Protests in Egypt Reverberating in Azerbaijan
Thursday, February 3rd, 2011
by Asbarez
BAKU (EurasiaNet)`Like many Azerbaijanis, Elnura Jivazade, a resident
of the Baku suburb of Khirdalan, is watching Egypt’s political
upheaval closely. Unlike most Azerbaijanis, however, Jivazade sees
Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak each morning; his statue, a symbol of
Azerbaijani-Egyptian friendship, stands in a Khirdalan park that she
passes each weekday on her way to work.
`I always wondered why this monument is standing here, and what will
happen to it if the dictatorship falls in Egypt,’ she told
EurasiaNet.org. `Now, Mubarak’s regime is falling, but he is still
sitting here in the park with such confidence.’
The wider question of how Azerbaijanis will or should interpret
Egyptian protestors’ ongoing struggle against Mubarak appears to be
gaining increasing currency among critics of Azerbaijani President
Ä°lham Aliyev and many young Azerbaijanis.
Ties between the two countries largely hinge on energy ` the State Oil
Company of the Azerbaijani Republic, or SOCAR, is involved in the oil
trade and processing in Egypt ` and on good works. First Lady Mehriban
Aliyeva, head of the Heydar Aliyev Foundation, serves on the board of
the Alexandria Library and has a secondary school named in her honor
in the Cairo suburb of Qaulubiyya, which contains a monument to the
late President Heydar Aliyev.
The two countries’ first ladies also both appeared in a pop song
dedicated to peace, written by Egyptian First Lady Suzanne Mubarak and
performed by the Azerbaijani singer Tunzale Agayeva.
Officials in Baku appear to be taking measures to ensure that public
parallels between the Egyptian and Azerbaijani leaderships stop there.
Days after protests began in Tunisia and Egypt, the Azerbaijani
government’s anti-corruption commission, overseen by presidential
administration Chief of Staff Ramiz Mehdiyev, met on Jan. 27 for the
first time since 2009. A number of import duties, often seen as
benefiting government-friendly monopolists, have been abolished as
well.
Building public trust
Sources in the government told EurasiaNet.org that in recent days they
have received directives advising them to avoid irritating the
population and to work effectively and build public trust.
Some government critics, meanwhile, are trying to highlight
similarities between Mubarak’s and Aliyev’s administrations. A group
of 100-plus non-partisan and opposition candidates, along with
activists from political parties and non-governmental organizations,
gathered on Jan. 29 to urge the Azerbaijani government to either hold
new parliamentary elections or brace for popular protests similar to
those seen in Egypt and Tunisia.
The leaders of the group’s main opposition parties ` Musavat and the
Popular Front of Azerbaijan ` have not said whether or not they would
be the ones organizing protests. Azerbaijan’s opposition is not known
for its political muscle, but one political commentator, Å?ahveled
Ã?obanoÄ?lu, said events in Egypt and Tunisia have shattered myths about
political change in Muslim countries.
`The first myth is that there is no opposition. If you don’t see the
opposition, it does not mean there is no opposition,’ said Ã?obanoÄ?lu.
`Election results in both of these countries show the absolute
leadership of the ruling parties. So, where did all of these
protesters come from?’
The second myth, he added, is that an Islamic opposition will come to
power if a secular government collapses ` a concept that some local
critics argue prompted the Azerbaijani government’s recent arrest of
an Islamic political leader and clampdown on the hijab in schools,
among other measures.
Despite Azerbaijan’s lack of a robust opposition, one political
analyst, a government critic in Baku, expressed hope that the example
of Tunisia and Egypt would encourage Azerbaijanis ` where the median
population age is similarly young, at 28.5 years old ` to push for
`systemic changes.’
Tunisia, Egypt and Azerbaijan all suffer from `corruption, poverty . .
. rigged elections, a refusal to share power, [excessive influence by
families of the] first ladies, and monopolization of the economy in
favor of the ruling families,’ said Arastun Orujlu, director of Baku’s
East-West Research Center.
Still, political analyst Rasim Musabekov, a non-partisan member of
parliament, said there was little chance that the situation in Arab
countries, especially Egypt and Tunisia, could influence developments
in Azerbaijan, given the countries’ dissimilar histories.
`Only if the process of change will be successful and will pave the
way to stable and democratic regimes, might they have an impact on the
situation in Azerbaijan,’ Musabekov said.
But government critics like Orujlu still said events in Egypt and
Tunisia had sent a powerful message.
`No matter what the government and opposition in Azerbaijan are
learning from what is going on in North Africa, there is something
that has already changed in the world,’ Orujlu said. `It is an
understanding that you can’t rely on dictators.’
From: A. Papazian