Aylisli links his detention in Baku with his creative work

The writer Akram Aylisli, who was detained at the Baku Airport, believes that a criminal case is being falsified against him; and it has to do with the unwillingness of the Azerbaijani authorities to admit his participation in the international literary festival.

The "Caucasian Knot" has reported that early in the morning on March 30 at the Baku Airport, prior to departure to Frankfurt, Akram Aylisli, the author of the novel "The Stone Dreams" about the Karabakh conflict, was detained. The MIA has reported that the writer was detained for creating some conflict situation at the airport. At about 8:00 p.m. local time, Aylisli was released.

His passport was returned from the police only this morning, Naib Najafov, Aylisli's son, told the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent, adding, referring to law enforcers that the MIA's Department for Transports had initiated a criminal case against his father under Article 221.1 (hooliganism) of the Azerbaijani Criminal Code.

Akram Aylisli believes that his ban to leave Azerbaijan was imposed without any reason. He denied the words of the representative of the MIA's press service that he had been detained because of creating a conflict with a border guard at the checkpoint.

"In the end, they took away my passport, saying that I was a 'people's enemy' because of my novel 'The Stone Dreams', and said that they would summon me again for questioning," continued the writer.

He is convinced that the aim of his detention at the airport was to prevent his participation in the Venice Literary Festival.

He was to make a report with the provisional title "The Power and the Writer", in which Mr Aylisli reflects on the today's moral and spiritual crisis, both in Azerbaijan and elsewhere in the world.

Full text of the article is available on the Russian page of 24/7 Internet agency ‘Caucasian Knot’.