Azeri President Ilham Aliyev has signed an order to strip Akram Aylisli of the title of the People’s Writer of Azerbaijan, APA reported.

The writer was accused of “abusing confidence of the people, distorting realities of Azerbaijan’s history and the essence of Karabakh conflict in a manner unbecoming to an Azerbaijani writer.”

Aliyev also signed an order to deprive Aylisli of the individual presidential stipend.

The 76-year-old writer’s book, Stone Dreams, describes the events that occurred in Azerbaijan following the collapse of the Soviet Union.

The book details eyewitness accounts of the atrocities perpetrated against Armenian population by Azeri Turks in Agulis in 1919 and Baku and Sumgait in 1990s.

The writer addressed foreign diplomatic mission in Azerbaijan urging them to read the book that caused him and his family to be persecuted and pressured for over two weeks.

The writer called recent developments unprecedented, slamming the authorities’ intolerance over the freedom of speech.