LESSONS OF MORALITY

It is no accident that a visit by this prominent writer, humanist and public figure took place in the last week of February. Having cosmopolitan convictions, he has been and always will be a son of the Turkic people, loyal to the traditions of national unity. The main purpose of the visit by the Kyrgyz delegation, led by Chingiz Aymatov, was to familiarize the world community with the truth about the events in Xocali. After visiting Martyrs' Avenue and the monument to the victims of the Xocali tragedy, the writer held meetings at the Congress of Azerbaijanis of the World and the Azerbaijani-Turkish research centre ATRAM and engaged in a productive dialogue with officials and public figures of the country.

During his visit, Aytmatov was received by Azerbaijani President, Ilham Aliyev, who praised the writer's contribution to the strengthening of Azerbaijani-Kyrgyz relations and decorated him with the Order of Friendship of Peoples.

In one of his interviews, the writer acknowledged: "I rejoice at the success of Azerbaijan and I want to say that, having gained its independence, this country is determining its own fate and is actively integrating into the European community. This is one of the greatest successes in the whole post-Soviet area."

The creative path

His works speak volumes through their subjects, situations, plots and characters, but what is more important is that they contain a talent to love. When you love someone, you see them the way God created them. This revelation permeates the whole creativity of the writer. He achieved great fame with his novel "Jamila". The main character is a young woman who, despite old-fashioned patriarchal traditions, takes her love with courage, asserting her right to happiness. Later this work was included in the collection "The Novels of the Mountains and Steppes". In 1963, the 33-year-old Aytmatov received the country's highest award - the Lenin Prize.

In 1961, he published his novel "My Little Poplar in a Red Headscarf", which was later screened; the film is known as "The Red Headscarf". The leitmotif of the following novels "The First Teacher", "The Mother's Field" and "Goodbye, Gulsary" - is an anthem to the working people whose faith and devotion cannot be broken by war, devastation or famine.

On the whole, Aytmatov's characters are spiritually rich, strong, single-minded and active people, who are searching for happiness on earth. The novel, "The White Steamboat", which appeared in 1970, excited and disturbed readers with its subjects of orphanhood and poverty within a family. He received letters which criticized him for his cruelty with regard to the little boy who dies because of the indifference of adults. He throws himself into a mountain river in order to "become a fish" and escape from those who committed a crime before his eyes - a crime both savage and fatal to a child's soul. The boy drowns in heavy waves, but he is unable to defend himself, his friends and his dream. He fails to reach Issyk-Kul and see the white steamboat. He does not manage to say: "Hello, white steamboat!.. Hello, father, it is me - your son. Take me on board please." Aytmatov ends the novel with the following words, addressing the bright memory of his character: "You rejected what your child's spirit could not put up with. And this is my consolation. You lived like lightning that flashed once and then died …" He places all responsibility for the death of the child upon the adults.

In the end, everything boils down to the eternal essence of being - the fight between Good and Evil. This paradigm was convincingly depicted by the author in the novels "A Day That Lasts More Than a Century" ("Snowstorm Halt"), "The Block", "The Brand of Cassandra" and his last novel "When the Mountains Fall". Being loyal to his creative path, Aytmatov addresses myths - legends, epics and stories. "A myth is a message from our ancestors, and its creative feature is that it involves the reader in the magic and philosophy of what has remained from the past," he said.

A diplomat's mission

In early March, he completed the diplomatic service on which he had spent the last 20 years. He worked as an ambassador of three different states to two different countries. "Yes, I could not always combine work with writing. But my experience abroad, specifically in Europe, which is living in an unprecedented unity of countries and nations, promotes a modern understanding of reality, which I did my best to convey in the novel "The Brand of Cassandra". Most of this book's readers are in Europe. This supported me as an author. Incidentally, the novel "When the Mountains Fall" has already been translated into French, German and Japanese. Globalization cannot but affect the arts, specifically literature. But at the same time, it is necessary to maintain and develop national cultures," the writer says. Another specific feature of the phenomenon ofAytmatov is that he is bilingual and thinks and writes equally well in both his native languages.

Two fates

Chingiz Aytmatov is linked to Azerbaijan not just by the community of roots, cultural relations and traditions, but also by his long-term friendship with someone with whom he shares a similar fate. They are contemporaries who survived the terrible tragedy of the period of repression. It is 1937 - the black year of the 20th century which claimed millions of lives, including that of the father of Chingiz Aytmatov, who then became a "man of the world", and the family of Ali Aliyev, an Azerbaijani scientist and doctor of technical sciences, who is well-known far beyond Azerbaijan and whose technology was used to build 70 per cent of roads in the whole post-Soviet area. They first met in Jambul where Aytmatov was a student at a zoology college and Aliyev went to school. These sons of enemies of the people spent all their lives serving their people body and soul! They were friends despite the tough days of the Great Patriotic War and the famine-stricken post-war years. Time is helpless before people's faith in true values. Many years later, they met again in Baku and what re-united them was their pain for the broken childhoods of the children of Xocali. Sharing the same childhood, who else knows what it is like to lose your loved ones?

One more lesson

During his visit to Azerbaijan, Chingiz Aytmatov heard many warm words of gratitude, gave interesting interviews and received wishes, awards and diplomas as a talent of world renown - as Rasul Gamzatov described him. "All these awards are a great responsibility. I will try to justify it." With this confession, the writer gave us another lesson - a lesson in modesty, as it were, a writer's word is his deed.