Two different Azerbaijans of two different centuries

In these days one article published in Zerkalo, a Russian-language Azeri newspaper drew my attention. Written by Dr. Leila Alieva, the article compared and contrasted two different Azerbaijans of two different centuries - Azerbaijan Democratic Republic of early XX century and The Republic of Azerbaijan of early XXI century. I have written before about Azerbaijan Democratic Republic and its heritage, and I have complained about our neglect towards it (also here), but the method employed by the author of this article was completely new to me.

For me and for many of us there is one Azerbaijan which took the right path in 1918, but deviated from it at the end of XX - at the beginning of XXI centuries, but for the author actually there are two Azerbaijans - the one from 1918 and the other from 2008. The First Azerbaijan's values were democracy, liberty and freedom, but the Second Azerbaijan has nothing except oil, oil, oil, oil, oil, gas, gas, gas and maybe folk music.

As the author notes, 90 years ago "Azerbaijan was the first democratic republic in the Muslim East, and was even more tolerant than its Christian neighbors." And in fact, the cornerstone of Azerbaijan as an independent nation is the democracy and liberal values, thus any other models of statehood are the grave deviations from the very raison d’être of Azerbaijan.

At the end, author concludes his article with a very brave conclusion - a conclusion that many people are still reluctant to state - that a Middle Eastern Azerbaijan as an "influential geopolitical player in the Caspian region", its accent on stability and development in contrast to democracy and liberty neither can make Azeris proud, nor can constitute their identity. The real historical traditions of Azerbaijan and the identity of its citizens are based on the unique traditions of democracy and liberalism, and The True Liberty, which revealed the real potential of Azeri people and shaped its true historical mission - as a leader of reform and democratic movement in the region, at the beginning of the XX century