Your trusted source

This is a book that horrified Azerbaijan, Azerbaijani website Azadlig wrote in 2010 as publishing the book by a Turkish diplomat, Turgut Er, “From Freedom to Tyranny: As if Stalin and Beria revived” about Heydar Aliyev’s rule, an epoch rich of mysteries.

During Heydar Aliyev’s rule, Turgut Er was the press secretary for the Turkish embassy in Azerbaijan. In his book, Er spreads light on the fateful and dark sides of the Azerbaijani reality, and reveals quite interesting facts, which still remained unknown to many.

“Everything is connected with Aliyev in Azerbaijan. Aliyev is everywhere. During a meeting with the late Veysel Atasoy (then Energy Minister of Turkey – ed.), Aliyev said, ‘You know, Veysel Bey, anyone can speak in this country. Although, everything depends on me.’ Really, everything depended on Heydar Bey in Azerbaijan, and everything was asked from him. This is my personal observation. In my book, you will meet Heydar Bey quite often…” Er writes.

In the book forewords, Er writes, “Some of my dear readers and patriots may think that I had rather published the book 50 years ago. You may be right. Nevertheless, there would be a 50% chance that the evidences would not be published then. I also remind you, that the events referred to in this book were on in a time when some paid historians in Azerbaijan started to write a history titled ‘Turkey-Azerbaijan relations’.”

Er describes Azerbaijan in the late 80s and early 90s in the following way, “Anyone smelling oil arrived in Baku. Baku streets were filled with spies, spy-saboteurs from the West and major powers, outlaws of the Iranian regime, diplomats, students, journalists, who found the vein they needed, mullahs with pockets packed with dollars, ‘mafia’ groups from the North Caucasus, Afghan militants in white and others. In addition, an enormous mass consisting of us, ‘The group of higher offices’ – as Fetullah Gulen put it – teachers, press workers, prostitutes, traders engaged in furniture sales and so on. Everyone flowed to Baku.”

However, the population lived in a total poverty that covered Azerbaijan because of the corruption-based policy. Meanwhile, the heads of the bureaucratic regime collected “golden Nikolays” and dollars in Soviet-era jugs and dwelled in spacious multi-room flats and villas. The Turkic nation, that regularly got everything from Russia for 73 years, found itself in a very poor plight as a result of Aliyevs’ lawlessness, the merciless terror regime of pressure and coercion, Er points out.

The refugees settled in mosques in the city outskirts, in hospitals and tents, deprived of water, gas and sewage. After the tents rotted, they started to live in huts of stone and tree branches. “Children were born there, got sick and died right there. It reminded the situation in Palestine and even worse. The ruling circles of Azerbaijan did not report anything about the refugees’ plight either on the official TVs or in the press,” Er highlights.

He further notes that after several visits to the tent camps, which angered the special services of Azerbaijan and high-ranked officials, he was contacted and ordered that press representatives not accompany his following visits. The journalists, who had visited the tent camp with the Turkish delegation, were interrogated day and night and subjected to violence upon the order of the Ministry of National Security and the Ministry of Internal Affairs because they had taken notes of everything they had witnessed.

Er also writes about his first meeting with Heydar Aliyev in February 1994 in the frameworks of a presidential reception organized in honor of the representatives of the Turkish press. “He was an exact depiction of a KGB worker,” Er recalls. When speaking, Aliyev did not look at his interlocutors in the face; he looked carefully, hesitating at times. “Whatever you asked, he answered what was programmed in his brain. Sometimes his tongue slipped out from between the teeth,” Er describes. He notes that consequently he listened to Aliyev in a number of occasions and observed him: during public speeches his tone of voice was a bit loud, he completely rose his hands up and sharply dropped them down. He stood on his feet for hours. When he wanted that people applaud him, he stopped speaking and looked into a book. After a wave of ovations he continued. His audience knew well when they were supposed to applaud him. “Aliyev’s style of speaking was a traditional continuation of Stalin and Beria. His speeches always covered similar topics. That is why he was able to speak so long,” Er highlights.

In another part of his work, Turgut Er writes that during his meeting with the officials in Azerbaijan, he used to say that he tried to draw the press attention to Azerbaijan. He had this kind of meeting with Heydar Aliyev, too. Turkish media representatives were also present at that meeting. “For thirty minutes of the two-hour meeting with us Aliyev gave interviews. An hour was dedicated to a conversation behind closed doors. He quickly warned the journalists not to record his words. That one-hour meeting was not published anywhere, neither in the Azerbaijani press, nor in the Turkish one. The conversation mainly concentrated on the affairs of the Soviet era. He spoke quite long about the friendship with Brezhnev, about Andropov, about his admiration for him and the animosity that emerged between him and Gorbachev. Aliyev also said his attitude towards the world changed after he left the Communist Party in 1989. He said he realized that the best regime is the democratic regime and the system of free market relations,” Er recalls. However, after Aliyev finished, Er told him, “Dear President, you are speaking like this. However, you are known in Turkey and worldwide as an atheist, communist and KGB general…”
To be continued.

After the publication of the book “From Freedom to Tyranny: As if Stalin and Beria revived,” the authorities in Azerbaijan accused Er of libel and anti-Azerbaijani activities as he unmasks Heydar Aliyev’s two-faced government and proves that Aliyev’s actions were often conditioned by personal interests rather than the benefit of the state and people. In response, Turgut Er said that everything he wrote in the book is based on well-known and published documents, and the accusations of libel are yet another proof of the Azerbaijani authorities’ stupidity and meanness.