The International Herald Tribune has an op-ed by Farhad Husseinov on Azerbaijan’s imminent parliamentary elections.

Azerbaijan is the latest victim of this sacrifice of freedom in the pursuit of stability. A country of 8.5 million people - roughly half of whom live in poverty - on the Western shores of the energy-rich Caspian Sea, it is preparing for parliamentary elections in early November. Baku, the capital, is the next obvious candidate for a democratic revolution of the kind witnessed in Georgia and Ukraine. At stake are the multibillion-dollar investments of oil giants like BP and Chevron.

The incumbent president, Ilham Aliyev, is a Soviet-educated autocrat who inherited power from his late father, Geidar Aliyev, in late 2003 as a result of rigged elections followed by a ruthless police crackdown. Opposition activists were imprisoned and tortured. Yet the creation of the first dynastic regime in the post-Soviet space was, incongruously, blessed by the administrationof George W. Bush.

So far, Aliyev junior has proved less adept than his ex-Communist father at playing political cat-and-mouse with Western capitals. His regular consultations with President Vladimir Putin of Russia have not escaped analysts’ attention. One development that apparently infuriated Washington was the security arrangement he made with Iran in May. This was followed by news that Azerbaijan had been used as a conduit for supplying Russian nuclear technology to Iran.

[…]

In today’s globalized world, democracy requires support from without. The Bush administration’s “freedom agenda” is a praiseworthy step in this regard. It should, however, also be extended to illiberal countries that possess oil or host a NATO military base. Democratic turnover in the post-Soviet states is not Western imperialism by another name, as some would like us to believe. What they represent, rather, is a shift toward the rule of law, democracy and national reconciliation.

Azerbaijan presents the next opportunity for Western leaders to prove their commitment to the founding principles of their own nation-states. With time, this moral choice will prove to be a smart strategic choice as well.

The full op-ed can be read online here. Meanwhile, Eurasianet carries an interesting story on the appreciation of the Azerbaijani Manat against the dollar. Reminds me of when the Armenian dram recently gained ground against the dollar here.