerbaijani ethnic conflict. However,
terrible atrocities had been committed on both sides. Many argue that
failing to mention thousands of Azerbaijanis massacred by Armenians
and the exile of about a million Azerbaijani refugees distorts the
real narrative. Aylisli’s response was that as an Azerbaijani writer
he felt compelled to write about the suffering of Armenians and he
hopes that an Armenian author would write similarly about the tragic
fate of Azerbaijani victims.
Regardless of the author’s intentions, one can understand why most
Azerbaijanis would strongly disagree with his one-sided portrayal of
the events and the historical background around them. The demeaning
words used by the novel’s characters to describe the Azerbaijani
refugees and some other unkind references in the book do not help
either.
But to set the record straight: there was no real mass “grass-roots”
outrage over this book in Azerbaijan. It was published in December
2012 in a popular Russian literary magazine and largely went unnoticed
in Azerbaijan. Then came Azerbaijan’s “hot January”, with an
anti-government uprising in Ismayilli region, a violent economic
protest in capital Baku’s Bina suburb and an unusually large rally in
downtown Baku organized by pro-democracy youth groups calling for an
end to killings and abuses of soldiers in the national army. Only
after all these events had shaken the governments control over the
situation, a mass campaign, clearly orchestrated by the authorities,
against Ekram Aylisli and his pro-Armenian book began in all of its
fury.
Orchestrated campaign
Consider the following facts:
– The party offering a $12,000 reward for cutting the writer’s ear is
a well-known pro-government puppet group
– The country’s corrupt dictator, Ilham Aliyev, has himself led the
public crusade against the author by issuing a decree that deprives
Aylisli from his highest state awards and a special presidential
pension
– The fascist remarks against the author, such as raising questions
about his ethnic identity, proposals to “check his DNA” to see if he
is an Armenian, calls to strip him of Azerbaijani citizenship and
deport to Armenia, were made by the ruling party’s top officials and
its leading members in the parliament
– The authorities fired his wife and son from their state jobs after
the book was published
– It is the same state-controlled media, usually busy demonizing
dissidents and opposition activists and praising the ruling family
members, that now promotes hate and violence against the author
– All book burnings and `protest actions’ calling for “death to
Aylisli” were organized by the ruling YAP party’s youth movement and
other groups under the government’s own patronage and sponsorship
– In Aylisli’s own village, in Nakhchivan region, where the local
despot Talibov’s henchmen prevent gathering of more than 3-4 people
for any unsanctioned events, the government had to bus in people from
other villages and towns to stage a “protest by the local residents”
against the author
All other demonstrations in Azerbaijan, calling for democracy,
freedom, human rights or simply expressing people’s dissatisfaction
with the current conditions are always brutally attacked and dispersed
by the police and their participants are beaten, fined and jailed. But
these hateful government-sponsored rallies against the author met no
resistance from the security forces.
Without mentioning all of the above facts and without clearly showing
that all the stone-age, hate-filled responses to the novel are
invariably tied to and totally controlled by the ruling Aliyev regime,
any reporting on this issue would be incomplete and misleading.
Diversionary tactic
There is another, little more subtle but easily recognizable dimension
in this story: the state-sponsored campaign against the writer Akram
Aylisli is diversionary in its character. By stirring hatred around
the book, the government tries to distract attention from the biggest
real problem facing Azerbaijan – the ruling regime itself. Unable and
unwilling for twenty years to answer people’s demands to end pervasive
corruption, respect basic freedoms and rights and provide minimal
levels of social justice, the government decided to divert the popular
anger towards the novel’s author and the Karabakh issue it touches
upon.
Once again, it proves that the ruling regime in Azerbaijan, and
perhaps in Armenia, is not really interested in finding a solution to
the Karabakh conflict. Instead, they use it as a convenient excuse and
hide behind it when their trespasses and faults on all other fronts
become evident. This is done with such consistency that one even
wonders why would this government ever want the perfect cover of
`Karabakh problem’, helping it to stay in power, go away?
Dangerously reckless
The disturbing conclusion is that to save its own power, the Aliyev
government seems ready to gamble with anything it holds in its hands.
Any responsible government seriously thinking about the peaceful
solution to the Karabakh issue, where Azerbaijanis and Armenians again
would have to live side-by-side as Azerbaijani citizens, would never
purposefully raise tensions to this degree and promote such level of
public ethnic hatred. That the anti-Aylisli campaign shatters any
hopes for a dialog and reconciliation, apparently, does not seem
bother the authorities at all. Neither do they seem to worry about
destroying the country’s already poor international reputation by
pursuing their shameful and backward crusade against a fiction book.
Can such a reckless regime be trusted not to risk the renewal of
hostilities, if it sees the military adventure as the only way out of
a domestic revolution?
There is a dire need for a decent and responsible government in Baku
that is willing and capable to address the long-lasting issues facing
the nation, including the Karabakh conflict. Azerbaijan needs a
leadership that is not pre-occupied with pillaging the country’s
riches and that would not sacrifice the country’s interests in order
to stay in power. For that, its citizens will have to free themselves
from this utterly corrupt, thoroughly repressive and, as Aylisli
affair revealed, disgustingly intolerant and intellectually barbaric
Aliyev dictatorship.
The Azerbaijani state propaganda machine and its Western apologists,
mainly consisting of lobbyists, paid “experts” and some sold-out
politicians and diplomats, have been for a long time selling a fake
image of the Aliyev regime as a “tolerant, pro-western, reliable US
ally’. The scandal around Aylisli’s “Stone Dreams” blows into dust
this fairy-tale. Hopefully the US government and policymakers will
take a due notice.
Elmar Chakhtakhtinski is a chairman of Azerbaijani-Americans for
Democracy (AZAD), a non-profit US organization promoting support for
democracy and human rights in Azerbaijan.
From: A. Papazian
http://azerireport.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=3879&Itemid=48