The presented story of Zeynal Ibrahimov, in the form of 35 letters to his son, is a reflection of the atmosphere that prevailed in Baku at different periods of its history - the Soviet period, the period of the collapse of the Soviet empire, the early post-Soviet, and the late post-Soviet - and the current one. The red thread traces the phased mutation of public consciousness, which played a crucial role in shaping the atmosphere of hatred, which was targeted at the Bakuvian Armenians from 1988, who were then subjected to organized violence in January 1990. The author also shows the dynamics of the formation of the personalist dictatorship of the clan of the Aliyevs, who made use of the collapse of the USSR to completely subjugate the post-Soviet republic. The above story is autobiographical and is an expression of the personal experiences of the author who unwittingly witnessed the events that led to the formation of the regime, the rhetoric and practice of which largely corresponds to all the characteristics of phenomena in political science known as fascism and Nazism, and, in the dynamics of its development, largely repeated what occurred in Germany and satellite countries, who took over the sad experience in the 30s of the last century. Only instead of Jews and Slavs, Armenians were, and still are, the target here ... We must pay tribute to the author for understanding and perceiving the entire depth of the drama that took place, contrary to generally accepted "standards" of assessments of the past and present events in Azerbaijan regarding the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, as well as for civil courage to speak plainly about all the things, and the literary mastery in presenting these events for the edification of the next generations.
Ruben Mehrabian, Political scientist, expert of the Armenian Institute of International Relations and Security
"Shame, humiliation, and contempt made me write this novel, shame for what I saw with my very own eyes, humiliation for a country that has slipped into fascism and degradation of all human values, contempt for a lie that has been presented to the world for almost three decades, for the world which silently swallows this lie, washing it down with millions of barrels of oil. Aliyev family turned the population of Azerbaijan into the crowd of intimidated slaves. No one dares to openly acknowledge the total falsification of history in Azerbaijan or to challenge Azerbaijan's involvement in the ethnic and territorial conflict in Nagorno-Karabakh. No one in the country dares to recognize the historical reality of the genocide of Armenians in the Ottoman Empire. I know that I will be cursed not only by the Azerbaijani authorities but also resented by the complacent crowd without the tacit consent of which no dictatorship can exist. For the dictator does not just sit on the throne. He sits in each of those who lie, hate or those who are afraid or silent."
Zeynal Ibrahimov (author)
