"I HAVE TO SHARE MY KNOWLEDGE"

Mir-Teymur Mammadov is an enthusiastic person, with a wide range of interests. He is a painter, ceramist and sculptor with passion for ethnography, history and journalism. The master's house with his extraordinary collection of ceramics has long been a must-see on the itinerary of tourists visiting Azerbaijan. But Mammadov himself is also popular for his profound knowledge and research in the field, which he generously shares with his reading audiences. Without exaggeration, we can call Mir-Teymur MAMMADOV a man of outstanding talents.

"Your house and museum have become a landmark in Icherisheher (Old City), Baku and Azerbaijan in general. It has no counterpart anywhere in the world. But apart from glory, being a landmark also means a burden. We have just seen how easily tourists come to you, and you taking them for a small excursion in the house, absolutely free of charge! Don't you get tired of such attention to your house-museum?"

"No, I have to share my knowledge . If I cease educating people, then all this (points to the racks full of ceramics) has not meaning at all. It is no secret that there is vast amount of knowledge inaccessible even to specialists, let alone the ordinary people. Not because they are stupid or uneducated, not at all. But simply because the Soviet regime erased from science everything about Turkology, about Turks. It was done very professionally and cleverly. Strangely enough, I have not heard anything about the Scythians until I was a teenager. I could not find any useful information about them even at the biggest library of Azerbaijan, the M. F. Akhundov Library—only tiny pieces of information about the Black Sea region, Scythians being the remnants of the Greek Empire. I did not know who to ask for assistance. Yet I had a lot of questions like who were the Scythians?, where did the Yakuts come from?, why did the Gagauz people speak my native language?, why were the Hungarians separated from the rest of the Turks? But there was a cohort of clever psychologists, linguists, and historians assigned the task of erasing the memory of the Turks from history."

"Why it was necessary to destroy the identity of the Turks?"

"Lev Gumilyov answered this question long ago: it's all about passionarity."

"You mean because they were afraid of something?"

"That's right. Even Herostratus and Ptolemy had a very special attitude towards the Turks. It is true that the Turks were nomads, but not the ones looking for the provision only, but the ones interested in establishing a state, leaving tangible evidence before they advanced further. A state-forming tribe. Lev Gumilyov summarised the passionarity of the Turks perfectly."

"What about our identity?"

"Our culture based on the equal-armed cross has also been effectively erased. Thanks to the Central Committee of the CPSU, until recently we regarded the Albanians as Gregorian Armenians. During the census conducted after the socialist revolution, the Udins, or Utians, were recorded as Armenians under various preferential pretexts. This was done to increase the population of Armenians. It was a very clever move. But we could not learn anything about ancient Caucasian Albania from Soviet history textbooks."

"How did you become interested in the history of the Turks? "

"My grandmother was a very educated woman. She studied in France, spoke and thought in French. She had a circle of friends, who often gathered together to discuss various issues, they even argued. And I loved to listen to their conversations. They often mentioned the names of some books, authors I had never heard of until then. With all these names and titles in my memory, I would visit the Akhundov Library. But the guys working there would tell me that they had no books by these authors. My request would often get them surprised, they would ask me where I had learnt about these names. Thus, my education encouraged me to search further."

"I remember the works of Gumilyov and Murad Aji that were published after a long period of oblivion and silence. There was a widespread opinion, even a verdict, that these works were nothing but pseudo-scientific populism, not history but cheap fiction."

"Do you know why? It is a continuation of the policy of erasing true history from our memory. Do you think serious historians with titles and awards would confirm their own failure? Of course not! If we forget our past, we cannot talk about our present and future. I learned this when I asked my grandmother questions about religion when I was just five. She always answered: the most important thing is to believe in Tengri."

"Today, I saw you start your story with the Turks and then smoothly move on to the Armenian issue during your conversation with tourists. Do you always bring up this topic regardless of who comes to visit you?"

"I will! My goal is to get the truth out. "

"What is the most common reaction to your stories?"

