Azerbaijan
Screening and Discussion: A World Without Words
For this unique event a selection of short documentaries by celebrated ethnographic filmmaker Vincent Moon will be screened in alternation with an informal discussion by the director of London’s Institute of Philosophy Dr Barry Smith. He will explore the neural correlates of meaning, music and language in the context of each film, to offer the audience an explanation of the role of language in subjective mental life.
One World Echoes in London
One World Echoes in London is a series of human rights film screenings supported by by the Czech Centre London. Celebrating the 15th anniversary of One World, Europe´s largest human rights film festival established in Prague in 1998 by the Czech NGO People in Need. This series offers a selection of extraordinary documentary films exploring societies and […]
A country’s struggle between the glamourous world of Eurovision and the unrealistic demand for democracy
By Caroline Schmitt The screening of “Amazing Azerbaijan!” on Thursday, 11th April was followed by a Q&A with the film’s director Liz Mermin. The film contrasts the two-faced Azerbaijan: on one hand there was the glamour before and during Eurovision, carefully constructed by the government; the other side is that investigative journalists like Khadija Ismayilova regularly […]
Screening: Amazing Azerbaijan! + Q&A
Amazing Azerbaijan! is a tale of two countries: one a shiny democratic republic the government proudly puts on display for visiting journalists and dignitaries. The other country is a repressive and corrupt state with no respect for freedom of expression, in which peaceful protesters are violently beaten and journalists are threatened or even killed. The screening will be followed by a Q&A with director Liz Mermin.
THIRD PARTY SCREENING: Facing the Music – Eurovision in Azerbaijan
It’s one of the most corrupt countries in the world and widely criticised for its human rights record but this year Azerbaijan is hosting Eurovision – one of the most glitzy TV music competitions in the world.
BBC Azeri: Reflections on the Armenia-Azerbaijan Conflict
The BBC’s Azerbaijani Service has published a gallery of my photographs taken in the disputed territory of Nagorno Karabakh in 1994. Over 25,000 people were killed in the war waged in the early 1990s and a million forced to flee their homes. Since a ceasefire agreement was signed in 1994 attempts to mediate a […]
ForesightNews world briefing: upcoming events 3 – 9 October
A weekly round up of world events from Monday, 3 October to Sunday, 9 October from ForesightNews By Nicole Hunt Though it’s sometimes difficult to keep track of which Silvio Berlusconi trial is currently in court, Monday sees the resumption of the most infamous of his four cases, in which he faces charges for abuse […]
Kazan: Last chance for an Armenia-Azerbaijan peace?
16.7 kilometers south of Lachin, Armenian-controlled Azerbaijan © Onnik Krikorian for IWPR Expectations of ending the long-running conflict between Armenia and Azerbaijan over the disputed territory of Nagorno Karabakh are high ahead of a meeting between the two presidents hosted by Russian President Dimitry Medvedev in Kazan on 25 June. The war fought in the early 1990s […]
Thomas de Waal: Narrative of Peace necessary in the Armenia-Azerbaijan conflict
Caucasus Conflict Voices is a voluntary grassroots initiative to amplify alternative views on the conflict between Armenia and Azerbaijan over the disputed territory of Nagorno Karabakh. Today marks the 17th anniversary of the 1994 ceasefire, but both sides are as far away as ever from signing a permanent peace deal. Marking the anniversary, the second […]
International Crisis Group: Fears of a new Armenia-Azerbaijan war
16.7 kilometers south of Lachin, Armenian-controlled Azerbaijan. Photo © Onnik Krikorian While it didn’t come as much of a surprise, the latest report from the International Crisis Group (ICG) makes depressing reading. Locked in a bitter stalemate since the war over the disputed territory of Nagorno Karabakh during which around 25,000 were killed and […]
Caucasus Conflict Voices
Although actually underway since June 2008, it’s especially been a labour of love for the past year, but now some of the essays solicited for a personal online project are available as a free e-book for reading online or downloading. Accompanied by colour photographs, the book contains opinions on Armenian-Azerbaijani relations and the conflict between the […]
Global Voices launches Caucasus Conflict Voices
Since working on my own project using new and social media to counter local media bias in terms of reporting on Armenia-Azerbaijan relations and the still unresolved conflict between the two estranged neighbours over the disputed territory of Nagorno Karabakh, it’s been quite a roller coaster of a ride. If in late 2008 it seemed […]
Blogs & Bullets: Evaluating the Impact of New Media on Conflict
When first starting to examine the use of new and social media in facilitating communication between Armenians and Azerbaijanis in the environment of an effective information blockade, I could never have imagined that what started out simply as a personal and professional need would have reached the point it has now. In fact, it has […]
Ambassador-at-Last
As anti-American hysteria of official Baku reaches its climax these days, Steve LeVine brings back an old rumour – after nearly eight months with a Chargé d’affaires, US has decided to appoint an ambassador to Baku.
