Flowers, Façades, and Photos

The former president of Azerbaijan, the respected and now passed Heydar Aliyev, lived at one time with his wife in an apartment building just a short walk from his office in the KGB Building and around the corner from the Sabail Police Station. Like all Stalinkas, apartments in this building have higher ceilings and more floor space than those in subsequently built Soviet apartment buildings and its location like most Stalinkas located across the xUSSR is prestigious and central. A marble relief in honor of Zarife khanum on the side of the apartment building preceded by several years the one placed subsequently to honor the memory of the first post-Soviet president of Azerbaijan. Each day fresh flowers are placed beneath each bas-relief near the building’s entrance. Its grey-blue façade is kept respectfully clean and in good repair. The street, once named in honor of the nation has been renamed in honor of one of the nation’s prominent women politicians, who unfortunately was killed in an automobile accident soon after the independent Republic was founded.

The previous president frequently closed D.Aliyeva Street while he was driven to and from work or out to his Mardakan dacha during the summer months, or while he traveled to and from the airport. The current president continues the same practice. Like a fire engine racing off to an emergency, this event though not daily is commonplace.

After completing an interview with a member of the opposition and on the way to another across the street at the Ministry of Communications and Information Management, D.Aliyeva Street outside the former president’s residence was quiet as the police effectively stopped traffic and people in anticipation of not only the transit of Azerbaijan's president but the president of Latvia. The usual bustle stopped as police lined the street ushering cars and people off the road. What might be an enthusiastic photo opportunity in some countries, here individuals furtively position their cell phone cameras in hopes of unobtrusively catching a photo but without attracting the attention of the uniformed and plain clothed officers. Taking photos of the Azerbaijan President’s motorcade is against the law. So after the President’s Mercedes limo passed a street officer had the chance to act on this law.

“I have to ask for your film. It is not permitted to take photos of the President’s motorcade…right, then the photos need to be deleted from your digital camera.”

This small and insignificant moment suggests in some ways the evolving state of political and investigative journalism. Reporters in general are reluctant to pursue a story that potentially touches the president even indirectly without prior permissions. When there is a perception that answering questions, sharing information, taking photos, or in some other manner offering public expression might be interpreted as against the law then the prefix “Post”-Soviet may be considered in this regard inappropriate. As the avenues available for relatively open expression become constrained and the executive branch of government exercises its privileged control over what it decides are incorrect activities, simply taking photos can be viewed less "simply" and more suspiciously.

Salvatore Ferragamo has opened a branch on Baku’s “Rodeo Drive,” a wide avenue paralleling the edge of the Caspian in downtown Baku that has traditionally by its location been a prestigious address. Ferragamo neighbors Armani, Dolce & Gabbana, Gucci, Tiffany’s and so forth. Their locations as well as the majority of the buildings along this boulevard were built at the turn of the 19th century when the oil barons were fueling a construction boom as intense as the one currently enveloping the city. National writers, foreign dignitaries, Soviet communist leaders and academicians lived along this concourse in buildings that ranged from two to five stories and flanked out along either side of the Maiden’s Tower. Homes and offices incorporated architectural elements ranging from Gothic to Baroque, fairytale to neo-classical in a mélange that from their collective eclecticism weaved a unified urban corridor.

Passing by Gucci the clean lines of Ferragamo’s re-designed façade offers a contemporary layer of history on a building that was built when Baku was first placed at the center of international oil development, then later was the Soviet Union’s capital of oil industry, to the moment when Azerbaijan re-gained its independence and signed its “Contract of the Century.” But photographing the outside of this building is viewed suspiciously by sales clerks inside Ferragamo, as expressed by their nervous and unsubstantiated declarations that it is “forbidden” to take photos of the building’s exterior. Unexpected and odd, the clerks are ready to step outside and earnestly explain that the store’s manager has given them verbal orders to stop anyone with a camera.

