Socio-philosophical analyses of Innovations (pp.42-46)

Cİ Tİ ZEN OF THE WORLD

AZE RIS CONT RI BU TE TO THE CON QU EST OF SPA CESE COND LI FE OF BELT MANN PI A NO S IN GA BA LAMIL LEN NI UM CIR CU LAR MAP OF TUR KIC WORLD

Pe op le vo tes for cer ta inty and de ve lop ment

DECEMBER 2013

The Po wer of thePe op le is the Po werof the sta te

11

Azer ba i jan: Ho me land of mu gam

Founder and PublisherAssA-İrada

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Uni que na vi ga ti onsystem ava i lab le inAzer ba i jan

Who werethe trojans?

Fa zil Gu ney: “Re a lity in Lie”

Pa pua New

Gu i nea

So cio-phi lo sop hi cal analy sis of In no va ti ons

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38

4642

Aze ri scho lar's best sel ler re cog ni zed

by the world com mu nity48

The re is a pro verb: Every strong per so na lity has awo man stan ding be hind him. But the re are a few wo menwho are not only a sup por ter for the strong per so na lity;at the sa me ti me they jo in in and fight to get her with him,hel ping him in his gre at work. The se wo men co uld be co -un ted on the fin gers of a hand.

One of the se uni que la di es is Meh ri ban Ali ye va, thefirst lady of Azer ba i jan Re pub lic, Mem ber of Par li a ment,go od will am bas sa dor of UNES CO and ISES CO.

As not only the spo u se of our Pre si dent Il ham Ali -yev, but al so as his bra ve com ra de, Ms. Meh ri ban Ali ye -va is mo del for each ci ti zen who ca res abo ut a bright fu -tu re for our co unt ry.

Her gre at work in the sphe re of pro pa gan da of theAzer ba i ja ni cul tu re and pro tec ti on of na ti o nal he ri ta ge, aswell as her ac ti vity in the sphe re of di a lo gue abo ut worldcul tu re and ci vi li za ti ons, has ra i sed her up as so ci al-po li ti -cal fi gu re and be ne fac tor of hu ma nity in our eyes.

Mrs. Ali ye va is an ex tra or di nary in tel lec tu al whoser ves man kind with her kind he art, de ep know led ge andin tel lec tu al depth. Even in co unt ri es much ric her and big -ger than Azer ba i jan, one wo uld be hard-pres sed to find

Ci ti zenof the world

MehribanAliyeva

BY PhD FA ZIL GUNEYWRITER

4DECEMBER 2013

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“Meh ri ban Ali ye va is an ex tra or di nary in tel lec -

tu al who ser ves man kind with her kind he art,

de ep know led ge and in tel lec tu al depth.

Even in co unt ri es much ric her and

big ger than Azer ba i jan, one wo uld

be hard-pres sed to find such a first

lady who works so ac ti vely, ca res

abo ut her pe op le, and ser ves in the

de ve lop ment of cul tu res and pro -

pa gan da of her co unt ry.”

5 DECEMBER 2013

such a first lady who works so ac ti vely, ca res abo -ut her pe op le, and ser ves in the de ve lop ment ofcul tu res and pro pa gan da of her co unt ry. Her workis very va lu ab le for the ge ne ral po pu la ti on. I ha vebe en in many co unt ri es, and I ha ve re ad abo ut thefa mily li fe of the sta te he ads. But I ha ve not se enor he ard such cor di al re ve ren ce as the pe op le ofAzer ba i jan fe el to ward the ir first lady Meh ri ban Ali -ye va.

It is true that in the his tory of Tur kish pe op lethe re ha ve be en strong wo men who co uld fightsho ul der to sho ul der with the ir hus bands, withsword in hand. For examp le, Tom ris from the an -ci ent his tory of Azer ba i jan; Bur la kha tun, the he roof the De de Gor gud epos (VI-VII cen tu ri es); in theXV cen tury - Sa ra kha tun; in the XIX cen tury, po e -tess Khurs hud ba nu Na ta van, he ir of the Ka ra baghkhan; and in the XXI cen tury, Meh ri ban Ali ye va... allof them are jo i ned in one aim - to ser ve the pe op le,for the co unt ry!

In cont rast to her an ces tors, Meh ri ban Ali ye vacros sed the bo un da ri es of her co unt ry with hercha rity and pub lic work. We will spe ak abo ut thisla ter.

The cor di al re ve ren ce of the Azer ba i ja ni pe op -le to Meh ri ban Ali ye va has ari sen from the ti meswhen Meh ri ban Ali ye va was not yet the first lady.In the 90s she cre a ted the “Fri ends of Azer ba i ja nicul tu re” so ci ety and be gan to in tro du ce examp lesof our an ci ent cul tu re -- mu sic, art, folk lo re, tan -

gib le and in tan gib le mo nu ments of art --to theworld. The re was a gre at ne ed for this in that pe ri -od. The re we re for ces which desc ri bed this pe op lewit ho ut his tory or cul tu re. Many pe op le didn'tknow us and cal led us “Black Rus si ans.” Af ter thecre a ti on of the Hey dar Ali yev Fund (2004), Meh ri -ban Ali ye va bro a de ned her ac ti vity in this sphe re.Con certs of Azer ba i ja ni mu si ci ans we re or ga ni zedin the crad le of Eu ro pe an cul tu re - in fa mo us hallsof Italy, Fran ce and ot her co unt ri es. Ex hi bi ti ons ofar tists and mas ters we re held.

A few ye ars ago, when Meh ri ban Ali ye va andthe Mi nis ter of Cul tu re of Fran ce, Mit ter rand, at -ten ded a con cert of Aze ri mas ters of the arts at afa mo us con cert hall in Pa ris, te ars of hap pi nessap pe a red in my eyes when I he ard the lo ud ap pla u -se of the Pa ri si an eli te. Meh ri ban Ali ye va her selfma de a go od im pres si on on the French com mu -nity of what Mus lim/Tur kish wo men are li ke withher own per so na lity, be ha vi or, and ap pe a ran ce.Fal se ru mors abo ut the Azer ba i ja ni pe op le whichhad be en spre ad by the ene mi es of our pe op le inthis co unt ry we re dest ro yed.

The ot her fi eld of ac ti vity of Meh ri ban Ali ye vain the 90s was pat ro ni zing or pha na ges, sa na to ri -ums and scho ols. Du ring tho se hard ye ars, thecon di ti on of child ren in or pha na ges who had lostthe ir pa rents as a re sult of ge no ci de by Ar me ni anter ro rists, aban do ned child ren, and child ren whowe re gi ven to the se in sti tu ti ons be ca u se of de te ri -

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DECEMBER 2013

o ra ti on of the fa mily's fi nan ci al si tu a ti on was des -pe ra te. Many scho ols we re col lap sing and ot hersne e ded to be re pa i red.

Mrs. Meh ri ban Ali ye va is a pe di at ri ci an, and it isher na tu re to be among child ren and to help them.She can not stand to see child ren in harsh con di ti -ons. Even on TV scre ens one can ea sily ob ser vethe gre at hap pi ness in the eyes of Meh ri ban Ali ye -va when she gi ves gifts to child ren with di sa bi li ti es.Now, all child ren's en terp ri ses in the Ba ku me ga lo -po lis ha ve be en res to red, new ones are be ing bu ilt,and this pro cess is on go ing un der her pat ro na ge. Inpar ti cu lar, the es tab lish ment of Ab she ron Tha las -se mia di se a se cen ters and the di se a se's sub ju ga ti -on are fully the re sult of her ac ti vity.

As it was men ti o ned abo ve, Meh ri ban Ali ye -va's ac ti vity has ex ce e ded the bor ders of Azer ba i -jan. The first lady of Azer ba i jan, who has both in -ter nal and ex ter nal be a uty, has ta ken up the go alof do ing go od to pe op le of her mot her land, butbe yond that she al so ca res abo ut the fa te of his to -ri cal and cul tu ral mo nu ments of hu ma nity all overthe world. The Hey dar Ali yev Fo un da ti on, who sepre si dent is Meh ri ban Ali ye va, is in vol ved in theres to ra ti on of cul tu ral mo nu ments in the world.Two mo nu ments in clu ded in the world he ri ta ge listha ve be en res to red in the park of the Pa la ce ofVer sa il les in Pa ris which had pre vi o usly suf fe redfrom the ef fects of ti me and we at her. Fi nan ci al as -sis tan ce al so pro vi ded for the re pa ir of the sta i -ned-glass win dows of Stras bo urg Cat hed ralChurch. A “bi la te ral ag re e ment on the res to ra ti onof the Ro man ca ta combs” bet we en Hey dar Ali yevFo un da ti on and the Holy See was sig ned on Ju ne22 last ye ar in Ro me. Mos qu es, churc hes andsyna go gu es ha ve al so be en res to red with the sup -port of the Fo un da ti on. In Sep tem ber 2012, the Lo -uv re Mu se um in Pa ris ope ned new ro oms de di ca -ted to Is la mic art. The ope ning ce re mony was at -ten ded by the Ali yev co up le and French Pre si dentF. Ol land.

A day la ter, with the sup port of the Fo un da ti -on, the ope ning ce re mony of Azer ba i jan Cul tu ralCen ter was held ne ar the Eif fel To wer. Such a cen -ter has be en al so cre a ted in Vi en na. In No vem berof the sa me ye ar, the Va ti can's “His to ri cal vi ew onrich pe arls of Azer ba i jan” ex hi bi ti on was or ga ni zedat the ini ti a ti ve of the Hey dar Ali yev Fo un da ti on.Azer ba i jan be ca me the first Mus lim co unt ry to de -mons tra te its cul tu ral va lu es in the Va ti can.

In the East as well as in the West, and par ti cu -

larly in Is la mic co unt ri es, Meh ri ban Ali ye va is verychar ming. Mus lim wo men con si der Meh ri ban Ali -ye va to be a symbol of the new lo ok of Mus limwo men, and as an examp le of the ir so ci al ac ti vism.By the way, we can say that mo dern Azer ba i jan isa mo del for Eas tern Is la mic co unt ri es. This tho -ught is al so con fir med by a num ber of dip lo matsand bu si ness men from Mus lim co unt ri es who arewor king in Azer ba i jan.

The First Lady sa id in one of her spe ec hes:“Azer ba i jan has a very ra re ex pe ri en ce in the fi eldof pre ven ti on of disc ri mi na ti on aga inst wo men.This has be en shown in the ex pan si on of edu ca ti o -nal op por tu ni ti es. The first se cu lar scho ol for girlsin the eas tern world was ope ned in Azer ba i jan. Thefirst de moc ra tic par li a men tary re pub lic was es -tab lis hed in Azer ba i jan. This co unt ry ga ve wo menthe right to elect and to be elec ted and de ter mi nedequ al righ ts for men and wo men be fo re the ma jo -rity of Eu ro pe an co unt ri es.”

In the ar tic les of Mrs. Far hat Nur pub lis hed inthe En glish and Ur du lan gu a ges in news pa pers andma ga zi nes of Pa kis tan, the aut hor talks abo utMeh ri ban Ali ye va, Pre si dent of the Hey dar Ali yevFo un da ti on, as an examp le for Pa kis ta ni wo men tofol low. She al so wri tes abo ut the per so nal qu a li ti -es of Meh ri ban Ali ye va, ad mi ring her for the cha -rity work she has do ne in Pa kis tan: a new bu il dingfor a girls' scho ol af fec ted by the eart hqu a ke in2007 has be en re-bu ilt in Mu zaf fa ra bad, and thescho ol was na med af ter Mrs. Ali ye va. A ce reb ralpalsy cli nic, exa mi na ti ons and vac ci na ti on aga insthe pa ti tis B vi rus we re held in wo men's and child -ren's hos pi tals and or pha na ges, and ot her sup portwas pro vi ded to cha ri tab le fo un da ti ons. An am bu -lan ce equ ip ped with a blo od trans fu si on la bo ra -tory and tho u sands of blo od trans fu si on bags we -re pre sen ted to Ham za Cha rity Fund in Pes ha varcity. Fi nan ci al as sis tan ce was gi ven for the cons -truc ti on of a new eye di se a se cli nic, Xay ver Eye Fo -un da ti on.

Azer ba i ja ni pe op le as a who le, from child rento grown ups and from the di sab led to sport smen,res pect the ir First Lady. She has won pe op le's lo vethat is not gi ven to ever yo ne by her work, by herser vi ce to this co unt ry, and by the as sis tan ce shepro vi des to the pe op le. I re mind you of just one ex-amp le: mug ham. This, the crown of Azer ba i jan'sna ti o nal mu sic, was ous ted by TV shows by so-cal led de a lers from TV chan nels, and mug hamsin gers ra rely ap pe a red on te le vi si on. The re was a

7

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DECEMBER 2013

thre at that this an ci ent mu si cal gen re wo uld not betrans mit ted to the ar chi ves of his tory. Thanks tothe ini ti a ti ve of Meh ri ban Ali ye va, the Ba ku Mug -ham Cen ter was cons truc ted in the most spec ta -cu lar part of the ca pi tal - Ba ku Bo u le vard. Now,the re are con certs on lo cal and in ter na ti o nal le -vels, and com pe ti ti ons are or ga ni zed to show ca seyo ung mug ham sin gers.

Mrs. Meh ri ban Ali ye va has de mons tra ted highor ga ni za ti o nal skills in the fi eld of sports. In 2002,she be ca me the pre si dent of Gymnas tics Fe de ra ti -on, and it won gre at suc cess. Her in flu en ce pla yeda cru ci al ro le on the de ci si on-ma king pro cess ofhol ding the Rhythmic Gymnas tics World Cup in2003-2004, the world cham pi ons hip in 2005, andWorld Cham pi ons hips in 2007 and 2009 in Azer -ba i jan. The Rhythmic Gymnas tics Eu ro pe an Cham -pi ons hip 2014 will al so be held in Ba ku. Ac cor dingthe Or der of the He ad of Sta te, Meh ri ban Ali ye vawas ap po in ted a cha ir man of the Or ga ni zing Com -mit tee of the Ga mes which we re set to be held inBa ku in 2015. The”Eu ro vi si on-2012” song con test,which was he ard all over the world, was al so con -duc ted in Ba ku as the re sult of the best or ga ni za ti -o nal skills of Meh ri ban Ali ye va.

The hu ma nis tic ac ti vity and work of Meh ri banAli ye va both in the co unt ry and in ter na ti o nally arehigh ly ap pre ci a ted. She was awar ded the French“Le gi on of Ho nor,” Po lish “Grand Com man der Or -der,” UNES CO's “Mo zart Gold” me dal, the “Com mu -nity Stars” sta te award, “Ma e ce nas of the Cen tury,”“Ruby Cross” or der of In ter na ti o nal Cha rity Fo un da -ti on, the “Gol den He art” award, and nu me ro us pri -

zes of dif fe rent co unt ri es and or ga ni za ti ons.The re are so me so ci al and cha ri tab le sci en -

tists who se ide as, dre ams, as pi ra ti ons and sco peof ac ti vity can not be con fi ned to the bor ders ofthe ir own co unt ry be ca u se the se pe op le bre at hewith the world, co un ting the who le world as the irna ti ve land and thin king abo ut the fa te of hu ma -nity. Dr. Meh ri ban Ali ye va is such a per son. She hascon fir med this by ser ving as a Go od will Am bas sa -dor for two le a ding in ter na ti o nal hu ma ni ta ri an or -ga ni za ti ons. Still yo ung and gent le, but a po wer fulwo man with a lo ve for the be a uty of hu ma nity,she has ac comp lis hed much in the di a lo gue of ci vi -li za ti ons and to wards in teg ra ti on of Wes tern andEas tern cul tu res and pe op le. Mrs. Meh ri ban Ali ye -va pro ved this in teg ra ti on by her per so na lity,which has be en ac cep ted and lo ved both in theWest and East.

If a “world ci ti zen” na me of ho nor we re es tab -lis hed, wit ho ut a do ubt Dr. Meh ri ban Ali ye va wo uldbe among the first na mes on this list.

Mrs. Ali ye va is fru it of the tree of her grand -fat hers, who ser ved pe op le, sci en ce and the word-- fa mo us wri ter and sci en tist Mir ja lal Pas ha yevand well-known edi tor and jo ur na list Na sir Iman qu -li yev-- her fat her, the fa mo us physi cist, Arif Pas -ha yev, and her mot her, the fa mo us Ara bist, Dr. Ai -da Iman gu li ye va, who was my te ac her.

God do esn't send mes sen gers to pe op le who -se per fec ti on He li kes... He sends them an gel-min -ded and an gel-na tu red hu man-be ings as a go odexamp le.

Mrs. Meh ri ban Ali ye va is a pe di at ri ci an, and it is her na tu re to be among child ren and to help them.

8DECEMBER 2013

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Il ham Ali yev is a pre si dent of new era. He is the

pre si dent of the fu tu re of Azer ba i jan. He le ads his

pe op le in such an un ba lan ced pe ri od of the world

thro ugh the tang led laby rint hs of po li tics to the fu -

tu re. He burns the light of ho pe in the he arts of

his to le rant, pa ti ent pe op le who ha ve li ved thro -

ugh the gre at tra ge di es of the last cen tury with

con fi den ce in him. Pe op le be li e ve that thro ugh the

le a ders hip of Il ham Ali yev they will re li e ve the ir

his to ri cal lands from Ar me ni an-Rus si an oc cu pa ti -

on, and cor rup ti on ca u sed by the hard ships of the

sta te will be en ded on ce and for all.

9

OBSERVERAZERI

DECEMBER 2013

Pe op le vo te for cer ta inty and de ve lop ment.The pre and post-elec ti on agi ta ti on of the 9

Oc to ber pre si dential elec ti ons in Azer ba i jan wasput to an end. The Pre si dent of the Azer ba i jan Re -pub lic, Il ham Ali yev, who was overw hel ming lyelec ted to this post for his third term, was cong -ra tu la ted by the he ads of go vern ments and sta -tes of the world, in clu ding the pre si dent of USA,Ba rack Oba ma. The si tu a ti on in the co unt ry is sta-b le. The pe op le and the go vern ment are en ga gedin pe a ce ful cre a ti ve work. Par li a ment is dis cus -sing the draft bud get for the ye ar 2014.

Pre dic ti ons of so me circ les in the North, So -uth, West and op po si ti on wit hin the co unt ry we renot jus ti fi ed: this ye ar elec ti ons we re very qu i etcom pa red to the elec ti ons of pre vi o us pe ri ods,and the op po si ti on co uldn't call the mas ses to thestre ets for pro test marc hes or stre et ral li es aspro mi sed. The pe op le had al re ady ma de the ircho i ce. 72.31 of 85 per cent vo ters vo ted not forun cer ta inty but rat her for sus ta i nab le de ve lop -ment, a vi sib le fu tu re and cer ta inty.

At the sa me ti me, the pe op le of Azer ba i janvo ted for the next fi ve-ye ar prog ram of Il hamAli yev, which has a de ca de-long fo un da ti on.

Ot her can di da tes and po li ti cal par ti es jo i nedin to the elec ti ons, but they did not ha ve the prog -rams to be in tro du ced for com pa ri son. The sa mesen ten ce wo uld ha ve to be sa id abo ut the can di -da tes them sel ves: the re was no one el se amongthem that can be com pa red with Il ham Ali yev.

Long be fo re the cam pa ign ca me to an end, it wascle ar that the re is no al ter na ti ve to Il ham Ali yev!

In ot her words, vo ters, even te e na gers, un -ders to od that the re is no al ter na ti ve to the highin tel li gen ce, de ep know led ge, analy ti cal, fle xib leand far-sigh ted po licy of Il ham Ali yev. Sin ce hisyo uth, he at ten ded a lar ge scho ol of ma na ge -ment. This scho ol was not only for edu ca ti o nalau di en ces. He is a gra du a te of the po licy mas terHey dar Ali yev's li fe scho ol. He had al ways par ti ci -pa ted in top events whe re well-known per so na li -ti es are in vol ved. But, as he ad of sta te, he al waysta kes in to ac co unt fac tors such as the spe ci fic ti -me and spa ce, the chan ging si tu a ti on and how tomo ve in his cho sen path.

The se are his per so nal qu a li ti es. The se qu a li -ti es ha ve pla yed a ma jor ro le in ac hi e ving his suc -cess in the ten ye ars of his term. If we be gin tolist the se suc ces ses, in the first pla ce one can listthe eco nomy of the co unt ry and its oil po licy,which grew by 3.4 ti mes in the last de ca de.

Il ham Ali yev suc cess fully con ti nu es co o pe -ra ti on with world co unt ri es in the oil and gassphe re which be gan in 1994. In ad di ti o nal to theBa ku-Tbi li si-Cey han oil and Ba ku-Tbi li si-Ar zu rumgas pi pe li nes, last ye ar the glo bal TA NAP and thisye ar Trans-Ad ri a tik pi pe li nes, both of stra te gicim por tan ce, we re star ted. In this re gard, the Pre -si dent sa id in his ina u gu ra ti on spe ech:

”The oil and gas pi pe li ne cons truc ti on has al -most ma na ged to cre a te a new energy map of

Pe op le vo tes for cer ta inty and de ve lop ment

BY ARSLAN ABBASOVAZERI OBSERVER STAFF WRITER

10DECEMBER 2013

OBSERVERAZERI

the area. The se days cre a ti on of an energy mapand ad just ment is su es in this map are be ing sol -ved in Azer ba i jan... Our pro ven gas re ser ves areabo ut 3 tril li on cu bic me ters. Azer ba i jan will playits ro le as a se ri o us pla yer for at le ast 100 ye ars,and pro vi de for the po li ti cal and eco no mic in te -rests.”

In ad di ti on, in or der to re du ce de pen den ce ofthe sta te eco nomy on oil, spe ci al at ten ti on is pa idto the de ve lop ment of new in dust ri al en terp ri ses,fi nan ci al aid al lo ca ted to far mers, and new tech -ni qu es are purc ha sed to en han ce ag ri cul tu re. Inge ne ral, 1 bil li on pre fe ren ti al lo ans we re gi ven forthe de ve lop ment of en trep re ne urs hip in the lastde ca de.

In his ina u gu ra ti on spe ech, Pre si dent Il hamAli yev sa id all this and sta ted that the ma in pri o -rity of the fo re ign po licy is the Ar me ni an-Azer ba i -ja ni, Na gor no- Ka ra bakh conf lict. Norms of in ter -na ti o nal law ha ve be en vi o la ted for mo re than 20ye ars. 4 UN Se cu rity Co un cil re so lu ti ons ha ve notbe en im ple men ted, and pres su re hasn't be en puton the oc cup ying co unt ry. Na gor no-Ka ra bakh isna ti ve and his to ri cal Azer ba i ja ni land. The re can -not be any comp ro mi se in mat ters of ter ri to ri alin teg rity. Azer ba i jan will ne ver al low the cre a ti onof a se cond so-cal led Ar me ni an sta te on its ter ri -tory. “Our po si ti on is cle ar, ba sed on his to ri caljus ti ce and in ter na ti o nal law ... In the last de ca de anum ber of pres ti gi o us or ga ni za ti ons adop tedequ i tab le re so lu ti ons on the conf lict. The Or ga ni -za ti on of Is la mic Co o pe ra ti on, the Eu ro pe an Par li -a ment, the Co un cil of Eu ro pe, Non-Alig ned Mo ve -ment and ot her or ga ni za ti ons are among them.”

