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Associated Press Online
January 26, 2013 Saturday 8:02 PM GMT
Mexico removes statute of Azerbaijan leader
By MARK STEVENSON, Associated Press
MEXICO CITY
Mexico City authorities removed a much-derided statue of the late
leader of Azerbaijan Saturday from a park where it had stood for
almost half a year at a prominent spot along the city's main
boulevard.
The city had struggled for months to find a decorous way to address a
wave of criticism about the monument to Geidar Aliyev, a former
Communist Party boss who died in 2003.
In the end, the city sent police and workers into the park in the
pre-dawn darkness Saturday to loosen the life-size, seated bronze
statue from its marble plinth, swath it in protective wrapping and
haul it away.
The city government said in a statement that it was holding the statue
in safe keeping and was still in talks with the Embassy of Azerbaijan
about where to put it. The statement didn't say where the statue had
been taken, but local media showed photos of it being hauled on a
flat-bed truck to a government warehouse in an unfashionable district
of the city.
The early-morning removal represented a sharp change of fortunes for
the statue, which since August had gazed serenely from a flowery
corner of Chapultepec Park over one of the city's toniest district,
with a marble map of Azerbaijan at its back.
City officials had previously suggested the statue might be moved to
an indoor setting, perhaps in some sort of Azerbaijani cultural
center. But the city apparently can't just hide the statue away, given
the $5 million Azerbaijan has paid to restore the park, erect the
monument and perform other public works.
The Azerbaijani Embassy suggested in a statement in October that
removing the statue could affect diplomatic relations between the
former Soviet satellite and Mexico. It said the city government had
signed an agreement stipulating the monument should be allowed to
remain in the spot for 99 years.
Officials of the Azerbaijani Embassy did not immediately answer phone
calls seeking comment Saturday.
The city government said it "reiterates its great respect for the
Azerbaijani people, their culture and traditions, and repeats that it
is open to dialogue with their embassy."
Some Mexico City residents had complained about the homage to Aliyev,
noting his authoritarian record. The late leader had been criticized
for repressing opponents and critics in his oil-rich Caspian Sea
nation.
The city's most high-profile street, Reforma boulevard is best known
for its monuments to Mexican independence heroes. Mexican activist and
writer Homero Aridjis, who helped lead opposition to the statue, said
Aliyev's addition there was inappropriate.
Aridjis said he welcomed the government's move.
"Mexico doesn't need to import, in exchange for money, tyrants from
other countries, nor make others conflicts our own," Aridjis wrote in
an email. "We already have enough of our own problems."
A second Azerbaijani statue appears in Tlaxcoaque park in downtown
Mexico City, which the country also paid to renovate. It depicts a
woman, her arms uplifted in mourning, commemorating Khojaly, a village
where hundreds of Azerbaijanis were reportedly killed during the
Nagorno-Karabakh conflict between ethnic Armenians and the Republic of
Azerbaijan, from 1988 to 1994.
Activists objected to that monument because a plaque describes the
Khojaly killings as a genocide, a term more commonly applied to the
slaying of about 1.5 million Armenians in the region in 1915.
Critics also say a monument to Mexican suffering would have been more
appropriate for Tlaxcoaque square, a site once used as a Mexican
police interrogation and torture center.
It's unclear what the city plans to do with the Tlaxcoaque monument.
January 26, 2013 Saturday 8:02 PM GMT
Mexico removes statute of Azerbaijan leader
By MARK STEVENSON, Associated Press
MEXICO CITY
Mexico City authorities removed a much-derided statue of the late
leader of Azerbaijan Saturday from a park where it had stood for
almost half a year at a prominent spot along the city's main
boulevard.
The city had struggled for months to find a decorous way to address a
wave of criticism about the monument to Geidar Aliyev, a former
Communist Party boss who died in 2003.
In the end, the city sent police and workers into the park in the
pre-dawn darkness Saturday to loosen the life-size, seated bronze
statue from its marble plinth, swath it in protective wrapping and
haul it away.
The city government said in a statement that it was holding the statue
in safe keeping and was still in talks with the Embassy of Azerbaijan
about where to put it. The statement didn't say where the statue had
been taken, but local media showed photos of it being hauled on a
flat-bed truck to a government warehouse in an unfashionable district
of the city.
The early-morning removal represented a sharp change of fortunes for
the statue, which since August had gazed serenely from a flowery
corner of Chapultepec Park over one of the city's toniest district,
with a marble map of Azerbaijan at its back.
City officials had previously suggested the statue might be moved to
an indoor setting, perhaps in some sort of Azerbaijani cultural
center. But the city apparently can't just hide the statue away, given
the $5 million Azerbaijan has paid to restore the park, erect the
monument and perform other public works.
The Azerbaijani Embassy suggested in a statement in October that
removing the statue could affect diplomatic relations between the
former Soviet satellite and Mexico. It said the city government had
signed an agreement stipulating the monument should be allowed to
remain in the spot for 99 years.
Officials of the Azerbaijani Embassy did not immediately answer phone
calls seeking comment Saturday.
The city government said it "reiterates its great respect for the
Azerbaijani people, their culture and traditions, and repeats that it
is open to dialogue with their embassy."
Some Mexico City residents had complained about the homage to Aliyev,
noting his authoritarian record. The late leader had been criticized
for repressing opponents and critics in his oil-rich Caspian Sea
nation.
The city's most high-profile street, Reforma boulevard is best known
for its monuments to Mexican independence heroes. Mexican activist and
writer Homero Aridjis, who helped lead opposition to the statue, said
Aliyev's addition there was inappropriate.
Aridjis said he welcomed the government's move.
"Mexico doesn't need to import, in exchange for money, tyrants from
other countries, nor make others conflicts our own," Aridjis wrote in
an email. "We already have enough of our own problems."
A second Azerbaijani statue appears in Tlaxcoaque park in downtown
Mexico City, which the country also paid to renovate. It depicts a
woman, her arms uplifted in mourning, commemorating Khojaly, a village
where hundreds of Azerbaijanis were reportedly killed during the
Nagorno-Karabakh conflict between ethnic Armenians and the Republic of
Azerbaijan, from 1988 to 1994.
Activists objected to that monument because a plaque describes the
Khojaly killings as a genocide, a term more commonly applied to the
slaying of about 1.5 million Armenians in the region in 1915.
Critics also say a monument to Mexican suffering would have been more
appropriate for Tlaxcoaque square, a site once used as a Mexican
police interrogation and torture center.
It's unclear what the city plans to do with the Tlaxcoaque monument.