“Why? Is there a sign”
“No, it is simply forbidden. Our manager has told us so – the policy isn’t written, but everyone knows it is not allowed.”
“This doesn’t seem odd to you, that even a tourist visiting your city can’t take a photo of a famous store, as if it were a military base rather than a shoe store?”
“We are told to stop anyone from taking photos.”

Earnest, if not zealous, store clerks following through on the orders of a store manager might in other contexts offer a “Seinfeldian moment.” But unfortunately this “moment” is becoming increasingly routine.

Taghiyev’s home is a mansion covering a full city block, consisting of former company office space on the first floor and salons, “Eastern” and “Western” meeting spaces, and living quarters on the second floor. The government has completed sandblasting the outside back to its former beige, as it has the bank Taghiyev built across the street. The entrance to the bank is concretely declared by the original stone carving, “BANK,” chiseled in large letters over a century ago in pre-Revolution Russian characters. The image is striking, historic, and offers a wonderful photo opportunity providing the bank’s security guard doesn’t notice.

“Photos are forbidden.”
“But this is a wonderful building, built by Taghiyev, with old Russian script. It is a part of history.”
“Not allowed.”
“Unless there is a sign stating photography is forbidden, then I’ll celebrate Baku’s history and show others who have never had the chance to visit.”

Photographing a shoe store and a bank fall into different categories of suspicion than does capturing images of the president’s motorcade, and perhaps justifiably. While deleting photos when asked by an officer may seem an adequate way to resolve the transgression of photographing the president’s speeding motorcade, the five additional officers felt further investigation into this incident was warranted by top-down orders.

“If you wouldn’t mind, this will just take 5 minutes to walk over to the Sabail District Police Station.”

Although 5 minutes was actually 3 hours, and included questioning by a detective, a discussion on the merits of red caviar from Russia’s Far East and black caviar from the Caspian with a colonel (Rasim) followed by a drive in his new Mercedes, signing an affidavit that states attempting to photograph the president was done out of curiosity and respect, and agreeing to meet the colonel for vodka at a later time, in context the government of Azerbaijan — especially since 2005 — has worked to narrow the avenues of expression and civic involvement. Government actions are perceived differently by individuals ranging from “concerned protection” to “managed totalitarianism.” Labeled in any manner, average citizens understand that “freedoms” can be expressed and exercised differently, depending on social position, one’s last name, disposable income, and how high up one’s “roof” is located.

Curse or Blessing? And to Whom? A Presentation given at CRRC

Ali and Nino: A Stage Adaptation by Ned Bobkoff

This Excerpt from an Evening Theatrical Reading of Ned Bobkoff's Stage Adaptation of "Ali and Nino" was performed by Towson University Theater Students and directed by Towson University Theater Professor David White. Funding was provided by the University's College of Liberal Arts, Interdisciplinary Studies Program, and the Department of Geography & Environmental Planning. Jeremy Tasch "produced" the event, and Theresa Jenkins provided invaluable administrative and organizational support.

For more on "Ali & Nino," please refer to the variety of terrific work being conducted by Azerbaijan International (editor, Betty Blair). For example,

http://azer.com/aiweb/an_covers/123_ali_nino_cover.html
http://azeri.org/Azeri/az_latin/latin_articles/latin_text/latin_122/eng_122/122_editorial.html

Place (and Politics) Matter

“What do you expect, he’s Lezhgii,” was offered by an older gentleman in explanation for what he perceived as a slow response to his request for directions in Khachmas. This was then followed by a futher clarification that the best peppers, cucumbers, and tomatoes would be found in the Guba region while fruits and anything sweet would come from Lankaran.

“Well, she was capricious, but on the other hand what would you expect from someone whose family comes from Naxchivan?”

“The best joke tellers come from ‘Sheki’”

In speaking to residents of Baku, who self-identify as “true Bakintsi,” it is not uncommon to hear descriptions of “others” as attributed to the place from where their family may have long ago, or more recently, originated.