The Pre si dent al so to uc hed on de fen se is su -es in his spe ech. In cre a se of the mi li tary bud getmo re than 20 ti mes, the cre a ti on of the mi li tary-in dust ri al comp lex, a pro duc ti on of 750 types ofmi li tary pro ducts sho wed a vi o la ti on of the mi li -tary ba lan ce bet we en Ar me nia and Azer ba i jan.

Ad ding to the facts abo ve, the dis tan ce bet -we en the two co unt ri es is ob vi o usly in cre a singday by day: fo re ign ex chan ge re ser ves ha ve re -ac hed $50 bil li on, jo i ning the ranks of the spa cesta tes; the po pu la ti on has sur pas sed 9.4 mil li on;the sta te bud get has grown mo re than 10 ti mes

in com pa ri son with the bud get of Ar me nia; newro ads, edu ca ti on and he alth fa ci li ti es, and sportscomp le xes ha ve be en cons truc ted, and so on.

The suc cess of Azer ba i ja ni at hle tes in thelast three Ol ympic Ga mes, es tab lis hing of in dust -ri al and ma nu fac tu ring fa ci li ti es in all re gi ons ofthe co unt ry, ur ban and ru ral de ve lop ment works,cons truc ti on of ro ads, scho ols and hos pi tals,sports comp le xes, and so on are as so ci a ted withPre si dent Il ham Ali yev's na me. He vi sits all the re -gi ons to me et the ci ti zens, lis tens to the ir wis hesand sug ges ti ons. They say abo ut him: “If he in he -ri ted his fat her's iron cha rac ter, sec rets of po licy,the abi lity to run the sta te, so he in he ri ted hismot her's warm th, hu ma nity, and lo ve for ot hersand or di nary pe op le.”

Il ham Ali yev suc cess fully pur su es in de pen -dent fo re ign po licy. Azer ba i jan has go od re la ti -ons with all sta tes of the world ex cept Ar me nia,which oc cu pi es 20 per cent of Azer ba i ja ni lands.The mas ses of pe op le are con vin ced that, whi lespe a king from the UN, EU or ot her in ter na ti o nalor ga ni za ti ons' rost rum, du ring the me e tingswith he ads of sta tes whet her in the West or inthe East, Il ham Ali yev ade qu a tely pro tects thein te rests of the co unt ry and brings the vo i ce ofAzer ba i jan to the world com mu nity. The re fo re,with the sup port of 155 co unt ri es Azer ba i janwas cho sen as a mem ber of the UN Se cu rityCo un cil.

Il ham Ali yev is a pre si dent of new era. He isthe pre si dent of the fu tu re of Azer ba i jan. He le -ads his pe op le in such an un ba lan ced pe ri od ofthe world thro ugh the tang led laby rint hs of po li -tics to the fu tu re. He burns the light of ho pe in thehe arts of his to le rant, pa ti ent pe op le who ha ve li -ved thro ugh the gre at tra ge di es of the last cen -tury with con fi den ce in him. Pe op le be li e ve thatthro ugh the le a ders hip of Il ham Ali yev they willre li e ve the ir his to ri cal lands from Ar me ni an-Rus -si an oc cu pa ti on, and cor rup ti on ca u sed by thehard ships of the sta te will be en ded on ce and forall.

Il ham Ali yev has ear ned the lo ve and res pectof the pe op le. It is a gre at so ur ce of po wer for ale a der.

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The pe op le of Azer ba i jan are a pe op le withde ep ro ots. Over the cen tu ri es, they ha ve ma in -ta i ned and pre ser ved the ir own cus toms andtra di ti ons, the ir his tory and na ti o nal iden tity upto the pre sent ti me and ha ve in de ed de ve lo pedand im pro ved the sa me. Azer ba i jan has a rich li -te ra tu re, mu sic and world re now ned men of le -ar ning. Phi lo sop hic ide as ex pres sed in theworks of Ni za mi con ce i ved and writ ten as earlyas the XII Cen tury and sin ce then in the works ofFu zu li and Ne si mi can not be re gar ded in fe ri or tothe tho ugh ts of ot her world phi lo sop hers. Infact, tho se works may well ha ve cons ti tu ted arich writ ten examp le to them. Ho we ver as ittur ned out, this na ti on was sub jec ted to the at -tacks of fo re ign in va ders from ti me to ti me andas a re sult of the ir ste ad fast ness and figh tingspi rit they ma na ged to over co me the se si tu a ti -ons. It was in the last de ca de of the XX cen turyat long last that this na ti on got rid of fo re ign al -pha bets and the Aze ri lan gu a ge was dec la red tobe the sta te lan gu a ge and even tu ally it won itsna ti o nal fre e dom.

Whet her it was the Arab in va si ons, now bu -

The Po wer of the Pe op le is the Po wer of the Sta te

T

BY EFRUZ S MUDUROGLUMU DU ROG LU LTD PRESIDENT

11 DECEMBER 2013

Efruz S Muduroglu

he re is no do ubt that the pe op le of Azer ba i jan will

uni te mo re in ten si vely be hind His Ex cel lency Il -

ham Ali yev in his en de a vor to turn this ter ri tory,

this co unt ry to pa ra di se and will back and sup port

him. They say that “with co o pe ra ti on mo un ta ins

can be mo ved”. The unity of the pe op le, is the po -

wer of the na ti on; the po wer of the sta te.

12DECEMBER 2013

OBSERVERAZERI

ri ed in his tory, in the VII cen tury, or the pres su refrom the Rus si an Army in the ye ar 1990, thesuf fe ring and ge no ci de ca u sed by tho se whosho wed them sel ves as li fe long fri ends but in1989, wis hing to grasp ter ri to ri es of Azer ba i jancom mit ted the blac kest and blo o di est at ro ci ti esin Azer ba i jan's his tory sur pas sing an ything thatoc cur red pre vi o usly. The se events ca u sed 2mil li on re fu ge es to flee the ir warm ho mes andlands. Mot hers mo ur ning the ir sons ne vert he -less cry out “May God al migh ty sa ve our co unt -ry”. In 1991 the pa ti en ce of Azer ba i jan was ex ha -us ted and she ro se up to cla im her in de pen den -ce. The per son who gu i ded and led this glo ri o uspo pu lar mo ve ment was Ebul fez El chi bey. Ho -we ver, ma in ta i ning the in de pen den ce is mo redif fi cult than win ning it. It so hap pe ned that pur -su ant to El chi bey's pro po sal the pe op le bro ughtto Po wer His Ex cel lency Hey dar Ali yev to go -vern the sta te. Hey dar Ali yev pos ses sed va lu ab -le ex pe ri en ce in the po li ti cal are na and was inthe SSSR, for many ye ars, one of the per sonsin vol ved in the ad mi nist ra ti on of the sta te mec -ha nism and had ex ten si ve ex pe ri en ce in this fi -eld.

Ho we ver, in 1992 Azer ba i jan was not theAzer ba i jan of the past. Cha os and cor rup ti onwas ri fe in the co unt ry. It was ne ces sary for anab le and strong hand to put an end to the un de -si rab le events which we re ta king pla ce. The pre -va i ling si tu a ti on was such that ar med conf lictbet we en sec ti ons of the pe op le co uld ha ve re -

sul ted. Ho we ver Ali yev's po li ti cal abi lity was ab le

to pull the co unt ry from the ed ge of the pre ci pi -ce. Hey dar Ali yev la id the fo un da ti ons of thenew Azer ba i jan sta te and ser ved his pe op le withcons ci en ce. He was al ways among the pe op le.In go od ti mes as well as in dif fi cult ti mes he tri -ed to sa ve the pe op le from the ca la mity that lo -o med ahe ad; and sa fe gu ar ding the sta bi lity inthe co unt ry he did not spa re any ef fort to im -pro ve the li fe stan dard of his pe op le. In de ed ac -cor ding to what I he ard, he was con cer ned abo -ut the well-be ing of the pe op le to the ex tentthat he wo uld go aro und even on Sun days to le -arn the pre va i ling si tu a ti on. Hey dar Ali yev hadmany hu man at tri bu tes dif fe ren ti a ting him fromot hers.

Each cen tury has its own he ro es. Hey darAli yev was an emi nent le a der who flo u ris hed inthe XX cen tury and li ved his li fe thro ug ho ut thesa me. He al ways ac ted as a gre at le a der of hisown Aze ri pe op le. Many, per haps be ca u se theycan not match up the he igh ts of Hey dar Ali yevmay be je a lo us of him. What con test ot herswon by for ce, he ac hi e ved by words. Thus, theysay that Hey dar Ali yev's word was shar per thanthe sword.

He was a he ad of sta te that wo uld turnwords to we a pons, who co uld call pe op le to pe -a ce and for gi ve ness and who co uld cre a te sa -fety and pro tec ti on.

Af ter the gre at le a der left this world many

13 DECEMBER 2013

che ris hed to be co me he ad of the go vern ment.Ho we ver, it was ne ces sary to find a can di da tewho had fol lo wed his scho ol in or der that heco uld con ti nue this path.

As a po int of in te rest, the re is al so a mat -ter which ma kes me won der. He re, our fo re -fat hers ha ve sa id “Ever yo ne who stands upwis hes to be co me pre si dent” it is not in anyone's skill to carry the res pon si bi lity of a co -unt ry on his own sho ul ders. So me ti mes, itmay not be pos sib le to sol ve the prob lems ofeven a sing le fa mily. Ho we ver, the pe op le de -mons tra ted its abi lity and en trus ted the sta teto his Ex cel lency Il ham Ali yev. This is not a co -in ci den ce. It is very im por tant for the he ad ofsta te of a long es tab lis hed pe op le to co mefrom a well-es tab lis hed ge ne ra ti on. Many ye -ars ha ve now pas sed and His Ex cel lency thePre si dent, al tho ugh qu i te yo ung in age, has be -en fol lo wing in his fat her's fo ots teps an ab leand ba lan ced po licy and is li ked and sup por tedby his pe op le. Thus this fa mily as a who le isser ving the ge ne ral pub lic in te rest.

Meh ri ban Ha nim, whom, at the ti me ourgre at le a der and his de ar wi fe ap pro ved andcho se to be the ir da ugh ter-in-law from qu i te anes tab lis hed fa mily, is wor king clo sely with herhus band. Par ti cu larly, af ter com men cing the le -a ders hip of Hey dar Ali yev Fo un da ti on in the ye -ar 2006, her ac ti vi ti es bro a de ned. Not only inAzer ba i jan, but al so in ot her co unt ri es whe rethe re is ne ed, she is carr ying out cha ri tab lework. For examp le, she is ha ving a scho ol bu iltin Pa kis tan.

She has gi ven es pe ci al pro mi nen ce to thefurt he ran ce of the art of Aze ri Ma ug ham mu sicand its re cog ni ti on over the world of to day. Aswith ot her co unt ri es, so al so re gar ding her ac ti -ve cont ri bu ti on to the streng the ning of re la ti onsbet we en Azer ba i jan and Rus sia, she was cho senas a go od will am bas sa dor of UNES CO.

The he ad of Hey dar Ali yev Fo un da ti on,Meh ri ban Ha nim Ali ye va was awar ded the “RubyCross” or der of the in ter na ti o nal cha rity fund“Rus si an Mis si o na ri es of the Cen tury”. Now, theda ugh ter of Pre si dents Fa mily Ley la Ha nim Ali -ye va is ac ting in as the rep re sen ta ti ve of theHey dar Ali yev Fo un da ti on. As may be se en re a -dily, Ali yev Fa mily's de ep ro ots ha ve be en

streng the ning in this way.In Azer ba i jan fri end ship and brot her ho od

are con si de red very im por tant. He re, the Em -bas si es of most of the World's co unt ri es are ac -ti ve. Pe op le who work in fo re ign com pa ni es arevery sa tis fi ed with the ir tre at ment by this sta te.Du ring the 20 ye ar pe ri od of ac ti vity of ourcom pany we ha ve mi xed and es tab lis hed sym-pat he tic re la ti ons so much with each ot her thatwe fe el our sel ves as if we are at ho me. In re -turn of so much go od will and con si de ra ti on it isour duty to com mu ni ca te what we know abo utthis co unt ry to the World Com mu nity. If an yo newho works in Azer ba i jan re gards this as his dutyhis cons ci en ce will be com for tab le. Ho we ver,des pi te all the se re la ti ons of fri end ship theprob lem of the oc cu pi ed ter ri to ri es of this co -unt ry has yet to be sol ved.

Azer ba i jan is a strong and po wer ful sta te.Ac cor ding to what is sa id If ne ed be this prob -lem co uld be sol ved in a short pe ri od of ti me.Ho we ver, His Ex cel lency Il ham Ali yev who isfol lo wing the pe a ce ful po li ci es of Hey dar Ali yevap pro ac hes this fra gi le prob lem with gre at sen -si ti vity. He do es not want that whi le one mot heris mo ur ning ot hers put on black he ad scarfs. Nodo ubt, jus ti ce will even tu ally pre va il.

Thus, as the re fu gee prob lem is be ing tack -led prog res si vely, re-sett le ment works in Azer -ba i jan are fast im pro ving. Both in Ba ku and al soin ot her are as ef forts are be ing ma de to bringthem all to so ci al ho u sing.

The im pro ve ments and ad van ce ment ofAzer ba i jan ma kes the enemy ap pre hen si ve. AsBrej nev had at one ti me sa id on a vi sit to Ba ku,Azer ba i jan is “prog res sing with gre at steps”. Infact Azer ba i jan is re ally ma king big ad van ces. Itis the duty of every one of us to sa fe gu ard andma in ta in the be ne fits of in de pen den ce. MayAzer ba i jan prog ress with gre at steps in every fi -eld!

The re is no do ubt that the pe op le of Azer -ba i jan will uni te mo re in ten si vely be hind His Ex -cel lency Il ham Ali yev in his en de a vor to turnthis ter ri tory, this co unt ry to pa ra di se and willback and sup port him. They say that “with co o -pe ra ti on mo un ta ins can be mo ved”. The unity ofthe pe op le, is the po wer of the na ti on; the po -wer of the sta te.

OBSERVERAZERI

OBSERVERAZERI

Now Azer ba i jan has its own sa tel li te in spa ce. La unc hed in -to the or bit last ye ar, with the we ight of 3,250 kg and the li fe-span of 15 ye ars, Azers pa ce-1 has a cost of $250 mil li on.

Mi nis ter of Com mu ni ca ti ons and In for ma ti on Tech no lo gi -es Ali Ab ba sov told the press that 20 per cent of sa tel li te ca pa -bi li ti es are in ten ded to me et the ne eds of Azer ba i jan, whi le there ma i ning 80 per cent is for com mer ci al pur po ses. Ba ku hasnow ga i ned the ca pa bi lity to of fer te le com mu ni ca ti on and bro -ad cas ting ser vi ces to Eas tern Eu ro pe, North Af ri ca, Cent ralAsia, the Ca u ca sus and the Midd le East re gi on. Cont racts ha veal re ady be en sig ned for the use of the sa tel li te's re so ur ces.

Ac cor ding to of fi ci al da ta, re gi o nal cen ters ha ve be en es -tab lis hed for the ma na ge ment of sa tel li tes. The ma in cont rolcen ter will be in the Guz dak sett le ment ne ar Ba ku, and a back-up cen ter in the Jul fa dist rict of Nakh chi van.

Ac cor ding to the mi nis ter, Azer ba i jan will la unch two mo -re sa tel li tes in to spa ce by 2016. This is a re sult of the co unt -

14DECEMBER 2013

o one co uld think

20-30 ye ars ago

that Azer ba i jan

wo uld la unch a sa -

tel li te in to spa ce.

BY NARGIZ HAJIYEVAAZERI OBSERVER STAFF WRITER

Aze ris cont ri bu te to the con qu est of spa ce

N

OBSERVERAZERI

15 DECEMBER 2013

ry's be ing a so ve re ign sta te. 20-30 ye ars ago, noone co uld think that Azer ba i jan wo uld la unch asa tel li te in to spa ce. In the So vi et ti mes no onewo uld even talk abo ut it. It is true that the re wasSci en ti fic Re se arch In sti tu te tit led “Azer kos mos”(”Azers pa ce”). But this clo sed en tity ma inly wor -ked for the Mos cow circ les. Azer ba i ja nis we re di -sap po in ted with the fact that the re is no ne of the -ir com pat ri ots among the as tro na uts. Why we -ren't the se pe op le, who ha ve pla yed a ma jor ro lein the de ve lop ment of sci en ce and cul tu re of theIs la mic East sin ce the Midd le Ages and ga vemany sci en tists to the world in the 20th cen tury,in vol ved in the con qu est of spa ce?

But our pe op le did not know that the ir twogre at sons, Ka rim Ka ri mov and Lo ut fi Ales ker za -deh, are wor king on the front row in the con qu estof spa ce: one of them in the So vi et Uni on and theot her in the Uni ted Sta tes.

SHARE OF TWO AZERIS IN EXPLORATION OF COSMOS

Karım KarımovLieutenant-General Karim Aliyevich Karimov

was an Azerbaijani-Soviet/Russian aerospace en-gineer and a renowned rocket scientist, one ofthe founders of the Soviet space industry, andfor many years a central figure in the Soviet

space program. Despite his prominent role, hisidentity was kept a secret from the public formost of his career. He was one of the lead archi-tects behind the string of Soviet successes thatstunned the world from the late 1950s – fromthe launch of the first satellite, the Sputnik 1 in1957, and the first human spaceflight, YuriGagarin's 108-minute trip around the globeaboard the Vostok 1 in 1961, to the first fully au-tomated space docking, of Cosmos 186 andCosmos 188 in 1967, and the first space stations,the Salyut and Mir series from 1971 to 1991.

Karim Karimov was born on November 14,1917 in a family of an engineer-technologist inBaku, Azerbaijan (then part of the RussianEmpire). After graduation from the AzerbaijanIndustrial Institute in 1942, Karimov continued hiseducation at Dzerzhinsky Artillery Academy,where he committed himself to design and devel-opment of rocket systems.

AdulthoodIn 1946, Karimov supervised over the assem-

bly of FAU-2 ballistic missiles in Germany, In 1950,he undertook work on "Don" radio-measurementdevices which were extremely impor¬tant for con-trol over the rocket's internal parametres a flight.For a successful work performance, his team wasconferred with the Stalin reward. Soon after thusK. Karimov was appointed chairman of the statecommission for trial flights.

After the first human flight to space in 1961,Karimov was awarded with the order of Lenin andpromoted to the rank of Major-General. In 1965,Karimov was appointed chief of Space ResearchSection of the Ministry for Mechanical Engineering,After space ships landed on the Venus K. Karimovreceived his second premian of Lenin.

In 1966 on the suggestion of AcademicianKorolyov, Karimov was appointed chairman of theState commission for piloted space flights and aca-demicians Mishin, Glushko, Semenov - his deputies.

In 1967, after a successful docking of auto-matic stations to "Soyuz" space-ship as well ason the occasion of his 50th jubilee, Karimov waspromoted to the rank of lieutenant gener¬al, andin 1975, following first international space flights,Karim Karimov

16DECEMBER 2013

OBSERVERAZERI

he was conferred with the state Premium.In 1987, when the first multi-modal "MIR"

station was set up in space and internationalflights to it commenced Karimov retired in 1991and is currently an adviser for the Center ofspace Flights. A multitude of books have beenwritten on Karimov's service, but most of themhave been kept away from publicity.

Time will come however, when everyonewill know that one of the founders of the SovietSpace Science who had chaired the StateCommission for piloted flights for 25 years, wasKarim Karimov.

An expert in rocket technology, he workedduring World War II on the inspection and accep-tance of the famous Katyusha rocket launchers.His work was honoured with the Order of the RedStar. Karim Karimov has been involved in Sovietaeronautics from its inception. After World WarII, Karimov worked on the Soviet inter-continentalballistic missile program, rising by 1960 to headthe Third Directorate of the Main Directorate ofMissile Weapons (GURVO) of the USSR Ministryof Defense that oversaw secret test launches.Along with other rocketry experts, he was sentto Germany in 1946 to collect information on theGerman V-2 rocket.

In 1964 he became head of the newly formedCentral Directorate of the Space Forces (TsUKOS)of the USSR Ministry of Defense. Following thedeath of Sergei Korolev in 1966, Karimov was ap-pointed Chairman of the State Commission onPiloted Flights and headed it for 25 years(1966–1991). He supervised every stage of devel-opment and operation of both manned spacecomplexes as well as unmanned interplanetarystations for former Soviet Union. Karimov was al-so the Head of Chief Directorate of the Ministry ofGeneral Machine Building in 1965-1974, which wasengaged in creation of rocket systems.

Soviet secrecyAs in the case of other Soviet space pioneers,

the Soviet authorities for many years refused todisclose Karimov's identity to the public. At tele-vised space launchings, cameras always focusedon the cosmonauts and not the person to whom

they reported their readiness to carry out the mis-sion. As Karimov was a "secreted general", he wasalways hidden from the camera's view; only hisvoice was broadcast. His name remained a secretuntil era of “glasnost” in Soviet Union, when hewas first mentioned in Pravda newspaper in 1987.

Retirement and deathAfter his 1991 retirement, Karimov was a

Consultant to the Main Space Flights ControlCentre of the Russian Federal Space Agency, andwrote The Way to Space, a history of the Sovietspace program. Karim Karimov was a Hero ofSocialist Labour, laureate of Stalin, Lenin andState prizes of the Soviet Union, lieutenant-gener-al of Soviet Army. General Karim Karimov diedMarch 29, 2003 in Moscow, at the age of 85.

LOTFALI ASKAR ZADEHLotfali Askar Zadeh (born February 4, 1921),

better known as Lotfi A. Zadeh, is a mathemati-cian, electrical engineer, computer scientist, artifi-cial intelligence researcher and professor emeri-tus of computer science at the University ofCalifornia, Berkeley.

Lotfali Askar Zadeh

17

OBSERVERAZERI

DECEMBER 2013

Life and careerLotfi Zadeh was born in Baku, Azerbaijan

SSR, as Lotfi Aliaskerzadeh, to an Iranian Azeri fa-ther from Ardabil, Rahim Aleskerzade, who was ajournalist on assignment from Iran, and a RussianJewish mother, Fanya Koriman, who was a pedia-trician. The Soviet government at this time court-ed foreign correspondents, and the family livedwell while in Baku. Zadeh attended elementaryschool for three years there, which he has said"had a significant and long-lasting influence onmy thinking and my way of looking at things."

In 1931, when Zadeh was ten years old, hisfamily moved to Tehran in Iran, his father'shomeland. Zadeh was enrolled in Alborz College,which was a Presbyterian missionary school,where he was educated for the next eight years,and where he met his future wife, Fay. Zadehsays that he was "deeply influenced" by the "ex-tremely decent, fine, honest and helpful" mission-aries from the United States who ran the college."To me they represented the best that you couldfind in the United States – people from theMidwest with strong roots. They were really"Good Samaritans" – willing to give of themselvesfor the benefit of others. So this kind of attitudeinfluenced me deeply. It also instilled in me adeep desire to live in the United States." Duringthis time, Zadeh was awarded several patents.

