{"id":12649,"date":"2013-02-03T10:38:27","date_gmt":"2013-02-03T10:38:27","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.aaeurop.com\/?p=12649"},"modified":"2013-02-03T10:38:27","modified_gmt":"2013-02-03T10:38:27","slug":"novellas-sympathetic-portrayal-of-armenians-causes-uproar-in-azerbaijan","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.aaeurop.com\/?p=12649","title":{"rendered":"Novella\u0569\u00a7\u0549\u0082-\u0549\u0084\u00a7s Sympathetic Portrayal of Armenians Causes Uproar in Azerbaijan"},"content":{"rendered":"<h6>By SHAHLA SULTANOVA<\/h6>\n<h6>Published: February 1, 2013<\/h6>\n<div data-url=\"http:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2013\/02\/02\/world\/europe\/novellas-sympathetic-portrayal-of-armenians-causes-uproar-in-azerbaijan.html\" data-shares=\"facebook,twitter,google,save,email,showall|Share,print,singlepage,reprints,ad\" data-title=\"Novella\u0569\u00a7\u0549\u0082-\u0549\u0084\u00a7s Sympathetic Portrayal of Armenians Causes Uproar in Azerbaijan\" data-description=\"Azeri lawmakers condemned the work, by an Azeri writer, and protesters burned his portrait outside his house, illustrating the depth of hostility between the two nations.\">\n<div>\n<ul>\n<li data-share=\"facebook\">BAKU, Azerbaijan \u0569\u00a7\u0549\u0082-\u0549\u0080\u009d A novella by an Azeri author that portrays ethnic Armenians sympathetically has provoked an uproar in Azerbaijan, with Azeri lawmakers denouncing the work and protesters burning the author\u0569\u00a7\u0549\u0082-\u0549\u0084\u00a7s portrait outside his house.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p itemprop=\"articleBody\">The novella, \u0569\u00a7\u0549\u0082-\u056a\u0093Stone Dreams,\u0569\u00a7\u0549\u0082-\u0539\u009d was published in mid-December by Ekrem Eylisli, a former lawmaker, but condemnation grew strident only over the last week, after mainstream news outlets began reporting on and discussing it.<\/p>\n<p itemprop=\"articleBody\">On Thursday, a crowd of several dozen people gathered around Mr. Eylisli\u0569\u00a7\u0549\u0082-\u0549\u0084\u00a7s house and burned his portrait. At a session of Azerbaijan\u0569\u00a7\u0549\u0082-\u0549\u0084\u00a7s Parliament on Friday, lawmakers attacked the novel, with one recommending that Mr. Eylisli be stripped of his citizenship and urging him to move to <a title=\"More news and information about Armenia.\" href=\"http:\/\/topics.nytimes.com\/top\/news\/international\/countriesandterritories\/armenia\/index.html?inline=nyt-geo\">Armenia<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p itemprop=\"articleBody\">Another lawmaker, Melahet Ibrahimqizi, said, \u0569\u00a7\u0549\u0082-\u056a\u0093He insulted not only Azerbaijanis, but the whole Turkish nation,\u0569\u00a7\u0549\u0082-\u0539\u009d a reference to passages in the book that discuss historical Turkish violence toward Armenians.<\/p>\n<p itemprop=\"articleBody\">The work tells the story of two Azeri men who try to protect their Armenian neighbors from ethnic violence, an incendiary topic in Azerbaijan, a country still gripped by the war it fought two decades ago with Armenia. Since the war ended, Azerbaijan has been trying to regain control of Nagorno-Karabakh, a predominantly ethnically Armenian enclave within its borders, and secure the return of Azeris who were forced from their homes.<\/p>\n<p itemprop=\"articleBody\">Mr. Eylisli, 75, said he knew there might be an uproar over his book, which he finished in 2007. He said he decided to publish it last year in a relatively obscure Russian-language journal, Friendship of Peoples, because Russian-language speakers tend to be better educated and more progressive.<\/p>\n<p itemprop=\"articleBody\">\u0569\u00a7\u0549\u0082-\u056a\u0093Armenians are not enemies for me,\u0569\u00a7\u0549\u0082-\u0539\u009d he said in an interview. \u0569\u00a7\u0549\u0082-\u056a\u0093How can they be? I am a writer living in the 21st century. A solution to Nagorno-Karabakh is being delayed, and hostility is growing between the two nations. I want to contribute to a peaceful solution.\u0569\u00a7\u0549\u0082-\u0539\u009d<\/p>\n<p itemprop=\"articleBody\">He added that he was shocked by the ferocity of the reaction. \u0569\u00a7\u0549\u0082-\u056a\u0093I did not say anything insulting, I did not betray my country,\u0569\u00a7\u0549\u0082-\u0539\u009d he said. \u0569\u00a7\u0549\u0082-\u056a\u0093I describe how an Azerbaijani helps an Armenian. What is bad about this?