The beach at Nardaran, outside Baku on the Absheron Peninsula, has been undergoing many changes. Under the Soviet Union, while Bagirov was Azerbaijan’s highest ranking government official, Transport Union Workers were provided government housing in an apartment building about 200 meters from the shoreline. The building is now a skeleton, and as indicated by the largely submerged lamppost another 50 meters off shore, the Caspian’s water level has been dynamic. As long time residents explain, the Caspian’s changing water level is not the only coastline shaper as the flow of visitors to this section of beach has also been increasing over the last few years. As recently as 2005this part of the coast was rarely crowded, with only an occasional Zhiguli driving down the beach.
Residents of this traditional region blame the accumulation of trash, SUVs, and the increasing number of sunbathers on “new comers,” people they identify as not originally from Baku.

Each approximate 30 meters of beach is sectioned off into individual blocks, each managed by a small team overseeing the collection of parking and table fees.

“Pay?! I have been coming to this beach since 1951. This is ‘my beach.’ I remember when this whole area was just exposed rock, views all the way to Nobel’s Lighthouse. These newcomers don’t care; they come and leave their trash. You think they understand? There was a time when Baku and this whole area was clean and more cultured, before so many newcomers began coming to Baku.” “Earlier was better,” is a refrain invoked in many places, whether in Azerbaijan, the UK and US, or elsewhere.

Notwithstanding America’s “Kennedys,” “Clintons,” or “Bushs,” place, identity, and associated networks form a powerful enabling structure for politics in Azerbaijan. The political party system remains nascent. Political parties are rarely associated with particular ideologies or policies, but with personalities, places, and connections. For example, someone might offer, “My family comes from the Sheki region,” by way of explanation for how he/she is politically unconnected and would be unlikely to go far in politics. Those in the critical and rarefied niches of power have little incentive to devolve control beyond the tight knit and layered system of familial and regional associations. As energy revenues continue to flow, the likelihood of power sharing, as described by a variety of commentators within Azerbaijan, seems less likely as the avenues for diversity of opinion and expression apparently become concurrently more constricted….

Development and the "Cost of Doing Business"

International oil projects can introduce a variety of unplanned consequences, including the establishment of a range of bars, pubs, and restaurants set up to catch the flood of foreign oil workers that flow into the country as oil gushes out. “Dave,” the owner of the now closed Fisherman’s Wharf, giving a talk at a Junior Achievement seminar in 2003 said, “Of course there is a cost of doing business in Azerbaijan, there is everywhere. Everywhere there are rules and practices. Here, many of the costs involve cash transactions, but that’s how business is done here. You follow the rules; learn the fees and you can be quite successful — if you have a good idea and a sound business plan.”

Prior to about 2005, much of the informal “cost of doing business,” also euphemistically referred to as “giving respect,” was offered in a manner as might an evening diner thanking a maître d’ for a better table. The process was known and transactions common, but not necessarily discussed at least in overtly direct terms.

In recent informal discussions, some have suggested that these “costs of doing business,” or “costs of getting things done” have been undergoing a shift in terms of their openness on one hand, and their degree on the other. Consider an example offered with regard to the police. In the past, police salaries were known to be low. As in other underpaid professions, a means used to augment salaries (or arguably to exploit an imbalanced system) was to request a cash payment, in this case instead of following the more formal means for paying a fine. With the recent increase in police salaries there is a perception that the frequency with which police demand arbitrary fine payments has decreased. One Azerbaijani government representative suggested that the times he has been stopped while driving were for incidents in which he had indeed made a mistake. He felt that paying the fine directly to the police officer was more reasonable than to lose time navigating the formal system. While the frequency of stops may have decreased, the costs incurred for being stopped seems to have increased. One businessperson suggested that a cash payment that might have been $20 USD in the past has risen to $200 USD today.

