Ramiz Mehdiyev, president of the National Academy of Sciences of Azerbaijan (NASA) who had for many years previously held the post of head of the Presidential Administration, after a long silence sharply responded to scientists demanding his resignation. The last “straw that overflowed the cup of patience” was a public statement of correspondent member, director of the Scientific Research Institute of Mathematics and Mechanics, former Minister of Education Misir Mardanov, who accused Mehdiyev of creating intolerable conditions for the scientific personnel of ANAS.
The text is in the spirit of Soviet propaganda articles against political enemies in the capitalist world. It is full of sweeping accusations: scientists who criticize Mehdiyev are described as executors of a campaign of lies against the NASA whose purpose is to distract people from the problems of the day. What problems Azerbaijan is facing is not specified.
Mehtiyev calls his critics the “bus or pocket opposition” labelling MPs critics Etibar Aliyev and Fazail Agamaly as “fake deputies,” questioning the legitimacy of the recent Milli Mejlis elections.
Also, Mehtiyev rejects accusations that he is personally behind the state funding and increase in the number of Russian-language schools in Azerbaijan; he incorrectly describes them as “Russian schools” (inexcusable for an “academic of philosophy”. This mistake is corrected further on in the text). Mehtiyev reminds critics of Russian-language education that the children of Azerbaijan’s leaders studied in Russian; however, that does not mean that they are traitors to the nation. Continuing his rebuke of opponents of Russian-language education, Mehdiyev, who led communist Azerbaijan for most of his life, calls them “internally unfree.
Referring to the critics at the Academy itself, Mehtiyev calls them conniving, “standing in line yesterday to receive Academician Mehtiyev’s book as a gift,” shifters engaged in sycophancy. He mentions MP Musa Gasymly as an illustration of immense flattery to Mehtiyev.
Separate paragraphs, with biographical excursions to their past public appearances, are awarded to Mehtiyev’s critics: Najaf Museibli, former deputy director of the Institute of Archaeology, Ethnography and Anthropology, Vagif Abbasov, head of the High Technology Park of NASA, and Misir Mardanov, director of the Institute of Mathematics and Mechanics.
The text published on the NASA website concludes as follows. The author believes that his opponents oppose the purge launched in 2019 by Mehtiyev in the NASA in a transparent manner. Inspections at the Academy revealed multi-million dollar embezzlement by well-known personalities at the Academy.
However, there were no arrests at the NASA. The text is explained as being due to the kindness of the President of the Academy of Sciences. He warns his opponents that if they continue to campaign against him, Mehtiyev will reveal names of those responsible for the “terrible situation in the NASA.”
The text culminates with assurances that Mehdiyev is in charge of carrying out the President’s instructions at the Academy of Sciences and protecting “statehood” at the NASA. No interests of the Azerbaijani science is mentioned in the anonymous response.
It has to be kept in mind that Mehtiyev’s signature is missing under the lengthy text published on the NASA website. This notwithstanding, there is no doubt that the author is Ramiz Mehtiyev.
Source: Turan News Agency