Despite being more fluent in Russian than inPersian, Zadeh sat for the national university ex-ams and placed third in the entire country. As astudent, he ranked first in his class in his first twoyears. In 1942, he graduated from the Universityof Tehran with a degree in electrical engineering(Fanni), one of only three students in that field tograduate that year, due to the turmoil created byWorld War II, when the Soviet Union invaded Iran– whose ruler, the Shah, was pro-German – andsplit the administration of the country with theBritish. Over 30,000 American soldiers were alsobased there, and Zadeh worked with his father,who did business with them as a contractor forhardware and building materials.

In 1943, Zadeh decided to emigrate to theUnited States, and traveled to Philadelphia byway of Cairo after months of delay waiting for

the proper papers or for the right ship to appear.He arrived in mid-1944, and entered M.I.T. as agraduate student later that year. While in theUnited States, he changed his name to LotfiAsker Zadeh.

He received an MS degree in electrical engi-neering from M.I.T. in 1946, and then applied toColumbia University, as his parents had settled inNew York City.[8] Columbia admitted him as adoctoral student, and offered him an instructor-ship as well.[8] He received his PhD in electricalengineering from Columbia in 1949, and becamean assistant professor the next year.

Zadeh taught for ten years at Columbia, waspromoted to Full Professor in 1957, and hastaught at the University of California, Berkeleysince 1959. He published his seminal work onfuzzy sets in 1965, in which he detailed the math-ematics of fuzzy set theory. In 1973 he proposedhis theory of fuzzy logic.

Personal life and beliefsZadeh is noted to be "quick to shrug off na-

tionalism, insisting there are much deeper issuesin life", and is quoted as stating in an interview:"The question really isn't whether I'm American,Russian, Iranian, Azerbaijani, or anything else. I'vebeen shaped by all these people and cultures andI feel quite comfortable among all of them."Zadeh also notes in the same interview:"Obstinacy and tenacity. Not being afraid to getembroiled in controversy. That's very much aTurkish tradition. That's part of my character,too. I can be very stubborn. That's probably beenbeneficial for the development of Fuzzy Logic."He describes himself as "an American, mathe-matically oriented, electrical engineer of Iraniandescent, born in Russia."

Zadeh is married to Fay Zadeh and has twochildren, Stella Zadeh and Norman Zadeh.

Fuzzy sets and systemsZadeh, in his theory of fuzzy sets, proposed

using a membership function (with a range cover-ing the interval [0,1]) operating on the domain ofall possible values. He proposed new operationsfor the calculus of logic and showed that fuzzy

18DECEMBER 2013

OBSERVERAZERI

logic was a generalisation of classical andBoolean logic. He also proposed fuzzy numbersas a special case of fuzzy sets, as well as the cor-responding rules for consistent mathematicaloperations (fuzzy arithmetic).

Other contributionsLotfi Zadeh is also credited, along with John

R. Ragazzini, in 1952, with having pioneered thedevelopment of the z-transform method in dis-crete time signal processing and analysis. Thesemethods are now standard in digital signal pro-cessing, digital control, and other discrete-timesystems used in industry and research. He is aneditor of International Journal of ComputationalCognition.

Zadeh's latest work includes computing withwords and perceptions. His recent papers in-clude From Search Engines to Question-Answering Systems—The Role of Fuzzy Logic,Progress in Informatics, No. 1, 1-3, 2005; andToward a Generalized Theory of Uncertainty(GTU)—An Outline, Information Sciences,Elsevier, Vol. 172, 1-40, 2005.

Lutfi Zada's theory of inex¬act logic pro-foundly changed traditional notions about theworld according to Aristotle's school of thinking.By intro-ducing a new way of logical thinking heoffered a substan¬tially new and different way toobserve the world according to reality.

By subjecting the basis of all sciences to sig-nificant alterations, the theory of the inexact log-ic made a revolu¬tionary change intechnologi¬cal management and caused up-heavals in all scientific dis¬ciplines. Thus, classi-cal math¬ematics turned into inexact mathemat-ics, and in the same way inexact algebra, inexactphysics and inexact topology developed as a re-sult of this theory.

The inexact logics theory was immediatelyaccepted in the Orient and became widely appliedin Japan, China and Azerbaijan - since the orientalphilosophy has a greater tol¬erance to inexact-ness and a stronger tendency to acknowl¬edgethe world's mysteries. They perceived and adopt-ed the inexact logic without men¬tal barriers.

The inexact logic some years later was used

by Japanese firms in the production of photo andvideo cam¬eras, vacuum cleaners, in controllingrailway and motor¬way networks and inmanag¬ing industrial processes. Dozens of scien-tific research institutes were opened to developthis branch of sci¬ence which today has becomea major research object at Japanese universi¬ties.As for America, only after twenty years of scep-ticism today moves have been made to adoptprinciples of inexact logic.

Inexact logic has made its way to social sci-ences as well. At present Lutfi Zada is known notonly as a mathe¬matician and cybernetic but alsoas the founder of a new scientific ideology.

He is a romantic scientist. He has made fiveideological changes essential for humanprogress. Canadian scientist M. Gunta who hasdedicated more than 20 of his mono¬graphs andbooks to inexact logic wrote: "In 1967, havingread Lutfi Zada's article on inexact logic, the theo-retical ideas of the author made on me an influ-ence of mathemat¬ical mosaic," Now more than60 magazines issued in the world and tens of sci-entific conferences annually are devoted to prob-lems of this scientific branch.

In the early 90s on the basis of inexact logic,neuron nets and the theory of evolu¬tion LutfiZada offered a new theory - the theory of SoftComputing, stipulating to give an artificial mind tolifeless substances. At the "ICAFS" 96 internation-al conference held in 1996 in Germany he pre-sented a new theory on computers operatingwith words instead of figures.

Lutfi Zada has preserved his original state ofmind and his wisdom and quick wit so specific tooriental philosophy aithough he has lived faraway from his motherland for long years.Speaking to a mathematician who had neverheard of inexact logic he once said: "I am contentwith all you have not said", and 'When your handtakes up a hammer you consider all people to benails". His aphorisms have been published in theUSA and in many other countries.

His scientific-theoretic conclusions leaveonce up-to-¬date scientific and technologi¬cal po-tential at least 50-60 years behind. Lutfi Zada is ascientist who is really ahead of his time.

The chan ges ta king pla ce in the ra pidly mo -der ni zing Azer ba i jan ne ces si ta te the ap pli ca ti on ofcut ting-ed ge na vi ga ti on tech no lo gi es enab ling pe -op le the ea se of tra vel. Cas pi an Nav Tel, Azer ba i -jan's first, big gest and the most ad van ced na vi ga ti -on ser vi ces pro vi der, spe ci a li zes in the de ve lop -ment of e-maps, soft wa re ap pli ca ti ons, cont roland ma in te nan ce equ ip ment.

It func ti ons most ly in two di rec ti ons: de ve lo -ping of na vi ga ti on and fle et ma na ge ment systems.

Over the co ur se of its six-ye ar ac ti vity Cas pi anNav Tel has ma de sa tel li te na vi ga ti on ac ces sib le toever yo ne in Azer ba i jan.

The com pany has al so cre a ted a map of ne -igh bo ring Ge or gia, which is al so ava i lab le to theusers.

Thro ugh jo int ef forts of its pro fes si o nals, thecom pany has de ve lo ped a uni que elect ro nic mapco ve ring the en ti re co unt ry. Mo re o ver, re le vantsoft wa re and equ ip ment for trans port cont rol anddif fe rent soft wa re pac ka ges for mo bi le de vi cesha ve be en de ve lo ped to use the map.

The com pany is ex plo ring the pos si bi lity of us-ing the na vi ga ti on system un der the ru ral to u rismde ve lop ment prog ram. Both lo cals and fo re ign to -u rists may ea sily tra vel to dif fe rent sigh ts in Azer -ba i jan using the na vi ga ti on system, which con ta insmany po ints of in te rest.

Ci ti es, re gi ons, stre et na mes, ho tels, banks,res ta u rants, sto res, hos pi tals, malls, tra de cen ters,scho ols, uni ver si ti es, ser vi ce cen ters, and gas sta ti -ons are ref lec ted on the map.

Azer ba i jan's big gest pro vi der advances sta te-of-the-art

na vi ga ti on system AZERI OBSERVER EDITORIAL STAFF

21

OBSERVERAZERI

DECEMBER 2013

Cas pi an Nav Tel is al so in vol ved in trans port in -frast ruc tu re of the co unt ry, pro vi ding up-to-da tein for ma ti on re gar ding the con di ti on of ro ads, cur -rent and ma jor re pa irs, which helps to al le vi a tetraf fic jams and pre vent traf fic ac ci dents.

The com pany is al so po pu la ri zing a “cul tu re ofad dres ses” among st the lo cal po pu la ti on.

Ac cor ding to the com pany CEO Vu qar As ke -rov, the ser vi ce pro vi des ob vi o us be ne fits for bothlo cal and fo re ign users.

”Our city is chan ging very qu ick ly, a lot of stre -et na mes ha ve be en chan ged. Cur rent ly, our sys-tem has old and new ad dres ses. By sel ling ourCas pi an Nav Tel na vi ga tors with its prog ram and amap, we pro vi de the pos si bi lity of using both ad -dres ses. When ac ces sing the me nu the re are twoop ti ons -- the new ad dres ses and the old Ba ku ad -dres ses. Na vi ga tor systems are very help ful to pe -op le who only know the ad dress, es pe ci ally dri -vers. Usu ally, ci ting an ad dress, pe op le ci te so meno tab le bu il dings lo ca ted ne arby. It is no lon ger ne -ces sary with our maps, which of co ur se ma kes these arch much ea si er,” As ke rov told AZER NEWS.

Cas pi an Nav Tel is the only com pany whichhas suc ce e ded in GPS na vi ga ti on in Azer ba i jan, ac -cor ding to As ke rov.

”The com pany has be en col lec ting in for ma ti -on abo ut Azer ba i jan sin ce its es tab lish ment in2007. We are res pon sib le for every me ter of ourmap. This is a very ti me-con su ming job and we fi -nis hed all the work in 2011. Sin ce then we ha ve be -en up da ting our map on ce in three mont hs, ad dingsuch up da tes as chan ges in traf fic, de mo li ti on ofbu il dings, and cre a ti on of parks,” he sa id.

Whi le ro u ting, the na vi ga tor finds the shor testway from Po int A to Po int B, sa ving not only ti mebut al so fu el, which is al so a ma jor ad van ta ge, As -ke rov sa id.

The re are two types of na vi ga tors, on li ne andof fli ne ones. The on li ne one shows the traf fic con -di ti ons, clo sed ro ads, every thing re la ted to the si tu -a ti on on the ro ad, whi le the of fli ne ver si on onlyshows the map.

”The map is con ve ni ent for fo re ig ners as itcon ta ins the ad dres ses of sto res, res ta u rants andho tels.”

Ac cor ding to As ke rov, the Cas pi an Nav Telmo bi le ver si on is pre sent ly the most po pu lar pro -duct. It can be used on An dro id, Symbi an, Win Mo -

bi le and Ap ple ope ra ting systems.As we sa id abo ve the se cond di rec ti on of the

com pany is fle et ma na ge ment system. The hard -wa re of this system is ava i lab le for 150 ma nats(abo ut $191) and has mont hly fee.

The mo ni to ring system de sig ned for the carshows whe re the car was par ked, how fast andhow long it is mo ving, and fu el con sump ti on, thuspro vi ding comp re hen si ve in for ma ti on. Each userhas his (her) own in di vi du al co de and can see thede si red ob ject on the map.

The mo ni to ring system can be used not onlyfor cars but al so for child ren. It can al so be used totrack do mes tic ani mals. The re is a va ri ety of op ti -ons; using per so nal trac kers you can ea sily cont rolthe lo ca ti on of de si red ob ject.

Mo re o ver, 90 per cent of Azer ba i ja ni banksand many sta te-run com pa ni es are co o pe ra tingwith the com pany, using the GPS mo ni to ring sys-tem.

Cas pi an Nav Tel al so runs a free web si te,www.ti xac.az, which can be used by an yo ne, to seethe cur rent traf fic si tu a ti on in the busy ca pi tal cityand thro ug ho ut Azer ba i jan.

At pre sent, the com pany is pro vi ding the ser -vi ce at its aut ho ri zed shop lo ca ted at Azad lig 228E. The com pany pro vi des a 3-month war ranty onall na vi ga tors and one-ye ar war ranty on the trac -king system mo du les, with tech ni cal sup port pro vi -ded for all de vi ces.

Na vi ga tors may al so be purc ha sed in ma jortech no lo gi cal equ ip ment sto res of the co unt ry.

In the fu tu re, it is plan ned to cre a te scratchcards for the mo bi le na vi ga ti on map.

Ac cor ding to As ke rov, cur rent ly work is un -der way on ad ver ti sing.

”Now our map in di ca tes only the na mes ofres ta u rants or sto res, but if the com pany wo uld li -ke to, we can pro vi de full in for ma ti on abo ut theob ject, which will ma ke the card den ser,” he sa id.

The re li ab le com pany is wor king clo sely withBa ku Ta xi and the “189” ser vi ce, pro vi ding themwith na vi ga tors.

The com pany has be en awar ded twi ce for itssuc cess ful per for man ce, with “The First” awardfor in no va ti ons and pro vi ded ser vi ces in 2009, andin early March 2010 it was con fer red the “Ug hur”(”Suc cess”) award for the de ve lop ment of na vi ga ti -on system tech no logy.

22DECEMBER 2013

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Azer ba i jan:Ho me land of mu gam

The V Mu gam con test which has be en con ti -nu ing for two mont hs in Ba ku Mu gam Cen ter isover. Te e na gers and yo ung mu gam per for mers,se lec ted from among the stu dents of mu sicscho ols of the co unt ry, pas sed thro ugh se ve ralsta ges for par ti ci pa ti on in the con test, which isheld every two ye ars. A jury con sis ting of well-known mu si ci ans as ses ses each par ti ci pant af tereach in ter ven ti on on a ten-po int sca le, and tho sewho sco re fe wer po ints le a ve the con test.

Mu gam -- one of the ol dest mu si cal gen resof mu sic on the East, es pe ci ally in Azer ba i jan --has al ways be en the fo cus of at ten ti on of mu sicfans. As in many na ti ons of the world, the mu sicin Azer ba i jan, es pe ci ally mu gam, has na ti o nal sig -ni fi can ce with edu ca ti o nal va lue thro ug ho ut his -tory.

Du ring the So vi et-Bols he vik go vern ment, se -

ve ral at temp ts we re ma de to dest roy na ti o nalcul tu res in the na me of “cre a ti on of a pro le ta ri ancul tu re”. In 1937-38, in the pro cess of “cul tu ralre vo lu ti on” ge no ci de, tho u sands of in tel lec tu als,in clu ding mu si ci ans, we re shot, and the tar - amu si cal in stru ment cre a ted by the mu sic con no -is se ur Sa dig jan in the ca pi tal city of Ka ra bakh,Shus ha, in the XVI II cen tury-was pro hi bi ted. A rhe -to ri cal po em was writ ten sta ting “If we ha ven'tbro ken the tar, tre ad it on and go ahe ad, we willde lay com mu nism for fif te en mi nu tes”. Ho we ver,the se thre ats co uldn't re du ce the lo ve of the na ti -on for this mu si cal gen re. Mu sic flows in the ve -ins of Aze ris. On the eve of the col lap se of theSo vi et Uni on, fo re ign ag gres si on on the ter ri toryof the co unt ry and in frin ge ment of sta bi lity in theco unt ry, the de ve lop ment of show bu si nessprog rams has a ne ga ti ve im pact on the art of

BY PhD. MAHIR HAMIDOVAZE RI OB SER VER STAFF WRI TER

23 DECEMBER 2013

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DECEMBER 2013

mu gam. Ho we ver, es tab lis hing sta bi lity in the co -unt ry, the le a ders hip of the co unt ry has pa id spe -ci al at ten ti on to mu gam. Ca re for mu gam wasone of the pri o ri ti es of Hey dar Ali yev, na ti o nal le -a der, and now his po li ti cal suc ces sor Pre si dent Il -ham Ali yev .

To day is a pe ri od of ra pid chan ge of va lu es,and the First Lady of Azer ba i jan Meh ri ban Ali ye -va's work is un de ni ab le in mu gam's oc cu pa ti on ofa wort hy pla ce in to day's world of mu sic. As a re -sult of her ac ti vi ti es, mu gam was bro ught to theat ten ti on of the world com mu nity, be yond thebor ders of Azer ba i jan, and has be en in clu ded inthe list of non-ma te ri al cul tu ral mo nu ments,which are pro tec ted by UNES CO. A Mu gam Cen -ter with uni que ar chi tec tu re has be en bu ilt on these a si de park, the most be a u ti ful part of the ca pi -tal. Pre pa red with the sup port of the Hey dar Ali -yev Fo un da ti on, a mu gam mu sic en cyclo pe dia isan in di ca ti on of the high le vel of con cern for theart of mu gam and mas ters of mu gam.

Owing to the In ter na ti o nal Mu gam Fes ti valheld in the co unt ry, in re cent ye ars mas ters ofmu gam from aro und the world ha ve co me to -get her. Fa mo us mu sic ar tists of Azer ba i jan gi vecon certs in the world mu sic ca pi tal and sha re na -ti o nal and spi ri tu al va lu es of Azer ba i jan with thein ter na ti o nal com mu nity.

Ac cor ding to sci en ti fic re se arch, Azer ba i jan is

one of the most an ci ent cen ters of mu sic gen resas well as mu gam. Azer ba i jan has al so used Eas -tern cul tu re in this sphe re, and ma de gre at cont ri -bu ti ons to mu gam art.

The re are se ve ral re se arch works on the his -tory of the art of mu sic, lan gu a ge, and sci en ceand cul tu re of the Midd le Ages, whe re worksabo ut mu gam we re writ ten in Ara bic and Per si anlan gu a ges. That is why ter mi no logy re la ted to fi -eld of mu gam is in Tur kish, as well as Ara bic andPer si an lan gu a ges. Works of me di e val Azer ba i janmu si ci ans we re of ten writ ten in the Ara bic andPer si an lan gu a ges. As an examp le, among theclas sic works of art mu sic of the eigh te enth cen -tury, we can ob ser ve “Ki ta bul - Ed var” and “Sha -ra fi ya” of the mu si ci an and sci en tist of Azer ba i ja niori gin, Sa fi ad din Ur ma vi. His works erup ting fromthe dept hs of the me di e val ti me li ve as uni que sci -en ti fic works in pre sent ti mes and are sto red aspre ci o us ma nusc ripts in lib ra ri es of New York,Pa ris, Ber lin, Vi en na, Ca i ro, Is tan bul, St. Pe ters -burg, Teh ran, Ba ku and ot her ci ti es.

Se ven cen tu ri es la ter, af ter Sa fi ad din Ur -mavy in the midd le of the twen ti eth cen tury, theworld-re now ned com po ser, mu si ci an and sci en -tist U.Ha ji be yov in his “Ba sis of Azer ba i jan FolkMu sic” wro te: “in the ma in pla ce in the the o re ti caland prac ti cal de ve lop ment of the mu sic of thepe op les of the Midd le East, the re are two world-

fa mo us sci en tists, the o rists, and mu si ci ans: Sa fi -ad din ibn Yu suf al-Ur ma vi (XI II cen tury) and Ab -dul ga dir Ma ragy (XIV cen tury).”

Mu gam is a type of mu sic which ex ten ded inthe way of li fe of pe op le li ving in the Midd le East,Asia, and a num ber of Eu ro pe an ter ri to ri es. Azer -ba i ja ni and Ana to li an Turks, Per si an, Ara bic, Uy -ghur, Uz bek, Turk men, Kyrgyz, Ka zakh, and Ta jikpe op les ex press that this type of art has be co mean in teg ral part of the ir na ti o nal he ri ta ge. Ho we -ver, mu gam do esn't de ve lop in the se co unt ri esup to the le vel of per fect mu sic, art or sci en ce asin Azer ba i jan.

Dif fe rent cla ims ha ve be en put for ward abo -ut the pla ce and ti me of cre a ti on this mu sic gen -re. Ho we ver, mu sic scho lars who cla im this mu -sic is ba sed on the the Arab-Per si an mu sic sys-tem don't ha ve ba sic ar gu ments. So me mu si ci anssay the word mu gam is ta ken from Ara bic words“ma gam - ma kam”. Ho we ver, re se arc hers thinkthat this ter mi no logy was in clu ded in the his toryof mu sic in the VII cen tury. Ho we ver the pla yingof mu gam in the city of Ar da bil, So uth Azer ba i janin the VI cen tury pro ves the spre ad of this typeof mu sic in the ter ri tory of Azer ba i jan be fo reArab co unt ri es. Even pre vi o usly this mu sicgen re was wi dely spre ad among mug tri beswho had be en li ving in the an ci ent lands ofthe North and So uth of Azer ba i jan, which isin di ca ted in his to ri cal so ur ces.

The Mug ham pla in to ponym whichis pla ced in the so uth of the Re pub licof Azer ba i jan, mu ganly et nonym, is

con nec ted with the na me of the an ci ent mugs. Inthis sen se, the gre at Azer ba i ja ni po et Ni za mi Gan -ja vi's “play a mu gan mu sic” word is a sign ofmug ham. Af ter cen tu ri es let ter “n” can be chan -ged to let ter “m” and Mu gan can be trans for medto mu gam. In re cog ni ti on of this, we can say thatthe art of mu gam was fo un ded by mugs in theIX-X cen tu ri es BC.

Thro ug ho ut his tory, mu gam, the gen re ofmu sic has spe ci al pla ce in the li fe of the pe op lesof the Ne ar and Midd le East, every pe op le in clu deits own na ti o nal cha rac ter in this mu sic gen re.Mu gam has be co me a com mon cul tu ral he ri ta geof all the pe op les li ving in this re gi on and one ofthe cor ners to nes of the mu sic of na ti o nal andspi ri tu al he ri ta ge of Azer ba i jan.

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26DECEMBER 2013

Q. Mr. Leferink, Ger man pi a nos ha ve be en bro -ught to Azer ba i jan sin ce the 19th cen tury. Ex plo ra -ti on and pro duc ti on of cop per and gold in Ge da bey,wi ne ma king in Gey gel we re re la ted to the na mes ofGer man com mu ni ti es in the midd le of the 19th cen -tury. And in the 21st cen tury you de sig ned the pi a nofac tory yo ur self in Azer ba i jan's Ga ba la re gi on. Howdid it hap pen that you ca me he re?

A. I got an in vi ta ti on in Oc to ber 2008 by theGo vern ment of Azer ba i jan to talk abo ut the pos -si bi lity to bu ild-up a Pi a no fac tory in Azer ba i jan.And af ter that vi sit I got the or der to ma ke a bu si -

ness plan. Af ter pre sen ta ti on of the plan, I got an or der

by the Go vern ment of Azer ba i jan to work-out andfind a pla ce in Azer ba i jan to bu ild-up this fac tory.

We cho o sed an old To bac co fac tory (whichwas comp le tely ru i ned) in Ga ba la with 16.000 m2and star ted to bu ild this fa ci lity af ter our de sign inOc to ber 2008.

