Or, how an Azerbaijani journalist named Akram Aylisli talentless
Recently, I was taking part in a seminar for journalists in abroad, where journalists from Azerbaijan were present. When, on the first day, the journalist of participating countries began to get acquainted with each other, Azerbaijani journalists did not greet me and my Armenian colleague, they perceived us as enemy. But, later, after overcoming some complexes, one of them who was working in one of the newspapers with big circulation, began to talk. He said he had a close Armenian friend by Sarkisov surname, which after the events in Baku moved with his family to St. Petersburg, but before that they were living in the same building, on the same floor. The Azerbaijani journalist speaking about his Armenian friend was getting upset, his eyes were filled with tears. They say that now the family that was wealthy in Baku has found accommodation in one of the hostels in Russia.
My other colleague who was working in one of the popular media in Azerbaijan was more restrained and cautious, he did not interfere in any conversation, he only asked our names and said his name. To my question of why they write so poisonous about Armenia, Artsakh and Armenian people, they both answered that we allegedly had occupied their territories, which made them evil. Moreover, I wanted to convince that Artsakh has the right to self-determination and to live freely, and their concerns comes from the complex of defeated.
“Whatever you put out fingers on, you say that it is Armenian, shall we go and live on the moon … Your Levon and Hrant Melik-Shahnazaryans and the rest say that we are nomadic, whatever exists is Armenian”, – was half-joke, half-serious complaining my Azerbaijan colleague who once had and Armenian fellow.
Naturally, we asked the opinion about “Stone Dreams” of the prominent Azerbaijani writer Akram Aylisli. My Azerbaijani colleague announced that the facts in the book Aylisli are distorted., ” Stone Dreams” is a weak literary work, and the author is a talentless one. I smiled, whether the title of “The Best National Writer” is awarded to all talentless writers in their country. “He is not a popular writer anymore”, – he said my colleague proudly. To my question, whether what was distorted in the book, my interlocutor had no answer.
In private conversations he was very sincere, but from time to time was becoming evil that they will revenge, take back Artsakh, and some twenty years later will visit “Shushi” as the owner. “As a guest, perhaps, but the owner of Artsakh is people of Artsakh”, – says I and document that we do not build the image of the enemy in our country.
During our conversations we were talking about tolerance, he was not accepting that there is a sea of hatred and a volcano of intolerance towards Armenians in his homeland. As an example, I reminded of the psychological pressure and unruly conduct, against our wrestlers and boxers in Baku, the anti-Armenian campaign, outbreak and torrent of nationalism was
impossible to retrain even towards Misha Aloyan and David Hayrapetyan who were acting in the Russian boxing team.
My interlocutor, of course, did not agree with my statements and notes that there was no such a thing. And I was convincing him that if he had the opportunity to come to Armenia, surely no one would harm him, knowing about the nationality. I reminded that years ago there was a Europe Youth Judo Championship in Yerevan, which was also attended by Azerbaijani. Everyone knew that the Azerbaijani athletes live in “Congress” hotel, and in the evening they are walking in the Republic Square, but it did not occur to one’s mind to hurt them, while the location of Armenian athletes was kept secret in Baku.
In fact, once an amusing incident was registered: during the joint dinner, among other dishes, Dolma was also served. One of the foreign journalists immediately exclaimed, “Oh, Armenian Dolma, it’s very tasty.” All of a sudden, my Azerbaijani colleague who was shipshape drunk, got angry, saying: “It is an Azerbaijani dish, it’s enough to make everything Armenian.” I, in response, joked: “Good, then we will do the following – Dolma to Azerbaijan and Artsakh to us”. Everyone liked the joke and my Azerbaijani colleague smiled.
When you were to get back to Yerevan, my Azerbaijani colleagues were so waiting for me and my colleague at the lobby of the hotel to say goodbye. One of them who was very cautious said that he was happy to meet us and that it is for the first time he met tolerant Armenian, and the “chatterbox” suggested to ‘write’ in the Facebook, but for obvious reasons we can not make friends. He said just to say …
Gohar HAKOBYAN
P.S. I have not written the names of my Azerbaijani colleague to avoid them having problems in their country
“Aravot” daily
