Dear Mr. Daniel H. Weiss and Mr. Max Hollein,

We the artists and people from all over the world would like to express our deep disappointment with The Metropolitan museum of Art for taking a biased stand on Nagorno-Karabakh conflict. 

We are offering our voices to bring justice to this matter and expand the narrative to reach the truth.  

Truth lies within the fact that the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict has now spanned for almost thirty years and during this time Azerbaijan’s cultural and religious sites have been demolished and vandalized.

Mosques were turned into pigpens; art objects stolen and sold on auctions; gravestones removed from the cemeteries, sold and repurposed; museums and libraries destroyed, including absolutely unique, second in the world Aghdam Bread Museum and the Azykh Cave-a habitation site of prehistoric humans.

Shusha-the crown jewel of Karabakh, and cultural cradle of Azerbaijan has given birth to a man who wrote the first opera in the whole Muslim world. All his physical legacy held in Shusha has been destroyed irretrievably. The director of the museum was only able to rescue his violin, a suit, a coat and a handful of soil before fleeing for her life. Imagine the grave danger approaching your town, your museum. Imagine being put in a situation that forces you to choose what to rescue, risking your life. 

Overall Azerbaijan’s ever standing mission is to be a land where East and West embrace each other.

Azerbaijan’s history of religion is a monument to humanity’s religious path. 

Early on the paganism and later Christianity were practiced until the Arab conquest. There’re pagan temples and numerous Albanian churches built on territory of pre-Islamic Azerbaijan. They are being preserved and cherished by Azerbaijani government and the people. Tragically enough the ones in Karabakh fell victims to the unforgiving spirit of the vandalism.

Unfortunately in addition to all the tragedy that has been unfolding, currently the Karabakh is a battlefield that suffers an ecological terrorism. In attempt to take a revenge and cause more damage, trees and forests are being burnt. There’s clear intention to burn what’s remaining to the ground, so not even vegetation survives. 

This is the most violent act that hurts our Mother Earth, that we all agree is the biggest artist of them all.

With this letter we join our voices to pose questions.

Is the Met’s leadership aware of these crimes? 

How just it is to support Armenian cultural sites while ignoring the Azerbaijani cultural sites that have been and still are under violent attacks? 

What is it that the Met is loyal to? 

We believe that if the Met intends to truly take a stand on this matter and be supportive of cultural heritage, it has to be done in a comprehensive, educated and enlightened matter. Otherwise the Met acts like a lobbyist establishment, not a museum. 

We urge the Metropolitan Museum of Art to retract the statement made and make a new statement honoring the heritage of both parties involved. 

While there’re sides in war, there’re no sides in art. We all share the same origins birthed by the genius of the creation and we all aim in same direction. Our trajectory is truth. 

We believe museums are supposed to unite people, not to divide them. 

We believe that attempts to divide are damaging blows hurting our collective heritage.

Most importantly we believe that the Metropolitan Museum of Art has more grace, dignity and integrity to offer in this situation. 

There’s an overwhelming need for healing, tremendous amount of work ahead that traditionally lands on artists’ shoulders.

Therefore, we extend ourselves to initiate birth of a new narrative where we all are united under the wings of humanity’s creative genius.

We extend ourselves with intention to assist the truth and love be triumphant over attempts to divide us.

We extend ourselves as Hafiz says “holding a lantern with galaxies blooming inside” so we lit the path towards unity.

We are honored to state our intention during this very special time when many come together to give thanks.

We hope and wish that the light of gratitude touches the most hidden nooks of humanity’s heart.

We hope the Met will kindly offer its support and extend its generosity that will help to weave a blanket to cover all souls wounded in this conflict.

We offer kindness and deep respect*