At the sa me ti me we star ted a job of fer tolo cal vo lun te er pe op le and edu ca te them for the

INTERVIEW

Mr. Hans Le fer ink De sig ner of Ga ba la

pi a no fac tory

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Se cond li fe of Belt mannpi a nos in Ga ba laPi a no ca me to the mu si cal li fe of Azer ba i jan in the 19th cen tury. The fo un der ofAzer ba i ja ni clas si cal mu sic, gre at com po ser Uze yir Ha ji ba yov, pla yed his ope rasand ope ret tas, ro man ces and sympho nic works which are con si de red mas ter pi e -ces of Azer ba i ja ni mu sic, on the pi a no. This uni ver sal mu si cal in stru ment ca me to Azer ba i jan first from Eu ro pe, in par ti cu -lar from Ger many. Du ring the Com mu nist pe ri od, So vi et pi a nos we re pro du ced. 100 ye ars af ter the first ope ra in the Mus lim East, Ha ji ba yov's “Ley li and Maj nun”was sta ged in Ba ku in 2008, the first pi a no fac tory was fo un ded in nort hern re gi -on of Azer ba i jan, the city of Ga ba la which was the ca pi tal of the co unt ry BC andthe early cen tu ri es AD. The first three examp les of the Beltmann pi a no we re pro -du ced a ye ar la ter, in Sep tem ber 2009. Our in ter vi e wee is grand son of Beltmann fo un der Bo e le Jan Beltmann, HansLeferink, who has cont ri bu ted gre atly to the es tab lish ment of the pi a no fac tory.

BY ARSLAN ABBASOVAZERI OBSERVER STAFF WRITER

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pro fes si ons that we ne ed them for.Q. Sin ce old ti mes, mas ters of mu si cal in stru ments in Azer -

ba i jan ha ve ma de saz, ba la ban, ka manc ha, black zo ur na, tar,etc. But ma king pi a nos is comp le tely a new thing for them.How can they do it? What is the num ber of the fac tory wor kersand how many of them are lo cals?

A. The pe op le that we se lec ted ca me in an edu ca ti onsystem to le arn step by step the hand lings that we ne ed. Bythe way, we se lec ted mo re or less 130 pe op le out of 1000.At the mo ment we ha ve 130 em plo ye es with 128 of themare lo cals.

Q. As I know, raw ma te ri als for pi a nos are bro ught fromGer many, Aust ria and ot her Eu ro pe an co unt ri es. I un ders tandthe im por tan ce of tree spe ci es that ha ve be en tes ted in thissphe re for cen tu ri es. For examp le, the tar is pre pa ring from thewo od of mul berry tree. I won der if the re are in Azer ba i jan fo -rests, a spe ci es of tre es, ap prop ri a te to tho se which you ha vebro ught he re?

A. The wo od ma te ri als from Azer ba i jan - Map le & MDFis won der ful. We im port the rest of the wo od from Ger -many, Aust ria and In do ne sia.

Q. Is the fac tory ope ra ting at full ca pa -city? What is the an nu al pro duc ti -on? And whe re el se, be si desthe lo cal mar ket, do you sellyo ur pro ducts?

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DECEMBER 2013

A. The plan ned pro duc ti on ca pa city of thefac tory is aro und 1000 in stru ments per ye ar. Asit lo oks now, In sAl lah we'll re ach to this qu an tityin 2014. We sell our in stru ments every whe re inthe world. We ha ve a big show ro om in Ga ba lawith the se lec ti on of in stru ments that cus to merswant to ha ve. Furt her, we ha ve a show ro om inKle ve, Drüs sel dörf in Ger many and in Mos cow.

Q. What are yo ur im pres si ons abo ut the pe op -le, na tu re, cul tu re, cu i si ne and tra di ti ons of Azer -ba i jan? As I was in for med, you ha ve ac cep ted Is -lam.

A. Now I'm li ving 5 ye ars in Azer ba i jan. Be fo -re that i used to li ve in Eu ro pe, Asia, USA andwork the re. Azer ba i jan is the most ex ci ting co unt -ry for me that i've se en un til now. You can findworld's 9 of 11 cli ma te zo nes in this co unt ry. Thecul tu re and tra di ti ons are de ve lo ped for tho u -sands of ye ars. But i was mis sing so met hing inmy li fe and with the age of 55 i un ders to od whatit was. I co uldn't find myself in the re li gi ons li keChris ti a nity, Ju da ism, Bud hism and ect.Thanks to Azer ba i jan that i fo und myway he re: I con ver ted to Is lam, “LaIla ha Il lal lah, Mu ham ma dun Ra su -

lal lah”. My opi ni on abo ut the pe op le is that, theyare fri end ly, pe a ce fully with a go od hos pi ta lityand open to le arn new things.

Q. In Shus ha the re was a mu si cal in stru mentsfac tory be fo re its oc cu pa ti on by Ar me ni ans, and itspro ducts we re most ly sold to the re pub lics of Midd leAsia, rat her than in the lo cal mar ket. Wo uld youag ree if you we re of fe red to res to re that fac tory af -ter li be ra ti on of Shus ha from oc cu pa ti on?

A. If the Go vern ment of Azer ba i jan as ked mean ything to do, of co ur se that i wo -uld do it, if it is in the ran ge ofmy ca pa city.

Thank you verymuch for the in ter -vi ew.

DECEMBER 2013 30

P

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e op le of Pa pua New Gu i nea ha ve a qu i et na tu re,

that do not harm an ybody. The re fo re, the Eu ro pe -

ans ha ve oc cu pi ed this co unt ry very ea sily. Tho se

who know this co unt ry bet ter, say the dist rust of

lo cal pe op le aga inst fo re ig ners in this co unt ry very

nor mal and ex pla in it by the oc cu pa ti on (both ma -

te ri al and spi ri tu al) they li ve thro ug ho ut his tory.

31 DECEMBER 2013

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Pa pua New Gu i nea is a fa mo us na me in theworld, ho we ver, it can't ap pe al to the in te rests ofot her co unt ri es. Co unt ri es in con ti nents in clu dingAme ri ca and Eu ro pe sa ying “We ha ve bu si nessre la ti ons even with Pa pua New Gu i nea” ex pressthat they ha ve re la ti ons with all co unt ri es of theworld. A few ye ars ago one of the Tur kish bankssta ted a slo gan in a com mer ci al vi deo: “We cansend mo ney even to Pa pua”.

We wo uld li ke bri efly to in tro du ce you to ourtra ve ler gu i des abo ut this co unt ry. The ca pi tal ofthe co unt ry, Port Mo resby, is lo ca ted in the mo un -ta ins. Du ring our path to Gu i nea I tho ught abo utwhat sort of co unt ry we wo uld fa ce. When welan ded the air port ter mi nal, the land sca pe re min -ded us of a litt le bus sta ti on. The chi ef, who ca meto me et us, surp ri sed us with know led ge abo utflight ho urs and ot her fe a tu res of the airc raft.“You got in te res ted in airp la nes?” - we as ked: “No.All re si dents of the city re cog ni ze the lar gest airc -raft of PNG. It is eno ugh to lo ok at yo ur watch ifyou want to whe re the airc raft is go ing”- he sa id.Re cog ni zing of airc rafts do esn't me an that the reare few air ports. Ac cor ding to our in for ma ti onthe re are 557 air ports in the co unt ry. The lar geamo unt of air ports is ca u sed by the plight of in ter -city high ways. The only trans port to lar ge ci ti es li -ke Kim be, Lae, or Ra ba ul is airc raft. It is too ex pen -si ve to tra vel by car in the co unt ry con sis ting ofmo un ta ins and rocks. This co unt ry has no vi si torsex cept En glish and Aust ra li ans, is still cont rol ledby the Bri tish. The “Go ver nor” ap po in ted by Qu e enEli za beth II is ma na ging the co unt ry. This co unt ry

with a po pu la ti on of 6 mil li on has in de pen dent in -ter nal po licy. Al tho ugh the co unt ry's of fi ci al lan -gu a ge is En glish, lo cal pe op le spe ak 860 lan gu a -ges. Eu ro pe ans ca me he re from the 15th cen turyand gi ve the co unt ry na me “New Gu i nea”, be ca u selo cal pe op le lo ok li ke re si dents of the Af ri can con -ti nent. La ter, Por tu gu e se, Ger mans, Spa ni ards,and Scots who floc ked to the co unt ry be gin tosha re it among each ot her. In 1884 the Bri tish in -va ded the so uth of the co unt ry, the Ger mans - thenorth of it, and be gan go ver ning the co unt ry. Af -ter World War I, the ma na ge ment of the se landspas sed to Aust ra lia. In 1920 the Le a gue of Na ti onsim po sed a man da te on the is land. Du ring the Se -cond World War Ja pan had oc cu pi ed the nort hernpart of the PNG. 216 sol di ers from Aust ra li an andAme ri can ar mi es we re kil led. Sto ri es abo ut thiswar are still told among the pe op le. Lo cal pe op leto ok a ne ut ral po si ti on on this war but des pi tethat, it co uldn't avo id tra ge di es.

Af ter the de fe at of Ja pan in 1949, the ma na -ge ment of the co unt ry was gi ven to Aust ra lia. In1973 it won the right to ma na ge it self, and in 1975it has ga i ned the co unt ry's in de pen den ce. Thefirst Pri me Mi nis ter of PNG, Mic ha el T. So mar hasru led the co unt ry for 12 ye ars. La ter pri me mi nis -ters we re al so in in ten se re la ti ons with Aust ra lia.It sho uld be no ted that Aust ra lia still has in flu en -ce on PNG from a cul tu ral, eco no mic, so ci al po intof vi ew. 27.3% of the co unt ry's to tal ex ports goto Aust ra lia, and 9.5% to Ja pan, 5.7% of ex portsgo to Chi na. Ta king in to ac co unt the fact thatAust ra lia has ac qu i red 51% of the im ports, the

BY BIL GE HAN EK REM AZERI OBSERVER CONTRIBUTOR

32DECEMBER 2013

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im por tan ce of this co unt ry for PNG will be cle ar. We ha ve no ted that it is not eno ugh to tra vel

bet we en ci ti es of PNG with an area of 462,840squ a re ki lo me ters. The re fo re, the ad ven tu re-lo -ving to u rists, who want to see the li fe of in di ge -no us tri bes in the co unt ry, to re cog ni ze the unu -su al cus toms and tra di ti ons, as well as mi ne-se e -kers, walk in the co unt ry on fo ot. If to ta ke in toac co unt the fact that three qu ar ters of PNG ex -ports con sist of cop per, gold and oil, one can un -ders tand why the mi nes are so im por tant for thisco unt ry and se e kers of na tu ral re so ur ces. It is acom for tab le se cu re way to tra vel in this co unt rywith its strong tri bal and kins hip ti es, to mo vewith a lo cal gu i de.

The most ob vi o us examp le of dif fi cul ti es ofpe op le for me e ting the ir da ily ne eds can be se enin the co unt ry's ca pi tal, Port Mo resby. At ten ti on isat trac ted to the ma jo rity of sel lers of se cond-hand clot hes co ming from ab ro ad in the stre ets.But on the ot her si de you can see lu xury shop -ping sto res whe re ex pen si ve clot hes are sold.

The re are no ot her op ti ons to me et the ir da ily ne -eds. One of the re a sons that hin der the de ve lop -ment of the co unt ry is re la ted with the ma jo rityof hard rocks. For the pur po se of a small amo -unt of flat area in Port Mo resby, the po pu la ti on ofthis city, mo re than 200 tho u sand, is spre adover a wi de area. Al tho ugh the ma jo rity of theco unt ry is si mi lar to it, mo re than 75% of the po -pu la ti on's in co me is from ag ri cul tu re.

Many Aust ra li an ci ti zens li ve in or vi sit the co -unt ry. They tend to do mi na te the ma jo rity of jobsin the co unt ry. Aust ra li an do mi nan ce can be se enin al most every area in PNG. Ho we ver, the ci ti -zens of Aust ra lia are trying to be among them -sel ves, rat her than to be among the lo cal pe op le,or pre fer res ta u rants or shop ping are as for whi tepe op le. On the ot her hand, the num ber of Chi ne seis gro wing every day. Wal king in Port Mo resby,red spots in the en tran ces, on the walls of theho u ses, on the ro ads, al most every whe re at tractone's at ten ti on. The re a son for this is the fru it ofa tree that be longs to PNG. The lo cal po pu la ti on

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DECEMBER 2013

chews and spits its wal nut-si zed fru it. It is used asfo od for many pe op le, and the mo uth and par ti -ally the body be co me ri gid. So, trash cans arepla ced in front of of fi ci al pla ces, to throw awaythe fru it and thus, pe op le are pre ven ted from da -ma ging the in si de.

Wal king thro ug ho ut PNG, I ca me to the conc -lu si on that if the pe op le will re fu se this fru it it wo -uld ha ve a gre at be ne fit for the co unt ry's eco -nomy. The ave ra ge age is 66 and the gre a testde si re of the pe op le is to ha ve bet ter li ving con di -ti ons. For this re a son, pe op le want to go to co -

unt ri es, in clu ding Aust ra lia, with gre at op por tu ni -ti es.

Pe op le of PNG ha ve a qu i et na tu re; they donot harm an ybody. The re fo re, the Eu ro pe ans ha -ve oc cu pi ed this co unt ry very ea sily. Tho se whoknow this co unt ry well say the dist rust of lo calpe op le aga inst fo re ig ners in this co unt ry is verynor mal and ex pla in it by the oc cu pa ti on (both ma -te ri al and spi ri tu al) they ha ve ex pe ri en ced thro ug -ho ut his tory.

If it is des ti ned, in furt her ar tic les I will try togi ve ot her in for ma ti on abo ut Pa pua New Gu i nea.

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The first examp le of the map in the world wascar ved on the rock of the ca ve in the so uth of Spa -in by pri mi ti ve pe op le. The pri mi ti ve pa in ting on therock da ted back ap pro xi ma tely 14 tho u sand ye arsago is sup po sed to ha ve de pic ted mo un ta ins andri vers, ap prop ri a te pla ces for hun ting and sub sis -tan ce in this re gi on.

The map that was con si de red per fect BC wasdrawn in the 5th cen tury by He ro do tus.

The first map in the Tur kish world was fo undon the wall of the ho u se du ring the ex ca va ti ons inCha tal ha yuk. The map da ted back of 8200, isplan of a city and is dis pal yed in the Ana to li an Mu -se um of cul tu re. The first per ferct map of Turkswas de ve lo ped by Mah mud Kash ga ri in the 11thcen tury. let's first of all talk abo ut the world's firstuni que dic ti o nary “Di va nu lu gat-it-Turk” which hadal rady had the map and the aut hor of dic ti o nary...

Mah mud al-Kash ga ri who was born in 1029 inBars qan city ne ar La ke Is syk, and di ed in 1101.

It was the gol den cen tury of tur cism whenMah mud Kash ga ri, the ta len ted and in tel lec tu alper son of the 11th cen tury wro te his “Di van”. “Di -van” is in va lu ab le re so ur ce for stud ying the sta tus

of the lan gu a ge, his tory, li te ra tu re, folk lo re andthin king and li ving con di ti ons of pe op le, as well asge og rap hi cal si tu a ti on of Qa ra-Kha nid pe ri od.

Ac cor ding to cal cu la ti on of sci en tists, the reare 9 222 words in “Di van”. This work is an evi den -ce which backs up the rich ness of Tur kish tri bes,the ir lan gu a ges, to pony ms, oi kony ms and et -hnony ms in the 11 th cen tury.

”Di van” al so ref lects its va lue thro ugh themap it has. Mah mud Kash ga ri de ve lo ped “the cir cu -lar map of the world” for the first ti me in the Is la -mic world. Cent ral Asia is desc ri bed as the cen terof the world on the map de ve lo ped by Mah mudKash ga ri who was lin gu ist, tur ko lo gist, car tog rap -her sci en tist of his ti me. The map co ve res va ri o usin for ma ti on abo ut an ci ent pe op les, ci ti es and co -unt ri es. Eu ro pe an sci en tists ha ve le ar ned car tog -rap hic work from Mah mud Kash ga ri.

The art of car tog raphy was as lo de ve lo ped bythe gre at Tur ko lo gist scho lar Mah mud Kash ga roffor the first ti me at that ti me. The map's sha pe iscir cu lar, its in si de is co lo red, the up per part is writ -ten in Ara bic. In his “Di van”, Kash ga ri re fe ring to themap, wro te that “leng ht of each part of the Tur kish

MIL LEN NI UM CIR CU LAR MAP OF TUR KIC WORLD

BY ISMAIL KAZIMOVDOCTOR OF PHILOLOGY, PROFESSOR

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he first map in the Tur kish world was fo und on the

wall of a ho u se du ring the ex ca va ti ons in Cha tal ha -

yuk. This map da ted 8200 ye ar be fo re, is plan of the

city and is shown in the Mu se um of Ana to li an cul -

tu re. The first comp le te map of Turks was cre a ted in

the ele venth cen tury by Mah mud Kash ga ri.

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35 DECEMBER 2013

lands stra ting from Rum up to Mac hin is fi ve tho u -sand pa ra sangs and the width is eight tho u sandpa ra sangs. To high light the se all of them ha ve be -en shown in the circ lu lar sha pe li ke the sha pe ofearth” (Be sim Ata lay. Di va nu Lûgat-it-Tur kish, Tur -kish trans la ti on, TDK pub., An ka ra, 1940, CI, p., 30).)

It is ne ces sary to lo ok at the map of Mah mudKash ga ri, from the po int of vi ew of ono mas tic, to -pony mic as pect and to iden tify a symbo lic me a ningof the na mes of pla ces and co lors, lo ca ti on tra jec -tory, etc.

Na mes of mo un ta in, ri ver, sea and ot her to -pony ms are mar ked in the map with dif fe rent co -lo urs. Mah mud Kash ga ri used yel low, red, gre en,black, blue, grey co lo urs in or der to dis tin gu ish thena mes of lo ca ti on, ter ri tory, city, mo un ta in, wa terba sins, and bor ders from one anogt her on themap.

As the gre at tur ko lo gist sa id him self, hedrew this map to spe cify the lo ca ti on of ter ri to ri es,in ha bi ted by Turks.

Gre at Wall of Chi na was shown on the map.The na me of Ba la sa gun city is writ ten in the cent reof the map. Ca pi tal city on Kash ga ri's map was be -ing chan ged from se a son by se a son. Thus Ga rak -hanly khans used to li ve in the city of Kash gar inthe win ter and in Ba la sa gun in the spring. But in re -a lity ca pi tal city was Kash gar. That is why, Kash garcity was cal led Or du-Kend (City of Army) (Mu ham -med Emin Bug ra. His tory of Eas tern Tur kis tan. An -ka ra, 1987, p. 179).

Azer ba i jan sci en tist Ra miz As ker wro te thena mes of pla ces on Mah mud Kash ga ri's map in La -tin scripts. On the top of the list he wro te: “Na mesof ge og rap hi cal pla ces, ci ti es, dist ricts, co unt ri esand lands, and ot her marks we re nu me ra ted andin sir ted in to the tab le, the new na mes of so me ci ti -es and co unt ri es, are al so in clu ded in to the map inor der the ir ani ci ent na mes to ha ve be en re cog ni ze.For examp le, Cha par ka - Ja pan, Mac hin - Ta u gach,Sey hun - Syr Dar ya, Abis gun - Cas pi an sea, Chey -hun - Amu Dar ya, Er tish ri ver - Ir tysh ri ver, Sham -

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Da mas cus and so on. Na me of Azer ba i jan is writ ten on the 92nd

row (as Azer ba da gan). Mo un ta ins on the map are high ligh ted me di um

and light brown co lo urs, and red co lors. On the lo -wer right part of the map “El-Ham rul-Che bel” i.e.“red, gold mo un ta in” is writ ten in Ara bic.

Na mes of se as are mar ked gre en on the map.“El-Hud ril-Bi har” is writ ten on the up per right partof the map in Ara bic, which me ans “gre en sea”.

The pro pa ga ti on of yel low, gre en, red co lo ursin “Di van” is an in di ca ti on of sympathy of Turks toChi ne se silk. The se co lo urs pla yed a fa vo rab le ro lein the da ily li fe of Turks. “Gre en” co lo ur is the co -lor of li fe, fresh ness, vi ta lity, ele ments of hu man li -fe and yo uth.

Na mes of ri vers are mar ked in grey. On theup per left part of the map the sen ten ce “El-Gu -bu rul-En har” was writ ten in Ara bic al pha bet,which me ans “Ri ver in gray, kha ki ri vers”. The co -lo ur of the ri ver is blue. Blue, ma ri ne co lo ur is a

symbol of fi de lity, lo yalty, fri end ship, cla rity,cle an li ness.

Na mes of pla ces whe re pe op le are in ha bi tedare mar ked in yel low co lor. The sen ten ce “Es-Suf -rur-Ri mal” is writ ten on the lo wer left part of themap which me ans “Sands, step pes are cop per-co -lo red”. Na mes of Mo unt su vi, Black Brow Bull, Ta -vush gan bull, Jeyk hun, Er tish, Etyl, Is hyg kol, Ko -rung kock and na mes of ot her ri vers and la kes aremar ked in blue.

Tal king abo ut bo un da ri es Mah mud Kash ga rista tes, that to day the bor ders of the Tur kish co -unt ry starts li ke a cir cum fe ren ti al land of theAbis gun (Cas pi an) sea from the land of Rum andOz chent strec hing to Chi na.

Ove rall, ref lec ti on of to pony mic tit les and ge -og rap hic di rec ti ons in Mah mud Kash ga ri's map wasal so subs tan ti a ted via co lo ur mo ti ves.

This pro ves that Mah mud Kash ga ri was notonly a lin gu ist scho lar, but al so a scho lar of ge og -raphy and re sa erc her of to pog raphy.

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38DECEMBER 2013

BY DR CHINGIZ GARASHARLIPRO FES SOR OF THE AZER BA I JAN UNI VER SITY OF LAN GU A GES

Who we re the Tro jans?

Chin giz Ga ras har li, pro fes sor of the Azer ba i -jan Uni ver sity of Lan gu a ges, an swers this qu es ti -on in his newly pub lis hed bo ok “The Tro jans we reTurks”. His conc lu si on is ba sed on fo ur fac tors: 1.In for ma ti on of Old Eu ro pe an aut hors, who wri teabo ut the Tur kic ori gins of the Tro jans. The Fre -de gar Chro nic le of the 7th cen tury, Ges ta Fran co -rum of the 12th cen tury, Tyre li Wil li am of the12th cen tury, An drea Dan da lo of the 14th cen turyand many ot hers con si de red the Turks to ha vedes cen ded from the Tur cos of the Tro jan ori gin.Fe lik Fab ri, a Ger man aut hor, re fer red the Tur kichis tory of Troy to the ol der pe ri od - to the ti meof Te uc ros.

Gi o van ni Ma rio Fi lel fo in forms in his work“Am yris” that Sul tan Meh med the 2nd pre sen tedhis vic tory over Gre eks as a tri umph of jus ti ce.According to him, with the con qu est of Is tan bulthe Turks re ven ged the Gre eks who had on ce oc -

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ne of the fac tors to pro ve the Tur kic ori gins of the

Tro jans is the Et rus can wri tings that has be en de -

cip he red by Prof. Chin giz Ga ras har li thro ugh Old

Tur kic lan gu a ges. The Et rus cans are known to ha -

ve des cen ded from the Tro jans who had mig ra ted

to Italy af ter the col lap se of Troy.

