President of Azerbaijan deprives author of the novel on Nagorno-Karabakh conflict of "People's Writer" title

In Azerbaijan, the 75-year-old writer Akram Aylisli (Naibov), the author of the novel "Stone Dreams" about the Armenian-Azerbaijani conflict in Nagorno-Karabakh, was deprived of the title of "People's Writer" and his personal pension; the respective order was signed today by President Ilham Aliev.

Aylisli's latest novel "Stone Dreams" was published in the December issue of the Russian-language magazine "Druzhba Narodov" (People's Friendship). The novel revealed a critical attitude to the Armenian pogroms in Sumgait and Baku in late 1980s-early 1990s.

As noted in the order of the head of state about deprivation of Aylisli of the title of "People's Writer", "by abusing the high confidence granted to him during the years of independence, in his last work he distorted the realities of the history of Azerbaijan in the form not befitting an Azerbaijani writer."

"Aylisli tried to form an anti-humanist image of the Azerbaijani people by wrongly accusing them of acting against human values; he falsified the essence of the Armenian-Azerbaijani conflict, blackened the distant and recent history of Azerbaijan, insulted the dignity of millions of Azerbaijanis, who were expelled from their native lands as a result of the conflict," says the order.

Akram Aylisli himself said that he regretted that such orders were issued. "For more than two weeks, the Azerbaijani mass media are holding a campaign of moral terror against me because of my novel "Stone Dreams". They organize unsanctioned mass actions in front of my house; my books are burned; and members of my family are under unfair pressure," Aylisli said in his statement.

Aylisli said that he regarded these events "as an unprecedented example of intolerance towards the freedom of speech and expression."