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ZARAKOLU: AN URGENT CALL TO DEFEND RIGHTEOUS AZERIS
by Ragip Zarakolu
http://www.armenianweekly.com/2013/02/13/zarakolu-an-urgent-call-to-defend-righteous-azeris/
February 13, 2013
Having a conscience is a distinctive moral quality of mankind. The
conscientious, the honest, the righteous represent the true pride
and honor of a country. But criminals wielding an axe never can!
Eylisli Ekrem Eylisli, a writer in Azerbaijan who should have been the
pride of his country, is now instead in mortal danger, and the threat
comes from the president of the country, a post-Soviet autocrat. The
title Eylisli received-of "People's Writer" of the Republic of
Azerbaijan-and the associated state award have been rescinded; his
author's pension has been cancelled; and his wife and son have been
fired from their jobs.
An author, scriptwriter, and dramatist, Eylisli, 75, adopted the
great Soviet writer Maxim Gorky's philosophy on fraternity at the
Maxim Gorky Literature Institute in Moscow. He is a prolific writer,
and has been published in many magazines and newspapers. In 2005, he
was elected to the parliament. His literary life began in 1959 with
poetry, and continued with stories, plays, scripts, and novels. He has
also translated into the Azeri language many works by humanist writers
such as Gabriel G. Marquez, Turgenev, and Chinghiz Aitmatov. His plays
have been performed in many former Soviet cities, including Yerevan.
Yet, now, lynch mobs have been mobilized in front of his house, very
much like those we once saw in Maras and Sivas. "Come and bring your
axe!" they say, a slogan attributed to Azeri officer Ramil Sahiboglu
Safarov, who decapitated an Armenian officer with an axe in his sleep
in 2004, 20 days before they were to return home from a NATO-sponsored
"Partnership for Peace" program in Budapest, Hungary.*
Melahet Ibrahimqizi-an Azeri parliamentarian who, as part of
a delegation, flew to Ankara to convince parliamentary chairman
Koksal Toptan,** CHP leader Deniz Baykal, MHP leader Devlet Bahceli,
as well as various AKP functionaries, to block the Turkey-Armenia
protocols-is now attempting to extend the lynch campaign to Turkey. In
an aggressive speech delivered to the Azeri Parliament, he said that
Eylisli insults not only Azerbaijanis, but the Turkish nation as a
whole. Demands were subsequently made in that parliamentary session
to have Eylisli take a DNA test and be stripped of his citizenship.
The reason for all of this is the publication of his latest novella,
"Stone Dreams," in the Russian literary magazine Druzhba Narodov
(Fraternity of Peoples). It has not yet been published in Azeri. An
enraged mob gathered in front of his home in the capital of Baku
shouting, "Shame on you, traitor!" They burned his books and portraits,
which showed a cross printed on his forehead.
The novella tells the story of two Azeri men who tried to protect
their Armenian neighbors from ethnic violence. It also mentions
the pogroms against Armenians in Sumgait and Baku in a vein of
conscientious criticism. The novella was actually finished in 2007,
but could only be published five years later in Russian.
Interestingly, an Armenian writer, Levon Cavakhyan, who also explored
the Armenian-Azeri conflict in a conscientious tone, around the same
time, was awarded a prize in Azerbaijan. The Writers Union, of which he
was a member, reacted to his acceptance of an Azerbaijani award-though
not to his writing of the story itself. Cavakhyan resigned from the
Union in protest. He was never, however, the target of a hate campaign,
as is the case in Baku now.
Researcher Sarkis Hatspanian explains that Cavakhyan wrote the story
"Kirve" (Godfather) in 2008, in which he said, "Azeris are not my
enemy."*** Eynisli, who had said "Armenians are not my enemy" at
about the same time, now faces a lynch campaign for having uttered
the same sentence.
Although invited to live in Western countries and Russia, Eynisli takes
a proud stance, saying, "This is my homeland and I will not leave it."
I call upon international public opinion, as well as the democratic
public in Turkey and Azerbaijan, to actively stand in solidarity
with Ekrem Eynisli, and possibly avert a new murder similar to that
committed against Hrant Dink.
* Safarov was condemned to life in prison in Hungary for the murder
of Gurgen Margaryan. On Aug. 31, 2012, however, he was extradited to
Azerbaijan, and immediately released and promoted by Azerbaijani's
president.
** Toptan exercised his powers as chairman of the Turkish Parliament
in 2009 by impounding and returning-at the behest of CHP's MP Sukru
Elekdag-books sent to members of parliament by the Gomidas Institute,
thereby violating the parliamentarians' freedom to communicate.
*** See facebook.com/notes/sarkis-hatspanian/kirve/489684637733351.
Ragip Zarakolu is a founding member of the Human Rights Association
and of Social History Foundation; a member of PEN Turkey and of the
Writers Union of Turkey; a member of the Turkish Publishers Association
and of the International Committee for the Freedom to Publish; a
Nobel Peace Prize nominee by Swedish Parliamentary members and by
the French Section of the International Work Group's (GIT) 'Academic
Liberty and Freedom of Research [in Turkey]' (www.gitfrance.fr and
www.gitinitiative.com).
by Ragip Zarakolu
http://www.armenianweekly.com/2013/02/13/zarakolu-an-urgent-call-to-defend-righteous-azeris/
February 13, 2013
Having a conscience is a distinctive moral quality of mankind. The
conscientious, the honest, the righteous represent the true pride
and honor of a country. But criminals wielding an axe never can!