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DECEMBER 2013

cu pi ed it.Sul tan Meh med, the Tur kish sul tan, who was

well-in for med abo ut the Tur kic ori gins of Troy,was right to con si der the con qu est of Is tan bul asven ge an ce for Troy. La ter in the 20th cen turyMus ta fa Ke mal Ata turk con si de red his vic tory onfo re ign in va ders as ven ge an ce for Ek tor, a Tro janhe ro, the son of the last Tro jan king - Pri am.

In fact the se Tur kish vic to ri es we re not at allin va si on, but li be ra ti on of old mot her land andven ge an ce for Troy of which evi den ce the Eu ro -pe an so ur ces of 7th-15th cen tu ri es.

Af ter Troy was dest ro yed by the Gre eks, itspo pu la ti on mig ra ted in dif fe rent di rec ti ons,among which two of them are of par ti cu lar in te -rest: tho se who mig ra ted to Italy fo un ded the Et -rus can ci vi li za ti on and tho se who sett led in thenorth of Eu ro pe we re de alt with in old Ger ma nicsa gas as the Tur kic kings of Swe den and Nor way.

The se cond fac tor to pro ve the Tur kic ori ginsof the Tro jans is the Et rus can wri tings that hasbe en de cip he red by Ch.Ga ras har li thro ugh OldTur kic lan gu a ges. The Et rus cans are known toha ve des cen ded from the Tro jans who had mig -ra ted to Italy af ter the col lap se of Troy.

So me Eu ro pe an re se arc hers yet in the pre vi -o us cen tu ri es ha ving fo und Tur kic words in theEt rus can lan gu a ge, con si de red it to be of Tur kicori gin. They co uld not ho we ver go furt her on in tothe texts, as the ir trans la ti on ne e ded a de e perknow led ge of Old Tur kic lan gu a ges which co uldser ve as key to the Et rus can wri tings. It was do neby Ga ras har li in his re se arc hes.

Ga ras har li is right to say that the old Eu ro pe -an so ur ces had no re a son to fab ri ca te fal se sto ri -es abo ut Troy. He pre sents nu me ro us facts ofthe Old Tur kic na mes of the Tro jans that pro vethe in for ma ti on of the Old Eu ro pe an aut hors. It isthe third fac tor to pro ve the Tur kic ori gins of theTro jans:

Pri am, the na me of the last Tro jan king, isob vi o usly the sa me Pri yam, the na me of a Tu ra -ni an com man der, desc ri bed in an old Tur kic (Ka -zakh) epic. It sho uld be men ti o ned that the Ka zakhan thro po nomy is par ti cu larly dis tin gu is hedamong Tur kic lan gu a ges for con ta i ning evi dentearly Me di ter ra ne an (Tro jan, Pe las gi an) na mes.

Even the na me of the Io ni an (Pe las gi an) folk sin -ger and po et, Ho mer, turns out to ha ve its co un -ter part in the Ka zakh epic: Gu mar, a mytho lo gi calTu ra ni an folk sin ger

Ga ras har li dis co vers in the an tho po nomy ofthe Tro jans a who le gro up of Tur kic na mes,which ha ve evi dent co un ter parts in the old Tur kic,Ka zakh, Kirg hi zi an, Chu vash and ot her Tur kic lan -gu a ges.

Dar dan, an an ces tor of Pri am's ge ne ra ti on, isthe sa me Kirg hi zi an Dar dan - a per so nal na me.And the in terp re ta ti on is re a so nab le:

Tur kic Dar dan stems from the Kirg hi zi an ap -pel la ti ve dar dan, which forms the per so nal na meme a ning “he alt hy”, “enor mo us”, “clumsy”.

Al ber, the na me of a Tro jan com man der, isthe sa me old Tur kic Al per, de no ting “he ro”, “bra -ve” (O.Turk. alp, alb, “he ro”, “bra ve” - er “man”)which was wi dely used as a com po nent of OldTur kic per so nal na mes, and in the na me of Al perTon ga, a Tu ra ni an ru ler.

Ga ras har li dis co vers this na me in old Ger ma -nic sa gas. “The sa ga abo ut Ni be lungs” tells usabo ut the albs (”he ro es”) and the ir king Al be rikh -Tro jan by ori gin, who we re the le a ders of theTro jans..

As kan, the na me of a Tro jan he ro, is comp le -tely con so nant with an Old Tur kic per so nal na me -As kan, used by the Huns. To day it is ob ser ved inthe an thro po nomy of the Tur kic Al tays. Ch.Ga ras -har li de ri ves its ori gin from the ap pel la ti ve as kan(”vi o lent”, “na ugh ty”) used in Tur kic lan gu a ges.

Pa ris, the na me of Pri am's son, is fo und toco in ci de with the Tur kic (Kha kas) Pa ris, a va ri antof the per so nal na mes Ba ris/Barys/Bary sh/Bars,used in ot her Tur kic lan gu a ges. It is de ri ved fromthe Tur kic parys/pars/bars (”oun ce”, “snow le o -pard”) and used as the symbol of streng th in Tur -kic an thro po nomy. It is al so ob ser ved in suchcom po und per so nal na mes as Bars beg, Bars kan,Ba rýs bek (Ka zakh), Ba ris bi (Ka rac hay - Bal kar), etc.

The ono mas tic ana lo gi es fo und by the aut -hor are mo re and mo re. He finds that Ay til la, Pri -am's sis ter, to be the sa me as the Kirg hi zi an Ay til -la, a ma le na me.

Ba ti ya, a fe ma le per so nal na me, re fer red tothe da ugh ter of Te uc ros, the first king of Troy, is

the sa me Ba ti ya used in the Ka zakh an thro po -nomy as fe ma le na me.

Thus, the aut hor finds the na mes of both Pri -am and his ge ne ra ti on in Tur kic an thro po nomy.

Ga ras har li finds out ana lo gi es bet we en Tur -kic-Tro jan gods. For in stan ce, Ba ya na, At ho ro di -ta's epit het in Troy. In Gre ek mytho logy At ho ro di -ta was known as the god dess of mar ri a ge, birthand nur sing”. The sa me func ti on be lon ged to theTur kic God dess, Ba ya na, which has ob vi o us Tur kicro ots. Com po sed of the Tur kic bay (”pro tect -ress”, “gre at”, “sac red”) and ana (”mot her”), thethe onym de no tes “the pro tect ress of the tri be”,“the gre at mot her of the tri be”.

Fi nally, the fo urth fac tor is the Old Tur kic(Tro jan) le xi con bor ro wed in to the Scan di na vi -an lan gu a ges from the Tro jan lan gu a ge, bro -ught he re by the Tro jans af ter the col lap se ofTroy.

The exis tan ce of Tur kic Tro jans in Scan di na -via was de alt by prof. Sven La gerb ring (1707-1787) in his bo ok “The Tur kic fat hers of the Scan -di na vi ans”. In his bo ok he de mons tra tes a lot ofTur kic words used in the Swe dish lan gu a ge withthe sa me me a ning as in Tur kic.

Prof. Ga ras har li's per so nal re se arc hes gi vesthe sa me re sult. He has dis co ve red a num ber ofTur kic words in Scan di na vin and Cel tic lan gu a geswhich are har mo ni o us with the in for ma ti on of theold Scan di na vi an sa gas abo ut the Tur kic kings ofSwe den and Nor way.

Re se arc hes of Ga ras har li il lu ci da tes the darkages of Scan di na vi an his tory which was con nec -ted with the Tro jans, the old sett lers of this landaf ter the col lap se of Troy. The se his to ri calevents as well as the Tur kic ori gins of the Me di -ter ra ne an ci vi li za ti on is de alt in the bo ok “The Tur -kic Ci vi li za ti on Lost in the Me di ter ra ne an Ba sin”.

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41 DECEMBER 2013

42DECEMBER 2013

“In no va ti on”- as a new fi eld of study is partof con tem po rary phi lo sop hi cal tho ught of ten in -clu ded in to the so ci al phi lo sophy, phi lo sophy ofsci en ce and tech no logy. Mo re con ci sely, it ispart of the sci en ce of pra xe o logy. At ti tu de tosci en ce as a pri o rity fac tor of na ti o nal de ve lop -ment is jus ti fi ed by a num ber of aut hors of thebo ok as a pre re qu i si te to the prac ti ce of so ci alchan ge, in ac cor dan ce with the pre sent his to ri -cal sta ge of the glo ba li zed world.

The re are a num ber of re se arc hes and ar -tic les de di ca ted to the so cio-phi lo sop hi calanaly ses of in no va ti on, to its ge ne sis, struc tu reand spe ci fi city to da te. Ho we ver, not eno ughat ten ti on is gi ven, as a ru le, to the most ne ces -sary for po int of the phi lo sophy of its me a su re -ment - to its ref lec ti ve na tu re, that can re ve alits pla ce and ro le in the de ve lop ment of so ci etythro ugh the es tab lis hed ca te go ri cal sche me ofphi lo sop hi cal met ho do logy. A jus ti fi ed phi lo -sop hi cal mo del of in no va ti on ne eds at le ast thetwo es sen ti al con di ti ons: re cog ni ti on se qu en ceof the in no va ti on pro cess and in cre a se of the

So cio-phi lo sop hi cal analy sis of In no va ti ons

BY PhD ELDAR SHAHGALDIYEVAS SO SI A TE VI CE REC TOR OF KHA ZAR UNI VER SITY

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El dar Shah gal di yev

he re are a num ber of re se arc hes and ar tic les de di ca ted

to the so cio-phi lo sop hi cal analy ses of in no va ti on, to its

ge ne sis, struc tu re and spe ci fi city to da te. Ho we ver, not

eno ugh at ten ti on is gi ven, as a ru le, to the most ne ces -

sary for po int of the phi lo sophy of its me a su re ment - to

its ref lec ti ve na tu re, that can re ve al its pla ce and ro le in

the de ve lop ment of so ci ety thro ugh the es tab lis hed ca te -

go ri cal sche me of phi lo sop hi cal met ho do logy.

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cost of in vest ment in sci en ce (sci en ce is be co -ming mo re and mo re ex pen si ve). Thus, the eco -no mic con text of un ders tan ding in no va ti on isbe co ming cru ci ally im por tant for each re se -arch pro ject. But what dis tin gu is hes phi lo sophyof in no va ti on? In our vi ew, the at tri bu tes ofphi lo sop hi cal analy sis are al ways the o re ti calsche mes - ca te go ri cal and met ho do lo gi calwhich are in the ir turn ab le to be set in the uni -ver sal sen se, in clu ding the pra xe o lo gi cal. In phi -lo sophy the mul ti tu de num ber of me a nings ofin no va ti on (high tech, no velty, pa ten ting, tech nosphe re, tech no lo gi cal in no va ti on, ad van cedtech no logy, com mer ci a li zed in no va ti on, in du -ced in no va ti on, in no va ti on cre a ti vity, in no va ti vechan ges, etc.) cre a te cer ta in con fu si ons in de -ter mi na ti on its no ti o nal ap pa ra tus and con ceptdic ho tomy, ob ject and pur po se wit hin the his -tory of hu man ac ti vity and re so ur ces which arein clu ded in to the sub ject mat ter. “On the onehand, in no va ti on rep re sents con ti nu ity with thepast. It is con ti nu ity in the sen se that in no va ti onis abo ut no velty, an idea that was pre sent inmany forms be fo re in no va ti on to ok on a cent -ral pla ce in rep re sen ta ti ons, as we will see. It isal so con ti nu ity in the sen se that in no va ti on is,to many, con cer ned with tech no lo gi cal in ven ti -on, which is a do mi nant un ders tan ding of whatin ven ti on ca me to me an over ti me. Ho we ver,on the ot her hand in no va ti on is a bre ak with thepast in the sen se that it sug gests that in ven ti onper se is not eno ugh. The re has to be use andadop ti on of the in ven ti on, na mely in no va ti on, inor der for be ne fits to ac crue.” As this pa per do -es not pur sue to ex pli citly cla rify the ter mi no -lo gi cal po le mics aro und “in no va ti on”, and itsge ne a lo gi cal out li ne (al tho ugh much has be enwrit ten abo ut it), we will only sa tisfy with thear gu ments that, in no va ti ons sho uld be analy -zed wit hin the ir in ter nal con tex tu al and struc tu -ral ele ments re la ted to a cer ta in ti me. Thus,“in no va ti on” is now mo re all-em bra cing interms of its in ter nal cons ti tu ents and con sis -tent ele ments.

To day, in no va ti ons, ba sed on the mosthigh-tech in dust ri es are mo re ri go ro usly pe net -ra ting in to the so ci ety and cul tu re. En han ce -ment ap pli ca ti on of IT tech no lo gi es, bi o tech no -

logy and bi o me di ci ne, ar ti fi ci al in tel li gen ce andan thro po morp hic ro bots, new bi o met ri cal de vi -ces such as iris checks, so und wa ve me a su re -ments, so und edi ti ons and ot her fe a tu res or se -cu rity checks which are in clu ded, for examp le,in to the mig rant pro ces sing pro ce du res, openthe new ho ri zons and norms of sci en ti fic re se -arch and ge ne ra te new on to logy and glo bal“com mu ni ca ti on hubs” for furt her re se arc hes.The mo dern world has al so star ted re mo vingthe old po la rity of phi lo sop hi cal dic ho tomy ofsub ject / ob ject, and now calls for a new “un -bund ling me a nings” of the con cept.

Mo dern phi lo sophy of sci en ce and tech no -logy sho uld una vo i dably en com pass the ma jortech no lo gi cal ad van ces of post-in dust ri al ci vi li -za ti on and in no va ti ve in dust ry, and the lat ter inits turn, sho uld mo ve in the di rec ti on of ma xi -mum “prag ma tic phi lo sophy”. Hen ce forth, thenew fi eld of study is ge ne ra ted pri ma rily at thepo int of in ter sec ti on (in te rac ti on) of bi o so ci aland tech no logy, mo re exact ly, at the ed ge ofthe bo un da ri es of “no velty” and “tra di ti o nal”.Ac tu ally, this is de ve lo ping im pe tus the new“cross ro ad”, whe re the al ter na ti ve on to logy andepis te mo lo gi cal mo dels are ex pan ding the axi o -lo gi cal and mo ral ho ri zons. That is why, it is qu i -te lo gi cal to as su me that the mo dern phi lo -sophy of sci en ce and tech no logy sho uld al soser ve as an in no va ti on phi lo sophy.

Ho we ver, the ob ject of its study is not onlya phe no me non of mo dern tech no logy and“high-tech”, but the es sen ce of both. In fact, asa form of ac ti ve agent, in no va ti on subs tan ti allytrans forms and chan ges the con tents of the oldtra di ti o nal phi lo sop hi cal prob lems and is su es, atthe sa me ti me mo re in vol ving the hu man pre -sen ce as the ma in vec tor of de ve lop ment,which is di rec ted to wards the so a ring tech no lo -gi cal in ter ven ti on in bi o so ci al. Me anw hi le, evenwo uld it be much con ci se and bri ef, we ha ve tobring so me mo dels of phi lo sop hi cal in terp re ta ti -ons re la ted to the iden ti fi ca ti on of con tentanaly sis of in no va ti on for much cla rity.

Ro bert K. Mer ton, Jac qu es El lul, and Ma rioBun ge are the outs tan ding rep re sen ta ti ves ofphi lo sop hi cal analy zers of tech no logy who ha veal so de eply di ved in to the ho lis tic and sci en ti fic

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44DECEMBER 2013

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eva lu a ti on of in no va ti on phe no me na. In the bo ok“The Tech no lo gi cal So ci ety” (1964) J. El lul desc ri -bed all tech no lo gi cal in no va ti ons as “tech ni que”ten ded to be ap pli ed to the glo bal ap pli ca ti ons ofthe re pe a ted cycles for ga i ning the cer ta in fi naland suc cess ful go als. He wro te that “tech ni que”for him is po ten ti ally ap pli cab le to any area of li -fe and is al ways jud ged and mo di fi ed by the cri -te ria of ef fi ci ency. Whi le desc ri bing tech no logy,Ma rio Bun ge sta tes that it is un for tu na te that thephi lo sophy of prag ma tism has less gi ven us. Hedesc ri bes the re la ti ons bet we en tech no logy andphi lo sophy “in terms of in puts and out puts. Onthe out put si de, he no tes the tech no logy supp li -es system-the o re ti cal-on to lo gi es (i.e. con cep tu alsystems of the na tu re of sci en ti fi cally kno wab leob ject li ke the Bun ge him self has pro du ced in amul ti-vo lu me tre a ti se).”

Anot her mo dern con cep tu al so ur ce of thesub ject mat ter is the “The El lul Fo rum” fo un -ded in 1988. It plays a cru ci al ro le in il lust ra tingand de ba ting aro und the re se arc hes and analy -ses of in no va ti ons. It pub lis hes the ar tic les andre sults of dis cus si ons on in no va ti ons, the cri ti -que re fer ring to the tech no lo gi cal ci vi li za ti onscon nec ted with new trends of the world de ve -lop ment. In its 43rd is sue de vo ted to “El lul inScan di na via”, pro fes sor Erik Pers son, a fa cultymem ber in the De part ment of In for ma ticsfrom Lund Uni ver sity, Swe den in his ar tic le“Cyberg nos ti cism Tri ump hant? To wards an El -lu li an Analy sis of Cybers pa ce and Cyber ga -ming” wri tes: “The pat ho lo gi es of “ex tre me sci -en ce” and “the sci en ce of the im pla u sib le” showup al most every whe re in to day's sci en ti ficworld, the most spec ta cu larly, per haps, in fi -elds such as ge ne tic en gi ne e ring, em bryo nicstem cell re se arch, clo ning, na no tech no logy,ar ti fi ci al in tel li gen ce (AI), and ro bo tics with the irout lan dish dis co ur ses on such to pics as thetrans for ma ti on of all li ving mat ter in to “graygoo” thro ugh an out-of-cont rol self-rep li ca tingna nop ro cess (”the ac ci dent to end all ac ci -dents”), the se lec ti ve kil ling of enemy po pu la ti -ons thro ugh ge ne ti cally en gi ne e red “na no vi ru -ses”, the cu re of all il lnes ses thro ugh na no me -di ca ments or stem cell broths ma de on abor -

ted fo e tu ses, the clo ning of hu man be ings andthe “up lo a ding” of the ir minds in to a com pu ter'sme mory, or the fu tu re overs ha do wing and rep -la ce ment of man by ar ti fi ci ally hyper in tel li gentro bots, just to men ti on a few po pu lar the mesof this kind. Evi dent ly, al so vir tu al re a lity andcybers pa ce must be in clu ded among st the ma -ni fes ta ti ons of “ex tre me sci en ce”, exu ding thetypi cal odo ur of un rest ra i ned tech no latry andpne u ma pat ho logy” Tech no logy is not an edu -ca ti o nal pa na cea. It is only a to ol to help sol vea bro ad ba sed prob lem. We ha ve to use tech -no logy rat her than be used by it. Sci en ce, in itshis to ri cal de ve lop ment, can ren der so me cor -rec ti ons to the “prac ti cal ur gency of in no va ti -ons” which is cha rac te ri zed by 3 types of chan -ges in the sci en ti fic ra ti o na lity fol lo wed by Ste -pin V.S.and Kuz net so va L.F: clas si cal, non-clas -si cal and post-non clas si cal ra ti o na lity Theywro te: “the cri te ria for dis tin gu is hing them are:1) The fe a tu res of or ga ni za ti o nal system of ob -jects as si mi la ted by sci en ce (simp le systems,comp lex self-cor rec ting, self-de ve lo pingcomp lex systems), 2) the in he rent ra ti o na lityof each type of system of ide als and stan dardsof re se arch (ex pla na ti on, desc rip ti on, ra ti o na le,struc tu re and cons truc ti on of know led ge) and3) the spe ci fics of the phi lo sop hi cal and met ho -do lo gi cal ref lec ti ons over the cog ni ti ve ac ti -vity, en su ring the in clu si on of sci en ti fic know -led ge in the ir his to ri cal cul tu re.”

The met ho do logy of sci en ti fic in no va ti oncons ti tu tes the cor ners to ne for its pers pec ti vedi men si ons which in clu des three in ter re la tedele ments which are usu ally analy zed se pa ra -tely: (a) con di ti ons for the ef fec ti ve ness of in -no va ti on, (b) re so ur ces, mo dels of com mer ci a li -za ti on of re se arch, and (c) stan dards and risksof in no va ti on.

Des pi te the abun dan ce of exis ting in terp re -ta ti ons abo ut the so cio-phi lo sop hi cal analy sesof the con tent and struc tu re of in no va ti on, the -re are still so me are as that ne ed a spe ci al at -ten ti on by the sci en tists. To our vi ew, the se arethe fol lo wings: 1.First of all, the re sho uld be acle ar de fi ni ti on to be ab le to co ver the uni ver salsca le of 'in no va ti on”, its de mar ca ti on li nes to be

con so li da ted in to the most ef fec ti ve ar ti fi ci al in -teg rity. 2. The pro cess of tho ught in in no va ti on(ob ser va ti ons, hypot he ses, ex pe ri ments, lawsand the o ri es) is not con nec ted only with the di -ver sity exis ting bet we en the old and new or va -ri o us spe eds of sci en ti fic de ve lop ments, but al -so with “com mo na li ti es” of mo dern in no va ti onsfor all to bring the ends to get her. But wo uld itpos sib le? Re gar ding to this po int, Way ne E.Bundy wri tes: “It is for tu na te, in de ed, that thesci en ti fic met hod is not uni ver sally ac cep tedand is ri gidly fol lo wed per cep ti on for dis co veryin sci en ce and tech no logy. Such blind obe di en cewo uld help to as su re the per sis ten ce of sta tusquo, the reby dec re a sing the cre di bi lity of thetech ni cal world.”

3. Not all in no va ti ons ap pli ed in the co ur seof the glo bal pro duc ti on turns “the thing” in to“hot mo ney”, “spe cu la ti ve tran sac ti ons”, that iswhy a tho ro ugh the ory of “risks and ma na ge -ment of in no va ti ons” al so ne ed to be in pla ce.

4. The con ti nu ing chan ges of in no va ti on ha vethe in cre a sing num ber of at trac ti ve fe a tu res forits users as im pro ve ment of so ci al wel fa re, so ci -al and eco no mic ac ce le ra ti ons, and pro duct-de -ve lop ment ac ti vi ti es and so on. It cle arly ne eds tomo re pre ci sely analy ze and ca te go ri ze the userand pro du cer re la ti ons whi le ap plying in no va ti -ons. From this end, pro fes sor Eric Von Hip pel qu i -te jus ti fi ably wri tes that “if an elect ri ci an we re tode ve lop an im pro ve ment to the in stal la ti on at tri -bu tes of a switch, it wo uld be con si de red a user-de ve lo ped in no va ti on” . This pro cess will furt herine vi tably ne ed the es tab lish ment of “de moc ra ti -zing the na tu re of in no va ti on”.

