‘We have to cut off his ear:’ Bounty put on Azerbaijani writer over controversial novel

Published time: February 12, 2013 01:57
Edited time: February 12, 2013 05:57
Akram Aylisli (Image from contact.az)

A pro-government party in Azerbaijan has offered a "bounty" of some €10,000 for an ear of writer Akram Aylisli, whose latest controversial fiction novel describes the volatile Armenian-Azeri relations during the final days of the Soviet Union.

­The reward will be offered to any member of the youth branch of the country’s Modern Musavat party who cuts the writer’s ear off, the leader of the party Hafiz Hajiyev told Turan news agency.

Earlier party members revoked the writer’s national honors for "insulting the dignity" of his country with a work that depicts Azerbaijanis attacking Armenians, but agreed that such an insult deserves a harsher punishment, so “we have to cut off his ear,” Hajiyev was quoted by Contact.az as saying.

“Last week we had a discussion and made that decision. It is solid and will not be revoked,” Hajiyev said. “This decision is to be executed by members of the youth branch of the party. The one who implements this decision will receive a bonus of 10 thousand manats [about €10,000].”

In reaction to the latest development, Akram Aylisli says that he and his family are considering leaving the country, unless the state provides them with the necessary security.

“Those who unleash such people as Hafiz Hajiyev destroy morality of the Azerbaijani people,” Aylisli said as cited by Pan Armenian. “In any adequate country, those making such statements would be prosecuted. However, Azeri police have long been tolerant to the absurd statements by this person.”

Late last year, Aylisli drew fire from Azerbaijan’s elite for publishing a novella, Daş Yuxular (Stone Dreams) in a Russian-language journal. Concluded in 2007, the story describes the struggle of two Azerbaijani men to protect their Armenian neighbors during the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict in the 1990s.

Many in Azerbaijan took offense to Aylisli's sympathetic portrayal of Armenians by depicting only the Azerbaijani attacks against Armenians during the conflict, while never mentioning incidents of Armenian violence against Azerbaijanis.

Protests were widespread in Baku with signs reading “Why have you sold yourself out to the Armenians?” displayed outside Aylisli’s residence with his portrait burned outside the house.

On February 7th, 2013, the President of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev signed a presidential decree that stripped Aylisli of the title of "People's Writer" and the presidential pension.

Comments (4)

John-Emmanuel Shirajian (unregistered) 13.02.2013 04:56

I commend Mr. Akram Aylisli. The day that justice prevails in Artsakh is the day that brotherhood and friendship will become the norm in that beautiful region. Writers, artists, scientists from all over the region will excel in their creative work that benefits us all . The ruling family in Baku do not wish to rectify the Stalinist injustices. As long as this is the case both our people's will suffer. We as Armenians can not forget those who came out to protect us from the pogromos in Baku and Sumgait. Our thanks , love and gratitude to them forever.

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Opressed (unregistered) 12.02.2013 12:58

I just called our writer Akram Aylisli and thanked him for exposing with his provocative book the true face and feudal-fascist nature of Aliyev regime. The book is just an artistic work, it is now obviously very successful literary provocation. But anti-humane and feudal-fascist regime is real and it is scared of people's power. 

As a response the government decided to launch a fascistic show that would distract the attention and focus of people from real problems. The scapegoat was found - just one writer, just one book. One writer was provocatively critical to us and friendly to Armenians. That is now suddenly our main problem in the country! They started to burn the Aylisli's books around the country, they refuse to arrest pro-government politician who openly offered 10 000 AZN for a person who will cut off ear of the writer. They also refused to arrest leading figures of feudal-fascist regime Gular Ahmadova and Ramiz Mehdiyev who were selling seats in Parliament for one million dollars. They refused to arrest son of a minister who insulted publicly 100 000 Azerbaijanis and provoked violent protests in Ismayilli. They never arrest real criminals, "their own guys". But let us go back to the book.

In Nakhichivan and in Ganja where people are not allowed to gather together facing threats of arrest, torture and death, "some people" "suddenly" came together "voluntarily" at the square and burned the books of the writer. 

The government is scared of the upcoming revolution in Azerbaijan and tries to use cheap and criminal nationalis t/fascist propaganda methods to distract the attention of people from the crimes that they commit against the people of Azerbaijan everyday.

The government wants also to paint the portrait of Azerbaijanis for the world - "Azerbaijanis are brutal and wild people who do not deserve freedom and are not ready for democracy, our criminal regime is the only possible way to control them. The president can be here for life because people are burning the books". This is what the world and international media must understand in this tragedy of Armenian and Azerbaijani people trapped in this endless bloody conflict where winners until now are not ordinary Armenian or Azerbaijani people, but criminal and filthy rich feudal-fascist s who run both countries. 


12 February, 2013. Baku.

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Parsik (unregistered) 12.02.2013 05:42

"Modern Musavat", what a funny name for bunch of apes still living in dream of Ottoman's times and now fighting  over a greasy bone with oligarghs in oil pits, these are same people who massacred deffenceless Armenians in Baku in 1918 and again 1989  and started two devastating wars, but got ousted from power by communists, now they have  turn into opposition  against Aliev, all along only thing they have done is propagating hate and disorder, just like their compadre khazar zionists, they howl and bark alot, but don't have guts to attack any lone armed Armenian even if they were in pack, genuine kind of bozzos!

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