Guilty as Armenian

A Baku, Azerbaijan court has convicted and sentenced a newspaper editor to an one year prison term for accusing the Baku State University rector, the equivalent of a university president, of being an ethnic Armenian. The guy was sentenced to prison not because he was racist or anything, but because he had accused the rector of being an Armenian, and being Armenian is a crime you see in Azerbaijan, and equal to a curse word.

Adygozalov was immediately taken into custody after the verdict was read in Nizami District Court on February 23. The editor was convicted in connection with a September 15 article headlined “Rector-Armenian,” which accused the rector of Baku State University, Abel Magarramov, of being an ethnic Armenian and improperly using university funds to support the Armenian diaspora, according to the Baku newspaper Zerkalo. Magarramov won a seat in parliament in November 2005. Ascribing Armenian heritage to someone is considered a slur in Azerbaijan.

Actually not long ago the president of the Van Tniversity in Turkey was arrested on trumped up charges and to justify his arrest a Turkish MP had accused the said president of being an Armenian. There you have it!

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