Social media for social change comes to the Caucasus
Tbilisi, Georgia, and a conference on using social media for social change. Nothing new in that for many people reading this blog, perhaps, but low Internet penetration thanks to high costs and slow connections makes the situation somewhat different in the South Caucasus. A 4 mb/s connection in Georgia, for example, costs around […]
News from America, 130-year old
There was a beautiful Azerbaijani newspaper Akinchi (The Cultivator) published between 1875 and 1877. So what did The Cultivator wrote about America then? Below are some excerpts published in Aynur Bashirli’s In a Spotlight of Free Press: New York Times about Azerbaijan and translated here by me.
BBC Azeri: Social media and Armenia-Azerbaijan conflict transformation
When Arzu Geybullayeva and I first started to use blogs and social networking sites to connect a growing number of liberal, tolerant and progressive Armenians and Azerbaijanis despite the still unresolved conflict between the two countries over the disputed territory of Nagorno Karabakh, I don’t think we ever could have imagined where it […]
No Borders Here – communication between Armenia and Azerbaijan
With the conflict in the disputed territory of Nagorno-Karabakh still unresolved, journalists and civil society activists in Armenia have few opportunities to meet with their Azeri counterparts, and vice versa. But increasingly, blogs and social networks offer new possibilities for dialogue across a cease-fire line in place since 1994. Other online tools offer immediate audio […]
New Media training for Armenian and Azerbaijani journalists in Tbilisi, Georgia
Tbilisi, the Georgian capital, seems to be attracting me a lot these days and not least because it’s the only place in the South Caucasus where Armenians and Azerbaijanis can meet. With a peace deal between Armenia and Azerbaijan as elusive as ever, and with some still expecting a new war within the next five […]
Pro-gov’t MP: Designate birthday of President’s mother as Mothers’ Day in Azerbaijan
For 70 years, Soviet Azerbaijan celebrated 28 April as a national holiday – it was conceived as the victory of revolution in the country, the date of its Sovetization and liberation of workers.
Democracy is … POSSIBLE
Despite the arrest and conviction of one of their co-founders, Adnan Hajizade with an apparently trumped-up charges, OL! Youth movement has released a new video telling that they are still in and not disillusioned in their quests.
Documentary: From Home to Home
An ethnic Azeri originally from Armenia reads aloud the Armenian inscriptions of the tombstones in his village in Azerbaijan. An ethnic Armenian from Azerbaijan videos the Azeri graveyard in his village in Armenia, speaking over the tape in Azerbaijani before sending it off to the families of those that used to live there instead of […]
Peaceful coexistence in the South Caucasus
With few expecting a breakthrough in negotiations between Armenia and Azerbaijan to resolve the long-standing conflict over the disputed territory of Nagorno Karabakh, if the likelihood of ethnic Armenians and Azeris ever being able to live together in peace again seemed remote, you’d be wrong. A recent working visit to Georgia, the third of the […]
Azeri Ambassador proposes to rename Kazakhstan’s capital in favor of Nazarbayev
Ambassador of Azerbaijan to Kazakhstan Latif Gandilov suggested to the President of Kazakhstan Nursultan Nazarbayev to rename its capital Astana into Sultan-Ata (“Father Sultan”), Interfax-Azerbaijan reported.
EU resolution “an attempt to damage democratic image of Azerbaijan”
Recently, the European Parliament has adopted a resolution initiated mainly by Dutch MEP Marietje Schaake and Lithuanian MEP Vytautas Landsbergis condemning the current state of freedom of expression in Azerbaijan.
Reporting cultural diversity in the South Caucasus
Despite all the obstacles frustrating recent developments in the South Caucasus, and specifically a new push to resolve the frozen conflict between Armenia and Azerbaijan over the disputed territory of Nagorno Karabakh as well as to normalize ties between Armenia and Turkey, this year has been one of the most liberating yet. For the […]
‘In Facebook, it is not me,’ says Azeri politician
Recently, one Azeri politician and analyst Ilgar Mammadov called another politician and analyst Eldar Namazov: “I’ve sent you a friendship request through Facebook, accept it please.” Eldar Namazov raised his eyebrows in surprise: “But I have no profile in Facebook!”
Two video blogging youth activists imprisoned in Azerbaijan
After having literally just walked in the door after attending the first-ever World Blogging Forum in Bucharest, Romania, one of the main highlights to reflect on was the presence of Parvana Persiani, even if only for one day. A delightful person who warmed the hearts of many even before her presentation on the case of Adnan […]
Two Azeri Bloggers receive prison terms
On 11th November, despite huge international and internal pressure, Sabail District Court of Baku presided by Justice Araz Huseynov convicted two Azerbaijani bloggers Emin Milli and Adnan Hajizade on controversial hooliganism charges.
Armenia-Turkey protocols signed, small protest at home
There’s obviously no rest for the wicked. No sooner than I finish fixing for the BBC and Al Jazeera English on what most outside observers consider to be a historic agreement between Armenia and Turkey to normalize relations after almost a century of bitter rivalry, than Tbilisi beckoned in the form of a New Media […]