AZERI COMMUNITY LEADER IN UAE MISREPRESENTS FACTS RELATED TO THE ARMENIANS
Panorama.am
17:24 19/08/2009
In a rather strange interview with Day.AZ Azeri information website,
Mr. Samir Iman, the head of the Azerbaijani community in the United
Arab Emirates, dedicated more than half of his time to talk about
the Armenian community (instead of talking about his own community),
providing details about the number of Armenians in the country,
where they meet and what they do, where they originally come from
and at what level is their knowledge of Arabic language, etc.
Following this introduction Mr. Iman expressed his view that "despite
the relatively large number of Armenians, they cannot do anything
openly or stage any propaganda … we can say that the Armenian
diaspora in the UAE is dead and is hardly felt here".
He claimed that the Armenians "took advantage" of Turkish President
Abdullah Gul’s visit to Yerevan last year and published an article in
a well known daily in Dubai (Gulf News), in which they said Azerbaijan
"imposed a blockade on Karabakh and wanted to occupy it". Following
his intensive efforts the same newspaper, he claimed, published a
new article in which the Azeri positions were emphasized.
Mr. Iman concluded his interview stating that he has been busy during
the last two years distributing in the UAE and in other Gulf countries
an anti-Armenian book and another book glorifying Azeri ex-leader
Hayder Aliev.
Azad-Hye Middle East Armenian Website has tried to locate the above
two articles in the newspaper’s online archives, but was not able to
find anything of the kind.
First of all the Armenian presence in the UAE goes back to the fifties
of the last century. Six of the ten big companies in the early years
in Abu Dhabi (in the 1960s) were managed by Armenians. The first
licences in the industrial area in the Emirate of Sharjah were issued
to Armenian-owned companies. This is aside from numerous Armenians
who served as managers of trading companies, banks, chief engineers,
chief accountants, financial advisors as well as in other economic
disciplines throughout the Emirates.
The status of the Armenians in the UAE has improved even more
during the last decades. There is a permanent Armenian Church with
community center in Sharjah and another one to be built in Abu
Dhabi soon. Hundreds of Armenian children continue to attend weekly
lessons in Armenian language and civilization. Many organizations
function. According to Azad-Hye the total number of Armenian events
during 2008 was about 92, excluding the regular church ceremonies. The
Armenian annual ball is one of the most known social events in Dubai.
In 2008, on the occasion of the 25th anniversary of organized community
life, the Council of the Armenian Community in the Northern Emirates
(Dubai, Sharjah, etc) has published a well documented book, in which
details were given about the presence of the Armenians in the country
and the progress of the community until recent times.
For over twenty years the Abu Dhabi Cultural Association has
been arranging different mega cultural activities at least twice
a year. These include famous Armenian orchestras from Armenia,
quartets and small musical groups from Armenia, Europe and several
Arab countries where Armenians live, as well as exhibitions of works
of Armenian painters and sculptors.
Since 2000 the Armenian Embassy in Abu Dhabi has been arranging yearly
Armenian cultural weeks with the participation of specially invited
individuals and groups from Armenia.
Azad-Hye website has covered thousands of topics since its
establishment in 2003, with more than 60 thousand monthly visitors. It
has contributors in several countries and an online Armenian radio
station.
It is obvious that Mr. Iman wants to please his single-sided readers
and score well with his government, but his attempts and analytical
exercises are so naive that at a certain point they can embarrass or,
to be more precise, mislead the Azeris. A quick reading of the above
basic facts reveals how shallow the pool of information Mr. Iman
commands.