Farkhad Badalbeili: “We need contacts between reasonable Armenian and Azerbaijani intellectuals”

Interview by Vestnik Kavkaza

A commemorative event took place in Moscow devoted to the tragic events in Khojaly, which happened 23 years ago. A goal of the event was not only commemoration of victims of the tragedy, but also to warn about and prevent such tragedies in the future. After the official ceremony, a concert was held. The world-known pianist and composer Farkhad Badalbeili participated in the concert. Vestnik Kavkaza managed to talk to the maestro ahead of the concert.

- Is it possible to prevent such a tragedy as the Khojaly one in the world today?

- Unfortunately, the tragedy of Khojaly happened, and the world knows such examples. Oradour in France, Khatyn in Belarus, Mỹ Lai in Vietnam. Human cruelty shows itself in awful forms, especially during war. I’ve read that yesterday in Germany a 94-year-old man was arrested for his crimes in Auschwitz. It means that crimes against humanity have no duration. Sooner or later, the people who committed crimes in Khojaly will be punished.

I want to say that criminals have no nationalities. A criminal is a criminal. It could be an American, a French, or a civilized German. Criminals should be punished. Justice for Khojaly calls us not to forget about victims. Criminals should be fairly punished. Justice should win.

I don’t want to shed blood. I try to build contacts between normal reasonable Armenian and Azerbaijani intellectuals. We have organized mutual visits together with Polad Byul-Byul Ogly.

Criminals who are sitting in top governmental posts today should be fairly punished. Nations shouldn’t cultivate hatred for each other, they should encourage each other and remember about cruelty and realize that violence and revenge will lead nowhere. We should learn to live together.

- What conclusions should be drawn from the events?

- The conclusion is obvious: war is not a way to make relations clear. This is confirmed by the recent developments in Ukraine and the senseless deaths of many people.

Today we will play mourning music by Alexander Tchaikovsky. He is a wonderful, well-known composer, a People’s Artist of Russia. He composed a beautiful work, which we played in Gabala at our festival. And today we will play it in Moscow. Real intellectuals – Russians, Belarusians, Georgians, representatives of other nations – realize that mutual destruction is senseless. It is a path to nowhere.