2024-04-04 13:23:18
On January 31, one of the great personalities who brought democratic ideas to Azerbaijan and kept it alive – Muhammad Amin Rasulzadehturns 140 years old. For 30 years now, the power of the Aliyevs has been heavily criticized precisely because of Rasulzade. Why is there no statue of Rasulzadeh, why is the house museum not opened, why is she not getting the price she deserves?
Perhaps, the main question should be this: Has the identity of Rasulzadeh and what he has done been properly known to the people of Azerbaijan? Has the Azerbaijani society been able to understand the identity of Rasulzadeh and his role in the history of Azerbaijan?
In separate periods, both former president Heydar Aliyev and his son, Ilham Aliyev, who has been in the presidential chair for 20 years, signed decrees related to the jubilee of M.A. Rasulzadeh. For the last time, on December 30, President Aliyev signed an order on the preparation and implementation of the plan of events dedicated to the 140th anniversary of M.A. Rasulzade. Last year, within the framework of the 100th anniversary of the late president Heydar Aliyev, competitions dedicated to him, Olympiads, conferences, running marathons were held in various departments and institutions in secondary schools, enlarged pictures of the third president were hung on all the streets and avenues of the country, etc. Will all this be held for M.A. Rasulzade?
The Ministry of Culture told RFE/RL verbally that the plan of events related to the 140th anniversary is still under preparation and the ministry will put forward its proposals.
“The government should have a decision”
I wonder how the ministry will include the decree signed by Heydar Aliyev 30 years ago in the action plan? In January 1992, the Cabinet of Ministers decided to erect a monument to M.A. Rasulzade in Baku. After that decision, an outstanding sculptor commissioned by the Ministry of Culture Omar Eldarov started to prepare the statue. Later, this issue was returned again in December 1993. President Heydar Aliyev’s decree on Rasulzadeh’s 110th anniversary stipulated the installation of a statue of Rasulzadeh in Baku, the publication of his works, the conversion of the house where he once lived into a museum, and the return of the garden house in Novkhani to his heirs. But during the reign of H. Aliyev, neither a statue nor a house museum was created. Ilham Aliyev, who proudly said that he continued his father’s path during his 20-year rule, also ignored this order. Now a fountain has been installed in the garden opposite the Puppet Theater where the statue should have been placed.
“…I made the statue, but it’s a transitional model. There was also a project. Since then, neither the People’s Front was ordered on time nor later. Sculptors are like that. If there is an order, they do it, if there is no order, we cannot make it (the statue).”. Radio Liberty took this interview from Omar Eldarov in 2009.
The 97-year-old sculptor says the following about the model of Rasulzade’s statue, which remained in the workshop for 30 years after 15 years: “… No one talked to me. Nothing happened. …This is expensive stuff. But (the issue) is not about the money. If the government doesn’t say yes, they won’t do it, they won’t allow it to be installed. There is a pedestal. The state should have a decision. …The President. Nothing happens without the president. He should be made president.”
O. Eldarov also stated that he made countless statues of H. Aliyev and they are in almost every district.
Indifferent approach
Placing a statue to Rasulzadeh or creating a house museum are the sides of the matter. In fact, it is the nature of the work that makes people question the authorities. In other words, it is the cold and indifferent approach of the authorities to one of the greatest figures in the history of Azerbaijan, even in the history of the whole East. For example, a statue of philanthropist Zeynalabdin Taghiyev was erected in the center of the city, and his home museum in Mardakan was renovated at the initiative of the Heydar Aliyev Foundation. Or after Karabakh was freed from occupation, the home museum and statue of Bulbul, statues of Nateva, Uzeyir Hajibeyli, which were destroyed by Armenians, were restored within a year or two, Vagif’s mausoleum was erected. And all of these were realized with the supervision and participation of Ilham Aliyev. Even today, the president spoke to government-controlled media representatives about disrespecting Nateva’s statue in France and considered it an act of vandalism.
But I. Aliyev did not even once comment on the fact that the bust of M. A. Rasulzade in Ganja was covered in cellophane for three years. In 2015, this incident caused serious noise in the media. Deputy Sabir Rustamkhanli said in the parliament that for three years, young people have been telling him that some institutions in the city put a sack over Rasulzade’s monument and are carrying out repair work. It is true that later the sack was removed from the bust, but that small park still remains neglected.
A bust would be placed at BSU…
After the bust of Rasulzadeh himself was removed from Baku State University in 1999, the marble plaque with the inscription “Here will be placed the bust of the great thinker of the Azerbaijani people, the founder of the Azerbaijan Democratic Republic Mammad Amin Rasulzadeh” has remained in the courtyard of the university for years.
The point is that the lower ones have been blaming the higher ones for 30 years. But neither the construction of the monument nor the creation of a house museum was initiated from below. Public unions, social activists and others in the country have not come together in 30 years and have not shown any real initiative.
One may ask, why is the subject of the statue so much discussed in public? It is true that the statue is a symbol, a monument that reflects important history. If monuments and statues did not have such an important role in society, there would not be so many statues of Heydar Aliyev in Azerbaijan, nor would people tear down the statues of that period as soon as the USSR collapsed. Therefore, what is important is the place of that history in the minds and thoughts of the people.
He was a prominent statesman of Iran in the 20th century Seyyed Hasan Taghizadeh He wrote about Rasulzade: “Rasulzade was one of the extraordinary rare people I have not met in the Eastern world in my entire life, I can say without exaggeration.”
Rasulzade in history textbooks
It seems that Rasulzadeh’s identity and actions are not well known to Azerbaijani people. The monitoring of “History of Azerbaijan” textbooks for schoolchildren shows that due to insufficient information about the history of the republic and its main figures, the younger generation cannot have a full picture of them. For example, how many students in Azerbaijan know that the grave of Nasib Bey Yusifbeyli, who was the prime minister of the Republic, has not yet been found and his whereabouts are unknown? Or do the students know that Alimardan Bey Topchubashov is one of the rare personalities of the Turkish-Islamic world who was buried in Paris through the Arc de Triomphe? Or do history books teach children what Rasulzade sacrificed to keep the idea of an independent Azerbaijan state alive until the end of his life? Unfortunately, none of this is included in the history books taught in schools.
Freedom radio