Day 13: Azerbaijan

[Tetro Kornbluth]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Azerbaijan



Former part of the Soviet Union, now turning into a petrostate. Has recorded some of the highest rates of economic growth in the world in recent years. Is a typical post-Soviet autocracy, including a major desire to hold international sporting events with the rest of the world looking on and ignoring it. Considers itself part of Europe, or at least, is part of UEFA. Is one of only four Shia majority states in the world although religion is not as important a factor in domestic culture as in some of its Islamic neighbours. The official language of the country, which has switched over to the Latin script in post-Soviet times, is somewhat mutually intelligible with Turkish.

It was converted to Shiaism during the period when it was part of the Safavid Empire. Below is a map of a Safavid empire at its peak, which is also a good proxy (kind of) for the spread of Shiaism in Middle East and what I'm calling the Iranosphere.

[politicus]

Mortal enemy of Armenia and petro-state funder of the Tories. Kill it with fire.

[Figueira]

Great country, terrible government, lots of problems.

[Filuwaúrdjan]

The Azeri government - Tory Party link is a very strange thing...

[Antonio the Sixth]

Mortal enemy of Armenia and petro-state funder of the Tories. Kill it with fire.

[DavidB.]

Freedom Country. Government keeps the fundies and the commies down. Quite secularized, and the differences between Shia and Sunni Muslims are not really pronounced - they even go to the same mosques sometimes. The country has quite a good relationship with Israel, which is another important reason why I am quite positive about it.

The Eurovision Song Contest is one of their national sports. I don't believe there is any other country where Eurovision is as popular among the general public as Azerbaijan. The government spends tons on good acts, which tend to perform really well - and rumor has it that it also spends tons on votes...

[Figueira]

Freedom Country. Government keeps the fundies and the commies down. Quite secularized, and the differences between Shia and Sunni Muslims are not really pronounced - they even go to the same mosques sometimes. The country has quite a good relationship with Israel, which is another important reason why I am quite positive about it.

The Eurovision Song Contest is one of their national sports. I don't believe there is any other country where Eurovision is as popular among the general public as Azerbaijan. The government spends tons on good acts, which tend to perform really well - and rumor has it that it also spends tons on votes...

While I don't like the Azeri government by any means, I do think that the lack of Islamic extremism and the lack of a pronounced Sunni-Shia divide (people often don't know whether their neighbors are Sunni or Shia) are definite pluses.

I don't get why everyone here hates it for being a "mortal enemy of Armenia." Real life isn't black and white like that.

[Zioneer]

What's the connection between the Tory Party and the Azeri government, out of curiosity? Also, they're a dictatorship, so not a fan, though if 84285  and DavidB's posts are even remotely true, they're relatively decent for being a tyranny.

[Figueira]

What's the connection between the Tory Party and the Azeri government, out of curiosity? Also, they're a dictatorship, so not a fan, though if 84285  and DavidB's posts are even remotely true, they're relatively decent for being a tyranny.

I know for a fact that it's relatively moderate religiously, and that Sunnis (the minority) aren't really treated that differently from Shiites (the majority). However, I'm not sure how much of that, if any, can be attributed to the government.

Just to be clear, I hate the Azeri government as much as anyone else. I just like the country itself, for personal reasons.

[Simfan34]

The Azeri government - Tory Party link is a very strange thing...

Since when was this a thing? I just found out about it (inadvertently) last week but apparently you people (well, you and Politicus) have known about it for ages.

Also Gully your flag is wrong. There's a red stripe, not an orange one.

[Figueira]

The Azeri government - Tory Party link is a very strange thing...

Since when was this a thing? I just found out about it (inadvertently) last week but apparently you people (well, you and Politicus) have known about it for ages.

Also Gully your flag is wrong. There's a red stripe, not an orange one.

Yeah, and the blue should be darker and less greenish. I wonder what happened there.

[Zanas]

Officially, I've been there, in Xankendi. Unofficially though, not so much, I've been to the capital of Artsakh, Stepanakert. Great experience!

[ag]

Let me tell you the story of a Mexican-Azerbaijani conflict. I am not joking: it really happened.

Some years ago, the Azeri embassy here offered to give the Mexico City government USD$5mln to renovate a chunk of the Chapultepec park: you know, they would put in flower beds, a cafe - and a monument.

The Monument turned out to be a vertically set object of white marble in the shape of Azerbaijan AS IT SHOULD BE. In front of the marble thingy there was a large bronze armchair. In the chair there sat HEYDAR. At the last moment, before the monument was to be dedicated, somebody mentioned to the city authorities that Heydar, oh horror, was a dictator! The PRD types involved were flabbergasted (whatever you think of them otherwise, they are good old dissidents, and hate dictators). So they told the Azeris: "Get rid of the dictator!" Azeris responded, that HEYDAR was their national hero. "Get rid of the dictator!" - said Mexicans again. "This is a sacrilege!" - said Azeris. "You are defacing the monument to the victims of the genocide at Kohjaly!" Mentioning a "genocide" was a big mistake: naturally, everybody assumed that the dictator must have perpetrated the genocide (granted, there are few sins of which Heydar was innocent, but this is one - genocide was not his style).

Well, Mexicans took Heydar into storage (the marble monstrocity of the map remains to this day), Azeris spent a year or two sulking and refusing to come to receptions. And Armenia opened its embassy.

And a cartoon from the time

[Simfan34]

That's sort of a habit of theirs, actually. Building "friendship parks" with statues of Aliyev in them in other countries.

[GMantis]

A repulsive dictatorship that is held up by a personality cult straight out of the USSR circa 1950 and the ugliest kind of nationalism straight out of Germany circa 1940. And I'm not exaggerating. This is a country were a cowardly murderer was declared a national hero because his victim was an Armenian and where the country's leader openly declares that creating Armenia was a mistake. Meanwhile the actual refugees from the conflict with Armenia are apparently still not integrated, so as to prevent any future reconciliation.

[SATW]

Freedom Country. Government keeps the fundies and the commies down. Quite secularized, and the differences between Shia and Sunni Muslims are not really pronounced - they even go to the same mosques sometimes. The country has quite a good relationship with Israel, which is another important reason why I am quite positive about it.

The Eurovision Song Contest is one of their national sports. I don't believe there is any other country where Eurovision is as popular among the general public as Azerbaijan. The government spends tons on good acts, which tend to perform really well - and rumor has it that it also spends tons on votes...

[ag]

Freedom Country. Government keeps the fundies and the commies down. Quite secularized, and the differences between Shia and Sunni Muslims are not really pronounced - they even go to the same mosques sometimes. The country has quite a good relationship with Israel, which is another important reason why I am quite positive about it.

The Eurovision Song Contest is one of their national sports. I don't believe there is any other country where Eurovision is as popular among the general public as Azerbaijan. The government spends tons on good acts, which tend to perform really well - and rumor has it that it also spends tons on votes...

War is Peace. Freedom is Slavery. Ignorance is Strength.