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Through the Looking Glass
Rich and stolen oral literature and folklore
By Natig Safiyev
We have a very rich oral literature and folklore and it is not surprising that many peoples steal and appropriate our tales for children. For instance, everyone knowsthat the tale Gardener and Snake1, is an old Azerbaijani tale.
However, in a collection of tales published in Bulgaria it is presented as a Bulgarian folk tale. I will tell you how it happened. It is known that there were many children’s pioneer camps in the USSR. Children from every corner of the country rested there, including children from Azerbaijan. So, our children told their favorite Azerbaijani tales to their peers and friends and they, for their part, spread them in their countries.
This is how our tales are appropriated by other peoples.
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As regards the Armenians, they steal from us not only our tales, but also our music, musical instruments, even poets and writers together with their works. All this comes from their foul and loathsome essence. But even if they kill themselves, they can’t appropriate our children’s tales such as Melikmammad2 because they don’t have and can’t have Mammads, Ibrahims and Dashdamirs.