Even those working to improve governmental transparency and free expression suggest the system of cash payments is endemic, unavoidable, and at times efficient. Consider the frustrating case of having one’s car towed. Driving and parking in Baku requires excellent reflexes and nerves, as competition for space increases proportionally with the increasing number of SUVs and foreign imports, notwithstanding the repaving and widening of roads leading into and out of Baku’s historic downtown. Parking in the wrong place or sometimes neglecting the red armband attendants can result in at least a lost day of work. After one’s car has been towed, the normal procedure for its return includes traveling outside of the city to the impound lot, paying fees and fines and after receiving a receipt, traveling back into the city to the parking authority to show the receipt. A Claim Check can then be obtained, so that when the return trip is made back out to the impound lot the car can be driven away legally. Instead, so the argument goes, the tow truck driver can be reached directly, the fine paid in cash, and the entire situation resolved cleanly and quickly.

Besides revenue, oil helps bring to Baku establishments with names such as “The Walk About,” “O’Malley’s,” “Finnegan’s,” “Panchos,” “Adam’s,” “Pizza Hat” “Chaplin’s,” “The Rig,” “Tequila Sunrise,” and so forth. The clientele varies depending on whether it is lunch or dinnertime or late at night. The regulars include rig workers, the nouveau riche, the wanna-be-riche, short-term contract workers, and those who enjoy a properly poured Guinness. One evening over Guinness a young and successful entrepreneur offered his views on business practice in Azerbaijan.

As a bank executive his salary is high whether in Azerbaijan or in the US. So when offered the opportunity to invest in a new nightclub with two partners he had little hesitation. After two years of success he sold his share in the business and received over ten times a return on his initial investment. This then allowed him to reinvest in three other businesses and to buy a 150 m2 modern apartment.

“How much is your income tax back in the US, 30%? Well I look at my cost of doing business in the same way: I pay about 30% of my profits also in a form of 'tax,' which allows me not just to continue but to be profitable.” A well-placed acquaintance of his within the Ministry of Tax offered him a job, impressed by the young entrepreneur’s academic training and practical experience in finance. “As part of the incentive, I was offered a chance to run my businesses tax free, no need to pay any income tax on my profits. I was tempted, but government salaries are just too low.”

Everyone living in or visiting Baku understands that the country is experiencing an intense period of growth. The length of time that this growth can be sustained is disputed and its benefits argued. The director of procurement for one of the ministries expressed his sentiments in practical terms. “There is no doubt that we have a lot of leakage. Consider the cost of construction. A building might cost say $1 million to build, although it turns out to have actually cost $2 million. That additional million dollars we can’t track but nevertheless the building is complete. And look at how many new buildings we have. We have growth; maybe it is more expensive than it should be. But construction provides employment and spending along each part of the process and this is something our country needs.”

The Qabala/Qəbələ District in the northern part of Azerbaijan is named for an ancient city founded in the late 4th or early 3rd century B.C. and flourished through Roman, Arab, and Mongol invasions through to the mid-18th century. It was later included within the Sheki province until a new administrative region was created in the 1930s. It is famous not only for its early warning radar system, leased by Russia and offered by Vladimir Putin as a possible site for the U.S.-Russian Missile Defense system, but it is the location for the successful Jale Juice Concentrate Company/ Jalə Gilan Qebele Konserv Zavodu. The Jale juice brand is omnipresent, found in small corner markets to the larger western-style groceries. Juice flavors range from sea buckthorn and blackberry, to pomegranate and pineapple. The retail cost of the juice is competitive. Reasons for the company’s success may include its diverse flavors, cost, and availability. Some add that its success derives directly from its owner, recipient of the Order of the Azerbaijani Banner and considered the second most powerful person in Azerbaijan behind the President, the Minister of Emergency Situations.

A small business owner in downtown Baku offered his take on Jale Juices. “Of course he’s successful. Who do you think is going to touch the second most powerful man in Azerbaijan? Young guys visit me all the time from the Tax Ministry, demanding that I pay taxes on the earnings I am ‘hiding.’ So see here, I keep a careful record of everything I sell. I write down everything that comes in and goes out. I have been keeping this notebook for years, and I show it to them each time.”

