To memory of Vafa Guluzade

This week we agreed on the phone to have dinner together some our friends. Such gatherings have become a tradition in recent years. The initiator was Vafa bey, who, despite retirement in 1999, always had a great amount of information and ideas, and he felt the need to share.

Out sitting turned into interesting dialogues and debates on politics and  other topics. Vafa bey could talk  things that  he  could not tell  in his interview journalists, and he  could not keep it in himself.

But this time our seating  did not take place . Vafa bey did not feel well, though  tried to conceal it. At the last moment, he refused to meet, saying that he did not want to  leave the  house, which was not like him.

The  day before, his  relatives said that his health deteriorated, and he complained of discomfort. Prior to that, he said us, the staff of Turan agency,   that he had pain in the heart; he regularly attended our agency to have some tea, and chat.

Colleagues agreed that on Monday he should  visit  doctors in one of the best clinics for examination, but Vafa bey changed his mind, and  said he would go to the doctor later ... It was his style, he loved to improvise, make decisions immediately, often fluctuated and changed the course of his plans . Everyone knew his character, and no one was surprised.

 Therefore, I called him a jazzman –a man, loving improvisation and not burdened by obligations. That made him an interesting conversationalist, who always accompanied his speech with a quote from Pushkin, Blok, Yesenin and Vladimir Vysotsky; he recited their poems in spite of his advanced age.

School of Soviet diplomacy has left in his character a deep impression, and he was fond of these traditions, nostalgic for his youth, success with women, and the period of service in the Soviet Foreign Ministry.

Another of his "weakness" was to write anecdotes and true stories that he always remembered and shared with others. Some particularly "valuable" memories he spoke in a whisper.

Vafa bey often said that he wanted to write a book of memoirs, but it is not the time yet, and it is “dangerous” to disclose many things.  But fate decreed otherwise, time crept unnoticed, although many stories he still managed to tell...

Allah Rəhmət Eləsin!