Azeri writer stripped of pension and title for sympathetic portrayal of Armenians in a novella

Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev has signed a decree depriving writer Ekrem Eylisli of presidential pension.

By another presidential decree, Ekrem Eylisli was deprived of honorary title of People’s Writer of Azerbaijan, Trend reports.

Recall that a novella by the Azeri author that portrays ethnic Armenians sympathetically provoked an uproar in Azerbaijan, with Azeri lawmakers denouncing the work and protesters burning the author’s portrait outside his house.

The novella, “Stone Dreams,” was published in mid-December by Ekrem Eylisli, a former lawmaker, but condemnation grew strident only over the last week, after mainstream news outlets began reporting on and discussing it.

A crowd of several dozen people gathered around Mr. Eylisli’s house and burned his portrait. At a session of Azerbaijan’s Parliament on Friday, lawmakers attacked the novel, with one recommending that Mr. Eylisli be stripped of his citizenship and urging him to move to Armenia.