AZERBAIJAN/GEORGIA: Azeri writer under attack as political party promises bounty for cutting off his ear

Record ID: 218293

  • Title: AZERBAIJAN/GEORGIA: Azeri writer under attack as political party promises bounty for cutting off his ear
  • Date: 12th February 2013
  • Summary: NAKHICHEVAN, AZERBAIJAN (FILE - FEBRUARY, 2013) (ORIGINALLY 4:3) (REUTERS) VARIOUS OF GROUP OF PEOPLE TEARING APART BOOKS WRITTEN BY AKRAM AYLISLI AND SETTING FIRE ON THEM AKRAM AYLISLI'S PHOTO BURNING TOGETHER WITH BOOKS
  • Embargoed: 27th February 2013 12:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Georgia
  • Country: Georgia
  • Topics: Crime,International Relations,Politics
  • Reuters ID: LVAY07U5UO05NTVZMLU21CB96XO
  • Story Text: Famous Azerbaijani novelist Akram Aylisli, has become a target of intimidation both from the government officials and radial political parties, for his latest novel "Stone Dreams," which presents his point of on the Azerbaijani-Armenian relations.
    The book written by 76-year-old Aylisli offers the readers a personal point of view on a sensitive issue of mass killings of Armenians by Ottoman Turks during the WWI. It focuses on villagers recalling times when Azeris and Armenians could live happily side by side.
    Azerbaijan's Muasir Musavat (Modern Equality) party offered a reward of more than 12,000 U.S. dollars for cutting off Akram Aylisli' ear.
    Muasir Musavat leader Hafiz Haciyev told Reuters the decision was a response to the insult to the Azeri nation.
    "We have decided that he (writer Akram Aylisli) has insulted the entire Azerbaijani nation including 4 million refugees from Armenia. As he has insulted us we wanted to respond and that is why we have decided, how to put it mildly, decided that his ear must be chopped off," Hafiz Haciyev said in his party office in the capital Baku.
    "Anyone who does it, will be awarded with 10 000 mantats ($12,700)," Haciyev added.
    Even before Haciyev's public statement officials from Yeni Azerbaijan, Azerbaijan's ruling party, called on Aylisli to withdraw the novel from sale and ask for the nation's forgiveness instead.
    Some members of Azerbaijan's parliament denounced Aylisli and questioned his ethnic origin.
    Azerbaijan's President Ilham Aliyev signed a decree stripping Aylisli of his "People's Writer" honorary title, which he had held since 1998. Eventually Aylisli's wife and son had to leave their jobs under pressure.
    Human Rights Watch urged Azerbaijan on Tuesday (February 12) to immediately stop the hostile campaign of intimidation against the Azeri writer.
    "What is disturbing, it is not that some radical party activists call for the physical attacks against the writer (Akram Aylisli), it is also disturbing that the government is not doing anything to investigate these calls and in fact, the government is often spearheading this smear campaign. As we have seen the writer was deprived of his honorary title by the president (Ilham Aliyev), the parliament of Azerbaijan debated the on the issue and called for actions against the writer," South Caucasus researcher for Human Rights Watch, Giorgi Gogia, told Reuters in neighbouring Georgia's capital Tbilisi.
    Gogia added that the European Court of Human Rights repeated on numerous occasions that freedom of expression and freedom of speech apply not only to ideas that are favourably received by the society, but also to those that shock or disturb the society.
    "This is of course very worrisome. The government of Azerbaijan has an obligation to protect the safety and security and investigate any threats against the writer, whose only fault is that he has expressed his mind," he said.
    Azerbaijan and Armenia have no diplomatic relations since the the conflict between ethnic Azeris and Armenians erupted in 1991 over the area of Nagorno-Karabakh, a mountainous enclave within Azerbaijan but with a majority Armenian population, which Armenian-backed forces seized along with seven surrounding Azeri districts.
    A truce was signed in 1994, but there was no peace treaty. Violence still flares sporadically along the ceasefire line and Azerbaijan's border with Armenia - underlining the risk of a conflict in the South Caucasus, where Turkey, Russia and Iran have interests.
    The enclave of about 160,000 people has run its own affairs with heavy Armenian military and financial backing since the war. Oil-producing Azerbaijan often threatens to take it back by force, though it says it favours diplomacy.
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