Azeri paper says pro-Armenian forces behind editor’s murder

Zerkalo, Baku
5 Mar 05

An Azerbaijani independent newspaper has blamed the murder of
prominent investigative journalist Elmar Huseynov on the “fifth
column”. Zerkalo said that the murder was “too despicable an action
to be initiated by the authorities” and would play into the hands of
“Armenia and pro-Armenian forces”. The article said that The
following is an excerpt from F. Mila’s report in Azerbaijani
newspaper Zerkalo web site on 5 March headlined “Theory” and
subheaded “Elmar Huseynov was killed by the ‘fifth column’, whereas
ignorant prepared the ground”; subheadings are as published:

In this article, I will express my purely personal opinion about the
tragic incident – Elmar Huseynov’s assassination. I do not want to
and will not argue with anyone about my point of view, but I am not
going to change my opinion.

>>From depths of aggressive ignorance

Do you know whom Elmar hated most of all? Ignoramuses and fools. And
I agreed 100 per cent with him on this.

We used to fell off our chairs from laughter listening to his jokes
about the “giants of thought” or extreme, reactionary manifestations
of the so-called “national mentality”. In the past, when we all
worked together in an old huge building on Matbuat Avenue, Elmar
would tell us funny stories about the reality around us and would act
out scenes and situations from our life.

He would do this with a serious expression on his face, but he liked
that we thought them funny. Elmar was a kind, considerate and funny
guy.

But when in the very first issues of Monitor [magazine] at the dawn
of independence he had written that the old Baku was dead and we lost
the city forever, I argued with him: I did not want to believe that
my cosy world was falling apart. However, Elmar’s sober view has
proved to be more foresightful than my naive, unfortunately.

Everyone who can read knows that ignorance is aggressive. But a very
few in our country have any thoughts on the fact that the people are
equal only before God. They are different by birth, their view of the
world depends on the circumstances and conditions in which they grew
up. In general, people think less and less here. To be more precise,
there are fewer and fewer people here who think.

Long years of Soviet levelling, which started with the physical
elimination of the intelligentsia and the triumph of bullies, have
become the flesh and blood of the peoples of the USSR. We will need
to clear the code of our genetic memory of distorted ideas of
“equality”. These “ideas” have made it possible for every freak with
perverted morality, with undeserved diplomas or other false merits,
burdened with reactionary ideas disguised as “national dignity”, to
become a “big shot”, a member of some committee, high governmental
structure, deputy head of department, chief of something else… This
was the case right after the creation of the USSR, when milkmaids and
janitors rushed to power and when sailors and whores occupied
professors’ flats. But that stage has ended. And now there is another
revolution. It is called “independence”. It has spread across that
half of the Eurasian continent which the USSR used to occupy.

In addition, we also have refugees and internally displaced persons
from parts of the aggressor country, which staunchly and consistently
implemented the policy of “a great Armenia by fair means or foul”. It
is interesting that our refugees, who were subjected to hidden
discrimination in terms of employment and in their everyday lives
from the titular “great” Armenian nation there, endured this. Until
they were gradually pushed out under the pretext of “Karabakh’s
self-determination”.

But in the wake of universal sympathy, which was quite natural and
understandable under the circumstances, all the refugees and
internally displaced people were tacitly given an all-out carte
blanche in Baku. The country’s capital took all those aggrieved
people under its wing.

Indeed, we developed a very bad karma during Soviet times. The
replacement of the “equality” slogan by “democracy” has not made much
difference. As all the “demoses” are “cratic” [as published; pun on
the original Greek roots of the word democracy], in other words,
everyone is equal, the new “proletarians” and “repressed”, as the
most energetic and aggressive stratum of any “demos”, are again in
high posts, living it up in spacious flats.

Look at this type of person, with vacuous eyes and face which is not
disfigured by intellect – he only just got used to the idea of having
a marble bathroom in his flat, instead of using the far end of the
fence for this purpose. But he already feels as a “boss” and runs a
city with a very complex infrastructure. It does not matter what post
he has and in which sector he works. There are uneducated teachers in
universities, unskilled doctors in hospitals and ignorant judges in
courts who are all energetic and go-getting, though.

In the conditions when an unprepared person is artificially exalted,
there is a great danger that the most reactionary qualities of his
character will come to the fore. Accustomed to resignedly fawning on
his feudal lord in the person of the chairman of a collective farm or
“dear Communist Party”, he starts to pillage, clumsily unrestrainedly
and endlessly.

This sort of person has learnt forever the strict rule of hierarchy
that loyalty has to be demonstrated from time to time. But because
the ideas of how this should be done are dictated not by the law of
the state, but of a tribe, medieval behavioural patterns start to
flow over the brim. And the “bubbles” of actions, decisions and
statements emerge. The swamp bubbles.

For instance utterly obtuse, clumsily bungled attacks against the
opposition, drivers and security guards and so on, took place before
the recent election. And the stench of ugly stories that evolved
around the cumbersome manifestations of feudal allegiance has started
to spread.

Actually, these are sincere, I would even say naive, attempts at
toadying to their superiors and at proving that one’s daily bread is
well-earned. Undeveloped and backward, brought up without books,
magazines or newspapers in his native tongue, this is precisely how
this sort of person understands his job and his duties. When there is
no window to the world of progress, extremes of pseudo-national
mentality blossom lushly.

