In Mutatione Fortitudo

Azeri Traffic Police Caught Bribing Drivers

2012-01-10T23:31:00.000+04:00

Radio Azadliq (RFE/RL) has released an amateur video of Azerbaijan traffic police bribing drivers - or a right word would be "racketeering" - just in front of the Ministry of Education, in almost downtown Baku.

Timing? On 31 December, the very same day when President Ilham Aliyev in his New Year address to the nation said that the government was fledging "a ruthless struggle" with corruption.

So what does police do in the video? They stop any car they deem "appropriate" and ask them to give money.

Azerbaijan to register all mobile phones, seriously

2012-01-06T07:12:00.000+04:00

Big Brother is watching you!

While the world is absorbed by new Draconian Internet law in Belarus and Iran's attempts to create “halal Internet”, their kindred soul, the Azerbaijani government enacted another shameful and disgraced piece of communications regulation.

The Azerbaijani government will register all operational mobile phones in Azerbaijan – at least, this is what their intention is according to new “Rules regarding registration of mobile devices” adopted by the Council of Ministers just on the last working day of 2011.

Formally this measure is taken within framework of “Complex Action Plan Aimed at Prevention of False Information Regarding Terrorism” adopted in 2009.

So what are these new rules about?

New rules require all operational mobile devices (cell phones) in the territory of Azerbaijan to be registered at Mobile Devices Registration System (MDRS).

MDRS is not ready yet and is to be set up by the Ministry of Communication and IT. All cell phone carriers will have to connect their networks to MDRS.

Information required for the system will include cell phone's IMEI code, a number associated with that phone and serial number of the SIM card.

A cell phone will work only with a number associated with it and registered at MDRS. Otherwise, cell phone operators will have to block it.

In practice, it means the government will be able to switch off every phone in the country.

You think it is a dangerous and stupid thing? Then prepare for more – if you bring a cell phone from abroad for personal use, you have to go to special service centers and personally register your phone and number.

1984, no less than that.

The question is – which will be left unanswered – why such fundamental regulations are accepted bypassing the Parliament and why the public hears about it only now?!

Last Dictator Standing

2011-12-02T23:19:00.000+04:00

A different kind of Nobel fever in Baku

2011-10-12T17:11:00.000+05:00

The world just got over the occasional Nobel fever.

Questions of who will get what this year are no longer asked. Eco or Kundera didn't get the literature prize again; we discovered there is a noble poet called Tranströmer; and once again Nobel committee proved they were unforgivable slow, for another laureate died just before he could hear the news.

Nor the Arabs were awarded for their spring. Maybe next year if they manage to defeat Mubaraks and Gaddafis in themselves.

However, today Baku has a different kind of a Nobel fever.

Azerbaijani universities stuck in the bottom of global rankings have started a competition or rather coordinated effort to bring Nobel prize winners to Baku and decorate them with honorary doctor titles.

On 28 September, the State Economic University hosted three laureates of Nobel Prize in economics - Eric Maskin, Finn Kydland and Christopher Pissarides. The Nobel laureates made three academic presentations and then were made Honorary Doctors by the Scientific Council. The cost of operation was not disclosed.

V.S.Naipaul

On 10 October, Baku State University - my alma mater - hosted another ceremony with Ahmed Zewail, laureate of Nobel Prize in chemistry. He also was made a Honorary Doctor of the Baku State. Various media reports about the event had suspiciously the same mistakes which I guess could be traced to the official press release.

And today V.S.Naipaul himself was spotted at the University of Languages. He met some students and of course, got the Honorary Doctorate.

With the same logic, now we shall expect some laureates of the Nobel Prize in medicine to appear at the Medical University and some laureates of the Nobel Prize in physics - at the Oil Academy or the University of Technology.

And not to alienate the University of Architecture, I'd propose some Pritzker for them. For example - Zaha Hadid as she is already familiar with Azerbaijan and frequent guest here.

But the main question remains unanswered - what to do with the winners of the Nobel Peace Prize?

A Feline Trainspotter

2011-09-24T18:30:00.000+05:00

Graeme the cat visits a Melbourne train station twice a day to drop off and pick up his owner (From HeraldSun.com.au)

Hat tip to A.

Silence of the Lambs, Noise of the Media

2011-09-09T10:31:00.000+05:00

According to Tax Authority of Israel, an Azerbaijani cabinet minister has been left feeling sheepish after he was caught trying to smuggle 50 kg of lamb meat into Israel.

The meat was found in the minister's luggage during a routine inspection at Israel's Ben-Gurion International Airport. Israel requires permits for importing more than 1 kg of meat, therefore the meat was confiscated by customs officials and later destroyed, according to protocol.

Israel's Haaretz paper reported that the minister's aides were embarrassed by the incident. They told the paper the meat was intended for the minister's meals during his visit to Israel.

Media doesn't name the minister and unfortunately, Wikileaks doesn't have the answer.

Frequent plane crashes - another huge problem for Russia

2011-09-08T13:05:00.000+05:00

Photo from Yaroslavl Lokomotiv's official website

One of Russia's top hockey teams - Yaroslavl Lokomotiv was killed in a plane crash yesterday. The accident obliterated most of Russia's prominent hockey players along with the captain of Slovakian national team and several NHL veterans.

Alas, this is not a single plane crash - Russia has become notorious for its tragic plane crashes that either take away lives of its nuclear experts, or almost kills members of its famous pop-group.

In my humble opinion, frequent and fatal plane crashes are become another of the biggest problems for Russia besides alcohol and demographics. If alcohol decimates the Russians and demographics doesn't replace population loss, these crashes threaten to take away all cream of the society.

The Last Kankan of Nakhchivan

2011-08-30T00:56:00.000+05:00

The Last Kankan of Nakhchivan - an interesting documentary by the International Organization for Migration about restoring traditional irrigation systems in rural Azerbaijan.

My new article: Republic of Facebook vs. Republic of Azerbaijan

2011-08-11T08:00:00.009+05:00

The Eastern Partnership Community website run by the Warsaw-based Centre for Eastern Studies has asked me to write an article on use of the Internet and social media by political activists in Azerbaijan. Here is a resume:

Under authoritarian rule of President Ilham Aliyev, Azerbaijan has turned to the Internet and social media as a new remedy for democratization. As the government have closed streets and squares, universities and TV channels for any kind of dissent and activism, liberal youth groups and following their steps, other civic and political movements have moved online in an effort to escape government control and reach wider audiences.

Azerbaijan's youth activists and opposition politicians have increasingly turned to the Internet and social media also as a potential tool for political change. Exiled from public space and daily life, political dissent is flourishing in blogs and social networks, especially in Facebook. This situation has led to some activists to suggest that there is a free Republic of Facebook in parallel to the authoritarian Republic of Azerbaijan.

Azerbaijani government desperately attempts to find ways and means to control Internet, but hasn't come up with any permanent solution yet. Opposition or independent websites are sometimes hacked and filtered, while online dissidents get assaulted and detained and receive harsh prison sentences. Despite government’s crackdown on online activism, Azerbaijan's cyber-dissidents continue their unequal struggle for their rights and freedoms. However, lack of adequate infrastructure and low infiltration of the Internet in the country limit ability of opposition, civil society and youth groups to have broader influence over the society in general.

You can read the full article, following this link to the EAPCommunity website.

How I stopped drinking bottled water

2011-08-10T02:42:00.007+05:00

I was in the toilet of the Deutsche Oper, courtesy of the German Foreign Ministry - well, I know that you shouldn't start a story like this. It raises a lot of questions like what I was doing in a Deutsche Oper toilet and why the German Foreign Ministry had sent me there and what it all has to do with not drinking bottled water.

However, readers are cruel and they always have double standards. No one asked or will ask Kafka how in the world Gregor Samsa was transformed into an insect, for Kafka was a genius and great writer, but they will surely be eager to ask an unknown blogger what he was doing in a Deutsche Oper toilet.

Anyway, I went to the toilet during intermission - I was at Die Liebe der Danae by Richard Strauss and the German Foreign Ministry was generous enough to pay for my ticket - and then, a guy entered the toilet, opened a tap, started to fill his drinking bottle with tap water and left. The canteen was less than 50 meters away if he wanted to buy a new bottle of water.

I see no point to accent how clean the tap water was in that toilet - it was more clean than in kitchens in the most parts of the world - it didn't surprise me. However, I was positively surprised to see how environmentally and economically responsible were the people in Germany - this was not surely the only incident I placed my judgment upon.

Just a few days before that encounter, in one session about new media, I saw a US-made video that truly shocked me. That video together with above-mentioned episode in the Deutsche Oper toilet - they changed something significant about my behaviour: I've stopped drinking bottled water unless I can't otherwise.

Another step to become more environmentally responsible. Below is the video you can't afford to miss it.

Return of the Prodigal Son

2011-08-10T00:42:00.002+05:00

Photo by Aziz Karimov

Azerbaijan's first President Ayaz Mutallibov returns from 19-year exile to attend the funeral of his son who died from cancer. Deposed in a coup by the Popular Front in 1992, he was living in Moscow and couldn't return to Azerbaijan because of a criminal case opened against him and inherited by all consecutive governments. In order to attend the funeral, he was granted special immunity by President Ilham Aliyev.

More historic buildings being destroyed in downtown Baku - PHOTOS

2011-08-01T03:03:00.001+05:00

This small mansion could decorate a back street in any European capital,
but someone decided it is not fit for their vision of new Baku

Almost a year has passed since the city authorities evicted residents from a historic neighborhood between Fuzuli and Badalbayli streets in Baku and razed it to the ground.

Located on the edge of Baku's historic Jewish quarter, the area was known as Basin [BAH-sin] and its loss was a huge anthropological and ethnographic tragedy for Baku.

As for architectural losses, Fuzuli street lost the House No 58 - a solid structure with a character; and 11 historic monuments were razed in Badalbayli street, including Melikov mansion, a slim structure with a grace.

Speaking in a language of metaphors, if the House No 58 was a rough and coarse oil magnate of XIX century Baku, Melikov mansion was a coquettish mademoiselle walking along the city promenade every evening.

However, the modern Vandals haven't finished their work apparently - without much scandal, they have started to demolish the other side of the Badalbayli street - which wasn't in the initial plan. I wouldn't notice it myself, if one day I didn't spot empty windows in a mansion that I was thinking was safe.

I have taken some photos from the area recently and here present them to you. Unfortunately, those structures in the photos will be gone in upcoming months.

Click Read more to see the photos.

Typical buildings in the area - not masterpieces, but historic monuments

Some parts of the area have already been demolished

And a house of Leyla Yunus, a veteran human rights activist. She wrote on her wall:
"Leyla Yunus' house is protected by the laws of Azerbaijan Republic."

Paul Goble the Mathematician

2011-07-27T01:48:00.000+05:00

Photo from FreeMediaOnline.org

"I once had occasion to tell the former president of Azerbaijan, Heydar Aliyev, that the best thing that could happen to Azerbaijan was his reelection with 60 percent of the vote, because if he got 60 percent of the vote that would mean there would be other people who got 40 percent. But he came out of a society which thought that elections are referenda and therefore 90 percent plus is the only possible answer." -- Paul Goble to US Helsinki Commission

Finally free, Eynulla Fatullayev at the European Court of Human Rights

2011-07-06T01:10:00.000+05:00

photos by me, Ali S. Novruzov (c)

Manipulation and dishonesty from News.az

2011-07-05T16:05:00.006+05:00

Snapshot from News.az

How News.az blissfully forgets that gays are discriminated in Azerbaijan, but hastily stands in defense of gays in Armenia.

It's a bit old news, but I saw it only now - thanks to a Facebook friend M. - a pro-government Azerbaijani news website News.az published a story titled "Gays discriminated in Armenia".

The news piece is not about discrimination toward gays in Armenia as you would tell from the title, but rather is about the Council of Europe report on situation of sexual minorities in 47 member states.

I would like to point out unapproriateness of the title - but News.az has copy-pasted the news from unrelated Armenian website News.am together with the title itself. Except for, News.am gives title as "Gays discriminated in Armenia - CoE".

Ordinary practice, people would say - however, if not one moment.

The Council of Europe report also covers Azerbaijan, which is also a member state of the Council. And according to the same report, gays are also discriminated in Azerbaijan.

An honest news website - if it wants to cover this report - should give a complete picture and besides, it is an Azerbaijani website and should give info about Azerbaijan in the first place.

However, we don't find any news on News.az about Azerbaijani section of the abovementioned report.

News.az blissfully forgets that gays are discriminated in Azerbaijan, but hastily puts a news piece about gays being discriminated in Armenia.

You think it's all? No, there is also another, bigger moment.

News.am writes:

According to the report 9 out of 47 Council member states, do not have comprehensive legislation on non-discrimination based on sexual orientation. Armenia, Azerbaijan, Liechtenstein, Moldova, Monaco, Russian Federation, San Marino, Turkey and Ukraine are among these states.

News.az repeates, but with one significant omission:

According to the report 9 out of 47 Council member states, do not have comprehensive legislation on non-discrimination based on sexual orientation. Armenia, Liechtenstein, Moldova, Monaco, Russian Federation, San Marino, Turkey and Ukraine are among these states.

So, reading News.az report, you may also need detective skills to find out the ninth country which was not named.

A real Potemkin village in Azerbaijan

2011-06-20T00:21:00.003+05:00

A friend was returning from a trip these days and had an honour to witness a real Potemkin village.

The President has recently visited some rural districts and because of this, authorities "beautified" the area all along the Baku-Astara highway he passed. And as a part of tradition here, they also limed trees along the road. Well, watch the video my friend shot to dicover how the trees were limed acutally.

