The stolen steles, the purloined statues and the erected obelisks, Part II

A story of the conquest of Baku by Vandals in 455 AD, when they destroyed the city’s architecture, carrying off its steles and statues, and then built an obelisk in their own honour (in two parts).

In my previous post, I talked about the mysterious disappearance of the statues from the façade of the Puppet theatre; about the new pyramid built at the heart of Baku; and about one lost stele, and thus one lost moment of our history. And now I’d like to talk about the second stolen stele and the barbarian obelisk, but before let’s remind you of one my old post, dealing with the neglect toward Rasul-zadeh. The stele and the obelisk I’ll mention in this post is directly related to this shameful neglect “bestowed” upon him.

There was a stele in front of the Puppet Theatre, in the Rasul-zadeh street, which read something like “Here will be erected a statue for M. A. Rasul-zadeh, founder of Azerbaijan Democratic Republic”. And again recently, the small square where this stele stood was renovated and when the park was re-opened again, to the astonishment of some, and to the cynicism of other, there we encountered, not the familiar stele, and not the new statue, but fountain shamelessly streaming! As in one internet forum one user said, “heykəl söz verdilər, amma fontan gəldilər” – “they promised a statue, but cheated a fountain”.

Back in 2005, 50 years anniversary of Rasul-zadeh’s death, BBC Azeri Service prepared a programme about the neglect of Rasul-zadeh, and there was a small conversation between the presenter and Baku mayor about this particular stele, and why the statue is not erected. I taped that programme, and this is was what he answered, in a style, which can be called as “Armenian subordinate clause”, an Azeri idiom depicting a terrible grammar of the speech:

“Gəlin dövlətçilik xatirinə nə edilirsə dövlətçilik xatirinə də onu təbliğ edək. Belə ki, kukla teatrının qarşısında müstəqil respublikanın elan edilməsində iştirak edən şəxslərin hamısı böyük hörmətə, böyük məhəbbətə layiqdirlər və onların şərəfinə Bakı şəhərinin mərkəzində kukla teatrının qarşısında heykəl qoyulacaq. Narahat olmağa dəyməz.”

Not translating the whole sentence, because all its colourfulness and literary merit can be lost in translation, I can only sum up the above passage as “in front of the puppet theatre there will be erected a statue to all those people who participated in the declaration of independence of the republic.” Here we arrived.

That is, Baku mayor Abutalibov implicitly says that they are going to erect a statue to all those who participated in the declaration of independence, and as Rasul-zadeh was absent, he won’t be among those commemorated.

Passed a year and this statue was erected. But Abutalibov lied, and lied thrice. First of all an obelisk, not a statue was erected, secondly the monument was erected at another place, in a blind alley between City Council and the Institute of Manuscripts, and HIS MAIN LIE WAS THAT THE MONUMENT WAS DEDICATED NOT TO ALL OF THE PARTICIPANTS.

In 2006 National Archive of Azerbaijan Republic published the minutes and other documents of the Azerbaijan National Council, which declared the independence of the republic. In this book, you can find the list of the all people that participated during the declaration. They were 26. But the obelisk “built in their honour”, contains the names of only 8. Thus omitting not only Rasul-zadeh, head of the council and other absent members, but also 18 people who were present during the declaration.

This is the greatest injustice done to those 18. Most of them perished during the years of the Red terrors, Stalinist purges and fell victims to the firing squads, but the greatest injustice to them is that obelisk “built on their honour”!

And here let me publish the names of those 18:
Xəlil bəy Xasməmmədov
Mirhidayət Seyidov
Heybətqulu Məhəmmədbəyov
Mehdi bəy Hacınskıi
Əlisəgər bəy Mahmudbəyov
Aslan bəy Qardaşov
Sultanməcid Qənizadə
Əkbər ağa Şeyxülislamov
Mehdi bəy Hacıbababəyov
Məmmədyusif Cəfərov
Xudadat bəy Məlikaslanov
Rəhim bəy Vəkilov
Həmid bəy Şaxtaxtinski
Firudin bəy Köçərli
Xosrovpaşa bəy Soltanov
Cəfər Axundov
Məhəmməd Məhərrəmov
Hacı Molla Səlim Axundzadə