3 journal of azerbaijani studies in search of 'khazar

5. On the Threshold of the Palace
It was September 1990. The academic year had already begun and everybody was greeting each other and exchanging news. Ever 'essential' topics such as palace quarrels and difficulties of surviving were being discussed intensively. When the group numbers were down to two or three, money and love affairs would overcome other topics. When these hot topics were exhausted other issues were raised.

My "Thoughts on science and education system" article had reached a group of scholars and become an active object of discussion. Various people were approaching me with different questions, suggesting that I publish the article in other newspapers, and also giving some ideas and plans. I was giving short answers, in some cases with a smile and a joke. I was thinking: "I wrote the article to create an interest and to be discussed - and that is exactly what is happening. So the main work is done and all that is left is to make it a reality. This is the principal task now".

One day Saleh Mammadov came to the department of mathematics, and told me that he had read my article attentively and enjoyed it.

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  You have touched upon serious problems. What's next? - He addressed me with his usual slightly arrogant tone of voice.
  
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  What can happen? - I answered a question with question, - I will try to publish it both in Azeri and Russian, enable more people to read it, maybe somebody will find it helpful.
  
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  That's good. But there is another way. As you know I am a financial adviser to the Prime Minister Hasan Hasanov and as such I see him occasionally. I have to be at one of the meetings in his office soon and if you don't mind I'll give him the manuscript of your article. Most probably it will draw his attention. He is a man of progressive ideas and he is very attentive to new and unexpected ideas, especially if it's related to an important problem.
  

Prior to this conversation I'd met Hasan Hasanov only once. I took my friend from Canada, Yaghoub Shafai, to see him. During one

of my visits to Canada I lectured at Dalhousie University in Halifax, and became friends with two Azeri-scholars - a mathematician Heidar Rajavi, and a management specialist Yaghoub Shafai. From then our friendship went from strength to strength. My article "A scholar from Canada in his homeland" published in the "Literature & Culture" (Adabiyyat va injasanat) newspaper was dedicated to Heidar Rajavi and our meetings with him. In April-May, 1990, Yagub Shafai visited Baku as well. After a TV program where Yagoub Shafai, Fuad Alaskarov and myself took part, Yagub-bey had become very popular. People would stop him on the streets of Baku, greet him and ask after his health. Around that time I was told that the Prime Minister would like to meet Yagoub and we were invited to the Council of Ministers for an appointment.

Hasan Hasanov met us in a very friendly manner. First, he asked Yagoub a lot of questions, then turned to me and said:

- Aren't you the same mathematician Hamlet who was talking about his visits to Canada on the TV show "Dalga"?⁹

He didn't try to hide his pleasure to see our surprised faces.

The meeting lasted more than half an hour and was very interesting. We discussed Canada, Azerbaijan, Iran, Zanjan,¹⁰ economics, finance, management and other subjects and I think everybody enjoyed it.

Up to this I had neither met a Prime Minister before nor any other minister or top government official face to face. For some reason I couldn't take seriously a chat of two people living lives so different that we could have been living on different planets. I think for this reason our meeting remained in my memory as an exotic incident.

I had to reply to Saleh's suggestion of passing on the article, but frankly even if my article would reach the Prime Minister, I didn't pin my hopes on his interest in the problem. The most appropriate, real and modest thing for me to do was to publish the article in a newspaper and thus draw attention to my ideas. But after some hesitation, I agreed with Saleh.

- So do you think that we'll get what we want? Does the Prime

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Hamlet ISAXANLI

Minister have nothing to do but read my scribbling? More probably he has already forgotten me. Oh well, life is unpredictable. Maybe this is the way. Let's go!

So, my letter was sent to the Palace.