Bakoestraat and Burgemeester Aboutaleb

2011-06-14T00:23:00.027+05:00

Photo from exPontoMagazine.nl

Unfortunately, I don't know Dutch to fully understand what this news piece says, but as I somehow understood from it - the Mayor of Rotterdam Aboutaleb together with Azeri Ambassador to Netherlands Fuad Isgandarov opened a memorial plaque in a Rotterdam street named after Baku.

There has been a Baku street - Bakoestraat - in Hoogvliet district of Rotterdam since 1953, to my ignorance.

And another fact I didn't know - ironically, Rotterdam's mayor appears to be someone named Aboutaleb. For Baku's mayor - rather the Head of Executive as Baku doesn't have an elected mayor - is named Abutalibov.

What a pity that Burgemeester Abutalibov missed this ceremony :)

Beral Madra: I was naive and I failed

2011-06-13T03:10:00.025+05:00

Press release by Beral Madra, an advisory curator for Azerbaijan in 54th Venice Biennale, about removal of Aidan Salakhova's sculptures from the Azeri pavillion.


Right: Aidan Salakhova's sculptures covered in Venice; Left: One of the covered works - Waiting Bride (Photos from Beral Marda's personal blog)

I was invited by the Ministry of Culture of Azerbaijan to be the advisory curator of the exhibition of Azerbaijan Pavilion in 54th Venice Biennale. From September 2010 on I have worked with Mr. Chingiz Farzaliev, who acted as commissar and local curator. All the works of these artists have been evaluated in meetings in Baku and Venice. Aidan Salakhova has presented her sculptures in every detail which have been produced in Carrara and these works together with the works of the artist have been published in the catalogue and announced in the website from April 2011 on.

31st of May, when I came to the pavilion I was informed that Ministry of Culture has found Salakhova’s two sculptures which were installed in the entrance of the Palazzo controversial to the prestige of the country.

Aidan Salakhova and me, we felt very concerned and responsible of the image of the exhibition and respecting the position of the other artists we tried to be positive and find a solution. As it could not be removed during the opening days, the sculptures were covered with textile. Until 5th of June, every day we have discussed with the authorities and responsible people of the pavilion and explained that:

Removing the sculpture will mean “censorship” and it will do more harm to the image of the country than the sculpture itself; it would be much effective, if the officials would place a label next to the sculpture and declare that the authorities are not acknowledging and approving the form, message or concept of this sculpture, that it is the interpretation of the artist.
The concept of the sculptures has been misinterpreted and misjudged by the authorities or by their advisers; all symbols, signs, objects Salakhova is using have a historical and traditional knowledge and anchorage.
The meaning and message of this work is extensively explained in my catalogue text and is eventually the artist’s interpretation of “being woman under the religious dictums”; here the religion is not only related to Islam but also to Orthodoxy and other religions, which before Islam introduced the veil;
The selection of artists and the works have been made by me and by Mr. Farzaliev with utmost responsibility and prudence; during this process there was not one negative hint that came on Salakhova’s work.
The Venice Biennale is a platform for extreme artistic freedom, for sensitive topics, for limitless criticism; therefore all countries must consider and accept this context before participating.

However, we were not able to convince and stop the removal of these sculptures.

In my 30 years of profession, I have never experienced this kind of conflict. However, lately I am observing, probably most of my colleagues also do - the growing intrusion of the political and official power on contemporary art production and on the artists and curators in many countries, including the developed democracies. Contemporary art production and its theoretical and critical context is being employed and exploited by the official power as well as by the private sector as a tool for high prestige and glory; but at the same time its content and concepts are not tolerated and acknowledged.

We in the production sector of contemporary art are witnessing and enduring this use/abuse process. We release protests and supports for the victims of these attitudes. Journalists investigate and write about it. However, at the end the damage is done and the artist or the curator suffers.

In the case of Azerbaijan Pavilion, I think from now on this is the problem of the artists and curators living and working in Azerbaijan. I have done my best, to bring the Azerbaijan contemporary art production into the agenda of international contemporary art; however I must acknowledge that I was naive and I failed. The artists, art critics and curators in Azerbaijan should act and liberate art making, art production and creative criticism and take their long deserved position in the international art.

On the other side, this is also becoming a general problem in the art world and I think the artists and curators should have an international legal protection against these conflicts.

Beral Madra
Tuesday, 07 June 2011
Pluversum.blogspot.com

Catherine Ashton's statement on Azerbaijan

2011-05-24T06:29:00.001+05:00

Bakhtiyar Hajiyev with Azeri flag / Photo from Facebook

Catherine Ashton, the High Representative of the European Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy and Vice-President of the European Commission, made today the following statement on 20 May:

“I am increasingly concerned about the situation in Azerbaijan regarding the respect for human rights. The recent sentencing of two youth activists, Mr. Jabbar Savalan and Mr Bakhtiyar Hajiyev, on 4 May and 18 May respectively, is of concern to us. In both cases the circumstances give reason to assume that the judicial proceedings were overshadowed by political motivations. We call upon Azerbaijan to fully respect fundamental freedoms and to guarantee the due application of the rule of law according to international standards to which Azerbaijan has committed itself. We also call on Azerbaijan to provide for a fair and swift revision of the verdicts.”

Jabbar Savalan with Azeri flag (Photo from Azadliq.info)

Azerbaijan's Eurovision challenge

2011-05-19T10:20:00.003+05:00

Azerbaijan's duo Ell and Nikki pay tribute to Heydar Aliyev's statue in central Baku (Photo from 1news.az)

Four years after its debut in the Eurovision Song Contest, Azerbaijan won this iconic, but now kitchy music competition.

On 15 may in Dusseldorf, Azerbaijani duo Ell/Nikki received the highest number of points from 43 countries across Europe and became first.

Despite late hours and heavy rain, Baku did not sleep that day, but a large and accidental crowd celebrated the moment at the historic Freedom Square.

However, this victory at Eurovision is also a big challenge to Azerbaijan with notorious record of human rights violations and authoritarian policies.

As a matter of fact, the very same Freedom Square is closed to any political and opposition rallies since at least 2003.

Reluctantly proud

This is how majority of Azeri activists feel here. At least, this is how I feel.

On one hand, we are proud that Azerbaijan won. It is a huge achievement and to get recognition of European family is not a thing you witness every day.

We do reply with thanks to every congrats of foreigner friends, and all of these replies are genuinely sincere.

On the other hand, we clearly understand what results this victory can bare - encountering serious legitimacy concerns at home, the Azerbaijani government will use this opportunity to full extent to mobilize popular support for their authoritarian policies.

It will become a favorite propaganda toy in the hands of the government. Tightly controlled media has already started to sing dithyrambs in honor of the President, et all ("architects of the victory") and the victory itself is soon going to be the result of successful foreign and domestic policies of the government.

Serious human rights and democracy concerns will be pushed aside.

Baku will host Eurovision 2012 and as a typical shame-based society, critics will be silenced – with a silent approval from general conformist public - not to spoil the show.

And ever-present corruption concerns - there is almost no doubt in public that the Eurovision will be another pet project through which millions of public funds will be embezzled. Another opportunity for corrupt schemes in a country that ranks 134 out of 178 countries in Transparency International's Corruption Perceptions Index.

A window of opportunity?

But there is an opinion that the Eurovision is also a window of opportunity for the Azeri society to get some of its freedoms back.

From my talks with local and foreign experts and activists, and my observations, I have an impression that almost all international and domestic tools and means to persuade the Azerbaijani government to democratic reforms have been exhausted.

Eurovision brings Azerbaijan into a spotlight of whole Europe and as every authoritarian government imitating democracy, Azerbaijan also has to do something to preserve its benevolent image. You are now under a magnifying glass, thus you have to do more - some real reforms and concessions perhaps.

Thus, Eurovision can transform Azerbaijan - as the Guardian says – it can force Azerbaijan's dictatorship into greater political openness.

Yet no signs of change

Three days after the Eurovision victory, a court in Azeri city of Ganja has handed down a 2-year prison sentence to a youth activist and former parliamentary candidate Bakhtiyar Hajiyev.

Bakhtiyar Hajiyev (photo from Facebook)

Hajiyev, a graduate of Harvard Kennedy School of Government, is imprisoned on baseless charges of evading military service. In fact, many believe that he is punished for his political activities.

Jabbar Savalanli, a 19-year old student from Sumgayit is also imprisoned for his political activities - but on fake drug charges – for two and half years.

A group of opposition activists are in pretrial detention after participating in unsanctioned but peaceful rally in the downtown.

The government defies European Court of Human Rights and hasn't released Eynulla Fatullayev, the editor-in-chief of Azerbaijan's most popular, but now defunct two newspapers.

And as a peak of all absurdities, the Azeri government asked Interpol to detain another online activist and blogger, Elnur Majidli who is in Strasbourg – for “anti-state activities.”

So, what does the timing of Bakhtiyar Hajiyev's sentence show us? Why to hand a harsh sentence to a youth activist in a time when everybody waits reason from you?

Evidently, the Azerbaijani government doesn't think of any – even the slightest – concessions in human rights issues. Even for Eurovision's sake.

We don't see any wish and will of the government in Baku to soften the regime yet.

What is in a name? Apparently everything!

2011-05-04T13:16:00.003+05:00

"Work as Stalin teaches you!" (a Soviet poster)

I don't know whether these titles are Freudian slips or not, but it would be a great sin, if you accidentally miss them :)

I guess these guys have no sense of humour, or they have too much:
Azerbaijani official: History books should be amended

Azerbaijani government goes complete libertarian:
Azerbaijani Education Ministry proposes to lift ban on providing schools with weapons

And there can't be a scarier title than this one:
Uzbek Prosecutor General meets Azeri interior minister

And as a bonus, here is a truly Orwellian title:
Azerbaijan to create structure to monitor e-news portals

April in Paris

2011-04-29T03:45:00.001+05:00

We were walking along the banks of Seine and then through a diplomatic quarter for about two hours, hunting for Eiffel in the dark of the late night.

At every turn where a grandiose mansion was bending to make a way for a small street or a pass, Eiffel was escaping us by being behind another splendid house - as if it was moving away with every step we were approaching it.

Then, suddenly, in a moment we lost our hope, it appeared before us in all its beauty. I uttered "terrific!" and continued to walk towards it.

The friend got disappointed by my reaction. As I had got disappointed by Paris.

Vangelis - Conquest of Paradise

2011-04-23T03:23:00.000+05:00

Charlie Chaplin - 122

2011-04-16T15:20:00.000+05:00

Ulytau - Toccata and fuge

2011-03-19T03:42:00.002+04:00

Settled somewhere between traditional rhythms, classical elements and hard rocking sounds, ULYTAU is a Kazakh band can easily be compared with artists like Apocalyptica, Korpklaani or In Extremo according to Youtube description of above video:

Even though six Kazakhs abdicate singing to emphasize the connection between traditional sounds of the instrument Dombra, classics like the violin and the piano or the original instrumentation of guitar, bass and drums, ULYTAU's songs leave nothing to be desired.

From Mozart to Mugam - a journey

2011-02-28T08:09:00.001+04:00

Where is Mubarak? He flew away!

2011-02-12T00:51:00.000+04:00

From 1966 Soviet film "Aladdin and the Enchanted Lamp"
Watch on Youtube for better view of subtitles

Prophecy fulfilled - Egypt 11022011

2011-02-11T22:49:00.001+04:00

An Egyptian anti-government activist kisses a riot police officer following clashes in Cairo, Egypt, Friday, Jan. 28, 2011. (Lefteris Pitarakis / AP)

Only yesterday I did stumble upon this article again - I printed it out in November 2009, read and then put aside. I don't know which is more surprising - survival of Mubarak's regime for 30 years or a survival of a print of an ordinary article for a year and three months. But Rami G. Khouri is more than a prophet and his prophecy is fulfilled.

This is what he wrote in his November 2009 op-ed for the International Herald Tribune, titled "Arab autocracy":

The greatest victims of the Arab world’s lack of democratic freedoms is the current generation of Arab youth. They enjoy all the other dimensions of modernity — education, travel, electronic interconnectedness, urbanism, exposure to other cultures — that should give them a productive, vibrant and satisfying life. Yet they are politically stunted and economically constrained.

The nature of discontent exhibited by Arab youth today is similar to that which drove the liberation movements of the Soviet bloc a generation ago: educated men and women whose basic needs were met but whose potential for political expression, cultural creativity and economic development were totally constrained by a top-heavy, militarized and closed political system.

I would not be surprised to see young people lead the movement for change in the Arab world, when the moment comes for that movement to materialize and wash away the legacy of authoritarian or autocratic power structures that have reached the end of their useful days in our region.

Geraldine Brooks, People of The Book - a book review

2011-01-18T01:32:00.009+04:00

amazon.com

The cover of the copy I picked up in a Baku bookstore said it would read like Pavic. Nah.

It was as if a conspiracy of serendipity. I was looking for a book of Jewish parables and saw a Russian edition of People of the Book, by Geraldine Brooks.

Not following today's fiction too much, perhaps I wouldn't notice it and pay any attention, if a day before, a friend didn't post a status in Facebook about the very same book.

Adding to my curiosity, it was a book about an old Jewish book. And I decided to read it, for couldn't find a decent book of Jewish parables I was looking for.

But to the end of the first chapter, I already realized it wouldn't add to the treasury of world literature.

Penned by an understudy of Arthur Conan Doyle, the book is about an understudy of Sherlock Holmes, who is in a pursuit of an ordinary mystery surrounding one medieval Jewish manuscript, Sarajevo Hagaddah, in a Dan Brown style plot.

Understudy – because they get distracted too much and distract the readers. Ordinary mystery – for I couldn't get what is special in a medieval manuscript - don't all of them have their own unique histories?

