UNESCO, eventually, qualified the Armenian traditional dolma as an Azerbaijani dish. A statement posted on the official website of the organization states that dolma is being made all over Azerbaijan and considered one of the most important dishes. Lusik Aguletsi, artist, ethnographer, Honored Figure of Culture of the Republic of Armenia, has her own unique counter-argument about UNESCO’s decision. It is an indelible story whose bearer is also the painter. The story of the traditional Armenian dolma moved the artist to her birthplace Agulis city of Goghtin province of Nakhijevan. “I lived in Agulis, where all the people were Azeri. There were more than a thousand Armenian houses there, and there was not a house where there was no Armenian tonir. Each house had 12-14 rooms, and these rooms were large and similar to palaces. Everyone was rich there. There were traders and everyone’s children were studying in France, Europe, at Lazarian Seminary. Very often they did not come back to Agulis. Later Agulis’s youth diminished. And the Azeris served in these rich Armenian homes. We had 12 rooms full of expensive carpets and other items. We had beautiful gardens, warehouses that we were filling with the most precious dried fruits. Then my father went abroad … In three days Turks occupied Agulis, and Armenian girls were taken to Tabriz and sold with one gold. What was in Agulis, was left to the Azeris. During that time, my grandfather and grandmother returned to Azerbaijan. My grandmother taught these nomadic Azeris to cook lavash, cook dolma and soup. They could not cook a simple soup. He also taught sewing, notes and music”, told the painter, remembering the novel “Stone Dreams” by an Azerbaijani writer Akram Aylisli. “He writes about the little girl Lusik and her grandmother Haykanush in the book. Haykanush is my grandmother, Lusik is me. When the Azeri writer writes about the Armenian who bathed Turkish lousy child, what is the talk about? What else can there be about dolma? A nation that is nomadic cannot present a dish special to the peoples living in sedentary life just as the other nations represent. They do not even have the idea, what is dolma? My grandmother taught me to cook kofta, or to beat the meat, to put it in the leaf and cook”.
Anna BADALYAN