Trials of “octobrists”, who jumped on the roofs of other people’s
cars on the [Azadliq] square, imitating “people’s wrath caused by the
rigging of election results”, were held in an incompetent manner.

I, for example, as a person who trusts only her own eyes, know that a
great number of voters absolutely sincerely voted for the incumbent
president. People do like him, why is it so unusual? It happens.

But they managed somehow to turn the victory of the incumbent
authorities into a farce by trying the instigators of the October
events in an incompetent way! The mediocre performance by judges,
some basic violations and incompetence (including by lawyers) simply
sickened normal people.

The list of “brilliant decisions” and no less “brilliant” actions
against a backdrop of non-existent professionalism is far too long.
It is not possible to go through all of it.

Cowardly “elite”

Our “elite” is as cowardly and venal as those whom it despises. Only
it is not so full of energy as did not grow up in the fresh air of
the mountains.

Our “elite” came into being not through natural selection, but
through taking advantage of the contrast between themselves and those
whom it deems “boorish” and ignorant. I am, however, on the side of
those who simply have brains. Desirably, those with a positive frame
of mind irrespective of whether he is a villager, a city dweller, a
minister or a gardener. I do not like ambitious people, I interpret
the word “ambition” in an old-fashioned manner, as an weakness,
rather than a strength.

Making pronouncements about being part of the “elite”, would mean
having nothing to do with the “elite”. Just like a man acts in a
manly fashion without ever announcing his gender.

So, because our high-level and low-level “bosses” are toadying to
their superiors in an incompetent way, an opinion is being formed
about us as a country where there is no freedom of speech, where
corruption is rampant, and where there are major difficulties in
terms of democracy. Why do we not punish these diligent toadies in a
timely fashion? This is a good question.

The answer is that initially we gave too much freedom to illiterate
and ambitious people, then we allowed them to rob the capital,
regions, and to set up accounts in foreign banks. Now the authorities
would be glad to get rid of such “cadres”, but it is too late.

Behind every “cadre” of this kind is money and team. They even
recruit nurses and cleaners from among the elderly women in their
native villages. Because of this, they had to fire low-level
personnel who worked successfully. It was not without reason that
people without any skills are now replacing skilled workers,
engineers and managers of Baku. They will rise to support their fired
patron to the end. And the patron already has a lot of money, enough
to arm them all.

Jealous, half-dead opposition

Not in the least do I trust our opposition either. None of its
leaders has proposed, or is able to propose, a coherent programme for
the country’s development. Only one thing that manifests itself in a
caricature-like manner is the overweening ambition to get into the
presidential office. I remember old posters of [Azarbaycan Milli
Istiqlal Party leader] Etibar Mammadov, on which he stood on the
globe – a naively and sincerely expressed desire for power; or a
nervous, almost hysterical interview by [Musavat Party leader] Isa
Qambar to the Russian press before the elections. It contained
nothing constructive, it was full of Isa Qambar himself. Or the
latest call by the opposition leaders to transform the mourning for
Elmar into a “hatred campaign against the authorities”.

In the best traditions of the authorities they hate, opposition
activists endlessly haggled and bickered among themselves for the
right to become the “only candidate”. It was so obvious and so
primitive that I felt ashamed. At the same time, no-one went beyond
making populist and economically illiterate promises such as to
compensate people for the old bonds.

Wit works woe

Elmar Huseynov, who was assassinated by thugs, was indeed the most
prominent and intellectual figure of pro-opposition views. But he was
against the fools on both sides, from among the opposition and the
authorities. In fact many opposition activists disliked him even more
than did the authorities: jealousy is typical of people who want
power for power’s sake and leadership for leadership’s sake.

And I feel bitter that now Elmar’s name will be belittled by those
who, like the mummy of a priest from the movie, wants to get
resurrected after her political death. Of course, finally there is a
reason for picketing and rallying! Give us democracy!

[Passage omitted: reiterates the point]

Our supreme authorities are not so foolish as to order the murder of
a recalcitrant journalist. Suffice it to say that businessmen had
never published advertisements in the magazine Monitor. Incidentally
the authorities had nothing to do with that. This is simply what our
people are like. As it transpired later, our people are not really
any different than international companies which also refused to
publish their ads in Monitor.

I am deeply convinced that neither a serious Western intelligence
service nor the Azeri authorities are behind the assassination. It
was perpetrated by the “fifth column”, by those who betrayed their
motherland.

The presence of these kinds of people in the country is obvious.
Huseynov’s assassination looks too despicable an action to be
initiated by the authorities, as mediocre as those officials might
be. Our pen pushers would not go for something like this, especially
under the circumstances. They have accomplished their mission. They
persistently committed foolish actions which played into the
opposition’s hands. The fact that the latter is no less foolish and
will never be able to take advantage of the situation is a different
matter.

The velvet revolution will never happen in our country. Avaricious
ignoramuses have brought about a situation whereby with Elmar
Huseynov’s elimination many fat golden rabbits would be killed: power
will be roughly redistributed and huge money will be made for
Karabakh which later on, after the assumption of presidential powers,
can simply and gracefully be sold to the Armenians forever.