There are also two additional plots, designed as if to enrich the book, but are insincere and unconvincing – first, enduring problems between the main character and her mother, and second, a love affair with a Bosnian librarian.

Before us, there is a book claiming to tell a story of another book throughout its dramatic journey across troubled countries and centuries. But it even fails to be a story of a single, unremarkable woman finding her love and trying to solve problems with her mother while exploring the manuscript.

Surely, it won't contribute to your intellectual backpack, but will be a good reading during long subway commutes.

P.S. I am also disappointed by a sudden twist in the plot near the end of the book, or rather to say – the book's awful, unrealistic, poorly-written ending. It seems Ms. Geraldine Brooks was hurried up by her publisher or editor to finish the piece on time. Ah, these deadlines :(

ქართული პოლიცია - Georgian police

2011-01-11T22:17:00.003+04:00

Since the Saakashvili government started its much-praised reforms, Georgians have been trying to unlearn some bad things that Soviets had thought them.

However, looking at below video, it seems they don't plan to forget famous art of Soviet propaganda - and spoiler alert - this video does not include the famous footage of recent days where the brave Georgian police punches a women in her face.

Do not let them eat cake!

2010-12-27T16:38:00.001+04:00

It is an old story - Queen Marie Antoinette was once told that peasants didn't have any bread to eat and she allegedly replied: "Let them eat cake!"

And this is the very phrase my friend Arzu recalled while reading the news about 49-meter long cake baked in Ganja for the 49th birthday of Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev.

However, let me disagree with Arzu here - a proper phrase for this ceremony would be "Do not let them eat cake!"

Photos from Radio Azadliq

Emin and Adnan: They are back!

2010-12-13T23:22:00.000+04:00

Icarus and the Wise Men

2010-12-10T23:11:00.000+04:00

Here is my favorite Soviet animation film - ironically, I had to grow up to understand it and to discover that I love it.

Medvedev, Aliyev and Wikileaks

2010-11-30T17:26:00.002+04:00

Photo from the Khaleej Times

Ilham Aliyev was blackmailed by Dmitri Medvedev not to support possible UN resolution on Golodomor, Prince Andrew told the US Ambassador in Bishkek.

Yesterday, the Wikileaks started to release secret diplomatic correspondence of the US State Department and US embassies, among them five cables sent from the US Embassy in Baku (out of total 1569 according to Der Spiegel).

What causes sensation mostly are the summary of President Aliyev's closed meeting with US Undersecretary William Burns and reports about suspicious Iranian economic affairs in Baku aimed at evading international sanctions imposed on Tehran.

If confirmed, the contents of these cables are able to dramatically damage Azerbaijan's relations with Turkey, Russia and Iran. Relations with the US are already complicated. And who knows what else are hidden in the remaining 1564 cables awaiting their release.

But the Presidential Administration has released a statement today, doubting the authenticity of Wikileaks cables. Namely, the Administration stated that:

...ideas and comments displayed on the website as words of Ilham Aliyev, President of the Republic of Azerbaijan, do not reflect the reality at all and are groundless. These documents are a clear sabotage serving the purpose of spoiling the relations of Azerbaijan with its neighboring states and creating distrust and lack of faith between the state leaders. The euphemisms and sharp and emotional portrayals written in the documents do not exist in the lexicon of the President.

But what do the cables released by the Wikileaks tell us? For instance, President Aliyev's supposed remarks about Medvedev are indeed interesting:

¶7. (C) In response to U/S Burns' question about the Russian role in the NK talks, Aliyev responded that he was convinced that Medvedev's efforts have been sincere. He said that Medvedev has personally met with the Azerbaijani and Armenian presidents five times. Thus any failure to make progress on this issue will damage Medvedev's credibility. He said that at Sochi, Medvedev tried to persuade Sargsian to achieve a breakthrough. He added, however, that it was strange that with so much pressure from Moscow and Lavrov's visit to Yeveran, the Armenians not only resisted progress, but actually backtracked on previously-agreed items. In response to a question, Aliyev said that he believes that PM Putin has his own separate opinion about the desirability of an NK resolution. "I have no evidence, but I can feel this," Aliyev remarked.

¶8. (C) Aliyev said that he considers Medvedev "a modern, new-generation intellectual," surrounded by people whom he does not control. He said that he has personally witnessed Medvedev taking decisions that then required further approval before they were implemented, referring specifically to a border demarcation agreement that he had agreed with Medvedev only to have it stymied by ""others,"" presumably in the prime ministerial office. He added, "Many high-ranking officials don't recognize (Medvedev) as a leader." He said that there are signs of a strong confrontation between the teams of the two men, although not yet between Putin and Medvedev personally. "We have a saying in Azeri, 'Two heads cannot be boiled in one pot'" (crude street slang suggesting that two leaders are spoiling for a fight).

Another fact, more interesting, but which slipped from the focus of Azeri media, for it was sent from Bishkek:

[Prince Andrew] told the [US] Ambassador that he was a frequent visitor to Central Asia and the Caucasus and had noticed a marked increase in Russian pressure and concomitant anxiety among the locals post-August events in Georgia. He stated the following story related to him recently by Azerbaijan’s President Aliyev. Aliyev had received a letter from President Medvedev telling him that if Azerbaijan supported the designation of the Bolshevik artificial famine in Ukraine as “genocide” at the United Nations, “then you can forget about seeing Nagorno-Karabakh ever again.” Prince Andrew added that every single other regional President had told him of receiving similar “directive” letters from Medvedev except for Bakiyev. He asked the Ambassador if Bakiyev had received something similar as well. The Ambassador answered that she was not aware of any such letter.

The Wikileaks has stated that the embassy cables will be released in stages over the next few months, because "the subject matter of these cables is of such importance, and the geographical spread so broad, that to do otherwise would not do this material justice."

Therefore, sharpen your ears and eyes for more scandalous releases.

Mission impossible: Saakashvili and the gypsies

2010-11-20T03:40:00.006+04:00

The Georgian Parliament in Rustaveli / DDohler, Flickr

Today, reading Mikheil Saakashvili's interview to Russian Novaya Gazeta, I came across a passage so familiar to me:

[Journalist aks] about impoverished children who are intrusively begging in Tbilisi, grabbing passers-by by their legs. [Saakashvili asnwers:] "They are gypsies, we tried to put them in orphanages. We attempted to negotiate with gypsy barons. But it is difficult to have a deal with them. In France, they were given money for deportation - they all returned. But you won't see our refugees and the poor. They all are settled down."

It happened to me in Tbilisi - two gypsy children grabbed my legs and demanded money. Ironically, I gave some to one of them a minute earlier and they wanted more. There were no police around, though we were in front of the Georgian Parliament in Rustaveli Avenue. Thanks to an old Georgian lady, who released me from the captivity by shouting at the children with her aggressive voice.

However, one of the gypsies bit my leg before releasing me, and it was the one whom I gave some money to.

I also asked - without any success - the same question to people I met in Tbilisi – why police don't chase away those gypsy children from the prime spot of not only Tbilisi, but also of Georgia.

Now Saakashvili himself says it is impossible.

Though his last two sentences ("But you won't see our refugees and the poor. They all are settled down.") – I would dare to say they are not true. If you walk along the streets of Central Tbilisi – there are plenty of poor people who are begging – all old men and women and all Georgian.

The other donkey blogger Emin Milli also released

2010-11-19T23:10:00.006+04:00

Yesterday, Adnan Hajizade, one of Azerbaijan's two 'donkey bloggers' was granted an early release from jail. Today, Emin Milli, the other 'donkey blogger' was also released.

Authorities also set free Bakhtiyar Hajiyev, another youth activist who was detained on the same day that Adnan was released.

Former candidate to the Parliament and a graduate of Harvard University, Bakhtiyar Hajiyev was detained while crossing the Azeri-Georgian border.

That is, all three are free. Hopefully, no more bad news these days.

Adnan's lawyer and Emin Milli's mother/ Turkhan Karimov, RFE/RL

Emin Milli with his niece / Turkhan Karimov, RFE/RL

Adnan Hajizade is free

2010-11-18T23:46:00.000+04:00

Adnan Hajizade, one of Azerbaijan's two jailed 'donkey bloggers' was granted an early release today.

The Baku Court of Appeals decided to suspend remaining part of his term, for Adnan had already spent half of it in jail.

The news is all over the Internet and from my part what remains to say - the release of one blogger is not enough. Emin Milli should also be released.

Adnan Hajizade with his father Hikmat / Reuters

Notes from Tbilisi, part three

2010-11-13T02:21:00.000+04:00

I praised Tbilisi and Georgia in my previous posts (here and here), therefore here is – by popular demand - my critique.

The Ethnographic Museum, Tbilisi (photo by me)

Tbilisi is not a heaven, surely. Rather, one of my main impressions of the city is old ladies and gentlemen begging in the streets and urinating in the underpasses - even in the one under Courtyard Marriott in the Freedom Square.

Problems with police are almost gone. Actually when I descended from Tbilisi-Baku train in the Central Railway Station of Baku, I saw more policemen in the train station than I had seen in whole Tbilisi during all previous week. Therefore, a gypsy child can bit your leg just in front of the Georgian Parliament and a beggar can urinate in the underpass just under Courtyard Marriott .

However, one cynical drunk visitor of N. pub in Perovskaya would rather say here – yes, the police don't have rights to chase away gypsy children, but see what happens if opposition tries to stage something. And today, in OSCE seminar on media in South Caucasus, listening to a presentation by a brave journalist Shorena of Liberali.ge, with facts and cases carefully outlined, one sees a different Georgia that is not visible during a merry walk in Rustaveli avenue.

Therefore when I was asked by a Georgian TV journalist who was interviewing me at OSCE seminar, not to talk about government pressures on media and especially Internet, “because we are also a government channel, and can't show that,” I was not surprised.

And here are my short conclusions from two separate visits to Georgia:

1 – Saakashvili wiped out corruption and bureaucracy and successfully reformed police, but situation regarding democracy is still a serious challenge. I suspect the current government thinks the real democracy in Georgia would be a deathly threat to their fundamental reform plans. Frankly, I don't know how true their assumptions are.

2 – Georgia seems to lack any real economy and thus sufficient revenues. Without foreign aid, they are doomed to fail. I had a feeling that all developments and improvements in the country would be jeopardized if someone in the State Department would think Georgia is no longer loyal to democratization or it undermines US interests.

3 – Georgia's progress is vital for Azerbaijan's progress. The Azerbaijani government can ignore comparisons with distant Europe or US, but it is infuriated when it loses a comparison with poor Georgia. Only the pride damaged by such comparisons can force greedy, arrogant Azeri ruling elite to make reforms or at least, to stop ruining the country.

However, my impression is that the Georgian government is more susceptible to taking some not-so-good Azeri practices rather than the Azeri government taking some good Georgian ones. Very minor example – that kitsch bridge and restoration trends in the historical Tbilisi.

Notes from Tbilisi, part two

2010-11-05T01:30:00.001+04:00

Me at Vera bridge, Tbilisi

Lighting a candle in a Georgian Orthodox Church of Zion, then drinking Armenian cognac in a tavern just opposite Baku restaurant in Abkhazian street – this is what Tbilisi is about.

Especially if you have a tourist map in Chinese.

But today, I want to make an appeal.

Dear Georgian police, please take away the Azeri gypsies from Rustaveli avenue, in front of the Parliament – not only they harass the passers-by, but one of them also bit my leg.

I asked one of my friends here why the police didn't take them away, and he replied – because they didn't have the right to do it. Most Tbilisians won't understand this joke – it is a luxury available to Bakuvians only, courtesy of Azeri police.

On a separate note, if you see a bookstore and it is not Prospero's at Rustaveli, and you don't speak Georgian, don't waste your time entering it - they would have only two books in English - The Knight in the Panther's Skin and The History of Georgia.

Notes from Tbilisi

2010-11-01T00:53:00.002+04:00

Photo by Rita Willaert / Flickr

Imagine a Vilnius, more dilapidated, but where all Lithuanians are removed by an invisible hand and replaced by Azeris - this was my first impression of Tbilisi.

As soon as our train passed the border and customs control and reached a model Soviet industrial town of Rustavi, all the Georgian passengers rushed to windows and started to view its ruins.

Not that Rustavi has seen any wars in its approximately 50 year-long of history, but the town, at least its industrial part, lies largely in ruins. Abandoned buildings and warehouses, collapsing houses, thrown-away machinery and railway carriages lie all along the Baku-Tbilisi railway. And the cheerful Georgians all view it with a kind of strange silence and optimism, occasionally interrupted by a child's voice or some lady's gag in Georgian.

It is as if they watch the signs of a past that gradually becomes a past. Citizens of new Georgia, look at the remnants of old Georgia. As if an open-air museum of how a state should not be run.

At some point a handful of teenagers throw stones at the train and show middle finger to people at the windows. A Georgian passenger quietly says to her husband - "eto Armyane" - these are Armenians. Stoning Baku-Tbilisi train.

We have wonderful impressions after customs control, so that not a stone thrown at our train can spoil our mood. I am especially surprised about Azeri customs officials - they processed our train faster than their Georgian colleagues and had extreme politeness and efficiency matching those of Georgians. No bribes, no rudeness, no unnecessary questions or advices.

Many things, I've heard about Azeri customs before, proved not true, but I should perhaps wait for my return from Georgia to be doubly sure :)

Arriving at Tbilisi’s half-renovated Central Railway Station, you won't see big construction or renovation projects that have closed half of Baku "temporarily," but you start to witness all those small changes that indicate Georgia is on the rise and that accumulate into one big force driving the country forward.

You feel the city has its own spirit, it is not all kitsch and fake grandiosity that Baku consists of, after huge oil windfall left its marks on its façades and killed its spirit.

