Akram Aylisli, the author of scandalous novel "Stone Dreams" refuted the reports that he has left Azerbaijan, on April 27.
Talking to Azerbaijani kulis.az news website Akram Aylisli stated: "I am in Baku and I am not going to move to anywhere."
Earlier, the Azerbaijani media published information referring to Akram Aylisli's son, according to which Aylisli had left Azerbaijan to find a refuge in other country.
To recall, Aylisli is the author of "Stone Dreams", the book about two Azerbaijani men and their efforts to protect their Armenian neighbors during the Sumgait and Baku Pogroms in the closing years of the Soviet Union. In late 2012 and early 2013, Aylisli found himself embroiled in controversy when his novella, Das Yuxular (Stone Dreams), was published in a Russian-language journal called Druzhba Narodov (Friendship of the Peoples). Completed in 2007, the novella tells the story of two Azerbaijani men and their efforts to protect their Armenian neighbors during the Sumgait and Baku Pogroms in the closing years of the Soviet Union. Many in Azerbaijan took offense to Aylisli's sympathetic portrayal of Armenians. Protests were organized against the author in Nakhchivan and Baku, including one in front of his home, where signs reading "Why have you sold yourself out to the Armenians?" were displayed and his portrait was burned. Azerbaijani lawmakers also condemned the work, with one suggesting that Aylisli have his DNA tested, be stripped of his Azerbaijani citizenship and insisting that he move to Armenia. The writer's wife and son were fired from their jobs. Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev decreed depriving Aylisli of the "People's Writer" title and the personal pension of the President.