17:32, 23 November, 2012

YEREVAN, NOVEMBER 23, ARMENPRESS: Azeri Ambassador to Mexico Ilgar Mukhtarov has declared that in case of dismantling Heydar Aliyev’s monument in Mexico Azerbaijan will apply to the court.

As reports Armenpress Mexican “Reform” newspaper wrote on this occasion that Mukhtarov had referred to the agreement signed on August 26, 2011 according to which Aliyev’s monument should be installed in Chapultepec Park, which is Mexico’s own Central Park. In the interview with Mexican La Razon newspaper Ambassador threatened “If Mexican Municipality decides to remove the monument Azerbaijan will suspend its diplomatic relations, close the Embassy and stop 4 billion dollar investment” which according to him “will be shameful for Mexicans”.

Ambassador declared that they are not expecting a positive result from the special committee on this issue as the goal of the committee was initially known and that some members of the committee were initially against the installation of Aliyev’s statue. “The decision of Mexican Prime Minister is very important for me because the future of relations between Azerbaijan and Mexico depends on it” Mukhtarov said.

For installing Aliyev’s monument in Mexico Azerbaijani government has spent about 5 million dollars on the renovation of Mexican parks.

Earlier the New York Times has reported that when the mayor inaugurated a pretty little garden fronted by a very large statue at the edge of the central Chapultepec Park last summer, it seemed another step forward in his drive to improve the quality of life in this impossible city. But a quick check on Google might have spared Mayor Marcelo Ebrard from what happened next.

Speaking off the cuff, the mayor praised the statue’s subject — a complete stranger to many Mexico City residents — as “a great political leader, a statesman.” The statue portrays Heydar Aliyev, who ruled Azerbaijan with a stern hand after the breakup of the Soviet Union. A K.G.B. general and Communist Party boss, who died in 2003, Mr. Aliyev made himself the center of a cult of personality, his image gracing villages across the tiny country.

But the statue — a gift, along with the garden, from Azerbaijan — has put the mayor in a bind. The United States State Department repeatedly pointed out Azerbaijan’s poor human rights record under Mr. Aliyev, which included serious abuses and the suppression of democracy. A few weeks after his bronze figure materialized along Mexico City’s Paseo de la Reforma, newspaper columnists, radio hosts and human rights activists began to press for its removal.

“In Mexico City, on our main avenue, our Champs Élysées, there are statues of Gandhi, Churchill — and Aliyev,” said Denise Dresser, a writer and academic who sits on a citizens’ commission that oversees projects for Chapultepec Park, which is Mexico’s own Central Park. (Gandhi is actually a few hundred paces inside the park, in a more contemplative spot.)

Officials in Mr. Ebrard’s cabinet were tongue-tied. They argued that it was not Mexico’s place to pass judgment on other countries’ leaders. That unleashed a spate of commentary in which writers threw out the names of undesirable strongmen who might one day find a pedestal on Mexico City streets under such reasoning. (Pinochet! Mubarak!)

Mr. Ebrard looked for a way to stem the damage that is tarnishing the end of his term. The mayor, who has been open about his presidential ambitions in 2018, will hand the city over next month to a successor from his own left-wing party, whose landslide win this summer was widely seen as a vote of approval of Mr. Ebrard’s stewardship.

“It’s a mistake, and we should have evaluated that this could be problematic,” Mr. Ebrard said.