But - what a pity that Rustaveli Avenue is starting to get all that kitsch.

And one last remark for today - the awful state of Russian in Tbilisi. We entered a store in Rustaveli Avenue and one corner shop in Kaczynski Street - the shop assistants couldn't speak or even understand the Russian. I can't imagine a shop in central Baku, where Russian wouldn't be colloquial.

Think different

2010-10-30T09:18:00.000+05:00

Here is one of the best ads I've ever seen - text below:

Here's to the crazy ones.
The misfits.
The rebels.
The troublemakers.
The round pegs in the square holes.
The ones who see things differently.
They're not fond of rules.
And they have no respect for the status quo.
You can quote them, disagree with them, glorify or vilify them.
About the only thing you can't do is ignore them.
Because they change things.
They push the human race forward.
And while some may see them as the crazy ones,
We see genius.
Because the people who are crazy enough to think
they can change the world,
Are the ones who do.

My Way - in Azeri, by Mubariz Tagiyev

2010-10-04T02:32:00.000+05:00

National gold reserve

2010-10-03T21:05:00.000+05:00

Recently, the Finance Minister of Azerbaijan has announced that the Government was creating the national gold reserve and for this purpose, one hundred kilogram of gold was alredy delivered to the Central Bank. Another one hundred kilogram of gold is to be delivered in upcoming weeks.

So two hundred kilograms of gold?

Not so long ago, police rounded up the Head of Nizami District of Baku, Mehbali Aliyev and guess what they have discovered from his datcha – three tonnes of gold buried deep in the earth.

How to build a smear campaign, Azeri style

2010-10-02T00:36:00.006+05:00

Ali Karimli / Uncredited photo from Internet

Azerbaijani and Armenian media are caught in unique cooperation in building a smear campaign against one of the leaders of Azerbaijani opposition - Ali Karimli.

In upcoming November, it is the next parliamentary election in the Republic of Azerbaijan. Finally, after long intrigues and feud, two main (and last remaining) opposition parties were able to come together and form a block for joint participation in the election.

Ali Karimli is one of the leaders of this block and perhaps holds a record for being a focus of numerous smear campaigns sponsored by the government. He also penned the famous op-ed in the Washington Post this April.

Now, just a month left to the election, another smear campaign seems to unfold. In short, Ali Karimli is accused of bargaining with foreign powers - if they support him in the upcoming election, he is ready for every concession in Nagorno-Karabakh conflict.

But how to prove this and how to make people believe it?

First, you order "The 525th Newspaper" to publish an initial article, where the whole conspiracy is explained - Ali Kerimli will sell Karabakh if “foreign powers” will bring him to power.

For the record, 525th is allegedly considered a “sold” media in Azerbaijan. “Sold media” is a media outlet that previously was independent, but then unofficially was bought by the government. Now it still poses as independent, but in fact, is controlled by the government.

Second, Russian-language news website 1news.az publishes an article based on and citing original material in 525 where they repeat the same allegation – Ali Karimli will sell (if not already sold) Karabakh in exchange for power.

For the record, 1news.az is a news website allegedly controlled by the Presidential Administration. Unofficially, in Azeri journalistic community, it is referred to as “Apparatus’s website” for Presidential Administration’s unofficial and former name is “Apparatus.” Together with its sister project, English-language News.az, 1news.az is the prime resource in the Azerbaijani government’s information war with the Armenian government.

Third, Armenian media outlets pick up the news and report – Azeri opposition leader is ready to any concession in Karabakh issue, reports Azeri media. PanArmenian for example, cites both 525th and 1news.az.

This part of the job is over. Now it is time to inform Azeri people of this evil conspiracy - and finally, Azeri TVs and other media step in: “Armenian media reports that Ali Karimli has pledged to western circles that he is ready to any concession in Karabakh issue in exchange for support in the upcoming election.”

And our beloved 525th doesn’t also forget about its duty to inform the public about this shocking news – and not surprisingly, it cites Azeri-Press Agency citing Armenian media, but forgets to say that Armenian media cites 1news.az citing 525th.

About Tom de Waal - Gulliver of our times

2010-09-25T08:05:00.002+05:00

Tom de Waal / Photo Trend

Perhaps you already know Gulliver of our times - Mr. Thomas de Waal of glorious county of Nottinghamshire.

He has written an excellent book about Nagorno-Karabakh conflict as a result of his travels to Lilliput and Blefuscu of our times - Armenia and Azerbaijan.

The whole essence of the book, which is called “Black Garden,” can be summarized to a sacred phrase that we keep hearing from Dr. House nowadays – “Everybody lies.”

Now Mr. de Waal has become a prime expert on the Caucasus, especially on uneasy relationship between Armenia and Azerbaijan.

He occasionally gives talks or writes articles (papers) about the fate of us, poor beings.

He is so demonstratively balanced that sometimes I think he is balanced for the sake of being balanced.

Unlike his really interesting book, his talks and writings are so boring, extremely long and with too much water. He says or writes nothing that you didn't already know.

If you take out all the water from his speeches and writings, there will remain something like "War is bad, very bad. And this conflict can erupt at any time. Don't let it start again. Peace in the Caucasus!"

And here, I unintentionally recall “Barbarella” - want to raise the palm of my hand and say: “Love!”

Putting genie of modern time back into bottle of old order

2010-09-17T16:02:00.001+05:00

You already know that Osman Gunduz, the Head of Azerbaijan Internet Forum has told the media - bloggers should register at the Ministry of Justice if they want to be regarded as journalists.

I contacted Mr. Miklos Haraszti, a revered human rights and media activist, former OSCE Media Watchdog and he was kind enough to lend his opinion on the issue. With a permission from him, I post his response here:

Dear Ali: here is my reply to Mr Gunduz' line of logic. You can post my letter of course.

His logic is attempting to put the genie of modern time back into the bottle of the old order.

He forgets that to be a journalist has two meanings in the modern world. Mr Gunduz is speaking about the old, bureaucratic and unionist -- profsoyuznik -- definition: journalists are those who are registered, and are having a job in one of the media outlets, etc.

But there is another, functional (if you wish, social) meaning of being a journalist. In this social, or functional sense, journalists are those who convey socially relevant information to the public.

In the old days, the two meanings were the same -- only those could be journalists who worked as listed, registered, and paid employees. Through their jobs, they could be journalists also in the second, social or functional sense.

But today, the situation has changed radically. Today, regardless of age, profession, education, or location, absolutely any and every person can be a journalist in the functional, social sense. If you decide to post my letter in your blog, you made Miklos Haraszti a media author with one push of a button, and at the same time you made Ali S Novruzov a journalist. But we both can decide to do something else in the next minute, or even during our joint "publishing" activity. And afterwards we can go back again to be a journalist -- in the social sense --, this time in a totally different digital network.

Mr Gunduz does not want to acknowledge the modern separation of the functional journalist from the bureaucratic journalist. He is not ready to see the impact that digital technologies are making -- like computers, smartphones, and total interconnectivity. The old utopia of Karl Marx today is a reality. Every hunter or fisherman can be tomorrow -- or even while hunting or fishing -- a literary critic...

A blogger is a citizen who decided to engage in journalism in the social sense, but not in the bureaucratic. He or she wants to have a lively conversation with fellow citizens online, without becoming a journalist in the old profsoyuznik sense. Mr Gunduz should honor the decision of the citizens, and not restrict the enjoyment of the capacities provided by our modern, open societies. Unless he is is busy to make our societies pre-modern and closed -- which I am sure is not the case. I hope he will re-evaluate his stance.

By the way, and to be sure, the Council of Europe and OSCE standards hold registration of online outlets as a repressive policy, directed against freedom of speech.

With my friendly regards both to you and to Mr Gunduz

Miklos Haraszti

Bloggers should register at the Justice Ministry, says controversial Internet expert

2010-09-17T02:01:00.002+05:00

Osman Gunduz, the President of Azerbaijan Internet Forum and a controversial public figure has told Baku-based Social Information Agency that the bloggers should register at the Ministry of Justice if they want to be regarded similar to journalists.

Asked whether a blogger can be considered a journalist, Gunduz replied:

First of all, bloggers engaged in media sphere are automatically engaged in journalism. That is their activities are about journalism. But Azerbaijani legislature has already defined who is a journalist and according to that clause, [a blogger] is not considered a journalist despite engaging in journalist activities. Something like engaging in business activities, but in illegal business activities – it is an approximately similar approach. Bloggers engaged in media sphere are not considered journalist according to Azeri laws, because they have to be in newspaper staffs or to have contracts with media outlets. Therefore, we have prepared recommendations on how to obtain journalist status for those bloggers who report news in the media sphere. It is based on a voluntary mechanism. That is if a blogger wants to be regarded as a journalist, he should abide by some requirements. He should post his name, address and telephone number in his blog in order to show who is responsible for the writings. As mass media has some requirements and has to voluntarily register at the Ministry of Justice, thus the bloggers should do the same. Only after this, there can be judicial basis for a blogger to obtain a journalist status according to the mass media law.

Corruption in education

2010-09-12T16:06:00.001+05:00

Caucasus Research Resource Centers has announced the results of the first stage of the Junior Research Fellowship Program - Azerbaijan. The winner is a researcher Aynur Ramazanova whose policy paper was about the challenging issue of corruption in Azerbaijani Universities.

She has found that 89.3% of students of the Azerbaijan Medical University surveyed in the project, had paid cash bribes at least once. Moreover,

Among the indicated causes of corruption were low teaching wages, a weak system of control over corruption in the higher education system, and the incompetence of management staff at universities. Results also found that students were often reluctant to learn and invest their energy into education since chances for a decent occupation on the labor market usually depend on the ability to pay bribe, rather than on their level of professionalism. The research also discusses the relationship between corruption and the general climate in society. When corruption and nepotism are a norm, students become socialized to it from early childhood.

The horror of the moment is a thought of finding a decent doctor after 10 years - unlike a university degree, health can't be bought by cash bribes.

History of one degradation: Paul Goble

2010-08-29T17:19:00.003+05:00

I was looking through a biography of Mr. Paul Goble at Wikipedia - what a background, what a career! University of Chicago, special adviser to Secretary of State James Baker, CIA, Radio Liberty...

And now? "Publications Advisor" at Azerbaijan Diplomatic Academy, prime lobbyist for the current authoritarian government of Azerbaijan, analyst and academician for hire...

Mr. Goble, with such interesting career, haven't you made a smallest fortune to live quietly in retirement?

What a degradation, really!

Cold turkey for Afghanistan

2010-08-28T14:29:00.001+05:00

Kabul during winter / Wikipedia

These days, a virtual acquaintance is in Afghanistan and following his tweets, Facebook statuses and pictures from the place, I once again feel a strange feeling that I last had at university and almost forgot how it was.

I had several teachers and university professors who worked in Afghanistan during Soviet times and all of them were longing for that place - talking a lot about it, with something like nostalgia for a lost heaven and perhaps with a guilt for losing that.

I even had an impression that Afghanistan was for them what opium was for drug addicts. All those people - my Farsi teacher who had to fight sexism of Soviet officials, a venerable orientalist who traversed the country with geologists in search of oil and gas, or a former employee of Soviet MFA who authored top secret reports on Afghanistan - they all seemed to have an eternal cold turkey.

Listening to their memories occasionally popping up in boring lectures, I had a feeling I was also getting addicted to that opium – without tasting it. And without seeing, visiting, knowing Afghanistan, I also started to long for it - I didn’t come, I didn’t see, but it conquered me.

Time passed, I finished university and lost contact with my "Afghani" teachers. Frequent media reports about Afghanistan brought nothing but anger against Taliban, Al Qaeda and George W. Bush government, frustration about coalition effort[lessness], amazement at corruption (though we have a lot at home here) and that indescribable feeling seemed to sink completely into oblivion.

However, as I discover these days, it seems it didn’t.

I don't know how much the Afghanistan in my mind looks like the real Afghanistan out there. I don't even know what the Afghanistan in my mind looks like - for the Afghanistan my teachers were addicted to was so faceless, shapeless, vague and unsolid...

And I don't know how to finish this post...

EU urges Azerbaijan to free two bloggers

2010-08-25T02:13:00.001+05:00

Adnan Hajizade (above) and Emin Milli (below) / uncredited

AFP (24 August 2010): EU foreign affairs chief Catherine Ashton called on Azerbaijan on Tuesday to free two bloggers whose case has sparked international concern over freedom of speech in the ex-Soviet republic.

Last week Azerbaijan's Supreme Court rejected an appeal by Adnan Hajizade and Emin Milli, who were challenging their November 2009 convictions on hooliganism charges.

Ashton "regrets the decision by the Supreme Court of Azerbaijan on 19 August 2010 to uphold the prison sentences against youth activists Emin Abdullayev (Milli) and Adnan Hajizade," her office said in a statement.

The European Union's chief diplomat said "shortcomings of the trial, notably with regards to international standards of fairness and transparency, and its conclusion, send a negative signal with regard to the situation of freedom of expression in Azerbaijan."

The statement added: "The High Representative calls on Azerbaijan to release Emin Abdullayev and Adnan Hajizade."

Media freedom groups and foreign diplomats, including US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, have raised concerns about the jailing of the bloggers, who were arrested after satirising the government with an Internet video that showed a donkey giving a press conference.

Hajizade, 27, was sentenced to two years in prison and Milli, 30, for two-and-a-half years.

The two bloggers were arrested in July 2009 shortly after posting the Internet video, which lampooned the country's docile press and statements by government officials.

The charges related to a scuffle in a restaurant but the bloggers and rights groups say the arrests were politically motivated.

Authorities have said the charges were unrelated to the bloggers' criticism of the government.