Walking back from the corner market, an older woman quietly asked for a few coins. After she received just a few cents she began to sob. “My pension hardly gives me enough to get by, and certainly there is no way I can have a cataract operation on my eye. I depend on these coins to get by….”

As Azerbaijan experiences tremendous material growth, many in and outside the country have faith in the concurrent efforts by government, nongovernmental, and corporate actors to stem the flow of financial leakage, in order to better serve the needs of the wider population.

Education and Development

Basic education extends beyond reading, writing, and arithmetic, to include a broader idea of learning. Ensuring that school students attend class and that teachers lecture is a technical issue, and in the wider implications of what "education" can mean a somewhat limited goal. Today in Azerbaijan students continue to attend class, take notes, and pass exams. Azerbaijan has a strong history of literacy, as far as knowledge acquisition is concerned. Azerbaijan has found, however, that since the collapse of the Soviet Union placing children in schools and students in universities and having them memorize facts is inadequate for a country continuing to re-build itself.

Education is a social phenomenon that needs to be flexible, ready to adjust to and reflect particular moments and demands in history as experienced in particular places. A rigid educational system that measures success through the acquisition of "approved" knowledge can certainly be effective for developing citizenry educated according to a prescribed paradigm. This unfortunately creates a system where educational institutions are more like factories than places of learning, where schools employ teachers who know the correct answers and the work of the student is to memorize and reproduce the correct answers at exam time.

Challenges
Through revision of national educational laws and government funded international exchange programs, NGO initiatives, foreign governments, and World Bank credits Azerbaijan has been attempting to re-write curriculum and expand educational infrastructure to meet the challenges of modern life and the demands of a competitive global marketplace. Restructuring, unfortunately, has been somewhat unsystematic as serious institutional, methodological, and infrastructural obstacles block a continuous and smooth transition. The range of difficulties hampering improvement in educational quality are multiple: uneven financial support for schools and educators, resistance to change at various levels, outmoded management styles based on outdated bureaucratic models, as yet nascent understanding and acceptance of flexible curricula and variable teaching approaches, lack of educational resources and in the appropriate language(s), and the disparity between curricula and the realities of the labor market.

For everyone involved in educational activities in Azerbaijan the ongoing challenges facing schools and the wider system are clear. The physical condition of many of Azerbaijan's schools might surprise western educators (notwithstanding the many modern and excellently equipped secondary and higher education institutions found in Baku and in some of the country’s regions). Educators and students working with limited heat and electricity lack as well contemporary Azeri language educational texts and supporting materials. The system for evaluating educators and school directors, while improving, remains in many cases informal and subjective. There is virtually no system in place for dealing effectively with under performing educators or for providing adequate incentives to those who inspire. Highly qualified teachers may leave education in order to seek higher salaries, or may move from the regions to the capital, creating a surplus of teachers in Baku but a deficit outside. Teacher preparation programs tend to focus on content rather than process. Young teachers may be enthusiastic and committed, but lack training in innovative learning and teaching styles. Rarely does university curriculum prepare students to compete internationally or provide the skills necessary for higher-level jobs. Students with learning difficulties are misdiagnosed or ignored, and the collapse of the network of extracurricular opportunities contributes to the promotion of legions of languid students.

The problems and challenges facing students and educators today differ dramatically from their predecessors. Both are required to live and develop within economic and social conditions that radically differ from anything Soviet or found in the pre-oil pipeline revenue period of the1990s. In a system trying to rebuild, creators rather than inheritors are needed. Skills and attitudes that promote this vision are in part what Azerbaijan needs.