"Surprise. However, there was once a case when a man from Russia opposed me and tried to make me look like a liar. I advised him to read the books of Ptolemy, Gumilyov, and Aji. Although for me it is the material culture that matters, not the books. These include stones, petroglyphs, pentagrams, tamgas, and iron tools. The study of such phenomena confirms who invented it. Cold and hot forging, iron ore processing, it is all under our feet, the whole Caucasus is Mendeleyev's table, which means metal casting has been quite popular here. Or signs applied by Turks on the fabric used for sewing various clothes, protective talismans, equal-armed crosses, which men put on their shields, can be found on women's clothes. Any Turk was obliged to remain committed to the following basic principle: to defend his mother, sister, wife, and daughter. So, he had to defend his women. If he failed because he died with a sword in his hand, he would also be called a Turk. That is why they believed in magic, amulets, crosses, or the sign of Tengri, which has always been present on the wrists, neck, and hem of their dresses, and gave them additional confidence. Thanks to these signs we can trace the habitat of the Turks."

"You mentioned magic. Don't you think Icherisheher is also a magical city?"

"Icherisheher was a result of centuries-long experience of urban combat. Only few Western cities can be contrasted with it in terms of the design philosophy based on the psychology of the enemy. We still have wrought iron hinges on some of our streets. Do you know what they were for? They were used to support heavy gates. When the enemy vanguard fled, turned around a corner, the gates were slammed behind them and piled with sandbags. That's it, the enemy is in the mousetrap. Loss of orientation in space. Even now, residents of Baku wander helplessly through the streets, unable to find their way out. And this was done on purpose: a few turns to the right and left, and you lose your orientation. Very clever, isn't it. Forstadt, a fortress city. The city with the exact same layout is in Derbent. I have written a lot about it, everything is in the public domain."

"Do you find the changing layout of Icherisheher normal?"

"No, it's a crime. Glass and concrete buildings in a world-class nature reserve! Unthinkable! Since 1977 Icherisheher has had the status of a historical and architectural reserve. Since 1985 it has been promoted to the status of a state reserve. Later, during independence, the President of Azerbaijan decreed to suspend all construction works in the area, except for restoration works. I have repeatedly wrote about it, made appeals, spoke on television. However, we still have modern concrete constructions on the territory of the reserve. I wish they organically fit into the image and structure of Icherisheher! But they violate the laws and principles of architecture. One of the newly constructed buildings even occupied half of a narrow pedestrian street! This is not only a failure to comply with the presidential decree, but also a gross violation of architectural law right in the centre of a world-known reserve!"

"What exactly you tell the visitors of your museum about the events that Azerbaijan has lived through over the past 30 years?"

"This experience goes beyond three decades. Azerbaijan has suffered from many problems that started right after the fall of Irevan in 1724 and then after the Turkmanchai Treaty. These are well-known historical events. But not everyone remembers them. There were foreign elements settled on these lands occupied by the Russian Empire. Let me tell you a story. In the Soviet criminal code, there was a very serious article that penalised for incitement of interethnic discord. In 1967, I was one of the students who joined the zonal exhibition of art schools of the three South Caucasian republics held in Yerevan, Armenia. The group from Azerbaijan consisted of me and two other artists led by the director of our art school, Ayyub Mammadov. Upon arrival at the hotel, we waited for the Georgian group to arrive. The first thing I did was to ask Ayyub Mammadov to see the hall where we would be exhibiting, to see how the paintings would be hung and so on. He told me to go there and see everything myself, as he had to be at the district party committee. When I arrived at the place, they didn't open the door for a long time. After my numerous demands, the organisers called somewhere and finally let me in. The first thing I saw was a large canvas looking almost exactly as Picasso's Guernica, a pure plagiarism, called Genocide. I went to the hall assigned to us, looked round and went back to the hotel. I asked Ayyub-muallim to go outside with me and told him that we could not join the event for reasons that I explained to him. He was surprised and decided to see for himself. So he went to the exhibition hall. By the way, I was not allowed to photograph anything there, as the exhibition had not opened yet. Mammadov came back and told us to get ready. He was a war veteran and a scout! The Georgians had not arrived yet, so only we were present at the gala dinner. Our delegation did not touch food and drinks. When the party and Komsomol officials made a few meaningless speeches, it was our turn to address the audience. Ayyub-muallim asked me to deliver the speech, as he knew that I knew the stuff well, had a good memory, could connect all dots into a single picture, so to speak. So I stood up and said: "We, the delegation from Azerbaijan, refuse to participate in this circus. You are inciting interethnic discord, thereby violating the USSR Criminal Code." I explained the audience in detail, then we stood up and left. It was a high-profile event. Georgians have learned about it and rejected the invitation. This is how this zonal exhibition ended for us."

