WELCOME

The reason why I create this additional blog is first and foremost the ambition to describe, to whom it may concern, the internship I will carry out the following seven-month period in Baku, Azerbaijan. During the introductory phase of the internship I have experienced some difficulties to gather and get hold of accurate information, on both historical and present Azeri events. Thus, the blog will also serve as an attempt to provide updated information on key Azeri occurrences. My aim is to contribute as much objectivity as possible to the updated events I will bring up. However, I am completely aware of the difficulty to fulfil this aim.

NB! I decided to end my internship on the 29th of October in order to write my bachelor thesis on the possible impacts of foreign aid on Azerbaijan's sustainable development process and to carry out an internship for the Swedish based organization Social Entrepreneurship Forum (SE Forum) that promotes social entrepreneurship as a way of solving social and environmental problems while at the same time earning a profit. My overall impression of the internship was that - despite the organizational problems and sometimes deficient performance - it was very much fruitful and my experiences from the Republic of Azerbaijan invaluable. I will truly miss the people I got to know, the things I did and the daily life in this highly interesting country. As a promise to myself and to many people involved in this program I will keep on updating the blog, both on everyday experiences (thesis and SE Forum internship) and on current Azeri events.

Azerbaijan: Geography

Azerbaijan belongs, together with Georgia and Armenia, to the South Caucasian region. The region is separated from the North Caucasus by the Caucasus Mountains at the northern border of Georgia. To the east, the country is bounded by the Caspian Sea and with neighbours such as Russia, Georgia, Armenia, Iran and Turkey, Azerbaijan is at the crossroads of Eastern Europe and Western Asia. Azerbaijan is considered as a part of Eurasia though in some occasions it may be mentioned as part of Asia. The capital of Azerbaijan is Baku (Baki) with a population of 2.1 million. The total azerbaijani population is about 8,7 million. (Detailed information on the internationally unrecognized region of Nagorno-Karabakh and the exclave of Nakhichevan will be provided when available.)

Azadliq (2/5)

Drip drop

Tonight both Sweden and Azerbaijan are competing with their songs in the second semi-final of the Eurovision Song Contest 2010. Like mentioned in previous blog entries, years ago Azerbaijan and Sweden were connected mainly though the Nobel brothers living and working in the oil-rich country. Nowadays my impression is that Sweden has a very reduced relation to Azerbaijan. Surprisingly, when it comes to the Eurovision Song Contest things are different ant the oil contacts seem to have been transformed into music contacts.

Last year Arash (that currently lives in Sweden), together with Azerbaijani singer Aysel, represented Azerbaijan and ended up at a third place with the song "Always". Well, tonight it's time again and this year the Swedish song writers Anders Bagge, Stefan Örn and Sandra Bjurman are the people behind Azerbaijan's song. However, in a few hours the hope will be 100% in the hands of seventeen year old Safura Alizadeh.

All the best for Azerbaijan this night!

Covering Azerbaijan Inside and Outside?

Today.Az is one of the biggest Azerbaijani news portals directed primarily to English speaking readers. The portal works both as a newspaper, magazine and analytical information agency. Based on the information I got from the time spent in Azerbaijan I would say that it's up to the reader to decide to which extent you can trust this communication channel, just like all other channels giving information on key Azeri events.

When surfing around the Today.Az website I realize that the youth activists, bloggers and freedom fighters Emin Milli and Adnan Hajidzade did end up in jail - despite all the efforts made by other youth activists, non-governmental organizations and international human rights fighters to prevent this from happening. Two years and six months and two years respectively. Based on what? 'Deliberately inflicting less serious bodily harm' and 'hooliganism'. I get amazed and ask myself how to trust communication channels when you can't trust the legal system? Just before leaving Azerbaijan and the day before the first trial against the bloggers my colleague and I were lucky to get some minutes together with Adnan's father, a little but extremely strong man fighting for the rights of his son, Emin and Azerbaijan. Read more about our meeting here.

To conclude today's entry I would like to share an ad with you showing how Today.Az promotes Azerbaijan. Flat screens, boats, champagne, great cars and blond women. Believe it or not.

Azadliq (1/5)

When watching a clip of a political demonstration held by the opposition in Azerbaijan, recently recorded in Baku by one of my fellow teachers and posted at Eurasiastudies, I dedicated some time to find similar clips on YouTube. It turns out that there is plenty of information on the Azerbaijani opposition which comes as a happy surprise since 4 months in the country rather than showing me opposition teached me how people in Azerbaijan simply stops believing in democracy.

'Azadliq' is the Azerbaijani word for freedom. The next two weeks my aim will be to publish all of the five documentaries on this urgent topic. Keep in mind that this first documentary was produced two months before the criticized presidential elections in 2008 when Ilham Aliyev was re-elected president, while the video posted at Eurasiastudies is from April this year. Consequently, it seems like the 'democratic revolution' is yet to come.

Check out the videos and learn more about Azerbaijan, its oppostion and political situation.

"The Garbage of the House Should Stay in the House"
- Azerbaijani student expelled from The Oil Academy because of his article

During my time in Azerbaijan I was (un)lucky to, in many occasions, face the widespread corruption. I was also lucky to attend a training on how to reduce the corruption in higher education, organized by the local NGO I worked for, held for university students and financed by USAID. Particularly, I remember the moment when every participant had to give an example of the corruption they face in school. The young Azerbaijani man sitting in front of me studied at the Azerbaijan State Oil Academy and expressed that there is no educational step you could ever pass without bribing a teacher or an university adminstrative. Considering that you, in addition, pay for every year you study, the liquidity of the universities must be incredibly high...

And this morning I find a new video on the internet showing that nothing has changed and that students that claim their rights still are excluded by the system. Although you might not be interested in the specific situation of Azerbaijan, do have a look. Human rights is something that should concern all of us, no matter if we have access to them or not.