Thomas de Waal: Azerbaijani authorities speak of thousands of
Armenians who would live in Baku but in the same time bait Eylisli
19:27 14/02/2013 » SOCIETY
Ekrem Eylisli’s novel is a brave act for the writer, thinks the famous
British journalist, author of `Black Garden-Karabakh,’ Thomas de Waal.
In an interview with the Azerbaijani service of `Radio Liberty’, he
noted that Eylisli wrote the novel “Stone Dreams” not as a politician
or journalist but as an artist, as a writer.
`He expressed his vision in fiction. He said that `the society in
which I live, has also committed wrong things, that’s why we are
responsible for it, and it must be recognized,’ de Waal noted.
Answering the question, how he perceives the outrage in Azerbaijan
over Eylisli’s novel, which suddenly broke the taboo by talking about
violence of the Azerbaijani side during the conflict, and began to
call upon the parties to come to peace, de Waal answered, `This speaks
about the fact that the Azerbaijani society is not ready to analyze
the history and problems. And the most important thing is that it is a
characteristic phenomenon for two sides of the conflict both the
Azerbaijani and the Armenian society.’
`Unfortunately, instead of encouraging Eylisli as brave citizen, they
subjected him to pressures, burnt his books. The anger of few people
is sensible. However, the fact that Azerbaijani government is heading
the campaign launched against Ekrem Eylisli is regrettable. The
Azerbaijani government likes to talk about peace, he even recalls how
peacefully thousands of Armenians lived in Baku. Unfortunately, the
pressure on the writer who bravely comments on the conflict, brings to
another impression delivering diverse message,’ the expert said.
The expert, answering the question how the fact that state TV
transmits speech full of hatred against Ekrem Eylisli, the fact that
the president of Azerbaijan has deprived him of the title of `National
Writer’ and the head of one of the pro-governmental parties announced
a reward to the one who cuts the writer’s ear, influences the
international image of Azerbaijan, said that such behavior of
Azerbaijani authorities reminded of the scandal that erupted in Soviet
period over the novel written by Boris Pasternak `Doctor Zhivago’ or
the ban over Salman Rushdie’s books.
De Waal also noted that the Azerbaijani authorities are likely to
think more about the domestic audience, but in our time, such
questions do not remain within the borders of the country. And the
government should be concerned about the image of Azerbaijan in the
whole world. `In all cases, this is a regrettable phenomenon. Ekrem
Eylisli presents the tolerant layer of Azerbaijani society.
Unfortunately, his voice was not heard,’ he said.
De Waal said that different arguments can be presented during the
debate, about the wounds of war in that number, `However, this debate
should be expressed in a polite form, be presented on television, in
newspapers. The burning of books, however, is a result of primitivism
and ignorance,’ the expert said.
As De Waal mentioned the OSCE Minsk Group includes in its mandate also
the support of those people who call on for peace.
`I am not sure in which format they can do it in case of Eylisli. But
I think that any statement made by the OSCE Minsk Group would be just
on time, especially when there are threats that endanger the life of
Ekrem Eylisli. Perhaps this can be done by the countries co-chairing
in the Minsk Group separately. Just as in case of the statement
released by the White House about Ramil Safarov,’ De Waal stated.
The British expert cited example of Azerbaijan’s neighboring country
Georgia where a few years ago, the local political analyst Mamuka
Arashidze said that probably Georgia should recognize Abkhazia’s
independence. His remarks caused outrage among the Georgian society,
the TV channels began criticizing him. But this controversy did not go
beyond verbal squabbles, no one threatened to kill the politician. De
Waal said that Azerbaijan has sometimes to take the example of Georgia
which has had the same problem and to see how they react to different
opinions there.
`Aylisli’s case showed that the society is not ready for peace yet. We
can see that in recent years, the process repeats by the same
scenario. Co-Chairs come with a plan, but the parties do not consider
it acceptable and the process continues, it repeats as if in a vicious
circle. Apparently, the main goal has become not so much reaching a
peace but prevention of a new war,’ Thomas de Waal summed up.
Source: Panorama.am