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In Azerbaijan, Anger At An Author, But Not Necessarily At His Argume

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  • In Azerbaijan, Anger At An Author, But Not Necessarily At His Argume

    IN AZERBAIJAN, ANGER AT AN AUTHOR, BUT NOT NECESSARILY AT HIS ARGUMENT

    Akram Aylisli has been stripped of his pension.

    Azerbaijan's Orhan Pamuk

    An accomplished author in Azerbaijan has raised a storm of criticism
    with a new novel that casts the country's traditional rival, Armenia,
    in a sympathetic light.

    Azerbaijan's Hot January: Unusually Bold Protests Challenge Government

    By Daisy Sindelar

    http://www.rferl.org/content/azerbaijan-author-akram-aylisli/24897008.html
    February 08, 2013

    A lifetime of achievements came tumbling down this week for Azerbaijani
    author Akram Aylisli, who was stripped of his honorary titles and
    pension after writing a novel, "Stone Dreams," casting regional rival
    Armenia in a sympathetic light.

    But amid the furor over Aylisli's work, a quieter conversation has
    also emerged, with many Azerbaijanis calling for steps toward peace
    with Armenia.

    The relationship between Baku and Yerevan is a deeply antagonistic one,
    plagued by festering anger over the six-year war over Nagorno-Karabakh,
    an Armenian-majority separatist region located within Azerbaijani
    territory.

    "Stone Dreams," published recently in the Russian literary journal
    "Druzhba narodov" -- which, ironically, translates as "Friendship of
    the Peoples" -- stirred resentment by depicting only the conflict's
    Azerbaijani attacks against Armenians, notably pogroms in Baku and
    Sumgait. Incidents of Armenian aggression against Azerbaijanis,
    such as the February 1992 Khojaly massacre, are conspicuously absent.

    But even some Azerbaijanis who suffered during the war have come
    forward to praise Aylisli's book -- including Gunel Movlud, a
    31-year-old Azerbaijani poet and Karabakh refugee.

    "This novel can work in Azerbaijan's favor. Of course, it's his own
    opinion. Maybe what he says isn't the truth, maybe it is. But this
    novel reflects something. It shows that we're a civilized nation that
    can accept responsibility for our part in things," Movlud said.

    Book Burnings

    Many of Aylisli's defenders appear to be motivated, in part, by the
    depths of the animosity now directed at one of the country's most
    respected writers.

    After a week of protests, book-burnings, and calls for Aylisli to
    give up his citizenship, Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev upped
    the ante, issuing a formal decree stripping the 75-year-old writer
    of his honorary title as "People's Writer" and dropping a monthly
    $1,250 presidential pension he had received since 2002.

    Aliyev argued the measures were a just punishment "for distorting facts
    in Azerbaijani history and insulting the feelings of the Azerbaijani
    people." But Aylisli -- whose dozens of novels and plays before
    "Stone Dreams" never touched on the Armenia issue -- accused the
    government of crossing a line in attacking his entire body of work.

    "I didn't ask them to give me that title. And they didn't give it
    to me for this novel. They gave it to me for my other works. So what
    does it mean? They're cancelling out my other books? I really didn't
    expect anything like this decree," Aylisli said.

    Aylisli has been a staunch critic of the ruling regime.

    The crackdown has extended further, with Aylisli's son, a powerful
    customs official, being asked to resign from his post and Baku's
    National Drama Theater cancelling an anticipated production of
    Aylisli's play, "Don't Love Me."

    The severity of the censure may be tied to Aylisli's open criticism
    of the Baku's ruling elite. In addition to its depictions of the
    Azerbaijani-Armenian conflict, "Stone Dreams" paints a thinly veiled
    portrait of Aliyev's father and predecessor as president, Heydar,
    as a corrupt official who buys the loyalty of Baku's intelligentsia
    with free apartments. And a more recent manuscript, "Big Traffic Jam,"
    which has only appeared in samizdat form, is rumored to subject both
    Aliyevs to a scathing satirical critique.

    But the groundswell of support for Aylisli has forced even the
    government to edge away from its normally pugilistic stance on Yerevan.

    Many Azerbaijanis were astonished February 7 when the country's public
    television station broadcast a live debate on the Armenia question.

    The debate featured many contentious exchanges, like this one between
    Aylisli and ruling-party lawmaker Musa Guliyev.

    Guliyev: You wrote something that can be used as Armenian propaganda.

    They're saying, "Look, Azeris are barbarians, we can't live with them."

    Aylisli: You do that! Every single day you curse Armenians, but then
    you turn around and tell them that we should live together.

    Armenian Reaction

    The issue has been closely watched in Armenia, where Aylisli's
    privations have provided local media with a fresh opportunity to
    criticize the Azerbaijani regime.

    "Agos," the Turkish-based newspaper formerly run by the slain
    Armenian journalist Hrant Dink, wrote a scathing account of the
    affair, noting that Aylisli's plays had been a feature of Armenia's
    Soviet-era theater scene and quoting the writer's own assertion that
    "Stone Dreams" was a message to Armenians that "it's not the end"
    and "we can live together."

    Levon Ananian, the chairman of Armenia's Union of Writers, on February
    8 offered a formal response to the controversy, saying, "Kudos to
    our Azerbaijani colleague! He is that brave man who blazes the trail,
    the trail that leads to repentance through truth." Ananian added that
    "Not only Armenians, but also Russians, all people that are concerned
    about the future of the country...should share this braveness."

    It remains to be seen, however, whether any Armenian writer, will
    rise to a challenge posed by Aylisli to his literary counterparts
    across the border. Speaking last week, Aylisli said he deliberately
    chose to focus on Azerbaijani violence, and that it was the "job of
    Armenian writers" to follow suit. "It's not possible for any people
    to commit such cruelties and not write about it," he added.

    Related: Azeri Author Sends Unpopular Message To Armenians: 'We Can
    Live Together'

    Back in Azerbaijan there are those who wish Aylisli had chosen to
    portray both sides of the conflict. Rustam Behrudi, an Azerbaijani
    poet, says Baku has gone overboard in its attack on the novelist,
    particularly at a time when it is conducting a significant crackdown
    against antigovernment protesters and political opponents.

    At the same time, Behrudi says Aylisli erred in representing only one
    side of the story. Any story of the conflict between Azerbaijan and
    Armenia, he says, should portray the actions and sufferings of both.

    "Azerbaijan has so many big problems. But instead of solving those
    problems, they're attacking a writer for his novel. What is literature
    about? It's about freedom of expression, about liberty," Behrudi says.

    "I don't think it's right to attack a writer like this. At the same
    time, I disagree with the author about some parts of the novel. If an
    Armenian was beaten and killed in Baku, and a writer writes about it,
    he should also talk about the events that caused the attack."

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