Azerbaijan; Maybe if I tell you that name, you'll have to start looking in a corner of the world to find where to find it. but if you are a bit of a football fan and a fan of t-shirts, the Slogan will sound familiar to you. «The land of fire» (the land of fire), which was used as the Atlético de Madrid locker room thanks to financial agreements with businessman Hafiz Mammadov, a close friend of the regime.
Today I'm going to talk about one of the most unknown countries, but first of all we must locate it geographically and historically. This Republic is the largest country in the Caucasus, bordered to the East by the sea of the same name, to the North by Russia, to the Northeast by Georgia, to the West by Armenia and to the South by Iran.
Historical context of Azerbaijan
The Republic of Azerbaijan It belonged to the Soviet Union since 1920, although previously, during a period of 3 years, the country was independent. It was only one year under a provisional democratic Government, since in 1918 he was overthrown by the Bolshevik wing of the communist party, which took power.
The Soviet period began in 1922 when Azerbaijan, Georgia and Armenia formed the Transcaucasian Soviet Federal Socialist Republic. (RFSST), although this would change after World War II, when the Republic would play a crucial role in the strategic energy policy of the Soviet Union, with 80 percent of the USSR's oil on the Eastern Front being supplied by Baku. This led to a high level of interest from the rest of the republics in Azerbaijani issues, but especially in the 130 Azeris who were part of the so-called "Heroes of the Soviet Union."
Azerbaiyán gained independence in the early 90s, removing the words "Soviet Socialist" from the country's name and restoring the flag of the Azerbaijan Democratic Republic.. The first years of independence were not easy, and were marked by the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict. It must be remembered that a large part of Azeris do not live in Azerbaijan, but in Iranian territory; which is why there are not very good relations between Baku and Tehran either.
The conflict over Nagorno-Karabakh
Once the USSR was dissolved, Armenia made the decision in 1998 to recognize Upper Karabakh as part of its sovereignty; the justification that was given from Yerevan es que The Baku government went against the Armenian culture of the region and religious freedom. However, the Yerevan government not only occupied this particular region, but also a small portion of the rest of Azerbaijan, perhaps with the aim of attracting the attention of the international community. However, mediation made a turn back possible.
International powers have different positions depending on who you ask. Without a doubt The most positioned is Türkiye, which uses this conflict as a massive form of support for Azerbaijan and its dictator (which I will talk about later). All to continue provoking the wrath of Armenia, since Ankara does not recognize the genocide towards this country in the Ottoman era as valid.
The Nagorno-Karabakh conflict continues to be relatively calm, although with quite a few incidents at specific times. The whole situation has relaxed after the return to the country of Heydar Aliyev, who had already been General Secretary of the Azerbaijani Communist Party in Soviet times, with considerable success in his economic and political management, and being considered one of the precursors of the identity rebirth of Azerbaijan nationalism. After going into exile in Russia, he returned to his country to found the New Azerbaijan party.
The Aliyev family and modern-day Azerbaijan. The land of fire
The fundamental part on which this article is based is analyzing the Aliyev family, which since that return from exile has governed the country uninterruptedly. We begin, as it could not be otherwise, with the father, who ruled the country with a strong hand.
If there is something that we must always remember about this Azerbaijan is that it is known as "The land of fire", reason for the immense amount of oil in these lands, controlled by the hands of this family after the nationalization of the company by Heydar (SOCAR). This economic policy provided stability due to the high price of crude oil, and if at any time popularity dropped, it recovered by stirring anger against Armenia over Nagorno-Karabakh. Let's say that this man made the Republic his own company and that of his family, without at any time having any intention of hiding it.
Azerbaijan became a close friend of Türkiye, but also at a strategic point for the West for reasons that are very obvious: oil and strategic situation. Well, as long as Heydar Sr. didn't cause any problems, here everyone is happy and content. The thing is that Little by little the Aliyev family began to get rich, as did the central areas of Baku, while in other areas of the country inequality was increasing, coupled with a lack of freedom of expression.
The year 2003 arrived and Heydar Aliyev suffered a cardiac arrest from which he recovered, but which left him out of the Presidency, giving the opportunity to his son Ilham after an internal struggle within his party. The son did not change the country's politics much and followed a continuous course.
The family saga
Ilham's policy was to maintain what his father had done by benefiting from high oil prices and, above all, to sell the image of his country abroad, although he decided to do it in a very special way: he wanted to put the focus once again on the capital, Baku, where he invested millions of dollars to turn it into what many call the Paris of the East or the New Dubai. It was decided to construct significant buildings to modernize the city as The flame towers in homage to the flame of crude oil or Crystal Hall, a stadium that was built in just 9 months and where Eurovision 2012, spending the largest budget in history and with no little controversy after the arrest of protesters who outside the beautiful capital confronted the Government over the situation of inequality and lack of civil liberties.
That investment is a kind of image wash that changes completely when one moves away from the center of Baku and goes to the most rural, totally depressed areas, that follow the aesthetics of the Soviet model and bear very little resemblance to the capital. What's more, according to many journalists sent to the country, it is very difficult to find tourist information beyond the capital. It seems as if it were the part that they want to hide, just like the walls that cover oil extraction along the roads of another era; except, of course, the highway that goes to Baku.
One of the latest controversies, and perhaps the one we have heard the least about, is la influence of the singer Emin Agalarov, a young artist born in Azerbaijan, but raised in Russia; son of one of the largest Russian billionaires and who was married until a few years ago to Leyla Eliyeva, who, as you imagine from her last name, is the first-born daughter of the current president of Azerbaijan. The singer was criticized by the EBU itself, (Eurovision organization), for appearing in the interval-act of the Festival kissing the flag of Azerbaijan and selling patriotism from the propaganda of his then father-in-law.
It's not the only problem, since the divorce between Emin and the president's daughter would have occurred after she discovered an escalation that involved her with Donald Trump, -president of the USA- at the Miss World celebration, which took place in Russia. The singer Emin came to sing at the event, although he would later be seen starring in a video clip of his single along with Donald Trump himself.
Subsequently, News came from Washington, and that Emin was investigated for having been one of the possible communication links between the Kremlin and Trump in the purchase of information that would harm Hillary Clinton for the US election campaign. Come on, a whole drama from which the Aliyev family wanted to flee before their image was further tarnished. More knowing that Trump himself congratulated Emin on her birthday, and the first-born is recognized by Russia as an 'exemplary woman' due to her diplomatic work with Moscow.
View: Emin Agalarov: Russian singer with ties to Trump cancels US tour
Conclusion
All these stories have led numerous human rights associations to ask for condemnations of the Azeri regime, although currently it seems that this is not going to happen. Azerbaijan is an important transit source of oil that subsequently goes to Georgia, and can be an ally for the EU. Meanwhile, the country's population is divided and silenced, and faced with a superficiality in its capital that does not represent the group of people, who cannot express their identity, since this is based on the tastes of the Aliyev family itself and its allies.
I want to conclude with a phrase that an Azeri friend who I met on a trip to Europe said: Azerbaijan is that country that the day we stop seeing it from the heartbeat of oil to observe it from the heartbeat of its people, will light the true flame... In the meantime, we'll see what they want to teach us. one of the most unknown and least visited republics in Europe. We still have a lot to know.
Internationalist from UCLM, spokesperson for Team Europe in CLM, in love with the Arts in general, but particularly the performing world. I like to talk about the balance between identity and globalization, a good trip, enjoying a good conversation and understanding global news.