News lifted from here

Not repenting, won't be released

2010-07-26T23:11:00.002+05:00

Adnan Hajizade in trial / Radio Azadliq

The court today has ruled that Adnan Hajizade, Azerbaijan's famous jailed "donkey" blogger, won't get an early release - a standard practice allowing prisoners to leave prison for good after completing half of their term and in case, if they behave good in confinement.

According to the court, Adnan Hajizade "doesn't accept the court ruling finding him guilty of hooliganism and hasn't repented his guilt." Besides, he has refused to participate in whitewashing of the prison walls.

If you ask my opinion - the reason why Emin and Adnan are in jail is that they refused to whitewash a prison called Azerbaijan.

Matt Ridley: When ideas have sex

2010-07-24T14:39:00.004+05:00

From Baku to Benin

2010-07-21T20:15:00.001+05:00

Didn't know that Novruzov - an Azeri-Central Asian surname of Persian and Russian descent was also popular in a great country of Benin! You don't believe? Look below:

Hello Dear,

I am Iyamkpe Ekpeyoung, a Lawyer in cotonou, Benin Republic. Mr. Joerg Novruzov, a gold merchant who was my client died as a result of lung cancer. Now i want to present your namto Mr. Joerg's bank, so that the money left behind by MrJoerg can be transfer to your
account through my help.

The money value US$10.5M was lodged in a local bank here by Mr. Joerg before his death on 23rd November2008. Please send your email address to me through [email removed] so that I will send more details to you.
Tel: [number removed]

Thanks,

Iyamkpe Ekpeyoung.

14th July and French experience

2010-07-20T03:01:00.000+05:00

On 14th July – it was the Bastille Day - I was in a reception organized by the French Embassy in Baku and was listening to opening remarks by Madam Hijran Huseynova, a member of the Azeri government and my former department head at the university.

If I were a French diplomat and if not a diplomatic hypocrisy, I would be offended. Because during her opening remarks, Mrs. Huseynova said an interesting phrase – “Azerbaijan is using the French experience in democracy building.”

Azerbaijan? Democracy building? And the French experience? Wow!

And then, that is why Baku’s sky was decorated by grandiose fireworks on 14th July night – perhaps they were celebrating the Bastille Day?

No, it was the 41st anniversary of Heydar Aliyev’s rise to power. Here is what the official website of the late Azeri President says:

July 14, 1969 is a special date in the new history of Azerbaijan. The same day, national leader Heydar Aliyev rose to the political leadership of the republic, was elected First Secretary of Central Committee of Azerbaijan Communist Party. So, a turning point started in the history of Soviet Azerbaijan. Radical reforms and intensive development started in all spheres in the republic. In the complicated circumstance dominated by totalitarian regime, Heydar Aliyev changed Azerbaijan into one of the most advanced republics in Soviet Union. A huge era in the modern history of Azerbaijan is connected to the personality of great leader Heydar Aliyev, to his large construction action.

A moral universe of a modern narcissist.

2010-07-17T01:06:00.000+05:00

From a recent column by David Brooks - I used to know such a person, thus it sounded very familiar to me :)

[...] The narcissistic person is marked by a grandiose self-image, a constant need for admiration, and a general lack of empathy for others. He is the keeper of a sacred flame, which is the flame he holds to celebrate himself.

There used to be theories that deep down narcissists feel unworthy, but recent research doesn’t support this. Instead, it seems, the narcissist’s self-directed passion is deep and sincere.

His self-love is his most precious possession. It is the holy center of all that is sacred and right. He is hypersensitive about anybody who might splatter or disregard his greatness. If someone treats him slightingly, he perceives that as a deliberate and heinous attack. If someone threatens his reputation, he regards this as an act of blasphemy. He feels justified in punishing the attacker for this moral outrage.

And because he plays by different rules, and because so much is at stake, he can be uninhibited in response. Everyone gets angry when they feel their self-worth is threatened, but for the narcissist, revenge is a holy cause and a moral obligation, demanding overwhelming force. [...]

I write like Ali S. Novruzov

2010-07-15T01:36:00.000+05:00

OK, blame Anatoly - he started it. He posted it in Facebook - a nice app which analyzes your text and says if you were a great writer, whom you would be. Or to be precise, “I write like...”

The only thing you have to do is to paste a text of yours into the machine - well, tempting, isn't it?

And sometimes disappointing - like my first attempt.

I pasted my favorite ever blog post and got a result of ... Dan Brown. Oh, no!

And my second blog post, which I chose randomly from my favorite writings, said that I wrote like Chuck Palahniuk. Well, not comforting, but still better than the first one.

However, there is a good side of the story as well - I took two pieces of my private correspondence and got results of James Joyce and Kurt Vonnegut!

That is I am a great writer when I don't write for my blog!

And perhaps, sometimes in a distant future, if we are not forgotten altogether, someone would write a boring book about Azeri social media pioneers and in a footnote about me, it would say that "...but apart from his blog, Ali was a great writer that world hadn't seen since alphabet was invented."

Ok, I mean, a meeting with Secretary Clinton and suspicious Internet apps sometimes make you arrogant, but I want to reassure you – I’ll drink now a decent Azeri tea and descent to the Earth.

No more apps for today, please!

A head of a penis

2010-07-10T14:43:00.003+05:00

Circumcision in Central Asia c. 1865-1872 (photo from Wikipedia)

OK, this post of mine is obscene, please excuse my French.

When late President Saparmurad Niyazov of Turkmenistan declared himself Turkmenbashi - the Head of All Turkmens, whole Baku laughed for a year (latecomers laugh even now). For bashi means in Azeri "a head of a penis."

Therefore, what was "the Head of All Turkmens" in noble Turkmen language, was "a Turkmen penis" in spoiled, obscene Azeri language.

Now, President Nursultan Nazarbayev of Kazakhstan has also declared himself - well, not bashi, but the National Leader of All Kazakhs.

And here comes my kudos! to our Kazakh comrades.

According to RFE/RL, a Kazakh performance artist, Kanat Ibragimov, has had himself circumcised in honor of President Nursultan Nazarbaev's 70th birthday.

Before the ceremony, a rising star of Kazakh showbiz Lady Gago sang "Happy birthday, Mr. President" and then Ibragimov emerged with a pickle jar and a mushroom-like object floating inside.

Here is the K+ report on the event (in English) which tells the whole essense of the ceremony - "dedicating the head of the penis to the head of the people."

Playing independent judiciary in Bauerntheater

2010-07-09T03:55:00.004+05:00

"Sensation" (A Soviet theatre poster)

Top Azeri Justice from the Supreme Court has stated that jailed editor-in-chief Eynulla Fatullayev's new prison term was delivered with procedural violations.

This shock news was reported on 8 July 2010 - by Mediaforum, a respected news website in Azerbaijan.

Besides, Justice Muzaffar Agazade told that the European Court of Human Rights decision about Eynulla Fatullayev hadn't reached the Supreme Court yet, thus he didn't know when it would be reviewed.

Needless to say, this extraordinary news landed me in Google - I wanted to know who this person was.

Well - first his bio. Working in courts since 1958, in Supreme Court since 1990. Old bureaucrat. If this guy could survive in Soviet and Azeri courts for 52 years, it means he was enough faithful to his telephone. He wouldn't make such a statement without prior consent or order from above.

And there were two interesting details - first, he is 71 and according to Azeri law, a judge should retire when he reaches 70; and second, the very same judge, Muzaffar Agazade had reviewed Appeal Court's decision about Fatullayev case and kept it intact in 2008.

And there was a final surprise awaiting me - I opened the website of the Supreme Court and found out that Justice Muzaffar Agazade was sent to retirement with honours in a ceremony held on 2 July 2010.

Six days before he stated that the European Court decision about Fatullayev hadn't reached the Supreme Court and he didn't know when it would be reviewed.

Six days after his official retirement, he still speaks as if he is a Supreme Court judge.

What is this - journalist's or editor's error? Marasmus senilis? Or playing independent judiciary in Bauerntheater?

Justice Agazade sent to retirement (photo from the Supreme Court website)

No, you can't

2010-07-08T18:47:00.000+05:00

Adnan Hajizade (above) and Emin Milli (below) - uncredited photo from Facebook

...it is not the U.S. government, but Azerbaijan that deserves the "yes we can" slogan. Yes, we can imprison journalists. Yes, we can beat opposition protesters. Both Hajizada and Milli have paid an exorbitant price for having the courage to stand up to the government and say, "No, you can't."

There was no crisis in US-Azerbaijan relations, claims Paul Goble

2010-07-07T09:33:00.005+05:00

Prominent Azeri government lobbyist, former Director of Publications, but now Publications Adviser at the Azerbaijan Diplomatic Academy – Paul Goble is in action again.

Previously, if you recall, he has called not to criticize Azerbaijan for human rights abuses, for it could leave Western sphere of influence and become Russia’s ally.

Now, in the latest issue of the biweekly newsletter of the Azerbaijan Diplomatic Academy, he claims that there was no crisis in US-Azerbaijan relations. No crisis at all. According to his opinion, the only problem, started with a single statement of an unnamed official in the Foreign Policy (sic!) - though he doesn’t name it explicitly) - was the fact that Azeri political commentators, mislead by this statement, had just misunderstood complicated procedures of Washington politics:

The widely reported comments in Baku by an unidentified American official that “there is only thing [the United States] really care[s] about right now, and this is Afghanistan” not only sparked a debate in Azerbaijan as to whether that means the United States cares about Azerbaijan but also revealed some fundamental misunderstandings among Baku commentators about the nature of relations between countries in general and between the United States and Azerbaijan in particular, misunderstandings that threaten the broadening and deepening of a relationship that has been growing for some years.

And he continues:

Indeed, this single statement became the occasion for Azerbaijani commentators of various stripes to compile a list of American actions that supposedly provided “proof” of what this unnamed individual had said. The US has not had an ambassador in Baku for a year, the US did not invite President Ilham Aliyev to the counter-proliferation summit, the US has criticized Azerbaijan on human rights, and the US has failed to move in the directions Baku would like on the events of 1915 and Article 907 are all things that one or another writer has adduced as evidence that Washington is against Azerbaijan or doesn’t care about it.

But all of these are not true, says Paul Goble and exampli gratis, gives the true reason behind one of these points:

In none of these cases have the authors pointed to three other more important pieces of evidence about the relationship between Washington and Baku. First, these writers and speakers have ignored the ways in which the policies of the US Administration as opposed to some in the Congress have underlined the importance Azerbaijan has in Washington. Second, these commentators have ignored the reality that the United States as a variety of interests in the world and naturally views Azerbaijan in terms of these broader interests. And third, these authors have failed to understand that many of “the facts” they adduce as evidence are in fact evidence of something else.

To give but one example: the gap between the presence of American ambassadors in Baku is not evidence of the lack of concern in Washington about Azerbaijan but just the reverse. The complex way in which individuals are considered for such positions and the multitude of parties involved in the process often means in the American context that the more important the country is for the US and the more challenging the problems both countries face together, the more likely it is that the process of selecting, nominating and confirming a senior American representative—especially when that process starts at the beginning of a presidential administration rather than later—often is protracted.

OK, I complete understand that after high profile visits by Secretary Gates and Secretary Clinton that have amended the ties between Baku and Washington, some people is Baku have become uncomfortable with past actions, comments and “analysis” like calling for US companies to be driven out of Azerbaijan, inspection of and record fines imposed on American companies like Coca-Cola, statements about Barack Obama’s alleged inferiority complex, 24/7 anti-American hysteria at Azeri TV channels. And they are uncomfortable with the fact that they have ordered and paid for such ugly things. Now it is time to wash all this dirt away and Paul Goble is a perfect solution.

But, Mr.Goble, what about shame? What about tonnes of analysis and reports by local and foreign media and experts about the “fictional” crisis even before that famous statement in Foreign Policy? What about all those anti-American statements and hysteria of Azeri officials? And last, not least, what about your own previous article where you infamously called [US and others] not to criticize Azerbaijan for human rights abuses and amend the ties?

Really, Mr.Goble?

Eternal question of being off or on the record

2010-07-06T03:51:00.000+05:00

I'll write a new piece about our meeting with Secretary Clinton, but before, just wanted to share some thoughts with you. After all, this is a blog, isn't it?

Once I took a foreign journalist to Hikmat Hajizade - Adnan's father. During the interview, Hikmat said something and then hastily added - between us, don't write this. But reading the article afterward, I found it there, published.

Never mind! There were worse cases, weren't there, Samantha?

So when we met Secretary of State Hillary Clinton these days, I was trying to check with US Embassy officials whether the things said during the meeting were off the record or on the record. It was already private in a sense that the State Department or the Embassy wouldn't publish anything, thus we could be maximum frank and open with Madame Secretary.

On the other hand, a representative of the Presidential Administration of the Republic of Azerbaijan - an employee of the department overseeing and monitoring online activities of the youth was also present as a "co-founder of Ireli," a pro-government youth organisation.

Thus being private, it was also ensured that a comprehensive first hand report would lie on the desk of appropriate people at appropriate time.

So, not so private at all, a cynic would say?

But what about us? Could we tell or disclose what we were going to discuss? I already turned down requests of several good journalist acquaintances of mine - was not sure what I should say to them. And after checking with Embassy officials I got a vague "yes" and "of course you can write, this is what the freedom of speech is."

Still a huge responsibility - for what I would say or write, it could be my (mis)interpretation and (mis)impression, couldn't it?

Anyway, immediately after the meeting, when the Secretary left, I was a little surprised - the participants were approached by the media and they all started to give interviews - I guess they hadn't bothered embassy officials with eternal question of being off or on the record :)

I'm still using Soviet modeled Rapira - maybe should I start shaving with Occam's razor?

