Azerbaijan: Bounty Money Offered for Author Akram Aylisli’s Ear

By ⋅ February 15, 2013 ⋅ Post a comment
Azerbaijani author, Akram Aylisli. (Photo: Akram Aylisli Facebook)

Azerbaijani author, Akram Aylisli. (Photo: Akram Aylisli Facebook)

Some books can make their authors pretty unpopular.

But a political party in Azerbaijan this week took matters one step further.

It offered a $13,000 bounty to anyone who can slice an ear off novelist, Akram Aylisli.

People have also been protesting outside the 75-year-old author’s home, burning copies of his books.

And the writer’s wife and son have both been dismissed from their jobs.

The reason for all this is that his latest book, “Stone Dreams,” is seen as pro-Armenian.

Azerbaijan and Armenia have been locked in savage dispute since a bloody war over a disputed enclave in the 1990s.

Famil Ismailov of the BBC Russian Service says that history is central to understanding what’s going on.

“Lots of atrocities were committed,” says Ismaolov. He added that both nations are trying to control the narrative, portraying themselves as victims and the other side as aggressors.

Aylisli’s book upsets that ‘correct’ version of history by acknowledging that some Azeris are responsible for some misdeeds.

The author hopes it’s a step toward peace, as long as the Armenians do the same.

Armenia, Azerbaijan and the disputed district of Nagorno-Karabakh. (Photo: Wiki Commons)

Armenia, Azerbaijan and the disputed district of Nagorno-Karabakh. (Photo: Wiki Commons)

Discussion

3 comments for “Azerbaijan: Bounty Money Offered for Author Akram Aylisli’s Ear”

  • http://twitter.com/yephayk HY

    Famil Ismailov is biased.

  • Gevryg

    One glaring truth comes out from Mr. Famil Ismailov’s explanations: Anti-Armenian racist hysteria is indeed government instigated policy. If something unfortunate happens to this brave author it will be due to Aliyev’s regime’s continuos portrayal of the Armenians as a hated enemy that needs to be destroyed. This is not just an allegation, we have seen the proof of it recently when Ramil Safarov was returned to Azerbaijan, as a national hero. Safarov was in jail in Hungary for killing an Armenian officer in his sleep, with an ax. Both the Azeri and the Armenian officers were in Budapest enrolled in a program sponsored by NATO. 

    Safarov was extradited to Baku and received full honours from the Azeri President, back wages for the time spent in jail, promoted to a higher rank in the army, and given a free apartment as a token of appreciation for his “heroism”. 

    The above story should be seen in the context of this unbelievable levels of Anti-Armenian racism in Azerbaijan.

  • http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=719552769 Elshan Aliyev

    Gevyrg dont tell me the same is not true for Armenia. Please. You dont even have a writer who would admit killings of Azeries in February 1988. Those who fled Armenian armed groups arrived in Sumgait and you know what happened. and why. You dont have a writer who would admit total cleansing of Armenia from Azeries in the autumn of 1988. Why? Because the same or even worse will happen to him/her if he ever did that. When you have someone, then you will have a moral right to talk about any hysteria.