Aphotograph of the new U.S. Ambassador to Azerbaijan Richard Morningstar paying his respects at a monument to the late President Heydar Aliyev is both ruffling feathers and massaging egos inside the country.
The photo (see it here) was taken on September 3 and shows Morningstar laying flowers and bowing his head before a towering statue of Aliyev in Baku's Fizuli Park. (Heydar Aliyev is known within Azerbaijan as the Great Father, national savior, and founder of the modern Azerbaijani state.)
The photograph was taken on the same day that Morningstar presented his credentials to current President Ilham Aliyev, Heydar's son.
The pro-democracy website Azeri Report writes that Morningstar's apparent bow to Aliyev "set a precedent" for U.S. diplomats.
A spokesperson at the U.S. Embassy in Baku described Morningstar's visit to the monument as merely part of standard protocol for new ambassadors to Azerbaijan. The spokesperson told RFE/RL there was no additional meaning behind the bow.
The photograph of Morningstar was posted on the popular Azerbaijan-Azerbaycan Facebook page and elicted a wide range of comments:
One has to be proud to see how American bows to Azeri.
They don't show the respect, they just need our oil
One can bow only to God. People should not bow to people or to statues.
He is not Azeri. He is an American, most democratic nation in the world.
The bow row recalls the hubbub over U.S. President Barack Obama's diplomatic pas de deux when he appeared to bow to King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia in 2009.
-
- Politics
- 5 September 2012 18:09
Want to say
-
I welcome respected media representatives, professional and honest journalists from places of detention. July 22 is an important day for journalists, mass media and teachers of Azerbaijan. 149 years ago, Hassan Bey Zardabi, the great educator, the most valuable thinker, the founder of our journalism, lit the first light for society to come out of darkness, giving humanity the newspaper “AKINCI.”
-
The past day has not clarified the question of why the meeting between Aliyev and Pashinyan in London on July18 broke down. The announcement of the upcoming meeting was made a week ago from Armenian sources, and Baku was silent about the upcoming meeting.
-
I stand firmly in support of President Ilham Aliyev's vision for Azerbaijan's future.
-
As Azerbaijan commemorates the 106th anniversary of its republic, Alasgar Mammadli, a prominent intellectual and lawyer, sends a poignant holiday greeting from the isolation ward of Kurdakhani Detention Center:
Leave a review