Washington Post
Nov 23 2012
Mexico City committee urges removal of controversial monument to
Azerbaijani strongman
MEXICO CITY – A commission of intellectuals recommended Friday that
Mexico City’s government remove a life-size bronze statue of
Azerbaijan’s former president that provoked a storm of criticism after
it was installed on the capital’s main boulevard.
The Stalinesque statue of the late Geidar Aliyev was erected by the
Azerbaijani Embassy, which paid for the renovation of part of the city
park where it sits and other public works totaling about $5 million.
Aliyev has been criticized for repressing opponents and critics.
The commission of three writers and analysts appointed by the city
government said authorities erred by accepting money to allow a
foreign government to essentially decide which political figures or
historic events should be commemorated in the capital’s public spaces.
`In view of the majority opinions of the citizens and neighbors, the
sculpture of Geidar Aliyev should be removed from the emblematic spot’
on the Reforma boulevard, commission member Guillermo Osorno said.
The panel suggested that a citizen board be set up to review such
proposals in the future.
`We believe that monuments or street names that are offensive,
hurtful, or which make unilateral judgments on international disputes
should not be installed in public spaces,’ Osorno said.
Protesters have said they are offended by a monument to an
authoritarian figure like Aliyev, who led Azerbaijan first as
Communist Party boss during Soviet times and then as president from
1993 until his death in 2003.
Critics’ anger has been amplified by a plaque on Aliyev’s statue that
describes him as `a brilliant example of infinite devotion to the
motherland, loyal to the universal ideals of world peace’ and by the
location of the statue not far from monuments to Mahatma Gandhi,
Abraham Lincoln and Mexico’s national heroes.
Writer and activist Homero Aridjis said the city government has a
problem: the money it accepted from the Central Asian nation, which
might have to be returned.
`The problem is the money. If it were just a political issue, they’d
make the decision without any further ado,’ he said.
`They have to remove the statue,’ said Aridjis, who participated in
protests against the monument. `They have no other choice. It would be
a happy ending to a sordid story.’
Azerbaijani Ambassador Ilgar Yusif oglu Mukhtarov said that although
he didn’t agree with some of the commission’s recommendations, he
would discuss them with city authorities to find a resolution that
everyone agreed with.
Mukhtarov charged that the government of Armenia, with which
Azerbaijan has tense relations, and local Armenians were behind the
campaign to remove Aliyev’s statue.
`We are aware that the current situation was driven by the Armenian
government and the Armenian local diaspora in an attempt to discredit
the work, life and dedication of Azerbaijan’s national leader,’
Mukhtarov said a news conference.
Last month, the embassy suggested in a statement that removing the
statue could affect diplomatic relations. It said the city government
had signed an agreement stipulating the monument should be allowed to
remain in the spot for 99 years.
The city government’s press office said authorities hadn’t made a
decision yet on whether to follow the commission’s recommendation.
Mayor Marcelo Ebrard was somewhat evasive, saying, `We are going to
review it carefully … and we will reply.’
Osorno, however, said the city government has already offered
Azerbaijan a cultural center where the statue could be displayed
indoors. That `would be more appropriate,’ he said.
The issue was particularly thorny because the city government prides
itself on its progressive policies and respect for human rights. Some
officials have suggested authorities weren’t really aware of who
Aliyev was when the monument was approved.
The advisory commission also recommended that a second
Azerbaijani-funded monument in the downtown Tlaxcoaque plaza be
changed.
That statue depicts a woman, her arms uplifted in mourning,
commemorating Khojaly, a village where hundreds of Azerbaijanis were
reportedly killed during Azerbaijan’s conflict with Armenia over the
Nagorno-Karabakh region.
The commission said a plaque on the monument calling it `genocide’ was
misleading. Genocide is a term more commonly applied to the killing of
about 1.5 million Armenians in the region in 1915.
Moreover, the Tlaxcoaque plaza was the site of a police torture and
detention center that collapsed in Mexico City’s 1985 earthquake. The
commission said it would be more appropriate to commemorate Mexicans
who died there.
`We think this space should be dedicated to the victims of forced
disappearance, torture and execution,’ Osorno said.
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