Go nuclear

An interesting bit of news popped up via an Iranian news service:

Azerbaijan's President, Ilham Aliyev, voices his country's support for the Islamic Republic's right to peaceful nuclear technology, PressTV reported.

"Azerbaijan supports Iran's peaceful nuclear activities and has announced its stance formally," he said.

I'm quite sure there's more to this than we're getting here - certainly, Iran would be happy to take Aliev's words out of context - but it's intersting nonetheless.

Aliev is certainly deviating from the American line that any nuclear activity in Iran is totally objectionable, but is he bending, or is he breaking? It seems to me that in saying peaceful nuclear capacity is acceptable, he isn't accepting Iran's posession of nuclear weapons, but is allowing himself enough wiggle room to please his neighbor to the south without earning too strong an American rebuke. Iran is one of two powerhouses that are pinching Azerbaijan, and there are far more Azeris living in "South Azerbaijan" than in Azerbaijan proper. It would be interesting to find the whole transcript, though

From the horses' mouth

An interesting back-and-forth between a journalist for ANS TV, one of the main news sources here, and the public:

- Why don’t you make any magazine or program about IT (information technologies) in native language? Yes, it is true that programs of this kind was made only in two (AZTV and ITV) of local TV channels. However, their level is not so satisfactory. I think, there is great need for it. May be it is worth to think about.

- I agree with you. Probably, the root of the problem lies in the fact that information technologies are not in native language. In Azerbaijan, rumor is preferred to information, broken phones preferred to communication, and hand-made methods to technologies.
...
-Whom do you see as ideal for yourself in this profession?

-I have no ideal, I have ideas. Telling the truth is everybody’s duty. Therefore, if you are respected for this, then it means there’s a problem in the society.
...
- What do you think about present-day education in Azerbaijan?

- I think... [edit: yep, that's the whole answer]

Deterioration

The feeling among Azerbaijan watchers, from Embassy staff to aid workers in the most remote regions, is that there has been a tangible backsliding. An article in the Guardian is worth excerpting at length:

According to Idrak Abbasov of the Institute for War & Peace Reporting, organisations including the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) say Zahidov was the victim of a staged provocation, part of an assault on free speech and press freedom. The US state department agrees. This month it called on the Baku government to "comply with its stated commitments to respect the rule of law and support the development of independent media".
But overall, outside criticism has been muted - and ignored by Aliyev. Azerbaijan's importance to Washington and the EU as a producer and conduit of Caspian oil and gas, as a Nato-friendly ally bordering Iran, and as a foil to Russia overshadows human rights and democracy concerns.

The West is, indeed, sadly complicit in the backslide on democracy -- Azerbaijan seems to strategically important to push ideals upon, and that's sad.

There's much more at the link, so please do go "read the whole thing," as they say.

Neighbors

In a dusty city in the center of the country, I leave the family I'm visiting to attend a conference. A few children roam the streets, and a cow, and the eternally-blowing plastic bags that litter this area. Beyond that, there's not much sign of activity -- as per usual. Although it's near a regional center, this town is pretty sleepy, as are most in Azerbaijan. I walk along the rock-strewn dirt road to where it intersects with blacktop, a distance of about a few blocks, and continue on to my conference.

I return three hours later, to an amazingly changed atmosphere. I can tell something big is going on, even before I get around the corner to my street. When I get there, I see two massive trucks: a dump truck pouring the black pebbles that will become an asphalt paving, and immediately behind it, a steamroller flattening the stuff into a street surface. The entire neighborhood, it seems, has turned out to watch the event.

What I don't see is just as interesting. The rock-strewn dust of the lower surface has not been cleared, or levelled. There is no gravel or other base. Not even the trash on the street -- plastic bottles and bags, paper, cow droppings -- has been cleared. They're simply paving over all of it, as quickly as possible. They've already finished a good few hundred feet, and in an hour, they've linked up our road with the paved one down the way.

I ask a gentleman standing there how this came about -- I hadn't heard any rumors of development before I left.

"Oh, a relative of a neighbor knew a guy. He was paving somewhere else in town, so he stopped by here." There's nothing more to the story than that.

By the next morning, kids are already chipping chunks of the blacktop off with rocks.

Reorganization

There have been a few shakeups in Azeri regulations lately. The first is a new exam for teachers: they will need to pass tests periodically to prove they still know what they are talking about. On paper, that looks pretty good: there are plenty of teachers who have only attained their positions because they bribed their way in. Across the board, it's easier to yell at the kids to cover for your own inadequacies in teaching.

But in practice, this really probably means nothing more than a new source of bribes for the bureaucrats in the Education ministry. If teachers can bribe their way through the first test, why shouldn't they be able to do so for any tests thereafter?

