Paying tribute to ex-president to get your freedom: Why not?

By Kamal Ali

The first thing two members of the opposition youth group NIDA did after being pardoned and released from jail was to visit the grave of former President Heydar Aliyev and to pay him respects. 

The picture above is being hotly debated in the opposition media and also in social networking websites, although it isn’t quite clear how many people justify what these young people did and how many criticize them. 

Six members of NIDA were arrested in 2012 and imprisoned for disruption of public order after they helped organize a demonstration in central Baku in protest against non-combat deaths and corruption in the army. They were also found in possession of Molotov cocktails and drugs, charges the defense team rejected as politically motivated.

They were all listed as political prisoners by international human rights groups such as Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch. 

Six months ago, three of them wrote to President Ilham Aliyev, asking him to pardon them without regretting what they did. The guys simply said they wanted get out and “serve the Fatherland”. One of them expressed the desire to bow to Heydar Aliyev’s monument after his release.   

All three were pardoned a week ago. Two of them, accompanied by cameras, did go to Aliyev’s grave and bowed to him on camera.

So who are they now? Traitors or patriots? Heroes or cowards? While young members of the opposition ridicule them, elders say their behavior is quite understandable.

Being an elder, I think humans are born not to live in a small concrete room behind the bars. If you have to visit the grave of a former president to get your freedom, do it. There is nothing treacherous in it. At the end of the day, it is not Garegin Ndzhde, the ideologist of Armenian fascism, that you are paying respects to.   

No one can question Heydar Aliyev’s role in the strengthening of Azerbaijan’s independence. If somebody decides to pay tribute to this great Azerbaijani man, he can do so every day. It does not matter if paying respects to Heydar Aliyev was the stipulation for someone’s release from prison. There is nothing reprehensible in it.   

On the other hand, people who have never seen a prison cannot blame you. You cannot judge about a prisoner, seating before a TV seat at home and sipping tea. To realize what a man has to endure in prison, spend at least a day, shutting yourself up in toilet. 

Again, prison is not a good place, all the more so if you are young and politically active.

Third, who says that being a young and inexperienced man/woman, you cannot reconsider your political views? You are not Nelson Mandela or Vladimir Ilich Lenin at the end of the day. This is not about high treason. 

I have heard about a rule in the Israeli army. Not sure if it’s true or not. They say Israeli soldiers are told to do whatever their captors ask for and give out whatever secrets they may have. In other words, human lives are more valuable than everything else. 

Bakudaily.Az