Rustam Ibragimbekov, a well-known Azerbaijani screen writer and public figure, has rejected a French Order for Arts and Letters and announced the resignation as President of the “Azerbaijan-France” Society, ANS reports.
He said in his letter that freedom, equality, brotherhood hundreds of thousands of French people sacrifices their lives for to build democracy, had become doubtful with the French Parliament’s passing the bill on criminalization of denial of the Armenian Genocide. The tragic events of 1915 happened during the WWI and have different science interpretation, Ibragimbekov said.
The bill deprives the French society of the right for freedom of expression. It is hard to disagree with people accusing the bill of nationalistic phobia and calling it a dangerous precedent in inter-ethnic relations, he continues.
All people belonging to the Turkic world have become victims of the document, including Azerbaijan, Ibragimbekov says. He expressed hope that the French Constitutional Court would ban the bill as a violation of human rights and freedom.
Imbragimbekov is a People’s Writer of Azerbaijan, Chairman of the Confederation of Cinematographers of the CIS and Baltic, head of the Union of Azerbaijani Cinematographers and laureate of an Oscar. He won one of the highest prizes in France, becoming the Commander of the Order of Arts and Letters of France.