Prospects
Rather than concentrating on the acquisition of subject matter, new models of learning need to focus on developing intellectual skills. Quality education incorporates but is not limited to the facilitation of independent thought, critical thinking, and the provision of adequate learning infrastructure. An appreciation and understanding of diversity, combined with skills for negotiating differences, and building communities that respect and acknowledge pluralism and environmental issues, are part of a reforming curriculum within an evolving educational system. Effective teaching can help students learn more about their places within their particular cultures and politics, and to do so within expanding networks of knowledge, self-awareness, and increasing capacity for critical thinking.

Engaging students to reflect on their own sources of values and those of others, and to grapple with challenging ethical, moral, and human dilemmas is part of good teaching. Good teaching should reach beyond the classroom toward building communities that respect and acknowledge difference. This is as well part of a core of values that brought into the classroom can help join the public with higher education as part of a project to develop a more robust civil society.

These educational ideals have been championed by various educational organizations, both governmental and non-governmental. International educational NGOs promote educational and cultural exchange and training programs as an investment in both national development and global understanding. Such programs have a long track record of helping to develop better educational infrastructure, stronger educators, and future leaders through both in-country educational programs as well as exchanges to, for example, the US, UK, Germany, and Romania, for short and long term educational experiences. Virtually every student and teacher training program administered by international educational NGOs in Azerbaijan recognize that citizenship education is a critical component of on-going egalitarian transition. Civic education, lived, studied, or developed, is essential for personal development, for facilitating the ability to make wiser choices, understanding the relationships between rights and responsibilities, and for caring and working toward the common good. International educational programs which give first hand insight into a functioning democracy, facilitate curriculum development and materials acquisition, and guide methodology revision can help empower Azeri educators working together through teacher unions to further influence and guide positive educational change.

Cooperation
Teachers and students participating in the large variety of opportunities available through the Azerbaijani government and organizations such as American Councils-ACCELS, the British Council, the former Civic Education Project, IREX, Junior Achievement, the former Project Harmony, and the Open Society Institute, experience a large range of benefits. Participants often demonstrate increased self-esteem, critical thinking, and professionalism, an ability to both teach and learn interactively, and often show higher respect for and interest in other students' opinions. As funding comes from the Azerbaijani, US and other governments, as well as foundations and international businesses, these programs are provided at generally no cost to schools and students.

Inertia either in physics or in education is a force difficult to overcome. Innovation in the Azeri education system, however, is taking place. Where innovative practice is present it should be further recognized and extended to other classes, schools, and regions. There is much that is right in the educational system. There is also much that needs changing. The possible benefits from Azerbaijan's newfound oil-derived wealth include modernization, higher living standards, and diversifying opportunities more generally. The benefits, unfortunately, are not yet universally available nor regionally shared, and Azerbaijan's market which may become an effective agent for development is not yet fully supported by rules based on common social criteria. If Azerbaijan is to continue to develop healthily (and not only experience strong economic growth), and its citizenry to benefit from the advantages of its national endowment of natural wealth, then its educational system must adapt and prepare its participants to compete and cooperate effectively nationally and globally. The educational system is evolving. The Ministry of Education, working with the large range of government and NGO administered education initiatives, is promoting this evolution. Is the pace of change meeting the needs of the country, and is the educational system adequately meeting the challenges of developing a strong civil society? Naturally the answers are a matter of perspective. The questions, however, need to be posed inside the classroom to students and by students to teachers, and as well, so too teachers need to ask their directors and ministry representatives, as well as themselves. Basic education, in its full sense, is crucial to promote freedom and fight poverty. It gives people a voice in a nation's political, social, and economic progress. It is crucial for a functioning civil society operating with respect for the rule of law.

Azerbaijan's education system has many success stories and its successes increase annually. Kofi Annan said that, "Education is central to development, social progress and human freedom," and as long as the Ministry of Education, Azerbaijan, believes that these attributes can be facilitated with the cooperation of International educational NGOs, such organizations will remain active participants in Azerbaijan’s educational development process.

