People...Countries...Destinies...Azerbaijan - Turkey...

Dear Ayten,

Last night when I was searching Sheki in google I found your blog. Sheki is my grandparents land. They came to Istanbul ca.1897. My father, he was born in Istanbul, always wanted to go there and to find relatives. And his dreams came true. He came with the first plane from Istanbul to Baku. With some key words which he heard from his father he found his family. After this visit he made our family tree. I lost my father 3 years ago. I remember when he was at the hospital one day he said : I wish to breath the clean air of my mointains. He loved his fatherland with passion. I wanted to share this with you.

Lots of love

I received above letter last month...and got a permission to share it with you...

...As a background I must mention that back in Soviet times (more than 70 years of XX century) communicating with Turkey was forbidden. It had a name Pan-Turkism and people that dared even to think about Turkey/Turks were/could be imprisoned...For Azeris who were very close with Turks geographically, culturally, ethnically and first of all historically this prohibition meant to say the least an unnatural and hard thing to live with...

People in Sheki (and overall in Azerbaijan) have warm feelings about Turkey and Turkish people...Almost every household watches Turkish television and people speak quite ok Turkish (especially kids:). Azeri and Turkish are from the same Turkic group of languages. I heard many Turks say that Azeri reminds them Anatolian Turkish...But there were times when people were listening to Turkish radio secretly with threat to be heard...They were missing their friends and very often family members who could never come back or visit Azerbaijan as they were in Turkey when the borders got closed. (this is how group of people or a person can decide about the destiny and life of whole nations)...

One of those people who always loved and longed for Turkey was my grandfather. My father says that he would always talk about and remember Turkey and dream about the days when it would be possible to travel freely.

I don't know if he believed that it would be at all possible...Would he believe then if he were told that one of his grandsons would be a professor in one of the universities in Turkey and that one of his great-grandsons would be studying in Ankara and that his sons, grand children and
great-grandsons (and daughters:) would be visiting Turkey often and would have Turkish friends visiting them in Baku and Sheki...and that in summer 2010 Turkish President would pay a visit to Sheki...

Life is strange and amazing at the same time...there are people that make it strange and those who make it amazing, those who put the artificial borders and those that are forever free in their spirit and dreams...

My post today is devoted to my grandfather, Shakir Qiyasov, to grandfather of my reader in Turkey and to all those who had to suffer from intrigues and plans of «people in charge»...May they rest in peace and may their descendents always live in better times...

My grandfather Shakir Qiyasov...Man of wisdom and kindness who had no sentiments about Soviet Union…

P.S.

This is my 200th post. Only and already 200. It feels as if I wrote so many posts...and their number is only 200. Well...they say the quality is more important than quantity...:)...modest me :)...Thank you for visiting my blog, reading it and leaving your thoughts and comments. Life and You are my inspiration! Be well and best wishes from Azerbaijan! :)