\u0569\u00a7\u0549\u0082-\u0539\u009d<\/p>\n<p itemprop=\"articleBody\">On Friday, protesters placed a copy of the journal containing \u0569\u00a7\u0549\u0082-\u056a\u0093Stone Dreams\u0569\u00a7\u0549\u0082-\u0539\u009d in a coffin and held a mock funeral at a monument in honor of Azeris who were killed in the war.<\/p>\n<p itemprop=\"articleBody\">Via social media, young people discussed passages in the book that they found particularly distasteful, like a description of the young hero\u0569\u00a7\u0549\u0082-\u0549\u0084\u00a7s impulse to convert to Christianity and \u0569\u00a7\u0549\u0082-\u056a\u0093ask God to forgive Muslims for what they did to the Armenians.\u0569\u00a7\u0549\u0082-\u0539\u009d Armenia is predominantly Christian, while most Azeris are Muslim.<\/p>\n<p itemprop=\"articleBody\">Qan Turali, 28, a popular novelist, said he saw the book\u0569\u00a7\u0549\u0082-\u0549\u0084\u00a7s artistic merit but believed that Mr. Eylisli had chosen the wrong time to publish a book portraying Armenians in a positive light.<\/p>\n<p itemprop=\"articleBody\">\u0569\u00a7\u0549\u0082-\u056a\u0093He is a great writer, the novel is good, but the time is not right,\u0569\u00a7\u0549\u0082-\u0539\u009d he said. \u0569\u00a7\u0549\u0082-\u056a\u0093Azeri people still feel pain and are aggressive. Instead of increasing tolerance toward Armenians, the writer caused more hatred.\u0569\u00a7\u0549\u0082-\u0539\u009d<\/p>\n<p itemprop=\"articleBody\">He said Mr. Eylisli\u0569\u00a7\u0549\u0082-\u0549\u0084\u00a7s work would have been received better if he had added depictions of Azeris being killed by Armenians. Another writer, Oktay Hajimusali, 32, was blunter, saying that it is \u0569\u00a7\u0549\u0082-\u056a\u0093nonsense to promote peace with Armenians.\u0569\u00a7\u0549\u0082-\u0539\u009d<\/p>\n<div>\n<p>Ellen Barry contributed reporting from Moscow.<\/p>\n<p>www.nytimes.com<\/p>\n<p>photo by armradio.am<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<div class=\"mh-excerpt\"><div class=\"mh-excerpt\"><div class=\"mh-excerpt\"><div class=\"mh-excerpt\"><div class=\"mh-excerpt\"><div class=\"mh-excerpt\"><div class=\"mh-excerpt\"><div class=\"mh-excerpt\"><p>By SHAHLA SULTANOVA Published: February 1, 2013 BAKU, Azerbaijan \u0569\u00a7\u0549\u0082-\u0549\u0080\u009d A novella by an Azeri author that portrays ethnic Armenians sympathetically has provoked an uproar in Azerbaijan, with Azeri lawmakers denouncing the work and protesters <a class=\"mh-excerpt-more\" href=\"https:\/\/www.aaeurop.com\/?p=12649\" title=\"Novella\u0569\u00a7\u0549\u0082-\u0549\u0084\u00a7s Sympathetic Portrayal of Armenians Causes Uproar in Azerbaijan\">[&#8230;]<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":12650,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_kadence_starter_templates_imported_post":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.aaeurop.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12649"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.aaeurop.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.aaeurop.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.aaeurop.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.aaeurop.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=12649"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.aaeurop.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12649\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":12651,"href":"https:\/\/www.aaeurop.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12649\/revisions\/12651"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.aaeurop.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/12650"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.aaeurop.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=12649"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.aaeurop.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=12649"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.aaeurop.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=12649"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}