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 International Aid versus Social Entrepreneurship 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 programme I will keep on updating the blog, both on everyday experiences (thesis and SE Forum internship) and on current Azeri events, until January 2010. The reason I decide to do it this way is that Azerbaijan is still present and my thesis would probably not be written in the same way if it wasn't because of the experiences I get from SE Forum and the ones I got from Azerbaijan.

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.)

Black January

Today, 20th of January 2010, it's exactly twenty years since the January massacre ocurred in Azerbaijan. In the dying days of the Soviet Union 26 000 Russian troops were sent to Baku by the then President Mikhail Gorbachev that had proclaimed the city state of emergency. The aim was to alliviate the violent situation between Azerbaijanis and Armenians that was growing bigger over the territory of Nagorno Karabakh. The violence had been going on for various years but in 1990 on January 13 the situation became untenable. Both Armenians and Azerbaijanis were killed in mutual fights and by the time the troops reached Baku the situation had calmed down considerably and most Armenians had fled over the borders. However, the impact of the Russian troops was huge and at least 130 Azerbaijani people were killed and some 700 injured. Despite the tragedy the black January left Azerbaijan with a strong will of creating, securing and maintaining a national identity and people are still wondering why Moscow's power chose to react so late. Today it's believed that it was due to Moscow's unwillingness to let Azerbaijan become an independent state as it also became one year later.

(Currently I am concluding the analysis of my thesis and as soon as time permits I will be back. Huge apology for my absence. However, on a day like this I make an exception.

YUVA HUMANITARIAN CENTER

From the 14th of june until the 15th of january of 2010 I will, together with another Swedish student, carry out an internship in Yuva Humanitarian Center financed by the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency (Sida). While being in Azerbaijan I will represent the Swedish NGO Kvinna till Kvinna Foundation that mainly works with women in conflict areas. Kvinna till Kvinna started to cooperate with Azeri NGO's in 2004 and one year later the cooperation also included YUVA. Until now, the activity of Kvinna till Kvinna in the caucasian area (Georgia, Azerbaijan and Armenia) is coordinated from Tbilisi, capital of Georgia.

Yuva Humanitarian Center (YUVA), with main office in Baku, was founded in 1997 by two Azerbaijani women and is a non-governmental and non-profit organization. In 1999 the organization was registered in the Ministry of Justice and works since then as an umbrella organization that encourages young Azeri women to take an active interest in shaping their own lives. By actively empowering women through group discussions, national seminars and educational programs in leadership and democracy, the long-term goal of YUVA is to improve the civil rights of the female population of Azerbaijan.

Mission: Participate in self-realization of women, children and youth in building a civil society in Azerbaijan and to assist them to realize natural human rights and main values of humanity.

Objective: Develop educational initiatives in the field of civil society, conflict resolution, human rights and peace-building, to promote intercultural relations in Azerbaijan society.

For any additional information to the website, for personal opinions or interest in collaboration do not hesitate to contact me!

E-mail: Karin Larsson

Reality gaps

This morning I had a long Skype-call with Azerbaijan and as always it was so nice to be able to see my lovely landlady and colleague still working in Baku. Thank you Internet and thank you Skype for helping people to communicate albeit the distance! It makes me sad though that the moment my colleague leaves Azerbaijan at the end of this month I won't be able to communicate with the lady of the house via Internet since she has no computer or Internet.

It's strange how it can be a bit of a challenge to start writing letters again but good in a way since it gives me a chance to start communicate also with the people I met on Cuba last year. Although Azerbaijan is no island isolated from most parts of the world I still got reminded of Cuba a lot when living in Azerbaijan. Lack of transparency and freedom of expression, hidden anger, sadness and agression. Economy in transition with enormous gaps and a little bit more opportunities or planned economy with smaller gaps but fewer opportunities. What would you choose?

It is now time for me to keep on writing. Meanwhile I share with you a video on the lack of transparency in Azerbaijan. Before watching it I recommend you to first watch the interview with IIham Aliyev that I posted yesterday regarding sustainability. Even for those of you that haven't been in Azerbaijan it is not hard to see the contrasts between what is stated by the President and what actually is.

'Future is not linked to oil and gas'

Azeri president IIham Aliyev talks about the future of his country and about how sustainable development can be achieved in Azerbaijan. Definitely worth listening to. I also suggest you to take a look at the comments that are posted beneath the video to see the different opinions people have about this powerful man.