"History shows that wars have an enormous impact on fashion, art, and science. Do young artists and sculptors feel the need to materialise the tragic events in our history? Can you see patriotic impulses in them? Is it necessary now at all? "

"Painting and sculpting need subsidies. Perhaps it is too early to talk about this now, if you mean state projects. We need to rebuild and restore the liberated lands. But real artists create works, capture the memory of the tragic past so that our children and grandchildren remember it. I am sure that in the liberated cities there must be works of our sculptors dedicated to Garabagh and the past wars."

"Here you have this gorgeous sculpture commemorating Khojaly."

"Yes, and I would like to see it on a different scale – a 28-metres tall monument at the entrance to Khojaly. You can see holes in it – the wind blows through them generating a sound similar to a whistle. In the language of psychology, it symbolises emptiness, fear, sorrow and loneliness… It's about memory. As to the theme of patriotism, our youth need a dedicated centre for traditional crafts. There is a similar centre in Icherisheher. It is my project, which has been painted and is open for everyone. Young people should not procrastinate and engage in fanaticism. A similar crafts centre is operating in Nardaran. I insist that it is necessary to revive, for example, the glory of Sheki, which, apart from its shebeke, kelagai, carpets and piti, has long been known for clay bowls that were awarded in the 1930s in Vienna. These are large large clay jugs, like the kvevri that Georgians use to store wine. We used them for storing rice, oats, and other loose products. Honey plug were used to tight shut their lids so that the products inside would not spoil during long storage. For this purpose, I used a dilapidated two-storey house to create the Ceramics Centre with eight rooms and held an international symposium in Sheki attended by artists from 16 countries. I was very proud of what I did. We have great craftsmen, we need to have their works admired by the whole world."

"Why crafts and not painting, watercolour? "

"Because crafts bear our spirit, our blood, experience, and traditions. That's important! I can hold a symposium of horseshoe masters. I can recruit young people and teach them how to forge in a month. I'll teach them ceramics too. Everything must be backed by professionalism, whether one works with glass, ceramics, painting, etc. It is necessary to teach people how to properly hold a brush, hammer, planer. It is very important. Healthy future depends on professionalism. This also requires respect for oneself, for labour, for art. It is necessary to announce contests, reviews, preferably of international level. I recently visited the Khyrdalan Technical University, and, damn, I enjoyed it very much. I saw very different faces of boys and girls drawing, cutting, planning, assembling models right in the corridors. This is how an educational institution should be. By the way, there was also an exhibition of carpets and ceramics—two ancient crafts."

"Which is more valuable historically—carpets or ceramics?"

"With all due respect to carpet art, ceramic art is more important than any other craft, as it also proves the indigenousness of people! To make something from a clay one needs fire, water, clay itself and wind, which means one needs to know well what to make fire with, what types of water and clay to use. But most importantly—one should live on this land to know these things. Armenians, by the way, do not have ceramic art."

"Who are the people visiting your house, the Ceramics Museum? Everyday regulars or professionals?"

"Fifty-fifty. Professional artists come too, but there are also those who are just interested in the ceramic art as a hobby. I often see those who read about my house  or heard of it from their friends. Professionals respond to my questions professionally. A few years ago, I accepted the invitation of the director of the International Siberian Ceramics Festival, Yuri Neupokoev, to head the jury of the 15th anniversary festival."

"Don't you think that people passionate about experimentation often violate the laws of art?"

"I totally agree. They also love creating scandals around their experiments, often to justify their fraudulent acts. They violate the canons and laws of art through pure speculation, like making references to artists like Picasso and claiming that their vision is no different. But to be like Picasso, one needs to have his knowledge and depth of vision, to leave behind years of study and experience in several schools of colour. To distinguish something great from a trivial provocation it is enough to know that true artists highlight things very different from trivial similarities with the greats of the past. A great work is recognisable immediately."