AZERBAIJAN’S WHIMS AND FANCIES
By Vilen Khlgatyan
In late March a conference was held in Baku with the covert support
of the Aliyev regime, titled ‘Tomorrow of the Contemporary Southern
Azerbaijan’. The conference was organized by the so called South
Azerbaijan National Liberation Front (SANLF), a rag-tag group of
Iranian Azerbaijanis who are adherents to the ideology of Pan-Turkism.
The participants made irredentist claims against Iran. Specifically
they claimed that the dire political and economic situation
inside Iran caused by Western sanctions will inevitably lead to
destabilization, at which point, the SANLF would be ready to take
control of ‘South Azerbaijan’. Attendees to the conference included
Pan-Turkism activists, academics, and former Azerbaijani government
officials. The conference also served to highlight the hypocritical
foreign policy of Azerbaijan, where on the one hand Baku claims Armenia
is an irredentist state, yet via proxy organizations like the SANLF,
makes territorial claims on Iran.
Expectedly, the Iranian government reacted harshly to Baku’s
provocations, which indeed are just another segment in a long series
of tense exchanges between the two states. Disputes over the Caspian
Sea have been ongoing for two decades now, while just last year news
broke that claimed Azerbaijan had agreed to allow Israel the use of
Azerbaijani airbases to land and refuel Israeli bombers in the event
of an attack against Iran. Also indicative of the worsening relations
are the continued oppression of Muslim activists within Azerbaijan.
The well known Azerbaijani cleric, Taleh Bagirzadeh, was arrested
in March on trumped up charges of heroin possession. This was a
political decision made by the Aliyev regime in order to tamper the
growing popularity of Islam among its citizenry, particularly the
young. For example, in a 2010 poll conducted among the youth, 48%
of young Azerbaijanis expressed support for Sharia law. Naturally,
Iran being a theocratic Muslim state, seeks to encourage the spread
of Islam.
Aliyev and his cohorts are seen as apostates in the eyes of official
Tehran.
Bagirzadeh’s arrest caused several hundred protestors to take to the
streets in his hometown of Nardaran and demand his immediate release as
well as other ‘prisoners of the hijab’ who have similarly been targeted
for their religious convictions. Azerbaijan has seen a wave of protests
over the past few months, beginning with the incidents that occurred
in the Ismayilli region in January, as well as the anti-solider abuse
movement, running from January through March, coinciding with both
the Ismayilli, and Nardaran protests over the arrest of Bagirzadeh.
While clamping down on domestic opposition both of the secular as
well as the religious sort, Aliyev’s regime has also targeted Western
pro-democracy outlets. Late last week the operations of the Azad Fikir
University (AFU) were suspended with no official explanation given.
The University had been supported by the American and British embassies
in Baku, USAID, and other international organizations. This should
come as no surprise given that Aliyev has another election to steal
this year, therefore he must stifle all sources of discontent.
More importantly, Baku is rapidly coming to the conclusion that the
West considers Azerbaijan primarily in terms of its broader strategic
interests in the region, which are shifting due to the up-coming
pull out from Afghanistan, as well as Azerbaijan’s ever declining
oil reserves. Therefore, Azerbaijan is a dispensable ‘ally’ whose
importance is likely to decrease.
Baku’s irredentist and anti-democracy schemes coincided with the first
radio broadcast of the Voice of Talyshstan from Shushi. The show is
designed for ethnic Talyshes residing in Azerbaijan as well as in
other former Soviet republics. While the program was not initiated by
the Armenian government, it nonetheless should be incorporated into
a wider public diplomacy campaign that ought to be driven by the
Armenian MFA, and include not only Azerbaijan’s ethnic minorities,
but all Azerbaijani citizens. So long as Azerbaijan lacks a free
and fair press that can present accurate descriptions of Armenia and
Armenians, public diplomacy and strategic communication will serve as
useful instruments to present Armenia’s position to the Azerbaijani
public in an accurate manner.
Vilen Khlgatyan is the Vice-Chairman of the Political Developments
Research Center (PDRC)
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