And talking about media - you don't think that in the end, for interviews, there were left hundreds of hungry media with their cameras and recorders and microphones pointing at us - it was only Voice of America, Radio Liberty and a local hate-monger nationalist TV channel ANS.

And one peculiar moment - even before the meeting, ANS was trying to instruct us (at least me) about questions that should be posed to Secretary Clinton - they should be about our most supreme of supreme griefs, our national grief and our most holy grief Karabakh.

Even embassy officials didn't show any interest in the content of our questions, really!

Well, I have a good news for ANS - almost all pro-government and government youth in the meeting asked questions about Karabakh - one even shed crocodile tears remembering her IDP parents evacuated by helicopter and somehow, managed to immediately smile recalling her education in US. And she didn't forget to point me out that democracy takes looooong to arrive at - just a second before bursting into sincere tears.

Ah, I have just split an infinitive! And I have pledged to one person that I wouldn't rebuke other people for what they said in the meeting.

Perhaps, better I should stop here.

President Aliyev receives Iran’s Minister of Culture and Islamic Guidance

2010-07-05T12:40:00.000+05:00

[RE That flawed argument about Iran employed by the Azeri government and repeated by Secretary Clinton - and they are afraid of Iranian influence?!]

President.az
05 Jul 2010, 12:40

President Ilham Aliyev received a delegation led by Minister of Culture and Islamic Guidance of the Islamic Republic of Iran, Seyyed Mohammad Hosseini.

Seyyed Mohammad Hosseini conveyed the greetings of Islamic Republic of Iran’s President Mahmoud Ahmedinejad to the President.

During the meeting, successful continuation of cooperation in every field, including the cultural field, was emphasized, and it was mentioned that the sources of this successful cooperation were the friendly and fraternal ties between the people.

The cultural issues play a huge role in this. During the talks, it was noted that expanding of cultural cooperation is of importance to both countries.

The President expressed his gratitude for the greetings of President Mahmoud Ahmedinejad and asked to convey his greetings to the Iranian President as well.

P.S. For the record - the time of posting of this text in my blog is altered for purely technical reasons.

Meeting with Hillary Clinton and about one argument

2010-07-04T20:38:00.007+05:00

"You should also step into the shoes of the government and ask - why they are so concerned with dissent? Maybe they are afraid of Iran?"

I don't recall exact wording, but this is the very argument US Secretary of State Mrs.Hillary Clinton used in her meeting with us, a group of youth representatives in Baku, Azerbaijan on 4th of July.

That is, the Azeri government doesn't want to allow a dissent, because it is afraid of surge of Iranian influence. We should understand them.

Frankly, we are a majority Shiite country and are just north of Iran.

However, this argument doesn't explain why the Azeri government crushes and pressures western-minded, secular, and often western-educated liberal youth - like arresting their leaders Emin Milli and Adnan Hajizade, refusing registration for liberal youth movements and refusing government scholarships to independent-minded students going to Europe and especially to US.

I guess they are afraid of emergence of a pro-Iranian force lead by Ayatollah Emin Milli and Ayatollah Adnan Hajizade. And in reality, I am Seyyid Nouruz Ali Mursal Zadeh - everything else is just a taqiyya.

Though seriously, I don't think that Madam Secretary is a kind of person who can buy this argument. Neither she is the one who invented it. The argument is betraying its creators.

Then, there is only one answer - we, the pro-democracy forces are perceived so weak (or we are really so weak?) - that Mrs Clinton doesn't bother to find an argument to answer us, but repeats the one already heard in meetings with Azeri officials or read in a memo penned by a sick bureaucrat in the Azeri MFA.

Yesterday, a good friend Vafa rebuked me in Facebook for being overly optimistic regarding this meeting. She said if I went there with high hopes, I would be disappointed.

Actually, I am not disappointed, because I didn't have any high or tall hopes. Vafa had just misunderstood me. To repeat what I wrote to Vafa yesterday - the real change in Azerbaijan has to come through its own people and its own will. And the Americans, they are pragmatic people. If they see that we, the pro-democracy forces are strong in Azerbaijan, they will surely support us. As long as we are weak, they will support the current authoritarian government. So simple.

I am just saddened that all we had been doing wasn't worth a flawed argument about Iran.

Brazil

2010-07-03T18:43:00.002+05:00

I don’t know what makes a film a good film, but I definitely know one thing – in the end, it should make you feel a feeling so indescribable. Like Gattaca. And like Brazil.

And I don’t know why Terry Gilliam or someone else decided to call it Brazil, but it can be named Azerbaijan with the same success. So comic. So tragic. So Kafkaesque.

Happy birthday, Franz!

Here is the real Facebook addict

2010-06-28T22:45:00.000+05:00

Photo from The Next Web

Hey, too early for Schadenfreude :)

2010-06-19T23:11:00.002+05:00

PanArmenian writes that British Petroleum Azerbaijan closes down.

It all started with a stupid official notification in an equally stupid official newspaper in Baku saying that BP Oil has liquidated its branch in Azerbaijan and ceases its activities. No context, no commentary, no additional information.

During all morning, panic spread in the city, especially amongst oil and gas industry related staff. After the Gulf oil spill, Russian Izvestia has already predicted that BP is doomed (Which is good news by itself, for the current Azerbaijani government will lose its biggest ally and lobbyist).

However, towards afternoon, it was clarified that actually it is not BP closing down, but one of its subsidiaries - BP Oil, which had only one coordinator here and zero activities.

Looking at the PanArmenian article above, one could clearly see a cold turkey from interrupted Schadenfreude :)))))

BP spills coffee

2010-06-13T18:49:00.001+05:00

How I was "reported" by the head of a pro-government "media academy"

2010-06-12T03:54:00.004+05:00

If a head of a “media academy” phones your employers and complains about you for a slight and humourous critique you made about her in your Facebook profile, what kind of journalists that “media academy” will produce? Blackmail journalists or informant journalists?

In these days, I have heard about a new "media academy" - a project of pro-government “Ireli” Public Union. To be frank, I had no intention to criticize (or praise) it – I just shared it in my Facebook profile and had a small fun with friends joking at its irony - as people who knew about Ireli’s support of the Azerbaijan government and the government’s policy towards media.

At this very moment, out of a blue, one honorable female journalist – Ilhama Novruzova (not a relative of mine) joined the discussion and took it over-seriously with angry tirade accusing me and my friends of speculating with freedom of expression, putting labels on things (“bias”) and even threw a stone towards Dutch School of Journalism in Baku – a very honest institution run by respected journalists that help strengthening independent media in Azerbaijan. And I don’t even mention a “Precambrian rabbit” she employed in her comment (subconsciously).

Thus unintentionally, we learned that Ms. Novruzova holds a top position in this project and perhaps she is the head of the "media academy". That is why she speculated with professionalism while accusing us of speculating with freedom of expression.

Come on, don’t I have a right to laugh at something in my Facebook profile?

I had an honour to know Ms. Novruzova before – she has moderated several debates where I am working and has failed them completely. Thus in the best interest of this person talking about professionalism I thought I should slightly remind her about her “professional” conduct of those debates. Very nasty of me, I know :)

Dear Ilhama khanim, I didn’t know you were holding a top position in this project. You shouldn’t have really joined it, but if you are already in, then good luck to you. Let’s hope the fate of this project won’t be as the fate of your debates at [removed] :)

The rest is truly a comedy – she phoned my employers and complained about me for the above paragraph - I dared to criticize her conduct of debates and her collaboration with Ireli. And not a phone call, but phone calls!

Just imagine - an independent journalist, head of a media academy, a person talking about professionalism and accusing us of speculating with freedom of expression - she phones my employers and complains about me for a slight and humourous critique I made about her in my Facebook profile.

I can’t help but wonder – what kind of journalists that “media academy” headed by Ms. Novruzova will produce? Blackmail journalists or informant journalists?

Anyway, she is no longer my Facebook friend.

For the record, I have attended a training course in the Dutch School of Journalism in Baku and now sit in the Board of AzNAN (Alumni Network of the Dutch Journalism School).

Dedicated to US-Azeri reconciliation

2010-06-08T01:25:00.000+05:00

From Hajibeyov's Koroglu opera (1937), translation by Hajibeyov.com

Hasan khan’s reception hall, which is very richly decorated. Hasan khan is sitting thoughtfully, waiting for Ehsan pasha’s arrival.

Hasan khan:

I’ll hang with my own hands the one who initiated this revolution!

(Falls into thinking.)

I must reconcile with Ehsan pasha,
I must enter an alliance with him and work together.

(The servant Polad enters.)

Polad:

Ehsan pasha is coming, he’s halfway here.

Hasan khan:

Get ready, be quick, go and meet him!

(He becomes happy and addresses the servants one by one.)

Fill the tumblers with wine!
Fill the tumblers with wine!
Fill them with wine!
Fill them with wine!
Wine, wine,
Wine, wine, wine!
Wine!

Cover the roads, over which he’ll pass, with red carpets.
Let the women get dressed up,
Let the dancers wear their new clothes.
Show the wealth of the country to the pasha.

Call everybody and inform them!
Let’s see, maybe we can cheat him somehow.
Yes, we are enemies, but what can I do?
Now it’s advisable to make my peace with him,
It’s advisable, it’s advisable…
I have to put an end to these riots.
Every day a misfortune happens to the khans.

Call everybody and inform them!
Let’s see, maybe we can cheat him somehow.
Yes, we are enemies, but what can I do?
Now it’s advisable to make my peace with him,
It’s advisable, it’s advisable…
I have to put an end to these riots.
Every day a misfortune happens to khans.

Fill the tumblers with wine!
Fill the tumblers with wine!
Fill them with wine!
Fill them with wine!
Wine, wine,
Wine, wine, wine!
Wine!

Cover the roads over which he’ll pass with red carpets.
Let the women get dressed up,
Let the dancers wear their new clothes.
Show the wealth of the country to the pasha!

(The khan’s people are dressed up and have gathered together to meet the pasha.)

(The servant enters.)

Polad:

Ehsan pasha is coming. What’s your order?

Hasan khan:

Show the guest in with great respect!

(The servant leaves.)

(Ehsan pasha enters with his courtiers.)

Et tu, America? As usual.

2010-06-07T23:51:00.000+05:00

Washington Post: Gates brings reassurances to Azerbaijan Leader

On Sunday, Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates arrived in Baku to meet with Azerbaijan's ruler, Ilham Aliyev, and reassure him that he had friends in Washington. Carrying a personal letter from President Obama, Gates told reporters that he wanted to dispel "concerns in Azerbaijan that we weren't paying enough attention to them."

Reuters: Gates, in Baku, seeks to shore up Afghan supply chain

As part of the Obama administration's campaign to keep Azerbaijan on board, Gates sandwiched a less than 24 hour stop in Baku, the capital, in between talks in Asia and Europe about the crisis on the Korean peninsula and the war in Afghanistan.

He said the trip was spurred, in part, by "concerns in Azerbaijan that we weren't paying enough attention to them."

"It's important to touch base and let them know that in fact they do play an important role in this international coalition," Gates told reporters on his plane before landing.

To underline the message that the United States was paying more attention to Azerbaijan, Gates hand delivered a letter to President Ilham Aliyev from Obama to make clear "we have a relationship going forward," a senior defense official said.

Reuters: Obama to tackle "serious issues" with Azerbaijan

The United States has expressed concern over Azerbaijan's human rights record in the past. Obama did not mention human rights in the letter, which called for closer cooperation "in the interest of regional security, democracy and prosperity."

Facebook and plans of the Party

2010-06-05T03:01:00.003+05:00

'Plans of the Party - my plans'
(A Soviet poster)

Recently, the country's opposition newspaper Azadliq reported that the ruling New Azerbaijan Party had organized a closed meeting with a group of pro-government youth. The Executive Secretary of the Party and his deputy inquired about needs and opinion of the participants in order to boost government propaganda at a time of all kinds of disasters that the country faces.

For the reputation of the government has plummeted after the infamous Dubai story, serious incompetence leading to floods in rural districts and major foreign policy disasters such as the rift with the United States. Also, the situation with media has deteriorated so much that even the most intellectual pro-government newspaper 525ci sells only 40 copies a day. People have abandoned watching local TVs and turned towards Turkish satellite channels.

The reputation of the government has never fallen to such low and all carefully designed PR moves are ruined by some small missteps. For example, pro-government forces spend big efforts to improve image of Baku and advertise newly rebuilt Chinar lounge in The Financial Times and The Evening Standard and even the Daily Mail, but then a young freelancer takes a picture in a rally in Baku dispersed by plainclothes police and the next day Reuters spoils all food cooked at our truly magnificent Chinar.


'Here we'll live, work and study' (A Soviet poster)

OK, back to our point - many aspects of this closed event at the ruling party headquarters will always be a matter of guess, but Azadliq has learned an interesting part of it - one youth had complained about the hyperactivity of independent and opposition activists in social networking sites such as Facebook and said that pro-government users were losing ground to them, especially in online discussions.

When asked what should be done in order to make pro-government youth more active in Facebook, the participants asked for an office (sic!).

Thus, in the end of the meeting it was decided that there would be an office with high-speed internet in the city centre for pro-government youth and they have to start to sign up for Facebook immediately and en mass.

However, the question that keeps me wondering all days and nights is how on the earth do independent and opposition youth manage to survive in Facebook without such an office?

Though olive is good fruit, but you can't eat it like this - Dusty Paradise

2010-05-29T18:22:00.000+05:00

One of the best films about modern Baku. With English subtitles (watch in full screen mode for better viewing).

To be continued...

2010-05-29T00:09:00.001+05:00

Here was the first part, and now, part two:

To initiate the password reset process for your [removed] Google Account, click the link below:

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If you've received this mail in error, it's likely that another user entered your email address by mistake while trying to reset a password. If you didn't initiate the request, you don't need to take any further action and can safely disregard this email.