Fu tu re de ve lop ments in the for ma ti on ofnew in no va ti ons will de fi ni tely be long to thecon cept of trans for ma ti on of bi osp he re in to no -osp he re and emer ging of ar ti fi ci al li fe of bi osp -he re and glo bal so ci ety in the 21st and 22ndcen tu ri es. To our opi ni on, such kind of syste ma -tic so cio-na tu ral ap pro ach to the chan ges of in -no va ti ve pro ces ses will pre sent it self as themost comp re hen si ve met hod to in terp ret theso cio-phi lo sop hi cal and epis te mo lo gi cal analy -ses of the is sue. Evi dent ly, in no va ti ons usu allyturn to in he rit so me re mar kab le me taph ysi cal

pro ces ses of the his tory and one can not cont ra -dict the fol lo wing ar gu ments and conc lu si onsdrawn by Ma rio Bun ge on that: “1. The world iscom po sed of things, that is, it is not simp le, andit is not ma de of ide as or of sha des of ide as; 2.Things get to get her in systems (com po sed ofthings in mo re or less clo se in te rac ti on), and so -me systems are fa irly well iso la ted from ot -hers; 3. All things, all facts, all pro ces ses, whet -her in na tu re or in so ci ety, fit in to ob jec ti ve stab -le pat terns (laws); 4. Not hing co mes out of not -hing and not hing go es over in to not hing ness; 5.De ter mi na ti on is of ten mul tip le and pro ba bi lis ticrat her than simp le or li ne ar.”

Now, let us say a few words abo ut themost de ba tab le and cont ra dic tory si des of in no -va ti on. Tech no ge ne tic ra ti o na le usu ally cont ri -bu tes to the im pro ve ment of li fe con di ti ons ofthe hu ma nity. Ho we ver, at the sa me ti me it al sole ads to glo bal deg ra da ti on of hu man bi osp he refa ci li ta ting to the aro u sal of ar ti fi ci al li fe. It is al -so con nec ted with the mo dern cont ra dic torymar ket eco nomy and its for ma ti ve ro le in thetech noc ra tic so ci ety. Sci en tists sho uld mo re ri -go ro usly jo in the ir ef forts on the hu ma nis tic ap -pro ac hes of new dis co ve ri es and in no va ti veprac ti ces and mo re prag ma ti cally fo cus on de -moc ra ti zing in no va ti ons and cre a ti vity in mo -dern or ga ni za ti ons.

Aut hor's bi og raphy

El dar Shah gal di yev is As so ci a te Pro fes sorat Kha zar Uni ver sity,He ad of Di vi si on of Gra du a te Stu di es andRe se arch, and As so ci a teVi ce Rec tor. He jo i ned Kha zar Uni ver sity in1999 as an in struc torin So ci o logy and Edu ca ti o nal Psycho logy.Pre vi o usly he wasEdi tor of “Yurd”, is su ed by the Of fi ce ofthe Pre si dent of Re pub licof Azer ba i jan, Su per vi sor of the Tra i ning &Staff Com pe tencyDe part ment at McDer mott, and a staffmem ber at IOM Azer ba i jan.

45 DECEMBER 2013

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46DECEMBER 2013

NEW

BO OKS

OBSERVERAZERI

“Re a lity in Lie”, a bo ok by Fa zil Gu ney (Ab ba -sov), a well-known pub li cist, wri ter and jo ur na list,comp ri ses se ve ral fic ti on samp les, and its elect -ro nic ver si on is ava i lab le on the Ama zon web si te.Two short no vels, three sto ri es and two es sayswe re in clu ded in the bo ok.

Well-known po et, li te ra tu re pro pa gan da bu -re au chi ef at the Azer ba i jan Wri ters Uni on, Na zimAh mad li, tal ked abo ut thisbo ok and the cre a ti vework of Fa zil Gu ney to acor res pon dent of Aze riOb ser ver.

Un for tu na tely, En -glish-spe a king re a dersaren't in for med abo ut the6-7th cen tury epic mo nu -ment “De de Gor gud “, phi -lo sop her and po et Ni za miGan ja vi and po e tess Meh -se ti, who cre a ted in the12th cen tury, the un just lykil led 14th cen tury po etand phi lo sop her Ima mad -din Na si mi, the 16th cen -tury Su fi po et of lo ve Mu -ham mad Fi zu li, and po et

and playw right of the 20th cen tury Hu seyn Ja vid,who was kil led in exi le in Si be ria by Bols he viks, aswell as con tem po rary li te ra tu re of the Azer ba i ja -ni pe op le.

Sin ce all of the pub li ca ti ons we re cont rol ledby the So vi et re gi me, it was for bid den to trans la -te any li te ra tu re samp le and pub lish it ab ro ad wit -ho ut the per mis si on of Mos cow. Af ter Azer ba i jan

ga i ned its in de pen den ce, the -se ob stac les we re im pro ved,but so far in sig ni fi cant stepsha ve be en ta ken in this area.

Last ye ar, works of mo -dern wri ters and the 488-pa ge “Mo dern Azer ba i ja ni anPro se” al ma nac was pub lis -hed by com pi la ti on of uni -ver sity pro fes sor, fa mo uswri ter Va gif Sul tan li, in theUni ted Sta tes.

The 200-pa ge bo ok “Re -a lity in Lie” con ta ins a col lec -ti on of fic ti o nal works by Fa -zil Gu ney which most ly ref -lect Azer ba i ja ni li fe of the la -test pe ri od, the pe op le's li fein the tran si ti on pe ri od, and

Fa zil Gu ney: “Re a lity in Lie”

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47 DECEMBER 2013

the fa te of the cha rac ters from both fronts ofthe Ga ra bagh war. The mes of the sto ri es we rede ri ved from re al li fe. So me of the sto ri es we rewrit ten with a to uch of sar casm, in sa ti ri cal spi rit.The ot her part is abo ut the bit ter ness of batt lesfor jus ti ce, the in cre a sing ly de e pe ning dis tan cebet we en the rich and po or in the so ci ety, and re -cent ye ars, which ca u sed me lod ra mas ma kingone cry and gi ves him or her a he ar tac he.

”Black Blo od”, a two-vo lu me his to ri cal no velby F.Gu ney abo ut Ga ra bagh War, was of gre at in -te rest for the re a ders and was ho no red with “Yad -dash” (”Me mory”) award of the Wri ters Uni on.

Bri ef desc rip ti on of the con tent:“Story 1: “Mo ney to buy He a ven”Can a cor rupt, sin ful per son earn his way in -

to he a ven thro ugh phi lant hropy? A cor rupt go -vern ment of fi ci al (or just bu re a uc rat) earns hisric hes thro ugh bri bery - he has every thing hewants - ex cept a tic ket to he a ven. He is con vin cedthat phi lant hropy will wash away his sins…but ishe sin ce re or is of fe ring a bri be to God…

“Story 2: “God fat her Duty”This story is ba sed on true facts that to ok

pla ce du ring the war bet we en Ar me nia and Azer -ba i jan. In the midst of a vi o lent, blo ody et hnic con-f lict, an Ar me ni an mi li tary of fi cer de ci des to helphis for mer ne igh bor, an Aze ri man, to es ca pefrom the Ar me ni an cap ti vity. He ta kes a dan ge ro -us per so nal stan ce ba sed on his fe e lings of mer-cy and per so nal jus ti ce and de fi es his go vern -ment and the hard li ne vi ew most in his so ci etyha ve abo ut the ir for mer ne igh bors. Ba sed ontrue facts, this story shows that even in a worldtur ned up si de down and fil led with de ath, we allha ve an in di vi du al cho i ce to ma ke - to sha re in theblo od lust or to stop it.

“Story 3: “The Girl of Eman ci pa ti on”The Kid nap ped Gro om (ni ce way to ha ve fun with this)Ye ars of tra di ti on in the Ca u ca sus ha ve the

gro om kid nap ping his bri de-to-be - a much mo rero man tic, dra ma tic ver si on of a Wes tern elo pe -ment. Yet even in the Ca u ca sus the ti mes arechan ging and in this story, tra di ti on is tur ned onits he ad as a we alt hy, po wer ful wo man has de ci -ded she will kid nap her gro om! Wo men's eman -ci pa ti on Ca u ca sus style!

“Story 4: “Re a lity in Lie”Can the truth exist wit ho ut li es? This is the

story of a con man. Wor king as a midd le man bet -we en bri be ta kers and bri be gi vers, he has ac cu -mu la ted gre at we alth, but his li fe is ba sed on li es,fra ud and cor rup ti on. A be a u ti ful wo man en tersthis world and he wants to ha ve her - she re fu sesto ha ve an ything to do with him. On ce aga in, here li es on his skills of fra ud and de cep ti on in an ef -fort to get true lo ve, but can lo ve be won thro -ugh de cep ti on and fra ud?

“Story 5: “Songs are Not Gu ilty”In this story, we me et a wo man who was

happy with her mar ri a ge un til she en co un ters fi -nan ci al dif fi cul ti es. Her hus band, who was a jo ur -na list and po et, sup por ted her and the ir fa mily.His many con nec ti ons al so hel ped bo ost her ca -re er, as he was well res pec ted and in flu en ti al.With the col lap se of the old system, so ci ety ra -pidly and dra ma ti cally chan ged...from a so ci a listeco nomy, with its own va lu es, to a ca pi ta list eco -nomy whe re mo ney and po wer are mo re va lu edin the so ci ety. Over night her hus band no lon gercom mands the res pect and in flu en ce that heused to ha ve in the so ci a list so ci ety, he finds him -self unab le to help with her ca re er plans and hecan not sup port the ir fa mily in a way that he usedto be fo re...

48DECEMBER 2013

INTERVIEW

Prof. Dr. Ra fig Y. Ali yev

OBSERVERAZERI

The bo ok Po wer, So ci ety and Re li gi on by Prof. Dr. Ra fig Y. Ali -

yev, pub lis hed by Traf ford Pub lis hing in the U.S., ran ked as

one of the ten best sel lers in March. The bo ok of our scho lar

is lis ted in the third li ne of “Top 25 Sa le Le a ders” on the of fi -

ci al web si te of the pub lis hing ho u se. In la te Sep tem ber 2013,

the bo ok was awar ded the Traf ford Pub lis hing hig hest award,

“The Gold Se al of Li te rary Ex cel len ce”. This is cer ta inly the

hig hest ac hi e ve ment in the an nu al con test of bo oks pub lis -

hed by Traf ford Pub lis hing, ac cor ding to the US Re vi ew of Bo -

oks.

This is a re ally sig ni fi cant event for Azer ba i jan's phi lo sop hi -

cal and pub lic tho ught. Des pi te nu me ro us facts -- ob ser va ti -

on and sum mary of comp li ca ted and in te res ting pro ces ses ta -

king pla ce in the pre sent-day world and strong ly ref lec ted in

the post-So vi et spa ce, lo cal phi lo sop hers, with ra re ex cep ti -

ons, ac tu ally do not ma ke any at temp ts to pur sue a pre emp ti -

ve tac tic and to of fer the ir own con cepts.

In this con text, it is no te wort hy that Po wer, So ci ety and Re li -

gi on was re le a sed in due ti me, the re fo re, the in cre a sed in te -

rest in it ca me as no surp ri se. Chan ges in the po li ti cal li fe in

the Gre a ter Midd le East and North Af ri ca prompt po li ti ci ans

and sci en tists to se ek vi ab le mo dels of co-exis ten ce of Is lam

and de moc racy. Azer ba i jan's ex pe ri en ce in this re gard de ser -

ves a tho ro ugh study, and the co unt ry's in vol ve ment in glo bal

eco no mic and cul tu ral pro jects bo osts its sig ni fi can ce.

Aze ri scho lar's best sel ler re cog ni zed by world com mu nity

49

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DECEMBER 2013

An in ter vi ew with Prof. Ra fig Ali yev, the aut -hor of “Po wer, So ci ety and Re li gi on” pub lis hed byTraf ford Pub lis hing, USA.

Q. What in spi red you to wri te this bo ok?

A. I star ted stud ying re li gi on when I was inscho ol. I used to at tend ce re mo ni es, but I was notre li gi o us. That ga ve me a chan ce to study re li gi onclo sely, wit ho ut bi as. Af ter gra du a ting from theuni ver sity, I wor ked in Mus lim co unt ri es and re a li -zed that re li gi on oc cu pi es its nic he in so ci ety andma kes it at tac ti ve, to le rant and re sis tant to thene ga ti ve spi rit of the ti mes. As far back as 1973,when I was wri ting a the sis, Ide as of So ci a lism inSo uth Ye men, I in clu ded a sec ti on cal led “The ro leof re li gi on in so ci ety” in it. Stran ge as it may se -em, that ri led so me scho lars of the Mos cow In sti -tu te of Ori en tal Stu di es, who tho ught that the re isno ro om for re li gi on in our so ci a lis tic un ders tan -ding. I un ders to od them, sin ce we li ved in one andthe sa me so ci ety. And that was na tu ral: it wasthe ti me of So vi et ru le, we had bu ilt So ci a lism,and we re mo ving to ward Com mu nism un der theban ners of Mar xism-Le ni nism, so, what re li gi onco uld we talk abo ut then?

But I de fen ded my the sis and con ti nu ed wor -king out the system of de fi ni ti on and im por tan ceof re li gi on in pe op le's li ves. That in te rest re sul tedin a re li ab le conc lu si on that no mat ter how badlyre li gi on is per ce i ved, it is very ne ces sary for anyso ci ety, eit her so ci a lis tic and ca pi ta lis tic. Mo re o -ver, be fo re the emer gen ce of re li gi o us systems,at the ti me of a pri mi ti ve com mu nity, pe op le usedto be li e ve in so met hing, be it the for ces of na tu re,ce les ti al bo di es, plants, sto nes or ani mals. For itis im pos sib le to li ve wit ho ut fa ith. The his tory ofman kind span ning many mil len nia pro ves that.

Q. Sum ma ri ze yo ur bo ok in one to three sen -ten ces as if you we re spe a king to so me o ne un fa mi -li ar with yo ur bo ok and its to pic.

A. The bo ok pro vi des a new, mo re re al ap -pro ach to the is su es of re li gi on in so ci ety. To le -ran ce and mu tu al trust in he rent to the world'sre li gi ons - Zo ro ast ri a nism, Budd hism, Ju da ism,Chris ti a nity and Is lam - per me a te ne arly all theide as in the bo ok. Des pi te cen te nary batt les aga -inst re li gi on, I think that pe op le ne ed re li gi on as a

way to cont rol the ir ne ga ti ve emo ti ons; be ing gu i -ded by the pre mi ses of re li gi on as a part of the ireart hly be ing, man can ac hi e ve many things. Thebo ok pro vi des an idea of the ro le and pla ce of re -li gi on in pe op le's re la ti ons wit hin so ci ety, symbo li -zing po wer, so ci ety and re li gi on as three im por -tant fac tors of so ci e tal sta bi lity.

Q. How is yo ur bo ok re le vant to the pre sent-day so ci ety?

A. So ci ety con sists of pe op le with dif fe rentcon vic ti ons of ten le a ding to di sag re e ment, so me -ti mes on trif ling oc ca si ons, which can ca u se blo -ody conf ron ta ti on among the fol lo wers of dif fe -rent re li gi ons. If so ci ety de ems re li gi on not as anad van ta ge but just a way of in ter re la ti on, an ele -ment tan ta mo unt to ot her im por tant com po -nents of hu man li fe, the re will be fe wer conf licts.This is very im por tant for tho se who ha ve at he is -tic and pa gan con vic ti ons, I wo uld rat her say, pre -ju di ces aga inst fa ith and re li gi on. I wo uld sug gestto such pe op le ima gi ning li fe wit ho ut fa ith and re -li gi on for a whi le!

Q. What ma kes yo ur bo ok dif fe rent from tho u -sands of ot her bo oks li ke it?

A. The po int is that the re is not a bo ok li ke it,sin ce it is the first at tempt to sha re the idea ofim por tan ce of the in ter re la ti on and pro per as -sess ment of the in ter re la ti ons among pe op le andbet we en po wer and re li gi on. I think I ha ve fo undat le ast so me -- if not all -- an swers to cri ti cal is -su es of the pre sent day re la ted to the “po wer-so -ci ety-re li gi on” tri ad. The re fo re, the bo ok do es notin clu de po li ti cal or ot her in te rests ex cept the ex -pla na ti on of the re a lity of mo dern ti mes; mo re o -ver, the re a lity of re li gi on pre sent in so ci ety's andan in di vi du al's li fe, re li gi on as an equ i va lent com -po nent of li fe, is em pha si zed.

Q. What do you want re a ders to ta ke awayfrom yo ur wri ting?

A. I want re a ders to un ders tand that alongwith our de si res, the re are things that ne ed no ex -pla na ti on and ex cu ses. Po wer, so ci ety and re li gi -on are a fact, and the ir exis ten ce, I wo uld say, co-exis ten ce and des tiny are, prin ci pally, sol ved in de -pen dent ly, wit ho ut our di rect ac ti ve in vol ve ment.This tri ad is nor mal, and if se pa ra ted, the com po -nents are not vi ab le. They are sec ti ons of an in se -pa rab le suc ces si on of our func ti o ning as a sing le

50DECEMBER 2013

or ga nism.Q. How did you study the to pic? (i.e.

per so nal ex pe ri en ce, edu ca ti on, etc.)

A. My tho ugh ts ref lec ted in the bo okare ba sed on se ve ral fun da men tal things:a) know led ge of the re a sons of for ma ti onand de ve lop ment of the ba sics of re li gi onas an ide o lo gi cal struc tu re of fa ith - man'sin ner sta te; b) per so nal li fe ex pe ri en ceamong Mus lims in Arab sta tes and de ca -des-long stu di es of the prob lem of re li gi -on, po wer and so ci ety in my own co unt ry;c) my per so nal conc lu si ons, which are im -por tant for me and for my bo ok in the se -arch for the an swer to the qu es ti ons of so -ci ety mem bers' re li gi o us and et hnic af fi li a -ti on, as well as the im por tan ce and ne ces -sity of the ir synchrony in the ap pro ach toour com mon exis ten ce in one co unt ry, in asing le po li ti cal, ide o lo gi cal and re li gi o usspa ce.

The po ints of the bo ok la id down thena ti o nal con cept “Po wer and re li gi on” inAzer ba i jan and so me of them are in clu dedin to the Ba sics of Re li gi on tu to ri al ta ught atse con dary scho ols in our co unt ry, tho ughte ac hing the sub ject of re li gi on at scho ol isnot of fi ci ally aut ho ri zed yet.

Q. What ot her bo oks ha ve you writ ten?

A. I ha ve writ ten se ve ral bo oks whichto uch upon the idea of in ter re la ti ons ofman and man, man and so ci ety and manand God. The se are In Re ces ses of Be ing(Traf ford Pub lis hing, May 2013), A Childof Ro man ti cism (Traf ford Pub lis hing, May2013), Po verty. Dic ta tors hip. In jus ti ce(Traf ford Pub lis hing, May 2013), Eu ro pewit ho ut Ca pi ta lism (Traf ford Pub lis hing,Ju ne 2013), Ba sics of Re li gi on” (tu to ri al)(Traf ford Pub lis hing, 2013), and Fa milyand Mar ri a ge in Is lam (be ing trans la ted in -to En glish) and tens of ar tic les of the ge -ne ral co ur se, me a ning that the know led -ge of re li gi on, li ke the know led ge of laws,do es not in su re an ybody aga inst cri mi nalacts. Re li gi on is not an ex cep ti on, but partof the ge ne ral co ur se per ta i ning to eachof us, re gard less of whet her or not we

A re vi ew of Ra fig Y. Ali yev's bo ok,Po wer, So ci ety and Re li gi on,

by Bar ba ra Bam ber ger Scott, theprin cip le edi tor for A Wo man's

Wri te, a US Re vi ew of Bo oks le a -ding ad vi ser (Penn sylva nia).

”We tri ed to show that po wer as the ver ti cal(go ver ning system from the top) and so ci ety andre li gi on as the ho ri zon tal, i.e. a system or to ta -lity of mo ral va lu es upon which the se threecom po nents of pub lic re la ti ons are res ted, rep -re sen ting a cer ta in in teg ra ted or ga nism.”

Ra fig Y. Ali yev ar gu es that the se three com -po nents of ci vi li za ti on, of ten per ce i ved and port -ra yed as dis cor dant, are ac tu ally in ter de pen dentand ne ces sary to a he alt hy so ci ety. The aut horbre aks the bo ok, ap prop ri a tely, in to three seg -ments. In the first, the his to ri cal na tu re of re li -gi on is exa mi ned. Ali yev pre sents how easy it isfor be li ef to turn to ide o logy, and ide o logy to fa -na ti cism: “A per son who be li e ves with so ul andmind, be co mes dan ge ro us for sur ro un dings-eit her he ce a ses to un ders tand so ci ety he li vesin or be gins to eli mi na te so ci ety just be ca u se itdo esn't me et with his be li ef, ide als and prin cip -les.” The se cond seg ment exa mi nes the re la ti -ons hip bet we en re li gi on and po wer, and ar gu esthat one is ne ces sary for the ot her: “Our task isso mew hat to ex pla in to pe op le... that onlystrong po wer res ted upon mo ra lity, is ab le toen su re fre e dom in so ci ety, to de fend re li gi on it -self, fre e dom of re li gi on and be li ef.” The fi nalsec ti on is de di ca ted to the ro le law and mo ra lityplay in a de moc racy. Ori gi nally writ ten af ter theacts of ter ror in Mad rid, Spa in, in 2004, the tre a -ti se exa mi nes the re la ti ons hip bet we en righ tsand mo ra lity: “Mo ra lity in its po int is abo ve anyright, and in such ca ses our mo ral and et hicnorms and cen tury-old tra di ti ons must be pla -ced abo ve all.”

As the di rec tor of the Cen ter on Is la mic Stu -di es in his na ti ve Azer ba i jan, and with a doctorin phi lo sophy and six te en bo oks to his cre dit,Ra fig Y. Ali yev is cle arly qu a li fi ed to exa mi nethe se pil lars of ci vi li za ti on that af fect us all soacu tely. The aut hor has pro vi ded his ide as in theho pes that the “the ory and ex pe ri en ce will helpre a ders to fa mi li a ri ze them sel ves with comp li -ca ted re la ti ons of po wer, so ci ety and re li gi on.”The bo ok do es suf fer from aw kward phra singin di ca ting so me strugg les with the comp le xi ti esof the En glish lan gu a ge, but the se asi de, the reis much of me rit in the ide as ex pres sed by thispro li fic aut hor. He has a ge nu i ne con cern for hispe op le and his cul tu re, and ex pres ses it verystrong ly thro ug ho ut this work.

Azerbaijan REVIEWOBSERVERAZERI

OBSERVERAZERI

are be li e vers. Q. Ear li er this month you we re in vi ted to the

con fe ren ce “Eu ra sia & Eu ro pe: Co o pe ra ting for aCul tu re of Pe a ce & Hu man De ve lop ment” held inPa ris with UNES CO's sup port. What are yo ur im pres -si ons abo ut the con fe ren ce?

