Azerbaijan
Azerbaijan marks anniversary of its first republic
On 28th of May, Azerbaijan marked 91th anniversary of its first republic. Azerbaijan Democratic Republic or ADR as known by its initials is considered the first democratic republic in Muslim East with a functional parliament and clean record of human rights. As I wrote in my post last year, Proclaimed on 28 May, 1918 and […]
Ethnic rivalry wins over kitsch in the Caucasus
Foreign Policy magazine called the Eurovision Song Contest the "giddiest, stupidest, campiest, silliest international competition of them all," but don’t tell that to anyone in the South Caucasus. Here, many take it very seriously indeed. With the opportunity on hand to perpetuate decades of animosity and years of ethnic hate, if Eurovision was meant to bring nations together, in this […]
Twitter, blogs, social media define youth protests in #baku, #azerbaijan
Defying earlier warnings, a group of youth activists last Sunday staged an action to protest the government’s failure to declare a national day of mourning after 13 people were killed in a shooting spree at a Baku university on 30 April. The tragedy shocked many both inside and outside Azerbaijan, but only a few took […]
A historic wall in Baku
Well, not as historic as the Berlin wall, but still interesting one with graffiti across all spectra of political scale. Slogans vary from "Sexual Revolution" and "Our Fatherland is USSR" to "Death to Israel" and "F@#$ Bush!". With an English guide by the members of local OL! movement.
Barack Obama singles out Azerbaijan
In his statement in honor of World Press Freedom Day, U.S. President Barack Obama singled out Azerbaijan among the "corner[s] of the globe" where journalists are in jail or being actively harassed: In every corner of the globe, there are journalists in jail or being actively harassed: from Azerbaijan to Zimbabwe, Burma to Uzbekistan, Cuba […]
Baku shooting: some unanswered questions
According to Reuters on 30 April, 2009, a gunman entered State Oil Academy in Baku, Azerbaijan and “went from floor to floor firing on teachers and students after the bell rang for morning classes” before killing himself. According to official sources 13 people, including the gunman himself – Georgian citizen of Azeri descent, Farda Gadirov […]
Nationalist party quits government, prepares for municipal election
Nothing is ever simple in the South Caucasus, and no sooner had world leaders hailed a ground-breaking announcement from Armenia and Turkey that might set the scene for the normalization of relations between the two estranged neighbors, than nationalists throughout the region became agitated. Here in Yerevan, the Armenian Revolutionary Federation — Dashanktsutyun, for example, […]
Nationalist party quits government, prepares for municipal election
Nothing is ever simple in the South Caucasus, and no sooner had world leaders hailed a ground-breaking announcement from Armenia and Turkey that might set the scene for the normalization of relations between the two estranged neighbors, than nationalists throughout the region became agitated. Here in Yerevan, the Armenian Revolutionary Federation — Dashanktsutyun, for […]
Civil society addresses an open letter to the President
A group of prominent Azeri intellectuals, civil society and NGO leaders, and independent journalists has addressed an open letter to Ilham Aliyev, the President of the Republic of Azerbaijan. The letter signed by 24 people states in particular: As the representatives of the nation which was the leader of democratization in the Muslim world and […]
How many idiosyncrasies?
Not long ago, in 1920, Mammed Amin Rasul-zadeh wrote that Azerbaijan was born from a Turkic father and Iranian mother. I would like to add that Azerbaijan had Russian stepparents. Once I wrote to a person in the other side of the Atlantic and not mentioned my country, for I thought that why an ordinary […]
Youth activist expelled from university
Once I wrote an innocent piece for azadliqciragi.org, an Azeri-language version of Cato Institute’s Lamps of Liberty and I don’t know how, but my dean N.A. at university got aware of it (too old and conservative to surf in Internet). Later followed what my dean called "educational conversation" between us in order to persuade me […]
The Greatest Uzbek
Azerbaijan, the official newspaper of Azerbaijani Parliament (Milli Majlis) has published an article titled The Greatest Uzbek – a 3,000-word panegyric about Islam Karimov, the authoritarian leader of Uzbekistan. What is interesting about the article is an honest acknowledgement of darkest moments of his life, and his authoritarian style, and a sincere admiration with all […]
6,000 new jobless since December 2008
Fineko/abc.az reports that according to Arif Veliyev, the chief statistician of Azerbaijan 6,000 people have lost their jobs since December 2008. The report continues that "as of 1st February 2009 five registered unemployed persons claimed per vacancy in Azerbaijan against four ones in December and three ones in September of 2008." Keep in mind that […]
Nagorno Karabakh: Blogs, social networking sites cross ethnic fault lines
In May, Armenia and Azerbaijan will mark the 15th anniversary of the 1994 ceasefire agreement which put the conflict over the disputed territory of Nagorno Karabakh, a mainly ethnic Armenian-populated autonomous oblast situated within Azerbaijan, on hold. Since then, international mediators continue to talk of a lasting peace agreement being in reach, but few following the […]
Azerbaijan passing through referendum
On 18th March in a nationwide referendum aimed at amending country’s constitution Azerbaijan went to ballot box to decide whether to remove two-term limit imposed for holders of the Presidential office. The referendum, especially changes proposed for lifting presidential term limits from constitution stirred much controversy from the very beginning. In January, in my Frontline […]
Leading Azeri Online News Portal Shuts Down
Not so long ago, on 12 February, Anar Mamedkhanov, founder of Day.az, leading Azeri media outlet, and one of the biggest online news portals in Caucasus warned his Armenian colleagues: Gentlemen, wake up, it is XXI century, year 2009 (just in case to remind you of), only day.az with the quantity of its visits and […]
Conflict Resolution and Education
With some media outlets reporting that momentum to striking a peace deal between Armenia and Azerbaijan continues, the reality on the ground in both republics is that the two populations are not ready for resolution of the Nagorno Karabakh conflict based on mutual compromise. The situation is reportedly worse in Azerbaijan, but many Armenians also […]