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Democracy is... POSSIBLE

2010-05-26T01:11:00.003+05:00

“Democracy is... POSSIBLE” is a submission from OL! Azerbaijan Youth Movement to the Democracy Video Challenge 2010 contest, organised by the US Department of State, Youtube and several international organizations. This is a global video contest, where every participant had to prepare and present 3-minute long video completing the phrase “Democracy is…”

“Democracy is ... POSSIBLE” video, submitted from Azerbaijan, made into the final stage and is one of three finalists from Europe. Winners will be representing six regions of the world and Europe is one of those six regions. Other two finalists from Europe are “Democracy is like a keyboard” from Poland and “World Vote Now” from Spain.

Jury was mandated to select only the semi finalists and finalists in “Democracy Video Challenge” contest. You will be voting for the winners, not the jury. The winners will be announced after the online voting process which will determine the winners. Voting period is May 15 – June 15.

HOW TO VOTE?

If you want to vote for this entry - just follow the instructions below.

First, remember that only those who have Youtube accounts can vote and only the votes given on the official website of the “Democracy Video Challenge” contest are eligible.

You need to go to Democracy Challenge official page, log in into your Youtube account from the top right corner of the page (you have to register if you don’t have any), find the “Democracy is POSSIBLE” video among 18 videos and click on “LIKE”.

Thanks in advance!

The Solution

2010-05-24T00:16:00.005+05:00

Snapshot from the film In the Realm of Oil and Millions (1916)

After the uprising of the 17th June
The Secretary of the Writers Union
Had leaflets distributed in the Stalinallee
Stating that the people
Had forfeited the confidence of the government
And could win it back only
By redoubled efforts. Would it not be easier
In that case for the government
To dissolve the people
And elect another?

Bertolt Brecht, Poems 1913-1956, eds. John Willett and Ralph Manheim (Methuen 1976), p. 440

Just a note to readers

2010-05-19T03:12:00.001+05:00

I received two automated emails from Google at 1:36 am Baku time - someone requested to reset the password for my Google account. I surely didn't request anything and don't know why these emails were initiated. It can be a nasty prank, an innocent mistake of some other user or something I don't have any proper idea about.

The thing for sure is that someone tried at least twice to reset my password for the Google account where this blog is located. I don't panic - but, just in case if something happens to this blog ;)

Ten most read blog posts of past year

2010-05-17T20:56:00.016+05:00

My readers mostly got bad news,
but it was not my fault

On May 16, 2009 - exactly a year ago, I installed Google Analytics to track what goes around my blog. And now, with special and kind and double thanks to Google, for Blogger is another free Google tool, here is the list of ten most read blog posts of mine for the past year.

~~Enjoy, for the repetition is the mother of all enjoying!~~ UPDATE: Actually, I realized that a call for enjoying the reading could appeal only to the Azeri gov't for the list is so scary...

1 - How a Russian granny found me

I hardly remember anything - only that I am in a side street and a Russian granny approaches me and asks something. I even don't remember the question. However, what I am told is fairly dramatic.

Why not a beauty?

2 - A Donkey that cost Azerbaijan 18,200 dollars

Do not point to me that I have written the word Donkey with a capital letter, but It cost 18,500 U.S. dollars to the Azerbaijani budget.

3 - Updated: Azerbaijan bloggers receive prison sentences - USEFUL LINKS

Our special thanks to the Azerbaijan government for they showed to whole world our "justice" at work.

4 - Azerbaijan: Two youth activists beaten and detained for 48 hours

Two Azeri video-bloggers and youth leaders - Emin Milli and Adnan Hadji-zadeh have been attacked by unidentified people in plainclothes while dining with a group of other civil society and youth activists in a Lebanese restaurant in downtown Baku.

A protester, demanding freedom of speech, is detained
by plainclothes police in a Baku street

5 - What kind of regime does Azerbaijan have?

The Azerbaijan government has passed an important milestone - they have started to harass foreign journalists. Until now, it was only locals who were harassed.

6 - Azerbaijan re-creates its own Komsomol to counter youth movements?

Though I am not a member of any Azerbaijani youth organization or movement, I am very well acquainted with the field - and imagine my surprise when I read from the weekend edition of Zerkalo that those organizations have come together to form the Union of Student and Youth Organizations of Azerbaijan. Wow! Really?

7 - Azerbaijan: 'Revolution' in a Lebanese restaurant

Tell me, how can't you be fascinated when you read that 'Judeo-Masons assasinated Azeri Air Force Chief' or 'Guantanamo has moved to Azerbaijan'? Or the Sheikh-ul-Islam (Chief Clergyman) of Azerbaijan keeps 9-meter long Nile crocodiles, the longest ever specimen of which was just 6.5 meters in length?

A Lebanese woman, not Iranian ;)

8 - All Hail Iranian Women!

What strikes me again and again is the women, many women, many courageous Iranian women holding banners and "V" for victory and gazing at us from pictures and videos from post-elections protests in the streets of Tehran.

9 - An Arctic fox


"Obama" cake in a Baku canteen

Today I've found a nice picture of an Arctic fox (Vulpes lagopus) from National Geographic.

10 - Barack Obama in Baku

Perhaps not all of you know that the current President of US Barack Obama was in Baku when he was still a senator. One Azeri blogger says that his friend, an employee of the Azeri MFA has almost gone mad for he had lost a photo of him with Barack Obama. What a tragedy you say, yes?

Police in Azerbaijan disperse opposition rally, detain dozens (AP)

2010-05-16T00:50:00.003+05:00

Associated Press: Police in Azerbaijan have detained several dozen opposition activists trying to hold a protest to demand freedom of assembly and transparent parliamentary elections this fall.

Police on Saturday moved quickly to disperse demonstrators chanting "Freedom!" and "Free elections!" About 30 participants of the unsanctioned rally in downtown Baku were detained.

The rally was organized by the Popular Front, a leading opposition group. The authorities had offered organizers to hold the demonstration on the outskirts of the capital, but they refused.

President Ilham Aliyev's government has faced criticism by international rights groups over the heavy-handed treatment of independent media and opposition parties in the Caspian Sea nation. International observers have said past elections were flawed.

What kind of regime does Azerbaijan have?

2010-05-06T22:43:00.018+05:00

The Azerbaijan government has passed an important milestone - they have started to harass foreign journalists. Until now, it was only locals who were harassed.

Today I received a letter from prominent Norwegian documentary filmmaker Erling Borgen, whom I had an honour to meet in Baku these days:

This morning at 5 am at the airport in Baku, the Norwegian journalist Erling Borgen and his cameraman, Dag Inge Dahl, was surrounded by aggressive security personell.

They stole important documents from the Norwegian filmmaker.

They also stole and confiscated Mr. Borgens hard disk with six days of filming.

What the security personell did not know, was that they were tricked. Copies of the entire film-materiell is now in Oslo. The editing of the documentary, "A prisoner in Azerbaijan" (about Eynulla Fatullayev) will start very soon.

The security people also stole photos, memory sticks and memory cards.

Erling Borgen says:

- This says a lot about what kind of regime Azerbaijan is today. They fear freedom of expression. I take this robbery very serious and have contacted the Norwegian Ministry of foreign affairs and the police. I admire my brave journalist friends in Azerbaijan.

The very same day, Trend News reported that Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev presented a modern computer to a 10-year old schoolboy. Murad Ibayev, who is a resident of Alat, a town in Baku's Garadagh district and who was born on 10 May, 2000, wrote a letter to the President and asked a computer for his birthday:

Mr. President, I wrote this letter to you on the occasion of May 10 - the birthday of the National Leader Heydar Aliyev. I note that we, children, are proud of someone who has laid the foundation for our future and our knowledge. When parents and teachers tell me about this great man's exclusive attitude towards children, I realize who we lost and I am filled with sorrow. But the consolatory fact is that the great man has a son like you. Another encouraging fact is that my family will celebrate my birthday May 10. I ask you to give me a computer to increase my knowledge. Once again I congratulate you on behalf of the Ibayevs family May 10 - the birthday of national leader, I wish you long life and health.

Drang nach Westen

2010-05-05T20:50:00.002+05:00

The Government of Azerbaijan heard that the US was sending Rambo as its new ambassador to Baku, and thus immediately thought it would definitely need a Terminator ;)

To the West! (Soviet poster from 1943)

Schwarzenegger presented Azerbaijani carpet with his portrait

2010-05-05T15:53:00.000+05:00

According to Trend News, California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger met with the staff of the Azerbaijani Consulate General in Los Angeles and was presented an Azerbaijani carpet with his portrait.

In turn, Schwarzenegger praised Azerbaijan's contribution to intercultural dialogue and expressed hope that Washington will build relations with Azerbaijan.

Ah, build relations? Why? We didn't have any relations?! I'm puzzled!

Well, I was joking. Yeah, I was really joking. ;)

30 April

2010-05-04T03:22:00.000+05:00

Reuters: An opposition activist flashes victory signs from the window of a police bus after being detained at an unsanctioned rally in Baku (April 30, 2010). Police in Azerbaijan on Friday detained dozens of people marking the first anniversary of a gun rampage at a prestigious oil institute, in the latest crackdown on public assembly in the tightly-run former Soviet republic.

See also:

All the glory they're proud of is ... just a rent

2010-05-02T22:14:00.002+05:00

Revenues from natural resources exports prop up many an inept or corrupt regime. Often the money is nothing but a rent — foreign companies, imported equipment, and hired outside help pump the oil and gas or dig up the minerals, process them, and market them to the world, while the local rulers pocket their cut of the proceeds, buy off or repress rivals, and ignore or manipulate the citizenry from whom they do not even bother to collect tax revenues (for whose disposition they would never want to be held accountable anyway).

Amnesty International: Azerbaijan must stop violent crackdowns on peaceful protests

2010-04-28T21:41:00.003+05:00

28 April 2010

Amnesty International urged the Azerbaijan authorities to respect the right to freedom of assembly after dozens of opposition supporters were detained on Monday while on their way to a demonstration.

Around 80 people were rounded up by police in the capital Baku while travelling to a rally to demand the rights to freedom of expression and assembly, according to local media reports.

They were seized en route by police officers, who pushed them into minibuses and police cars and drove them away.

Forty were driven to the outskirts of the city and released immediately and another 30 were taken to a police station and released after five hours.

Ten people were charged with resisting police and violating public order and released in the late evening by the Sabail District Court in Baku.

Five detainees were fined 20 Manats (about 25 US$) while another five were given a warning.

Police said that the group of protesters, which included several journalists, were arrested because the gathering was not officially sanctioned. However, requests to hold the rally had previously been ignored by city authorities.

"This crackdown on peaceful protesters is just the latest example of the Azerbaijani authorities' attempts to silence dissent," said Halya Gowan, director of Amnesty International's Europe and Central Asia Programme.

"Those arrested are being denied their rights to freedom of assembly and expression, which is exactly the rights that they were protesting for."

The rally was organized by the opposition group Azadliq (Liberty) which includes the Azerbaijan Popular Front Party, the Liberal Party, and the Civil and Development Party.

The group were planning to gather outside the Mayor's Office to demand that the authorities respect freedom of assembly.

The group had previously asked the authorities to allow a protest on Sunday in front of the Baku City Hall but received no answer.

Police broke up a similar protest two weeks ago at the same location organized by the opposition Musavat party arresting 47 people, who were released after several hours.

The Baku authorities have refused to allow public protests in the city centre for three years, despite the Azerbaijani Constitution guaranteeing freedom of assembly. Demonstrations are currently only permitted in the outskirts of the city.

According to the reports and eyewitness accounts, journalists were also subjected to violence by the police and prevented from filming and interviewing the demonstrators.

Seven journalists were reportedly detained: Natig Gulehmedoglu Elchin Hasanov, Parviz Jabrayil, Efqan Mukhtarli, Seymur Haziyev, Parviz Hashimli and Mehman Huseynov.

Two journalists, Mehman Huseynov from the Institute for Reporter Freedom and Safety and Afgan Mukhtarli from Yeni Musavat newspaper, reportedly had their cameras broken. Mehman Huseynov also alleged that he received a leg injury during the dispersal.

Amnesty International called on the Government of Azerbaijan to uphold the rights to freedom of expression and freedom of assembly in line with their international obligations.

Source

Reagan tells a Soviet joke

2010-04-28T01:46:00.000+05:00

Blinded by brotherhood or what PACE chairman missed in Baku

2010-04-27T00:01:00.001+05:00

If a Turk is heading any international body, then it will be a disaster for Azerbaijan. Blinded by the brotherhood, the Turk will turn a blind eye on human rights violations in the brotherly country. Thank Allah that a Turk is not heading Amnesty International or Human Rights Watch. However, a Turk is heading the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe or PACE - to our misfortune.

On 26 April, Trend News Agency of Azerbaijan reported from Strasbourg that Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu, the Turk heading PACE "appreciated pre-election situation in Azerbaijan". My note for the first visitors of this blog - Azerbaijan has never conducted any free and fair elections since its independence in 1991 and if nothing changes, it won't experience it during the next parliamentary election this fall.

However, Çavuşoğlu adds here, "I appreciate the political atmosphere in Azerbaijan before the elections." Moreover,

Head of the organization highlighted a sincere desire of the Azerbaijani authorities to hold elections in an atmosphere of transparency, democracy and free will of people.

"The governmental circles have promised to take all necessary measures to achieve similar conditions in the next parliamentary elections," he said.