A. Man kind has re ac hed the sta te when not -hing ham pers the le a ders of strong po wers andthe ir po li ti cal and mi li tary of fi ci als from tel ling ot -her na ti ons what to do and how to li ve, whomfrom the world's ru ling po wers the se so ve re ignna ti ons and sta tes must ser ve to. Vi o len ce is so a -ring, vil la ges, ci ti es and co unt ri es are be ing sub -jec ted to bom bing, wi ped off the fa ce of theearth, and wo men, child ren and the el derly ha veto li ve in cold tents. In or der to pre vent ne ga ti vefac tors of this kind and to sol ve prob lems pe a ce -fully, so me in ter na ti o nal or ga ni za ti ons, fe de ra ti -ons and pe op le who on ce held res pon sib le po si ti -ons - such as for mer pre si dents, pri me mi nis ters,ca bi net mi nis ters and ot her po li ti cal and pub lic fi -gu res - con ve ne to ex chan ge vi ews. The con fe -ren ce, held by the Uni ver sal Pe a ce Fe de ra ti on onDe cem ber 3-5, 2013 in Pa ris with the sup port of

UNES CO and so me co unt ri es of Cent ral Asia, wasone of such events.

I was al so in vi ted to that hu ma ni ta ri an event,and ma de a spe ech, the aim of which was to ex -pla in to the world com mu nity the harm ful ness oflo sing mo ral and et hi cal va lu es, fa mily and ot hergo od re la ti ons among na ti ons, as well as to bringto the po li ti ci ans and or di nary pe op le's at ten ti onso me in tel lec tu als' vi ews on how to ma ke a per -son clo ser to ot hers in he art and na tu ral des ti na -ti on…

Much was spo ken abo ut over two days. Va ri -o us, at ti mes cont ra dic tory sug ges ti ons and ad vi -ce we re ma de to ex tri ca te the world from thecul tu ral stag na ti on, de ba uch and so a ring im mo -ra lity of not only so me po li ti ci ans, but al so of or -di nary ci ti zens who ha ve lost the gu i de li nes of li feand are ro a ming on the wi de fi eld of gla ring in jus -ti ce to wards the ci ti zens of qu i te ci vi li zed Eu ro peand Eu ra sia. The se two op po si te po les-opi ni onsare ma king re al pre war pre pa ra ti ons to up holdthe ir right to sup re macy in the en ti re spa ce of Eu -ro pe and Eu ra sia.

52DECEMBER 2013

Ma i den To wer wo uld ha ve be en the last mo -nu ment on earth he wo uld ha ve en jo yed the sce -nery of be fo re pas sing away! He was sur fing in aple a sant dre am when he felt dizzy and was abo utto scramb le. Thanks God, a pro vi den ti al hand wasthe re to pre vent him from fal ling down. Pe op legat he red aro und him, hor ri fi ed and help less. Hese e med to be long to anot her ti me. Shab bi est li keever, squ e e zed li ke a rot ten le mon, des pi sed li kema nu re in a barn of de so la ti on that was what hehad be en lo o king li ke. A he ad, ha ir less, a hand fre -e zing from fe ar, kne es na i led to the gro und, hewas abo ut to pass out.

No net he less, he tho ught he wo uld be ab le tore co ver and mo ve on. Ma i den To wer wo uld notlet him go. Fre e ze! The sta irs ma de of a he avyste el and iron, wo uld not af ford to get the wit nes -ses in vol ved in an emer gency sa ving ac ti on. For -bid den! Too small; too lo a ded with so u ve nirs! Heho ped he co uld shed a te ar; he co uld not. Thirs ty!He was so lost in the midd le of the non sen se that

he did not no ti ce that pe op le we re still ga zing athim. Sa il full ste am ahe ad! They did not pity him.Com pas si on! De ath in prog ress! They just wan tedto ma ke su re he wo uld get over. Shal low ness! Helo o ked li ke a snow fla ke mel ting slowly whi le thesun was ir rup ting out of the clo uds. Warm up!

Des pi te his de adly em bar rass ment, he he ardso me body sa ying: “Stand up! You can ma ke it!Stand up!” He co uld not stand up. He felt his legsstuck in a ho le lin ked to an iro ned bal lo on sus pen -ded to a tiny silky li ne. Energy was blown from afancy tu be pus hing him down to ward a her me ticcor ri dor. He ma na ged to es ca pe. The pro vi den ti alhand was the re aga in, but big ger and hu ge. Now,the hand was trying to suf fo ca te him. De lu si on!He sto od up. Fetc hing an unex pec ted smi le, hewa ved his hands as to thank all pe op le gat he ringaro und.

“May be you've got the spells!” the cus to di anof Ma i den To wer sa id. “This hap pens from ti me toti me. Don't worry! The to wer is pro tec ting you li ke

BY HAS SAN HA MIMOROCCAN WRITER

The Scent of In co he ren ce

STORY

OBSERVERAZERI

Has san Ha mi holds a PhD in Po li ti cal Sci en ces. Be si des his pro fes -

si o nal li fe, he is al so a wri ter. So far, he pub lis hed fi ve no vels,

three text bo oks on in ter na ti o nal re la ti ons the ory, in French lan gu -

a ge and two bo oks of po etry in Ara bic. A new no vel in French is

ex pec ted to be pub lis hed la te fort hco ming De cem ber. “The Scent of

In co he ren ce” we pre sent to day is a part of se ven short sto ri es Ha -

mi has writ ten in En glish lan gu a ge. The se short sto ri es al to get her

with two no vels in En glish are set to be pub lis hed next ye ar.

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DECEMBER 2013

it al ways do es, when a so ul is in tro ub le. Are youin tro ub le?”

He wo uld not know. He was not su re. He tho -ught he was ha ving fun vi si ting the Ic he ri She her,the Old City. The Old City that emer ged in his eyesas be a u ti fully struc tu red mo sa ic hos ting Shir vans -hah's Pa la ce, Di vank ha na Shir vans hah'va ult, Mu -rad's ga te, pa la ti al mos que and Ma i den To wer,had be en exer ting its charm on him sin ce first ti mehe ca me, a ye ar and half ago. Stran ge that this didhap pen to him right now! It was his birt hday. Han -ging aro und for a po ten ti al ce leb ra ti on had ne verbe en his fa vo ri te hobby in spa re ti me. He wo uldnot li ke it, an yway. He wo uld not li ke it, be ca u se heal ways tho ught that birt hdays suc ked. No of fen -se, birt hday re ally sucks! Sin ce he ca me to this co -unt ry for a short pe ri od cont ract -he was wor kingfor a fo re ign mul ti na ti o nal com pany- he had be enen jo ying his li fe. Pe op le we re glo bally ni ce. Theco unt ry was de ve lo ping. A fo re ig ner wo uld gu essthat pe op le we re ea ger to go fas ter. He may getused to watch pe op le hit and run. Such a ra ce aga -inst li fe! Thanks God, not all pe op le wo uld find itan ac hi e ve ment to get on pe op les' ner ves. A fewBa ku vi ans li ked it very much to walk in the OldCity's nar row stre ets and get ac qu a in ted with mo -nu ments re min ding them of the past glory. Theco unt ry is lo a ded with me mo ri es, in de ed!

The ha bi tats in the Ic he ri She her are uni que.The ar chi tec tu re is ma de in a way to let one dre -ams. It is not li ke many ot her old ci ti es in the Ca u -ca sus, whe re the his tory has cross-eyed facts.One co uld bre at he the frag ran ces of pas sing-bypretty wo men who are in pro cess of re su mingthe ir ri tu als of se duc ti on. He wo uld fall as le ep orsink in a light nap; this wo uld not pre vent himfrom en jo ying a high qu a lity dre am. Every thing inthe Old City is abo ut dre am and high ex pec ta ti on.

”Why did you at tempt to kill yo ur self?” a vo i -

ce whis pe red in his ears. He tur ned to see. He wasstill trap ped in the tun nel. He spit ted from an ger.

“Not a go od mo ve!” the vo i ce te a sed him.“I've no in ten ti on to kill myself. It was just an

ac ci dent,” he ob ser ved.“Not an ac ci dent, trust me! All is me ant to

hap pen when it is the right ti me. This is not theright ti me.”

The vo i ce va nis hed, and the sha dow, too. The Old City was still bre at hing. Aro und him,

he saw the sa me pe op le. The cus to di an, still we a -ring a scary lo ok, sum mo ned him:

“You don't get it. Do you? A hand is ne it her apre mo ni ti on nor a cur se. You he ard that; you in ha -le that! What kind of in di vi du al are you? A Ghost?Ta ke it easy; you wo uld not be ac cep ted down he -re! Ne ver! You wish. Yo ur ti me is not yet on thecom pass. Can you re ad a com pass? I bet youcan't. No body co uld, an yway, un less I'd had al lo -wed it. This do esn't hap pen that much. The evilwo uld be he re any mi nu te. I'd be watc hing. A hand,do be ar in mind, is not al ways a so ul's sa ver!”

He stretc hed his arms to free his body. Hestill co uld not. A bird step ped in and got his no seas an ide al nest and kept on dod ging. A cat pas sedby and stop ped to watch anot her bird fe as ting onants sur ro un ding a wo un ded worm, and get tingre ady to fi nish it. The cat wo uld not mo ve. Thespec tac le was worth it. May be the cat was wa i tingun til the bird had fi nis hed the ants that wo uld ha vefi nis hed the worm to fi nish them all. Or may bethe cat was fed up with flesh and switc hed to ave ge ta ri an re gi me. This wo uld hap pen. All wo uldhap pen when you step in Ic he ri She her.

Ma i den To wer was swe a ting. Who did pushthis mo nu ment that was, ob vi o usly, bu ilt for mi li -tary pur po ses in the past, to switch its com passto en list pe op le's pas si on and in te rest? The sewho le sets of le gends and sa gas high ligh ting the

his tory of the City we re just fas ci na ting, and yetcon fu sing. He lo o ked up. The sky was co lor less.The wind was blo wing zeph yr. His legs we re stillstuck! He was still spe ech less! How co me he co -uld not fe el his body? Ants! And the bird had notfi nis hed ea ting them! They had not fi nis hed ea tingthe worm. The worm was re sis ting the ir as sa ult.The worm felt she had a chan ce to sur vi ve, be ca u -se ants we re as sa ul ted by the bird. And the no sewas ble e ding from the ot her bird's dan cing ri tu al.He lo o ked up aga in, and the sky was hol ding itsbre ath. Even the ra in bow had ref ra i ned from ex -tol ling its co lors. The worm was bre at hing, too.He co uld fe el it. He star ted bre at hing too. May bethe di re si tu a ti on he was ex pe ri en cing was just abad nigh tma re! Yet, all nigh tma res might co me toan end! Dre ams, too! Ma i den To wer was pro tec -ting him. And the pro vi den ti al hand stretc hed aga -in and ex trac ted him from the iron tu be. His fe ethurt. He wo uld not ca re. Pe op le we re still sta ringat him. Was he a num ber in a so ap ope ra? Or washe an icon bet ra yed by its own de signs? Drif tedaway! He was drif ted away. The ti dal wa ves of theCas pi an Sea we re not that high to get him out ofMa i den To wer's ja il. He was li ke be ing in ja il. And allof a sud den, the pro vi den ti al hand ma te ri a li zed,and a sha dow of a pretty girl stro ke his lips and hedid not fe el thirs ty an ymo re.

“Fol low me!” she or de red.He co uld not fol low her. The worm was figh -

ting the ants' as sa ult and the bird got frigh te nedby the cat. The cat co uld not al low the mas sac reto last. A hu ma ni ta ri an cat! A cat that wo uld not li -ke to re su me fe as ting on flesh and blo od; how ni -ce! How cont ro ver si al! The worm was not ble e -ding. He was ble e ding.

“Fol low me!”A glan ce and a smack of ble e ding lips, a car -

pet was un der his fe et. The car pet drag ged himdown to the Cas pi an Sea Bo u le vard. He flew over

the lar ge new flag rep re sen ting three co lors. Anew mas ter pi e ce of art, pri de and, al so, os ten ta ti -on! Fa ir eno ugh! He was not sup po sed to be the re.The car pet was mo ving in to his body po u ring co -lors li ke ble e ding; co lors dra wing sche mes rep re -sen ting the lost wo men car pets wa vers: the me -mory of the pe op les and the land.

Back to Ma i den To wer, the cus to di an was wa -i ting and la ug hing. Sar cas tic; a jerk! A cus to di anemer ging from a bo ring sta tus -no of fen se- wo -uld not be ab le to ma ke all that chan ge! Chan gewas a mind-set tor tu red to the bo nes by un fa ith -ful wa ves that the Cas pi an Sea co uld not ta me or,at le ast, mas ter. The Cas pi an was un der ta king itsown cycle of re ju ve na ti on: the cus to di an was lo -sing his fin gerp rints. Now, the car pet was kis singthe flag. Abo ve the ra in bow was whi ning. Wo uldit be a cur se he wo uld lo se its marks bet we en thelaby rint hs of a set of uni den ti fi ed walls? The cus -to di an was a jac kass. The ra in bow was a cha me le -on aging whi le the wa ves we re ad jus ting.

Back to Ma i den To wer, pe op le we re as to nis -hed to find out that the su i ci dal sur vi vor had ma -na ged to free his legs and fly on a ma gic car pet.They we re thril led to no ti ce that the ir car pets hada bu yer; a sur vi vor-bu yer! The se car pets, ha i lingfrom all ho ri zons -sho uld be from as far as Chi na,İran, Uz be kis tan, Ta ji kis tan, Ka zakh stan, but al sofrom She ki, Gan ja, Sha mak hi, Gu ba etc.- we re ma -inly a tri bu te pa id to Ma i den To wer.

Lo ve and sur vi val; lo ve for sur vi val! Lo ve fordying in dig nity. The worm! The ants! The bird! Thecat!

”Fol low me!””Whe re?””No ne ed to know right now! La ter!”“I ne ed to know!”“You'll know when the jo ur ney will be over!”“Whe re are you ta king me?”“I'm not ta king you! You fol low me, if it su its

Azerbaijan REVIEWOBSERVERAZERI

54DECEMBER 2013

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to you to! If not, you fol low me an yway! Silk way!A ro ad! A path! Silk way! Fol low me!”

“I don't ne ed silk! I don't ne ed to tra vel! I don'tne ed to talk to you”.

Ma i den To wer! And she was the re. Anot hersha dow; anot her ghost; anot her an gel! She wasthe tal lest girl he had ever se en be fo re. Ma giceyes! A san gu i ne fa ce! A black ha ir short-cut andbe a u ti ful! Lips mo is te ning hap pi ness! She ga zed athim. He lost his marks. And wit ho ut frow ning, hemo ved ro und her, mo ved. She fi red back and hemo ved back. A few se conds la ter, she smi led, andhan ded him a glass of wa ter.

“Thirs ty, I as su me! Sip the wa ter drop bydrop! Wa ter drunk at on ce, when you're thirs ty,may turn to be a po i son. Yo ur body's not re ady.Warm up, al ways!” she ar ti cu la ted.

Such an easy way to con nect with pe op le! Hescan ned her one mo re ti me. Des pi te the con fi den -ce she was sho wing, it se e med to him that shewas a vul ne rab le an gel. An gels wo uld al ways beas sig ned to tasks they wo uld not even ha ve rightto ar gue abo ut the ir op por tu nity. What wo uld beher as sign ment right now? She might be the pro -vi den ti al hand that had sa ved his li fe a few mi nu -tes ago! She might be a de vil per so ni fi ed in to acan did smi le and a cle ment be ha vi or! Ma i den To -wer co uld not tell. Ma i den To wer may nur se sec -rets and enig mas. She smi led aga in and cudd ledhis front-fa ce.

“This is yo ur num ber from now on! Lo ok in tothe palm of yo ur hand! You'll find out,” she sa id.

He lo o ked in to his palm, and a num ber waswrit ten in blue, gre en, yel low and black. A bi zar renum ber! It wo uld not re semb le to a com monnum bers used no wa days! It wo uld be a com bi na ti -on of dif fe rent al pha bets that might go back tocen tu ri es or to so met hing we ird. Still, the num berlo o ked li ke a nor mal num ber. Ho we ver, he co uldnot re ad it.

“Did you en joy the flight over the flag?” sheas ked.

The flag! A symbo lic pre sen ta ti on of an iden -tity or a ne ed for sur vi val! He wo uld not li ke to beas cri bed a num ber and a co lor if he had be en ad vi -sed on ti me. Un for tu na tely, he was run ning out ofti me. Ti me was run ning out of him! She was stillthe re.

“I see that you don't li ke yo ur num ber. Not -hing to do abo ut it, I'm af ra id. It's the only num berI've got right now!”

She was be a u ti ful! The ma gic in her eyes wasen han ced by the neck de sig ned li ke a sac red-tiny-pil lar ma de with the fi nest ivory. She was we a ringa stran ge per fu me, which so un ded li ke a com bi na -ti on of jas mi ne and or chid. He pas sed out for awhi le.

Ma i den To wer was em pty now. He got upand, in so do ing, he al most step ped on a wormthat was craw ling aro und. The worm kept oncraw ling. The clerk in char ge in Ma i den To wer toldhim that he had to ta ke off. He was the only so ulstill han ging in this ne igh bor ho od. He wal kedaway.

La ter, he wo uld not say an ything abo ut thismis for tu ne to any of his best fri ends. No ne wo uldbe li e ve him. Spells, cur ses, pre mo ni ti on, in stinct ofsur vi val we re such an ab surd de fi ni ti on of a di re-de a ling-with-li fe-sta tus he had be en per for mingla tely. This wo uld pro ve to be true as he was in vi -ted to at tend a con fe ren ce on the ro le of lo ve-the -me in the İranian-Arab-Tur kish li te ra tu re, ma inlypo etry, du ring the apo gee of the İranian-Arab-Ot -to man ci vi li za ti ons. Tho ugh he was not fa mi li arwith such a se ri o us in tel lec tu al to pic, he at ten dedwhi le ma king su re he wo uld un ders tand a bit abo -ut what he had be en ex pe ri en cing la tely. The re -marks we re ma de in Aze ri and Rus si an lan gu a ges.He co uld not un ders tand eit her. He was the re, anda ne igh bor pit ying him, who, by the way, he le ar -

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ned la ter, was a fa mo us po et, did his best to sumup the ma in ide as de ba ted. Still, he co uld not un -ders tand. In de ed, his at ten ti on was drawn by a yo -ung be a u ti ful girl sit ting in the cor ner of the con fe -ren ce-ro om. So met hing was mes me ri zing abo uther.

“Do you un ders tand the re al me a ning of lo vein li te ra tu re? I do think that po ets who wro te abo -ut lo ve in the past wo uld not ha ve met any in the irre al li fe!” his ne igh bor po in ted out.

“I don't know! I've ne ver be en the re.”“You me an, no of fen se, you ha ve ne ver ex pe -

ri en ced lo ve or a se ri o us re la ti ons hip!”“At all! I me an I ha ve ne ver tri ed to be a po et

or a wri ter! So I was not the re…I me an whe re po -ets did go to get the ir in spi ra ti on!”

“I see! You think that po ets may ha ve a spe ci -al pla ce, whe re they go, sit, or der a drink and wa itun til an Ama zon girl, hypot he ti cally cal led in spi ra -ti on, co mes; the po ets wo uld squ e e ze her chests,get nec tar cal led ri mes; they thank her for her va -lu ab le as sis tan ce, or may be they kiss her; andthey co me back fully en thu si as tic to wri te po -ems!”

“Don't ta ke me for who I'm not! The only thingI'm su re abo ut is that vir tu al lo ve may exist. Vir tu -al kis ses, too. Ot her wi se, li fe wo uld ha ve be en bo -ring!”

“Vir tu al kis ses! That's a hell of a go od to pic!”“In de ed, vir tu al lo ve do es exist whet her it is

me ant to be true or just to be a je o pardy's ga me.In eit her ca se, it is an ex pres si on of ti me con su -ming, op por tu ni ti es lost and a silly ga me on thepart of the vir tu al lo vers.”

“In te res ting! Now, tell me, how wo uld youthank me if I told you that the girl in the cor nerhas be en ga zing at you from the very be gin ning?She is not as 'vir tu al' as you might think!”

“Who's that girl? Do you know her?”“If I know her? I know every body in Ba ku. I'm

an aut hen tic Ba ku vi an. Trust me! If I say that thegirl is me ant to get in to uch with you, I know whatI'm tal king abo ut.”

The girl? He had no re col lec ti on when, but hetho ught he might ha ve se en her be fo re…. A wri -ter? A jo ur na list? Or a mo vie star? She might be,be ca u se she was gor ge o us. He watc hed her for awhi le. She was li ke dre a ming, and on ce in whi le,she smac ked her lips. She was the last to le a vethe sta ge, when the con fe ren ce was over. The po -et sug ges ted ma king him me et the girl. He ap pro -ac hed her, and sa id:

“Are you new in town? I've ne ver se en yoube fo re. An yway, if you ne ed an es cort; this manwo uld be ple a sed to be in char ge!”

“I'm Ba ku vi an, sir. I know you, and I don't li keyo ur po ems. They smell for gery. An yway, I don'tne ed an es cort. I'd ne ed one way tic ket to get outof he re,” she rep li ed.

“You've got to ha ve a he art and fe e lings to beab le to un ders tand my po etry. But tell me whyyou don't li ke the City? It's de ve lo ping! Pe op le cantalk now, fre ely. We do ha ve so me spa ce. Don'tyou think?”

“Spa ce for what? To talk abo ut sub jects li kelo ve that no ne be li e ve in! To hang out early eve -ning and in ha le po u ters' con fu si on! To at tend se -mi nars for the sa ke of sho wing up! By the way, Iha ven't se en lo ve in any of the re marks pre sen -ted. I felt li ke if pe op le we re mo ur ning. Lo ve? Inanot her li fe; may be! And who's the per son, youwant me to me et? A stran ger! He's he re to showup too. He wo uldn't un ders tand a bit of the lan gu -a ge used. I as su me he wo uldn't even be ab le toun ders tand what I'm tal king abo ut right now!”

To his as to nish ment and out ra ge, she ad dres -

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sed the man, whi le ad vi sing the po et to ke ep qu i et:“Do you? Do you un ders tand what I'm tal king

abo ut?”“I do! Do I Know you? I thing I've se en you be -

fo re!” he re tur ned.“In yo ur dre ams! Hold still, wasn't it you who

had al most kil led him self on Ma i den To wer a co -up le of we eks ago?”

“How do you know?”“Ask the po et! He may know. I li ke to be in Ma -

i den To wer! It gi ves me ti me to me di ta te. No bigde al!”

“What kind of per fu me are you we a ring?” heas ked.

“The scent of lo ve! Go fi gu re! Are you go odat wo man's per fu me?”

“I ma na ge; but yo urs is dif fe rent?”“Are you trying to se du ce me? Was te of ti me

my fri end! Wo uld you ex cu se me now, I've got toget go ing. Well, my na me's Afa! I wo uldn't mindes cor ting you so me day! What wo uld be yo ur na -me?”

“San? My na me's San!”“You're not a sa int, to be cal led San? Or may

be “Sun”; you don't spark eit her!”“You don't get it, eit her. An yway, I'd be happy

you'd es cort me!”“My ple a su re, but don't get me wrong, San or

Sun! It'd be 'es cor ting my way'; 'not es cor ting yo ursa int ly sa it he way' or 'yo ur glo a ting ly ligh te ning!'What's yo ur num ber?”