But sometimes it's not even as subtle as this. Witness new changes for taxi drivers in Naxchevan:

Having decreed the demolition of a market on the outskirts of Naxicevan deemed to be an eyesore, thereby depriving thousands of people of their livelihood in a region where unemployment is already high (see "RFE/RL Newsline," November 6 and 9, 2007), the republic's authorities have now imposed new regulations for an 1,000 private taxi drivers, day.az reported on November 10. Taxi drivers will henceforth only be issued licenses for the use of two models of Russian-made automobile no more than three years old, or for foreign automobiles up to 10 years old. Drivers must re-register their vehicles and obtain special new license plates.

A young man once told me, "In Azerbaijan, we have everything, just not money." Corruption is at the top of the list of reasons why.

Sad fate

Although there may be some growing connections between Armenia and Azerbaijan, there is still a tremendous amount of hatred between the two. And sadly, events like this are all too common on both sides of the border.

In a village in the north of Azerbaijan, a more cosmopolitan place where the Russian influence is strong and at least some of the influence of tradition is starting to wane, I'm talking to a young man who is about to join the military for his two years of mandatory service. "If you don't have money, you salute," he says. "I love my village; I don't want to leave. I'll probably be on the border, with the enemy always in sight."

Later, he says, with pride in his eyes, "Someday there will be a war. We will take back our lands from the evil Armenians. My brothers and I will be there."

Weak

Heydar Aliev is everywhere in this country, despite the fact that he is dead. His son, the current president, is also quite ubiquitous. Their faces grace posters and bilboards along virtually every stretch of highway, on many government buildings, and inside most every classroom. They smile down on their beloved citizens, or pat soldiers on the back, or benevolently pat children, or sternly consider the path of their country.

And they're quite revered. Plenty of well-educated, intellectual, Western-looking folks will tell you that Heydar was a true democrat, and that although "a few irregularities" might have occurred during Ilham's election, it was certainly not the massively corrupt debacle that most election-observing officials would have you believe. Heydar made his country strong, and stopped the wicked Armenians from taking any more of Azerbaijan. Ilham is his natural successor. (And frankly, nobody doubts that Ilham's wife will be the next president.)

But sometimes, someone is willing to step out of bounds, and cracks break through the facade. I was talking to a few young men the other day, teenagers about to finish high school, and was surprised at what they told me.

"Ilham is weak," they said.

Maybe we just need more posters.

Gettin' payed

There are any number of problems with the Azeri education system. Bad books. Crumbling schools that have no heat in the winter. Poorly trained teachers who got their jobs through bribes rather than qualifications. Unmotivated students.

But the fact remains that, since the school year began, many teachers have not been paid. Not a single cent.

And that can't be encouraging.

Offered without comment

Walking in a dusty city on the sea, with dogs lying in the shade and geese on the trash heap, I strike up a conversation with a merchant standing on his stoop:

"You know, I used to work in Russia. It was good there, I had a shop and made money. There was no corruption. Well, maybe 50-50. Here it's 80-20."

An interesting day in the neighborhood

As Azerbaijan looks toward elections next year, it must be pretty confused by its neighbors:

--In Georgia, the Rose Revolution is coming undone, with protestors seeking to end the presidency altogether after some evidence of backsliding. And perpetual worries about Russian meddling are hard to shake.

--In Russia itself, there's not much to laugh about, and it looks like it will be staying that way for a while.

--In Turkey, a new government and anger over the American recognition of the Armenian genocide are less problematic than the tensions of oil prices and terrorism.

Not that there's any question about who will be president for the next term, of course.

More on terrorism

Even as more suspects in the recently-foiled attacks are being rounded up, terrorism is taking a heavy toll on Azerbaijan:

On October 30, Azerbaijan’s Grave Crimes Court convicted Fatullayev, the outspoken editor-in-chief of the independent Realni Azerbaijan and Gundelik Azerbaijan newspapers, for terrorism, inciting ethnic hatred, and tax evasion. The conviction is a culmination of a concerted effort by the Azerbaijani authorities to silence Fatuallyev and his newspapers.

“Fatullayev’s prosecution was politically motivated, and his conviction should be quashed immediately and he should be released,” said Holly Cartner, Europe and Central Asia director at Human Rights Watch. “The steady rise of politically motivated criminal charges, as well as violent attacks against journalists, is obviously aimed at silencing critical voices in Azerbaijan.”
...
Fatullayev is the eighth journalist in Azerbaijan imprisoned for defamation and other criminal charges. Human Rights Watch has also documented numerous cases of violence and threats of violence against opposition and independent journalists in the country.