(Note: An earlier version of this commentary appeared on Dec 28, 2002, in the now defunct Baku Today)

Visas and Hemlines

While checking in at the US Embassy’s front desk the alarm sounded and all visitors were immediately required to exit onto the street and wait for the end of the drill. On this occasion there were only two visitors waiting to re-enter the embassy. One was a student from Iran who had been admitted to a US university with a scholarship. He was sitting on the embassy’s wall clearly confused. “I don’t know why, but the consular officer just said I wouldn’t receive a visa. He said he didn’t believe I would return to Iran. I showed him my scholarship letter, my parents’ bank records, my own bank account as well. I don’t know what made him think I didn’t want to come back home. Now I am not sure what to do.”

Over the last five years the number of Iranians seeking US visas has increased to the point where the Embassy has set aside Thursdays as the designated “Iranians-Seeking-US Visa” day. Comments on the number of visa seekers can include the description “thousands.” Not only at the US Embassy has the presence of Iranians become more evident. Women wearing the chador have become commonplace on the streets of Baku. While outside the Milli Iran Bank there is a well known statue symbolically representing the first Azeri woman to throw off the chador, it is not uncommon to see Iranian women walking in the same area wearing a contemporary variant of this form of covering.

Over the last five years the number of young Azeri women covering even in Baku has increased to the point that if previously this was rare, now walking along the heart of Baku’s popular Fountain Square it has become everyday. Although an oversimplification, the generational trend in “hemlines” contrasts what might be observed in other countries.

Women who were educated and had careers during the Soviet period, and today are of grandparent age, may be wearing below the knee skirts and dresses. Their daughters, also educated in the Soviet system and who began their careers prior to 1991, may likely wear trousers and slacks on the street and in the work place. Over the last five years younger women, born after the USSR ended, are increasingly choosing to cover.

Notwithstanding government efforts to constrain the wahhabi branch of Islam, religion more generally remains a societal avenue for open expression and display. Print media has become largely politicized, with major newspapers for the most part offering pro-government articles. The papers considered “oppositional” are rather tame, and the one remaining paper known for its relatively neutral reporting is in Russian with a readership principally concentrated in Baku. Television stations have become largely government owned and controlled. Evening programming commonly includes remembrances of the late president and news coverage of the current president’s opening of new city parks.

The Internet has increasingly become the outlet for open exchange of ideas and, for example, the discussion of governance. Listservs, blogs, and YouTube provide an outlet for a relatively small but growing audience for comparatively unrestrained exploration of ideas and topics. At the same time that oil revenue flows increasingly unimpeded into the country the government has improved its activity in areas where previously it had been constrained. As government reliance on international donors decreases it appears that its readiness to exercise its sovereign judgment in contrast to other governments’ opinions may be increasing. This is an observation obviously of perspective, and there are multiple examples to suggest otherwise. The current and evolving incident surrounding the detainment of two youth activists is, however, offered by many as indicative of a possible government warning to the cadre of educated youth that certain forms of parody and ambiguous critique incurs a higher risk. European and US government representatives, in Baku and elsewhere, have requested that stricter observance of rule of law be applied to their situation. The Azerbaijani government has offered the counterpoint that as an internal affair of a possible criminal nature that its domestic affairs be respected.

There has been speculation that this incident could also be a warning signal to possible opposition parties. Already disorganized and in disarray since the parliamentary elections of 2005, and especially leading up to and following the fall 2008 presidential elections, the detainment of these two popular youth activists in the wake of a YouTube "Donkey" video may further discourage public outspokenness leading up to the next round of parliamentary elections.

Expression through religion, however, so far remains an area relatively unconstrained by government authorities. As other avenues become increasingly limited, what role mosques and the few churches might play in the dissemination of ideas and the attraction of new youth membership is an important question.

The young Iranian student who had not received his visa, before leaving the US Embassy turned and said, “I guess I’ll go on to Ankara. Iranian students have an easier time getting US visas there than in Baku.”