“He re it is!”“So unds fa ke! I'll do ub le-check! Why are yo ur

hands sha king?”Afa wal ked away be fo re she got an an swer.

The po et left too af ter spit ting in the palm of hishands.

San wo uld not nur tu re the ho pe to me et Afa

one day. Tho ugh he was fa mo us for be ing across-eyed per son when it ca me to as sess a go odre la ti ons hip from a bad one, he tri ed hard to ma kesu re this wo uld not hap pen in eit her ca se. He waswrong. He re ce i ved a short mes sa ge from Afawhi le he was tra ve ling ab ro ad. This oc cur red whi -le he was ha ving an im por tant bu si ness me e ting.He wo uld not trust his eyes when he re ad themes sa ge. Ob vi o usly, she was ma king fun of him.Wo uld she ha ve lost her sen se of se ri o us ness?Might be! Sho uld she fe el bo red in the midd le of acrow ded city li ke Ba ku? She wro te that she wo uldcon si der get ting to get her with him over a drink.Ho we ver, she ad ded that she wo uld pick the da teand the ti me. From the very be gin ning, she wastrying to set the ru les and le ad. Le ad for whe re?She might ha ve ma de a wrong as sess ment withres pect of his pas si ve be ha vi or when lo ve-to picwas de alt with, so me ti mes ago! Or may be shewas just tes ting him! An yway, he was not the kindof per son to be pla yed with. Ne vert he less, he didap pre ci a te her ini ti a ti ve. He reg ret ted he had notta ken the ini ti a ti ve, first. This wo uld ha ve im pres -sed her and cur ta i led her hec tic un fi nis hed ga me.San po in ted out that he wo uld be back short ly,and he wo uld be de ligh ted to host a din ner or alunch. She rep li ed that she was re ady for a drink,no mo re; any less! A stub born girl! Yet, it is a go odsign. She might be a girl with prin cip les.

”Stand up!”That was the sa me vo i ce he had he ard on

Ma i den To wer. ”Stand no chan ce!” a cyni cal vo i ce rep li ca ted

and went on li ke ec ho ing fo re ver! “Don't you think,you're was ting yo ur ti me run ning af ter a ghost?”The vo i ce kept on re so na ting. San be gan to swe at.He knew from past ex pe ri en ces that whe ne verthis sort of things hap pe ned it me ant he was lo -

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sing tem per and fa ith. San re su med his me e ting. It was a go od day

for his part ners. He wo uld not ar gue as he used todo. To the ir as to nish ment, he bo ught a din ner forall in a fancy res ta u rant to ex pla in why. They wo -uld not be li e ve him. He sa id that he had re ce i ved ames sa ge in vi ting him to co ol down and see li fefrom dif fe rent pers pec ti ve. San was just hal lu ci -na ting. They knew it, and they re ver sed the co ur seof the dis cus si on to talk abo ut wo men and per fu -mes.

A few days la ter, San ca me ac ross Afa. Andwit ho ut furt her no ti ce, he pro po sed to get to get -her out si de Ba ku. She ag re ed on one con di ti on;she wo uld cho o se the res ta u rant and the town.Al ways such sets of con di ti ons as a shi eld of pro -tec ti on! San tho ught she was not as strong as shetho ught she was. “This wan na be fri end ship wasnot a ga me in a loc ker-ro om or tra i ning ses si on ina wi dely open ten nis co urt,” he told him self.

In de ed, Afa pic ked the day and the ti me. Shesho wed up on ti me. She in sis ted to ri de. If not; shewo uld sit in the re ar se at and he wo uld be the cha -uf fe ur. Ama zing! Be ca u se this was the prac ti ce inthe city! In de ed, in or der to avo id gos sips and vir -tu al tro ub les, girls and la di es al ways ma ke su re tose at in the re ar se ats, even when they are withboyf ri ends. A hypoc ri ti cal be ha vi or, one mightpre su me! Not at all, the city is a hell of ru morsand watch-me-watch-you ga me, that all en joypla ying.

”You'd not be temp ted we'd ri de on a mo torc -ycle?” she moc ked.

”I wo uldn't! Sin ce I've be en he re, I've ne ver se -en a mo torc ycle. A few bi kes, but ne ver a mo torc -ycle!” he rep li ed.

”Easy to un ders tand, my fri end”, she ex pla i -ned. “We Ba ku vi ans do li ke to walk or to ri de cars!No in bet we en-so lu ti on pro ves to be go od for us.

Be fo re it was a silk way; now we're tal king abo utfly way,” she sa id.

San wo uld not li ke to ar gue. He re cal led nowwhy an Aze ri ne igh bor was pas si o na te to talkmec ha nic when he hap pe ned to ca me ac ross him.He pre ten ded that if the way an in di vi du al wo ulddri ve his car wo uld de pict the na tu re of his tem -per; the way he wo uld re sort to a spe ci fic tech ni ci -an to get the en gi ne re pa i red wo uld be a ran domcho i ce. Li ke wi se, the Ba ku vi ans wo uld ha te mo -torc ycles, be ca u se the en gi nes wo uld re mindthem of the silk way era, which was not a fa iry ta -le. The bot tom li ne wo uld be that jum ping overthe hig hest wall ever wo uld not ma ke a short per -son the tal lest eit her.

San co uld not but ac cep ting she ro de. He wo -uld not be li e ve his eyes when af ter, a co up le ofmi les, Afa stop ped by Atesh gah. The re was nores ta u rant; no drugs to re; no Çay Evi. Not hing!Only the temp les of fi re wors hip pers, ope ning wi -de the ir do ors! San had he ard abo ut the temp lesand the le gend of the fi re wors hip pers; yet theidea of vi si ting them wit ho ut even short no ti ce wo -uld ne ver ha ve cros sed his mind. What Afa wasup to? She wo uld gi ve the an swer, la ter. For now,she de di ca ted her self to the ro le of a po ten ti al to -u rist gu i de. She ex pla i ned how things had pre su -mably wor ked in an ci ent ti mes. The wors hi persused to abi de by ru les wit ho ut ar gu ments.

Whi le she was ex pla i ning, San ma na ged toscan her very clo sely. She de fi ni tely was a be a u ti -ful. She pre for med a sort of fa ith in what she wasdo ing. She got him en ter every ro om of the ma intemp le. From ti me to ti me, she se e med drif tedaway. She was li ke if she was tal king to the walls.She was li ke if she dro ve from the re. A light, if nota fi re, scin til la ted from her eyes. Swe a ting a litt le,but the sa me per fu me San had be en fra med in forwe eks, was the re li ke the stron gest ever. What

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was she up to? To an old man who pro po sed totre at them over a tea, Afa sa id it wo uld not be ne -ces sary as they had to ta ke off.

”What's wrong with yo ur hand? Sin ce we ha -ve co me you ha ven't stop ped scratc hing yo urhand?” she ob ser ved.

True! San co uld not help scratc hing the palmof his hand. This star ted when he was get ting clo -se to the ma in fi re wors hi pers' ro om, in the midd leof the ma in temp le. He felt li ke if small iconsdrawn on the palm of his hand we re ge ne ra ting atho u sand of num bers, na mes and dra wings. Thenum bers! Li ke the ones he dre amt abo ut when hepas sed out on the ro of of Ma i den To wer.

San fol lo wed Afa wit ho ut word sa ying. Hewas ho ping he wo uld de cip her the va ri ety of mes -sa ges she wo uld not stop sen ding. Furt her mo re,he wo uld not mind ad mi ring her wal king and ma -king her po int stra ight. Stra ight? What stra ightwo uld me an for so me body li ke him who wasmes me ri zed by all what she was un der ta king.Next stop; next surp ri se! Afa dro ve him to a saltyri ver ne arby Nav xa ni. He wo uld not un ders tand.She stop ped the re for abo ut an ho ur. She to ok offher sho es and star ted wal king whi le ke e ping mu -te. Then la ter, she tur ned and as ked:

”Why don't you jo in; it'd be go od for you towalk ba re fo ot. You sho uld try to walk on the ver -ge of a salty ri ver.”

”Why are you ke e ping tor tu ring me? If youwe re not wil ling to go out with me, why did youac cept my in vi ta ti on?” he pro tes ted.

”You're hi la ri o us and stu pid, no of fen se!We're not go ing out: we're han ging aro und. Nowabo ut the wal king ba re fo ot on a salty ri ver; you'vegot to un ders tand that salt has be en al ways a re -medy aga inst stinks and things li ke that. It cu res,and it's go od for a pur po se. Now, why I'm sug ges -ting is you'd walk on salty ri ver; work with me he -

re! You ne ed to cle an yo ur hands for a po ten ti alpu ri fi ca ti on!”

”Still, I don't want to walk ba re fo ot. Well, I'venot got ten the right con ve ni ent fe et. Be si des, myhands are cle an.”

”Do yo ur fe et stink?””So me ti mes, this hap pens!””I do ha ve fe et that may stink. It's up to me to

ma ke they don't! Why don't you?””I'm not al ways awa re of that. I ha te wal king

ba re fo ot, that's all!”Afa en ded the con ver sa ti on and wit ho ut furt -

her ad di ti on, she got in the car and they dro veback to Ba ku; ba re fo ot. Du ring the who le day, shehad only drunk wa ter. San was not al lo wed todrink. She wo uld not pre vent him from drin king,but he co uld not be ca u se he did not fe el thirs ty.He was drin king from her in sa ti ab le cu ri o sity andstran ge be ha vi or. He was drow ning in her per fu -me, in ci den tally al te red by a long-dis tan ce tas teof salt.

”I see, you ke ep on scratc hing yo ur hand! Ithurts! You've got no idea what's ahe ad! Trust me!”she whis pe red in his ear, whi le ma king su re towatch the traf fic ahe ad.

True, aga in! Who was she, af ter all? Why didshe ke ep spying on him? Cu ri o sity! Mart yrdom! In -sa nity! What wo uld be next? Tro ub les ahe ad!

Whi le they we re he a ding back to Ba ku, Afasa id:

”Hen ce forth, that wo uld be the way, I'd li kewe me et. I've surp ri sed you to day. Next ti me, it'dbe you turn to surp ri se me. What do you say?”

”Fa ir eno ugh! Tho ught I wo uldn't call yo ursurp ri ses a surp ri se!” he po in ted out.

”Fi re and salt? You didn't get it.””I'd ha ve pre fer red ho ney, su gar or a ro se-

wa ter!””Sa me to sa me! You didn't get it. You act li ke

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a te e na ger; you're not a te e na ger an ymo re! Li ke Isa id, surp ri se me if you want to surp ri se me. Ifyou don't want to surp ri se me, try to surp ri se mean yway! I ho pe you'll get this one.”

”I wo uldn't play this ga me!””It's not a ga me, my fri end! You've got to af -

ford my com pany. I'm not a lazy girl lac king com -pany. Stand yo ur chan ce whi le you're on my com -pass. I don't thing I'd be too pa ti ent.”

”Com pass! Ru les? Co uldn't you think ran domso me ti mes?”

”I co uld! But I don't want.”Afa and San went out a co up le of ti mes la ter

on, al ways in hid den pla ces and her me tic si tes. Butevery ti me they pas sed by the three fla me to -wers in the pro cess of be ing bu ilt, Afa al most bo -wed. She kept on tal king abo ut a fri end ship wit ho -ut com mit ment for po ten ti al-se cond step re la ti -ons hips. She wo uld not miss an op por tu nity to re -mind him that he sho uld af ford her, and fight forher, and dre am of her, and smell her in the air ev-ery mor ning, all se a sons, all ti mes. He un ders to odthen why, the ot her day, she sa id she wo uld not li -ke the po et's po ems. Afa was lo o king for a spe ci allo ve; the one that wo uld be hypot he ti cally sub li -me in a pa ral le led world; but still re a lis tic on there al world. The fa mily she ha i led from was stron -ger than the gle ams of go od fa ith and ge nu i ne fe -e ling she was trying to per form.

Ti red of se e ing her pla ying him li ke a rol lingsto nes, San sug ges ted they hang out in pub lic. Hetho ught it wo uld be a go od op por tu nity for Afa tobre ak up with him. To his as to nish ment, she ag re -ed. She ma de him dis co ver the new fancy res ta u -rants, new tra de-cen ters and malls in Ba ku. Sheeven let him dri ve in the city, sit ting by his si de. Heco uld not tell her that what he li ked abo ut Ba kuwas Ic he ri She her. Ba ku wit ho ut Ic he ri She her wo -uld me an not hing for a fo re ig ner li ke him. It wo uldbe a big mis ta ke to think that fo re ig ners wo uld co -

me to vi sit the co unt ry to go on han ging aro undthe twin-mo dern-im per so nal cen ters and malls.Pe op le who tra vel aro und the world are ke en tofe el the pul se of a cul tu re, a ci vi li za ti on and a per -so na lity. Ma i den To wer has such kind of per so na -lity; a strong, lim pid per so na lity, which blows avery ni ce cap ti va ting per fu me; li ke Afa's per fu me.Un for tu na tely, Afa wo uld not know. Or may beshe knew but she wo uld not ca re.

All went just gre at un til the day all va nis hedin a wink of ti me. San tho ught it was his turn tosurp ri se her. She as ked for a surp ri ses; well, shewo uld get so me spicy ones. But how sho uld hedress up to get a surp ri se, surp ri se? A fo re ig nerwo uld not be ab le to surp ri se a na ti ve girl in herown na tu ral do ma in. If he did, that wo uld be a mi -rac le! But it wo uld be worth it to gi ve it a try. So,San pic ked a pla ce, and she pic ked the ti me. Sanfelt a litt le im mu ne when he no ti ced that she didnot know the pla ce well. It was a ni ce res ta u ranton the Cas pi an Sea on the ro ad to She ki. San sug -ges ted it wo uld be ni ce to ha ve a din ner on thebal cony; a litt le spa ce he li ked the most; for it al -ways ga ve him the for ce of in ti macy and sin ce rity.One co uld not ma na ge to lie or ma ke things upwhen they got used to the re. The bal cony wasma gic! As so on as they sat, San felt at trac ted toAfa mo re than ever be fo re. Every inch of her fa ce,every smi le, every bre ath, every ges tu re se e medto co me to get her ni cely on her. Af ter a whi le, shelo o ked in to his eyes, and sa id:

”Do you think that we'd be me ant to each ot -her, des pi te all dif fe ren ces we're awa re of? Don'tget me wrong; I'm a wo man and I ne ed to know.This re la ti ons hip has to get a com pass, a co de, adi rec tory…. Do you un ders tand what I'm tal kingabo ut?”

Aga in, li ke al ways, she to ok him by surp ri se!This was re ally a surp ri se! His lips pro ved to be asdry as ever. She went on:

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”Wo uld you in si nu a te or pre tend that you'vegot so me fe e lings for me?”

”You might say so!” he rep li ed whi le de eplysli ced thro ugh.

”I'm not sa ying; you say!””Wo uld be! I can't deny I am at trac ted to you.”Afa held his hand, whi le lo o king at the Cas pi -

an, and for the first ti me, San felt that she was re -ally trying to im ply so met hing; so me sort of con -fu sed mes sa ge, but still ge nu i ne and sin ce re. Shesa id:

”You're not hel ping me. The re are a lot of dif -fe ren ces bet we en us. You can't ar gue abo ut it.What wo uld be you might of fer me as to let mestick with you? But don't tell me you'd of fer melo ve. I had be en the re on ce. I don't want to get hurtaga in. Gi ve me a hint; so met hing I'd con vin ce my-self with!”

”You're con fu sing me!” he ar ti cu la ted. He star ted swe a ting. He re mo ved a ha ir that

was sur fing on her no se, and he, slowly, ad ded:“What to say? I'd say I li ke you when you

smi le. I li ked you from the first mi nu te I saw you inthe con fe ren ce-ro om. I li ked it when you chal len -ged the po et on his way of put ting lo ve in ri mes. Ili ked the way you we re wors hi ping fi re; yo ur way.I did ex pe ri ment wal king ba re fo ot on a salty sur fa -ce. It was ama zing and in spi ring! You co uld in spi reme, so me ti mes. Ho we ver, I co uldn't pro mi se I'd bethe per fect ex pec ta ti on you're wil ling I'd me et.”

San felt that her hands we re sha king, and hishe art star ted mel ting. She with drew her hands,and ha i led the wa i ter to or der. That was her mo veevery ti me she felt vul ne rab le. She wo re her iro -ned-mask. San had pre pa red a gift for her. He hadnot for got ten abo ut her birt hday as she wo uld ha -ve tho ught. He de ci ded to ke ep it: bad ti ming.

And then San tho ught Afa was cur bing heren thu si asm. She co uld not help it an ymo re. Shesa id:

”I don't want to get hurt, I'm tel ling you. Doyou think I am sel fish and en joy pla ying with yo urner ves? No, I'm not. I'm sca red. A girl li ke me wo -uld ne ver be happy se e ing her li fe fly abo ut. I ne eda man; not a buz zer. From the first ti me I saw you,I told myself, this is the man. Then when I lo o kedat you ca re fully, I saw, no of fen se, an old man,not physi cally… what to say, hypot he ti cally, youlo o ked li ke be lon ging to anot her ti me. Even whenyou smi le, it so unds li ke you're in ha ling in co he ren -ce and bre at hing out in si pid ness. I told my mot herabo ut you; and she sum mo ned me to stay awayfrom you. And aga in, when I re call the lo ok youput on me that early af ter no on… Well, I tell my-self, you're still the man. Gos sip star ted… my col -le a gu es at work as su med I did in pur po se to cha seaf ter you. I swe ar, wal la hi, I did not. Now that Iknow you bet ter, I fe el comp le tely lost.”

”I wo uld lie to you if I sa id I had not tho ughtabo ut us, emo ti o nally and physi cally spe a king”,San rep li ed. “I'm awa re of the 'physi cally old thing',and I'm not go ing to fo ol myself, you or an ybodyel se. Li fe co uld be co un ted in few words: a stepfor ward, and a step back ward; no mo re, no less.You've got a chan ce, you ta ke it or you le a ve it.Age do es ac co unt, for su re, when you've gotplans or op ti ons; un for tu na tely, no ne wo uld pre -tend to be su re abo ut the out co mes of plans andop ti ons. And aga in, li fe is a short pro cess for ever -yo ne. Mat he ma tics is an ab strac ti on and it can't beap pli ed to such a pro cess. We've got to be strong,even with a po ten ti ally sen si ti ve he art lac king a bitof warm ness, be ca u se lo ve is al ways dif fu sed andnot con cent ra ted in a per son or a pet or a spe ci alitem. Wo uld it be a re li ef for you if I sa id, I wo uldn'twish to lo se you? The re's al ways a po e tic jus ti ceso mew he re wa i ting for the right ti me to pre va il;trust me! We of ten hurt pe op le, and get hurt too,no mat ter what. Are we en tit led to put the bla meon each ot her? I think we sho uld not; be ca u se this

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hap pens all the ti me. Trust me, my fri end, you'renot my last chan ce; I'm not yo ur last one eit her. Ithink that chan ce has no me a ning for pe op le li keus, who get up early mor ning thin king abo ut whatthe ne igh bors wo uld think with res pect to the per -fu me we we ar and the fo od we eat. And la te eve -ning, we don't even ha ve ti me to as sess what ourli fe has be en li ke the sa me day. Pro bably, we areal ways li ke ve ne ra ting our bro ken wings and sin -king in our own frag ran ces. We don't fully he alfrom bit ter ness or from the envy of flying; evenwhen the mo ve ke eps on hur ting us and we startsmel ling.”

Afa and San met anot her day. Afa hadcal led him, whi le he was at ten ding a so ci al func ti -on. He rus hed out. She was wa i ting for him at Sa -hil Met ro Sta ti on. She sa id hel lo whi le sta yingaway from him. She lo o ked gre at. She sa id thatshe wo uld li ke to get things stra ight. He tho ught itwo uld be a go od idea to let her know that he washo ping not to clo se his bo ok on her. She se e medin te res ted in lis te ning to him.

Whi le they we re cros sing the in ter sec ti onbet we en Xag ha ni and Ni za mi stre ets, a cabd ri ver,who was ar gu ing with a cus to mer, hit San. Sanfelt li ke if a mo un ta in had smas hed his bra in. Ca -cop ho nic ec ho es to ok over his con cent ra ti on andhe ga ve up his fight to stay awa ke. He lo o ked up.Afa was stan ding and lo o king hor ri fi ed. She to okhis hand and was li ke busy trying to era se thenum ber on the palm of it. She ma na ged to era seall co lors ex cept the gre en one. San was de eplycho ked but he was spe ech less.

”Are you to get her?” as ked so me o ne.”Hell no! We're not. I've ne ver se em him,” Afa

rep li ed.”I tho ught I saw you wal king to get her!””You're wrong! Be at back!”San was half un cons ci o us, and he he ard Afa

li ke whis pe ring:

”I told him he co uld not af ford me. He co -uldn't even ke ep the num bers in tact on the palmof his hand. I ha ve ea sily era sed them; al most all.The last co lor might be the last link I co uld ha vewith him in the fu tu re. Gre en is not a bad co lor. I li -ke it. Ho we ver, I ha ve to think twi ce be fo re con si -de ring anot her op ti on. I'm ke en to ma te with aman who'd be emo ti o nally sol vent. I don't ne ed aguy with a fa ce-ma de-up all the ti me. I ne ed a bitof spon ta ne ity, and ho nesty. San got the chan ceof his li fe to walk on the salty ri ver. He co uldn't.He did it on his own, wit ho ut a wit ness; wit ho utme, who co uld ha ve gi ven him his cre den ti als. Heco uldn't even ad mi re the be a uty spark ling fromthe un fi nis hed fla me to wers. He's just a lo ser. Ican't sa ve him all the ti me. Li fe is un fa ir. It's ti mefor me to mo ve on. I'm fed up with num bers.Num bers can pro ve to be wrong.''

San pas sed out. He dre amt abo ut Ma i den To wer hug ging him.

The pil lars bo wed to pay res pect to his ba re fo ot,now, sur ro un ded by a ha lo of moths dan cing overhis he ad. The at mosp he re smel led the per fu me ofjas mi ne and or chid. No pro vi den ti al hand an ymo -re; just drops of salty ra in. He so ught a shi eld. Ma i -den To wer har bo red his shabby body. He got upand wal ked on the spa ce whe re a cor te ge of silkycar pets pa ved the way to ward the Cas pi an re adyto har bor him for the last pa ra de; for the lastscent of co he ren ce. He wal ked ste a dily, whi le theha lo of moths was ap pla u ding his firm steps. Here a li zed that dark ness was ta king over the lastglimp ses of the day. He de fi ni tely was out of ti me;out of re a son; out of so und and ge nu i ne fe e ling.He kept wal king un til a scre am blew in to blow outhis sen se of dis cern ment. He had no cho i ce butpaw ning his mind to an un disc lo sed truth, ur ginghim to es ca pe from Ma i den To wer and get his li feback.

Ba ku, Sep tem ber 2011

62DECEMBER 2013

OBSERVERAZERI

63 DECEMBER 2013

OBSERVERAZERI

CARICATURE

Yaver Asad