By the time Mr. Çavuşoğlu was busy with making above statements in Strasbourg, the Azerbaijani authorities had perfect opportunities to display how they were committed to the same sincere desire - they brutally dispersed the rally by the main opposition block (photos from RFE/RL Azeri):

Ambassador-at-Last

2010-04-23T02:08:00.001+05:00

Matthew Bryza (state.gov)

As anti-American hysteria of official Baku reaches its climax these days, with Coca-Cola abruptly inspected and fined; pro-government MPs calling to terminate oil contracts with US companies and saying that Barack Obama has an inferiority complex; and Azerbaijan canceling military exercises with American counterparts, suddenly, out of a blue, 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 and this choice is Matthew Bryza himself:

In fact, the Bush-era State Department had sent the name of a diplomat with long experience in the region -- Matthew Bryza, a skilled player of pipeline politics whom I've known for some 13 years -- to the White House as its choice for the Azeri post. But the White House didn't send Bryza's nomination to the Senate, and neither has the Obama Administration.

Until now. I've received confirmation that -- after the clearing of a couple of remaining administrative hurdles -- the White House will officially nominate Bryza as U.S. ambassador. He will then be scheduled for a nomination hearing in the Senate.

A timely Soviet poster for the current anti-American hysteria in Baku

2010-04-23T01:44:00.007+05:00


Bulgaria, Romania and Hungary has declared war at the US (A World War II propaganda poster in Soviet Azerbaijan)

Can't explain the current anti-American hysteria of official Baku otherwise!

From Associated Press: Officials in Azerbaijan have postponed a military exercise with the United States and expressed displeasure with Washington's mediation of an ethnic separatist dispute in the oil-rich Caspian Sea nation.

In an apparent show of unprecedented strain in relations with the U.S., Azerbaijan also made statements welcoming a mediation offer by neighboring Iran.

[...]

Last week, an Azerbaijani presidential aide, Ali Hasanov, said the U.S. is biased against the country in its role as a mediator. He claimed that the United States is under pressure from pro-Armenian lobbies and "sometimes loses its neutrality and openly supports Armenia."

Another member of the ruling party, Fazayil Agamali, even proposed Tuesday to drive the U.S. business out of Azerbaijan's energy sector.

The Azerbaijani Foreign Ministry on Monday welcomed Tehran's proposal to host a meeting of Azerbaijani and Armenian foreign ministers. Armenia hasn't yet responded to the offer.

Closing the book of Facebook in Azerbaijan

2010-04-22T00:30:00.004+05:00

"Children, defend your fatherland! Spy on enemy, report to adults!"
( An Azeri Soviet poster from World War II)

Social networking websites Facebook and Twitter are used by secret services to recruit agents, reports a prestigious ~~garbage-can~~ news agency Day.az. Besides, it is an opinion expressed by one terrorist group and published in the world media, as the respected Day.az tells us.

I’d like to ask them some basic questions, such as what terrorist organization and what world media it is citing and why this opinion should be important for us.

However, Day.az has already asked: “Is it also possible in Azerbaijan?” Thus, the respected Day.az places its trusts completely in the respected opinion of a respected, but unnamed terrorist organization, which in turn, was reported by some unnamed, but respected world media. I have no words.

Anyway, here comes the interesting part. Day.az contacts a pro-government Azeri MP to ask his opinion on the issue. His name is Zahid Oruj, he is an unofficial mouthpiece of the authorities and his election was deemed fraudulent recently by European Court of Human Rights and because of this, he has become an object of ridicule in all these days by hyperactive Azeri community in Facebook.

He had already tried to respond to these ridicules by writing an op-ed titled “The Beauty of Being Zahid Oruj” (no kidding!) and publishing it in every major pro-government website, but the actual result was increase of the scale and indecency of the Facebook jokes about him.

You can't explain the essence of being Zahid Oruj in one blog post, sorry. And just in case, if you don’t know yet – Azeri authorities take Facebook too seriously, even over-seriously.

Fortunately, Zahid Oruj is also a member of the Security and Defense Committee of the Azerbaijan Parliament and can tell us, whether Facebook is a spy recruiting service or not.

“Internet is one of the significant weapons and that is why every country or hostile government tries to employ this weapon.”

Good start, Mr. Zahid Oruj!

“In my view, we can’t exclude the possibility of foreign intelligence services recruiting Azerbaijani citizens to secret cooperation through social networking sites.”

“We can’t let any hostile forces to use various Internet services against us. So, for this purpose, we must enact a law about the security of information.”

To be frank, good points if said in different circumstances, and even I wouldn’t exclude such possibilities of espionage. However, I have a different question – why the government is afraid of Facebook only now?

The answer seems to be obvious – the magic and frightening power of numbers.

Because recently, Facebook has released some statistics about its Azerbaijani users and guess what – it already has 140,760 members in a country where the highest newspaper circulation is around 12,000! I just can’t imagine how many government officials have lost their sleep because of this sole fact. We have cracked down the media, print press, online news and even bloggers and now, there emerges Facebook with the biggest audience ever! Not a good fact for an election year...

Time to shut this bazaar! Surely! But how? Facebook is not Day.az – you can’t just pull its plug…

A police state knocking at the door

2010-04-17T23:19:00.002+05:00

A policeman and a journalist are filming an opposition rally in downtown Baku, Azerbaijan, which is being brutally dispersed by police in plainclothes.

The journalist is wearing a yellow jacket in order not to be beaten or detained by police as a mistake. Regarding the reason why the policeman is filming the rally, I guess you already guessed...

Photo by Mehman Huseynov/ IRFS

In Azerbaijan, voices for democracy strive to be heard

2010-04-17T00:17:00.008+05:00

On 14 April, the police dispersed a small rally by members of opposition Musavat party in downtown Baku, Azerbaijan. Plainclothes police detained around 40 participants chanting slogans and demanding freedom of assembly and freedom of speech.

Below is the photo by Reuters which was republished in many respected news outlets in the world - the government of Azerbaijan couldn't think of better picture to accompany and endorse the recent op-ed by Ali Karimli in the Washington Post, really.

Baku, Azerbaijan: A plainclothes policeman detains an opposition activist demanding free speech (David Mdzinarishvili/Reuters)

Missing butter that asks tough questions

2010-04-16T23:58:00.003+05:00

Investigative journalist Shahveled Chobanoghlu has recently pointed out at an interesting fact or, let’s say, some controversial inconsistencies about vital government statistics:

President Ilham Aliyev has declared that Azerbaijan produces 83 per cent of the butter the country consumes.
According to official statistics, the country consumes 17,000 tons of butter, of which 14,000 are locally produced and 3,000 tons – imported.
According to the government standards set to define who is poor and who is not, every Azerbaijani citizen should consume 7 kilograms of butter a year, which in turn requires that Azerbaijan of 9 million should be consuming 63,000 tons of butter a year.
So there is a difference of 46,000 tons of butter between what Azerbaijanis should eat and what Azerbaijanis are eating according to the President.

Moreover, Chobanoghlu cites a late Soviet handbook which says that a person older than 18 should consume 29 kilograms of butter in order to sustain a minimal healthy life. Then, only 4,600,000 adults in Azerbaijan should consume 133,000 tons of butter! And with any method of calculation, it is ensured that the annual number of consumption of butter in Azerbaijan will be more than that.

If we imported only 3,000 tons and consumed only 17,000 tons, then as Chobanoghlu rightly noted, we had to experience a great daily shortage of butter in the country, which is definitely not the case.

So why such inconsistencies in all these statistics?

Here are some possible explanations by me:

Maybe the population under-consumes thousands of tons of butter and great portion of this population is highly poor and thin and ill?
Maybe a large portion of butter import to Azerbaijan is bypassed and concealed from the official customs and a large portion of butter sales are unreported to taxing and statistical authorities (which is the explanation that Chobanoghlu also gives)?
Maybe the real population of Azerbaijan is many times smaller than its official one and a huge part of it has already left the country?
Maybe all of above?
Maybe non of above and any ideas of yours?

I’ll add here: ask any Peace Corps volunteer or an expat – Azerbaijanis consume plenty of butter. They put it plenty into meals and eat it a lot in the morning. Can 17,000 tons of butter per year meet the demand of a republic of nine million citizens unafraid of cholesterol?

Truly a classic!

2010-04-16T13:31:00.004+05:00

Caucasus Analytical Digest #15 writes about the current state of websites of local governments in Azerbaijan:

The Qazah district website, for example, displays a PHP error and a series of Aliev portraits (http://www.qazax-ih.gov.az/). The Zaqatala district website is infected with malware (http://www.zaqatala.az/). The Imishli district site has not been updated since 2007 (http://www.imishli.com/home/), while the Merdekan, Ganja, and Kepez websites are unavailable.

When herdsmen cannot leave their flocks

2010-04-15T16:37:00.001+05:00


Azerbaijani herdsmen vote in the country's first multi-party presidential elections in Kobu, 40 miles from Baku, in June 1992. The herdsmen cannot leave their flocks of sheep, so election officials brought the ballots to them. AP Photo: Oleg Litvin

An Anti-Utopian Revolution

2010-04-13T11:03:00.002+05:00

Adam Michnik, the editor-in-chief of Gazeta Wyborcza:

"[...] we should have a revolution that does not resemble the French or Russian, but rather the American, in the sense that it be for something, not against something. A revolution for a constitution, not a paradise. An anti-utopian revolution. Because utopias lead to the guillotine and the gulag.”

Ithaca by C. P. Cavafy

2010-04-12T23:00:00.002+05:00

When you set out on your journey to Ithaca,
pray that the road is long,
full of adventure, full of knowledge.
The Lestrygonians and the Cyclops,
the angry Poseidon -- do not fear them:
You will never find such as these on your path,
if your thoughts remain lofty, if a fine
emotion touches your spirit and your body.
The Lestrygonians and the Cyclops,
the fierce Poseidon you will never encounter,
if you do not carry them within your soul,
if your soul does not set them up before you.

Pray that the road is long.
That the summer mornings are many, when,
with such pleasure, with such joy
you will enter ports seen for the first time;
stop at Phoenician markets,
and purchase fine merchandise,
mother-of-pearl and coral, amber and ebony,
and sensual perfumes of all kinds,
as many sensual perfumes as you can;
visit many Egyptian cities,
to learn and learn from scholars.

Always keep Ithaca in your mind.
To arrive there is your ultimate goal.
But do not hurry the voyage at all.
It is better to let it last for many years;
and to anchor at the island when you are old,
rich with all you have gained on the way,
not expecting that Ithaca will offer you riches.

Ithaca has given you the beautiful voyage.
Without her you would have never set out on the road.
She has nothing more to give you.

And if you find her poor, Ithaca has not deceived you.
Wise as you have become, with so much experience,
you must already have understood what Ithacas mean.

1911

Official Baku excluded from upcoming nuclear summit

2010-04-11T20:52:00.002+05:00

World leaders from more than 40 nations are gathering in Washington, for the Nuclear Security Summit, scheduled for 12-13 April, where Armenia is among the invited, and Azerbaijan is not.

According to the Los Angeles Times:

The two-day summit, which begins Monday, is billed by the White House as the biggest conference of its type in the U.S. since the 1945 conference to create the United Nations. The arrival of leaders of more than 40 countries, including presidents Hu Jintao of China and Manmohan Singh of India, is expected to snarl traffic and attract demonstrations.

However, the Turkish daily Hurriyet has more intriguing details:

Turkey has conveyed its concerns to the United States about Azerbaijan not being invited to the upcoming nuclear summit in Washington, D.C., diplomatic sources have told the Hürriyet Daily News & Economic Review.

“We have passed on the message that it is not correct to not invite Baku to an international event where Armenia will be represented,” said the sources, adding that Washington responded by providing Ankara with information about the criteria used to determine the states would be invited to participate.

Oh, it reminds me how the secular Muslim nation of Azerbaijan was absent from Barack Obama's Ramadan feast.

Azerbaijan is guilty of election fraud!

2010-04-11T02:31:00.004+05:00

Ah, really?! The European Court of Human Rights ruled so!

Hmm, we didn't know anything about it, so surprised!

The European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) has issued its 23rd ruling on Azerbaijan and the first one related to election fraud. According to Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty:

The court ruled that the voting rights of Nemat Aliyev, a member of the opposition Azerbaijan Popular Front Party, were violated. The court ordered the Azerbaijani government to pay him the equivalent in Azerbaijani manats of 7,500 euros ($10,023) in damages.

Aliyev registered as a candidate for the Barda electoral district in the 2005 parliamentary election. Zahid Oruj of the pro-government Ana Vatan Party was declared the winner of the vote in the district.

Aliyev appealed to the district election commission, claiming that the vote had been rigged by means of illegal intervention and ballot stuffing at the behest of local officials. The commission rejected his appeal, and the appeals court and the Supreme Court upheld the decision.

Aliyev appealed to the ECHR in Strasbourg in April 2006 to uphold his right to vote, to be elected in a free ballot, and to have a fair investigation of any complaint.

You are so quick, dear ECHR, it is still seven months left to next parliamentary elections.

Saddam's countless palaces

2010-04-04T17:41:00.000+05:00

Here is another of Saddam's controversial legacy in Iraq - numerous palaces, mansions and villas that Saddam built for himself across the country. According to Reuters:

Saddam built big at Tikrit, his tribal stronghold about 150 km (95 miles) north of Baghdad. He put up six villas at his birthplace, the village of al-Awja, alone and made the Tikrit palace complex his largest.

Boasting artificial lakes and date orchards, the site totals 136 buildings and covers more than 400 hectares (1,000 acres), according to the U.S. Army.

And this is not all - the number of abandoned Saddam villas around his hometown Tikrit is 76. Moreover,

Central and southern Iraq hold about 160 Saddam mansions, 60 in Baghdad alone. Those in the mainly Kurdish north have yet to be tallied.