I have never forgotten them, often by conversing mentally with one and the other. Remembering meetings with Maksud in Baku and with Grant in Yerevan, when they attracted interlocutors, not skimping on the necessary and unique words in each case.
The political document regulating territorial issues is only the beginning of the return of trust in each other
In recent weeks, when stormy diplomatic agreements seem to promise an end to the military-political confrontation between Azerbaijan and Armenia in the current historical period, I feel particularly painfully the absence of Maksud and Grant. For many years I have been repeating the same thing about a variety of conflicts that have not been deprived of us in recent decades: you can sign any political document, resolve any territorial issue, but this is only the beginning of a long process of restoring trust in each other. And the politicians, and – more importantly – the peoples involved in the conflict. And here one simply cannot do without such leaders of public opinion as Maksud Ibragimbekov and Hrant Matevosyan.
There is no doubt that the positions of the leaders of Azerbaijan and Armenia, despite the heated discussion between them in the presence of Russian President Vladimir Putin, can only raise justified hopes. Here are three important quotes from the minutes of the May 25 conversation of this year. Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev: “There are serious prerequisites for the normalization of relations between Azerbaijan and Armenia on the basis of mutual recognition of territorial integrity.” Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan: “I want to confirm that Armenia and Azerbaijan have agreed on mutual recognition of each other’s territorial integrity, and on this basis we are making good progress in resolving of our relationship.” President of the Russian Federation Vladimir Putin: “There are still unresolved issues, but, in my opinion – we talked about them with our colleagues from the Azerbaijani side and with colleagues from the Armenian side – they are purely technical in nature .” I would like to believe that a peace treaty between the two countries, which have been in a state of meteoric and then fading military confrontation for more than thirty years, will be signed as soon as possible. But any such document is only the beginning of a difficult road. If only because God and the devil, as you know, are always rooted in details, in details of life, which cannot be fixed in any contract, even drawn up with a thoroughness embracing all contradictions.
Representatives of the intelligentsia of the two countries should draw up a “road map” at the common table
I have no illusions about so-called people’s diplomacy, even though I have been practicing it for almost forty years. It largely depends on the political will of state structures. But without it, it is impossible to create this context, this web of relationships, without which any agreement at the highest level turns out to be inferior, and sometimes unachievable. It is clear that nations communicate with summits. But a real rapprochement only occurs if the peoples themselves feel the need for it.
And here it is impossible to underestimate the role of the national intelligentsia, no matter how VI Lenin, convinced that the intelligentsia is not the brains of the nation, but crap. After all, it was the representatives of the creative intelligentsia, primarily writers, who in the second half of the 1980s most actively shaped the national agenda, sometimes in its most radical form. This happened everywhere in the Soviet republics, which were about to leave the USSR. It is clear that the decision-making depended on the politicians, but the national question was one of the keys, if not the most important, to stir up public passions, which often led to bloody consequences. They don’t like to remember it, but it’s impossible to think about the future forgetting the past.
And it is precisely the representatives of the intelligentsia of the two countries who will have to sit down at a common table in order to draw up a kind of “road map” aimed at finding a path towards each other. It is clear that this is only possible with the consent of the parties, which is also not so easy to achieve.
When Polad Bulbul oglu, Armen Smbatyan and I tried to build bridges between the peoples of the two countries from 2006 to 2012, the participants in this process, with the exception of young musicians from the CIS Youth Orchestra, where Azerbaijanis and Armenians played together, were people with a common Soviet past. They lived side by side and it was easy for them to find a common language. Today’s 30-somethings have never lived together, and even 40-somethings barely remember it. They have a different experience. They are used to seeing enemies in their neighbors, they do not have the ability to live together, and just general conversation. Everything will have to be relearned. But it is learned.
And again, I think of Maksud and Grant, Grant and Maksud, who are so sorely missed. Sorcerers, as a rule, dwell in paradise. Therefore, everything is so difficult on earth.
Read the Latest Science and Technology News Today on The Eastern Herald.
