Welcome to the first roundup of blogs from the Azerbaijani Blogosphere. It might raise a few eyebrows at first, but as I’m interested in what Azeris and foreigners living in Azerbaijan think and get up to, it only seems natural to do the occasional roundup of posts from or about Armenia’s estranged neighbour. However, I have to be honest and say that the Azerbaijani Blogosphere isn’t as evolved and extensive as its Armenian counterpart.

Regardless, let’s take a look to see what’s going on.

First up is the always educational CRRC Caucasus which posts details of an Organization for Security & Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) report on Islamic and Ethnic Identity in Azerbaijan. The paper aims to examine potential causes of internal conflict in Azerbaijan specifically originating from religion and ethnicity. However, AaronE is not entirely happy with the results of the survey upon which the discussion paper is based.

[…] the scholar fails to meet basic academic standards of documentation by not naming the survey from which these statistics came from or what kind of sample was involved when these data were collected.

Indeed, the report highlights the continued role of anecdotal evidence in research in Azerbaijan and raises the need for more comprehensive survey data. The paper also raises the problem of of interviewing local elites and claiming they represent the population as a whole. Local elites in places like Zaqatala or Khachmaz are certainly not the Baku intelligentsia, however, they may not represent people who do not take part at all in local politics or civil society.

The problems in both interviewing and quantitative data collection show the need of having researchers who invest in the long term. Most of the religious developments in Azerbaijan will not easily be understood by people who have not invested considerable time and resources–often years–and this kind of investment is rarely undertaken by outside consultants.

AzerPolicy (Thanks, Christina, for posting the link) also examines the role of religion in Azerbaijan, how that role has been transformed, and what significance faith, belief and ritual has in the republic today.

Even during the soviet period of its history, Azerbaijan was the place where all these traditions were observed despite the pressures from the atheistic communist authorities. Since gaining independence in 1991, people of Azerbaijan continued in even larger scale mourning at Ashura, but the core rituals turned from self-imposed pain and suffering to other, socially more important actions.

In contemporary Azerbaijan, the majority donates blood and provides food to the needy. This is the case both for the capital city of Baku and the regions of Azerbaijan. Interestingly, last years the foreigners, including non-Muslims, also joined the people in these efforts. Among those, who donated blood this year were many representatives of the diplomatic missions, including the U.S. Ambassador Anne Derse, other representatives of the diplomatic corps.

It is, indeed, crucial to put social and humanistic substance into the customs and traditions we observe for centuries, to adapt religious dogma to the realities of a secular society. And if you want to know how, come to Azerbaijan.

Over at Baku Blog, the lastest post is actually five months old, but worth linking to if only because it details a book that is considered a modern masterpiece on the South Caucasus — Ali & Nino. Nearly every expat in Georgia and Azerbaijan knows about this book, but I wonder, how many know about it in Armenia? Indeed, how many have read it?

Nino has taken off to Karabakh for a summer holiday in a spot where he hopes to be able to sneak off with his true love. Ali is, of course, a Muslim and Nino is a Christian from Georgia. That’s where the story is going. So Ali attends an event which features poets from Shusha dis-ing each other, a plotline which bears an eerie resemblance to a modern-day rap showdown. Hard to believe this stuff was written 70 years ago. You practically expect Eminen to jump into this scene clad in ancient silk robes.

Anyway, as I said, on first glance there doesn’t seem to be much going on in the Azerbaijani Blogosphere, but I suppose that will change in the near future as blogs become more and more popular in the South Caucasus and Russian Federation. Certainly, one delight was to stumble upon Azerbaijan Girl’s (Coffee) Shop Talk. Short, but sweet, and the Wordpress theme is a delight that I might have to use for a new blogging project soon to be launched.

Aw, my little Azerbaijan is standing up for itself!

Baku turns West after energy row with Moscow

Even if you’re not into the politics of ridiculously obscure nations, you have to love the dynamic of Tiny-Unheard-of-Land finally saying, “Sorry, Ginormous-Former-Superpower-that-used-to-be-in-charge-of-us, but that’s an absurd oil price and you know it. We’ll just use our own, thanks.” I really hope it works out for them.

One of the oldest expat blogs about Azerbaijan and other former Soviet Republics it delightfully refers to as “Crapistan” is Carpetblogger, which seems to always be on the move, but still posts about Azerbaijan from time to time. In a recent post, for example, Carpetblogger remembers being locked out because of Soviet era security locks and a perhaps drunken partner.

Our apartment had one of those front doors that are very common in the FSU. You can lock it from the inside by means of a gear-like thing — a primitive, retarded deadbolt, if you will. If it’s locked from the inside, there’s no unlocking it from the outside. I guess it was designed to keep the KGB out.

I arrived home from a work trip to Warsaw at four am. I waved my driver and his warm white Volga away and hauled my heavy bag up the two flights of stairs. I put my key in the lock and turned. Nothing happened.

Clearly, the Producer had indulged in some kind of horse tranquilizer, or a prodigious amount of alcohol, ‘cause for the next two hours, I called his mobile, called the home phone, rang the doorbell and banged on the door. The Carpetdogs became hoarse. I became hysterical. It was, after all, early February at four in the morning, and freezing cold.

Carpetblogger also points her readers back to a post written last year on the anniversary of “Black January” when Soviet troops entered Baku. Really great photography of last year’s memorial events.

The day was a pivotal event in modern history and Azeris are dead serious about remembering the martyrs. The black clad crowd (the color choice has nothing to do with mourning — most Azeris wear only black), starts flowing along Martyrs Lane early in the morning. They stream in silence past the black granite grave markers, gently laying red carnations in meticulous piles. Mourners are mostly men, with a few women and children. Only a few people talked on their cell phones in the procession. This is covered non-stop by all the television stations.

[…]

Everyone is more than happy to tell you where they were on that day. My staff — even though most of them were only in their early teens in 1990 — remembered where they were, and what role — no matter how peripheral– they played in the event, in detail. Interestingly — though not terribly surprising — the number of mourners who visit Martyrs Lane on 20 Janvar has diminished with the passing of time, according to a friend. He says millions of people would visit the shrine in the early ’90s. Furthermore, he reports the government is making less effort to organize trips for teachers, doctors and other state employees than in years past. He attributes this to the desire for this national day of mourning not to upstage another national day of mourning that is more important politically in the current environment — the anniversary of the death of dictator Heydar Aliyev.

Otherwise, the only other post I managed to find is a news report from the International Herald Tribune. Azerbaijan has just signed a deal worth $401 million with Boeing for two 737-900s and three Boeing-787s. The oil money is obviously starting to flood in as I think Armavia has to lease its more modern aircraft.

Ahead of the signing Scott Carson, the chief executive officer of Boeing’s commercial jet-building division, held talks Monday with the Azerbaijani president at which Ilham Aliev stressed Azerbaijan’s need for new aircraft as a means to realize its full economic potential, the state news agency Azertec reported.

A booming oil and gas industry have made this former Soviet Caspian Sea nation’s economy one of the fastest-growing in the world. Currently Azerbaijan owns 5 Boeing aircraft.

Anyway, as I said, not a particularly extensive blogosphere as far as I can see for now, but if anyone knows of any interesting posts, please draw our attention towards them below in the comments section of this post. Then again, I suppose even Armenian blogs that refer to Karabakh should theoretically be included here as well, so I might have to consider that at some point. Until then, Rapho posts some great b/w photos from Baku.