Mexican intellectuals are outraged by Azerbaijani ambassador’s comparison of Jose Sarukhanyan with Himmler
Mexican Professor at the Center for Economic Research, Jean Meyer responded to the article of Ilgar Mukhtarov, the Azerbaijani Ambassador to Mexico, published in the newspaper "Milenio". The Ambassador’s article contains offensive remarks about the distinguished representative of the Armenian Diaspora in Mexico, former rector Jose Sarukhan (Sarukhanyan).
As the author notes, Azerbaijani ambassador tried to express his discontent about dismantling of the monument dedicated to Heydar Aliyev which was installed in the Park of Mexico City, by venting it on the representative of the Armenian community, and comparing him with Himmler who was guilty in the genocide of Jews and Gypsies.
"At the same time, the Azerbaijani ambassador denies the historical fact of the mass killings of Armenians in the Azerbaijani city of Baku in 1990. The tragedy was of such a big scale that Moscow was urged to send paratroopers under the command of Alexander Lebed. Mr. Ambassador could not admit the fact that the events that occured in Baku (and Sumgait) were much worse than the events taken place in Khojalu, which occurred two years later, as far as his government, rather to say the government of the son of ex-president, had already punished the famous Azerbaijani writer Akram Aylisli for writing an unforgivable things in his book - for telling about the mass killings of Armenians in Baku, to which Heydar Aliyev incited, trying to harm the reformer - Gorbachev," Jean Meyer writes.
Hereat, the intervention of the Soviet army, which saved the lives of many Armenians, is presented as the "bloody suppression of the democratic movement of the army of the totalitarian empire of evil," and the killed rebels were buried in the Shahid Alley. Topic of Armenian killings in Azerbaijan is a taboo, and an elderly writer Aylisli was accused of breaking this taboo.
According to the Stalinist or Nazi tradition, that is to say by the totalitarian way, a baiting started against Aylisli; his books were being burnt across the country, the author was deprived of all the awards and pensions, as it was the decision of President Ilham Aliyev, the head of the distinguished Ambassador of Azerbaijan. One of the political parties even offered 10,000 euros to a patriot who cuts off the "traitor’s" ear. The thing is that the author compares the killings of Armenians in Sumgait in 1988 and in Baku in 1990 with the massacre of Armenians that were carried out in his native village Aylis.
"Though the Azerbaijani ambassador to Mexico says that "Armenian Bolshevik Stepan Shaumyan carried out genocide against the Azerbaijanis in 1918," in reality destruction of the Armenians, that had begun in 1915 in the Ottoman Empire, continued. According to Amiram Grigorov, the Aliyev dynasty cultivates a "culture of absolute and concentrated hatred towards its neighbors – the Armenians – which serves as a fuel for the Azerbaijani authorities just like an oil. The hatred that spread as fire after the collapse of the Soviet Union almost irrevocably changed the ethnic picture in the eastern part of the South Caucasus. This hatred should not manifest itself in Mexico," the author said.
“Tempo en linea” has also touched this topic. Representative of Mexican intellectuals Fernando Merano Migayon writes here that the Azerbaijani ambassador, who was unable to preserve the monument of Dictator Heydar Aliyev in the center of Mexico City, writes lampoons about Jose Sarukhan who is a respected man in Mexico, and who had expressed his competent opinion on this subject.
The author notes that Jose Sarukhan, the great Rector, who is one of the brightest minds among the Mexican intellectuals and is a Nobel laureate does not need anyone's protection when he expresses his position on an issue that has touched his family directly.
The Armenian Genocide and the Nagorno Karabakh conflict were the reason why this honorable man became one of the best representatives of the Mexican intelligentsia.
"The most ridiculous, disturbing and regrettable thing here is that the arguments of the Azerbaijani Ambassador are a clear result of foolishness, narrow-mindedness and prejudice," Migayon writes, and notes that the Azerbaijani ambassador stated he was not surprised by the Armenian roots of Jose Sarukhan. Meanwhile, the author notes that the ambassador would be surprised to learn about Sarukhan’s debating skills, if he bothered himself to check them. Or he would be even more surprised to learn that the ethnic origins of people does not affect neither on their arguments, nor on the facts.
According to Migayona ambassador’s comparison of Sarukhan with Himmler was so offensive that it is unbelievable how the diplomat could do that, unless he understands what he is talking about, or unless he reacts as Aliyev, the head of his country, who rejects and omits any person who does not share his point of view.
"This is a selective memory. However, there are no such bad texts which teach nothing. Thanks to Mr. Mukhtarov we learnt that in Armenian the surname of Don Jose sounds "Sarukhanyan." Thank you for your contribution, your majesty," ironically says the author.