Eylisli Ekrem Eylisli, a writer in Azerbaijan who should have been the
pride of his country, is now instead in mortal danger, and the threat
comes from the president of the country, a post-Soviet autocrat. The
title Eylisli received-of "People's Writer" of the Republic of
Azerbaijan-and the associated state award have been rescinded; his
author's pension has been cancelled; and his wife and son have been
fired from their jobs.
An author, scriptwriter, and dramatist, Eylisli, 75, adopted the
great Soviet writer Maxim Gorky's philosophy on fraternity at the
Maxim Gorky Literature Institute in Moscow. He is a prolific writer,
and has been published in many magazines and newspapers. In 2005, he
was elected to the parliament. His literary life began in 1959 with
poetry, and continued with stories, plays, scripts, and novels. He has
also translated into the Azeri language many works by humanist writers
such as Gabriel G. Marquez, Turgenev, and Chinghiz Aitmatov. His plays
have been performed in many former Soviet cities, including Yerevan.
Yet, now, lynch mobs have been mobilized in front of his house, very
much like those we once saw in Maras and Sivas. "Come and bring your
axe!" they say, a slogan attributed to Azeri officer Ramil Sahiboglu
Safarov, who decapitated an Armenian officer with an axe in his sleep
in 2004, 20 days before they were to return home from a NATO-sponsored
"Partnership for Peace" program in Budapest, Hungary.*
Melahet Ibrahimqizi-an Azeri parliamentarian who, as part of
a delegation, flew to Ankara to convince parliamentary chairman
Koksal Toptan,** CHP leader Deniz Baykal, MHP leader Devlet Bahceli,
as well as various AKP functionaries, to block the Turkey-Armenia
protocols-is now attempting to extend the lynch campaign to Turkey. In
an aggressive speech delivered to the Azeri Parliament, he said that
Eylisli insults not only Azerbaijanis, but the Turkish nation as a
whole. Demands were subsequently made in that parliamentary session
to have Eylisli take a DNA test and be stripped of his citizenship.
The reason for all of this is the publication of his latest novella,
"Stone Dreams," in the Russian literary magazine Druzhba Narodov
(Fraternity of Peoples). It has not yet been published in Azeri. An
enraged mob gathered in front of his home in the capital of Baku
shouting, "Shame on you, traitor!" They burned his books and portraits,
which showed a cross printed on his forehead.
The novella tells the story of two Azeri men who tried to protect
their Armenian neighbors from ethnic violence. It also mentions
the pogroms against Armenians in Sumgait and Baku in a vein of
conscientious criticism. The novella was actually finished in 2007,
but could only be published five years later in Russian.
Interestingly, an Armenian writer, Levon Cavakhyan, who also explored
the Armenian-Azeri conflict in a conscientious tone, around the same
time, was awarded a prize in Azerbaijan. The Writers Union, of which he
was a member, reacted to his acceptance of an Azerbaijani award-though
not to his writing of the story itself. Cavakhyan resigned from the
Union in protest. He was never, however, the target of a hate campaign,
as is the case in Baku now.
Researcher Sarkis Hatspanian explains that Cavakhyan wrote the story
"Kirve" (Godfather) in 2008, in which he said, "Azeris are not my
enemy."*** Eynisli, who had said "Armenians are not my enemy" at
about the same time, now faces a lynch campaign for having uttered
the same sentence.
Although invited to live in Western countries and Russia, Eynisli takes
a proud stance, saying, "This is my homeland and I will not leave it."
I call upon international public opinion, as well as the democratic
public in Turkey and Azerbaijan, to actively stand in solidarity
with Ekrem Eynisli, and possibly avert a new murder similar to that
committed against Hrant Dink.
* Safarov was condemned to life in prison in Hungary for the murder
of Gurgen Margaryan. On Aug. 31, 2012, however, he was extradited to
Azerbaijan, and immediately released and promoted by Azerbaijani's
president.
** Toptan exercised his powers as chairman of the Turkish Parliament
in 2009 by impounding and returning-at the behest of CHP's MP Sukru
Elekdag-books sent to members of parliament by the Gomidas Institute,
thereby violating the parliamentarians' freedom to communicate.
*** See facebook.com/notes/sarkis-hatspanian/kirve/489684637733351.
Ragip Zarakolu is a founding member of the Human Rights Association
and of Social History Foundation; a member of PEN Turkey and of the
Writers Union of Turkey; a member of the Turkish Publishers Association
and of the International Committee for the Freedom to Publish; a
Nobel Peace Prize nominee by Swedish Parliamentary members and by
the French Section of the International Work Group's (GIT) 'Academic
Liberty and Freedom of Research [in Turkey]' (www.gitfrance.fr and
www.gitinitiative.com).