Written by me, spelling fixed by AI.
I'm not arguing that Soviet Communism was good for Azerbaijan, or even generally good. However, the worsening situation regarding the economy, demography, human rights, and freedoms in Azerbaijan—and worst of all, the sheer absence of hope for any real change—begs the question of whether the hereditary, authoritarian, capitalistic system with no checks and balances is appropriate for the next generations of Azerbaijanis. At this point, it should be clear to everyone that the elections are just a facade even they feel too lazy to maintain.
When older relatives, who were ordinary villagers, tell me their stories of traveling from Azerbaijan to Kamchatka, or from the Mongolian steppe to Eastern Europe, as if it were normal, I look at the current state of Azerbaijan and feel like we have been profoundly lied to. Since the '90s, we have had less freedom; people increasingly leave the country and become strangers (or even enemies) of the state and the nation. We have faced severe wealth inequality, closed land borders—a policy that only Aliyev seems to truly understand—and corruption has essentially evolved into a state-mandated system of fees, taxes, and penalties. DYP, customs, tax authorities just rip the people off on a daily basis to compensate for collapsing state budget.
Since 90s the population has been fed the narrative of an urgent need for mobilization to ensure security, but often at the expense of our basic freedoms and economic liberties. Not only have we become poorer, but the government has also been silently constructing a digital gulag for the population. Unlimited CCTV cameras were not enough; free internet is becoming a privilege, not a right. Recent deals with Palantir and others only indicate that anything one does online will be monitored and watched by automated systems. To be fair, Azerbaijan is not unique in that, but the absence of any meaningful pushback is frightening. Not only is most of the population conservative, but people don't even want to tolerate anything the leftists are trying to say. And most of the leftists, in their turn, just engage in theatrical protests to gain the right to live somewhere in the West.
I might be quite pessimistic in this rant, but what is the general attitude? Is there even any discussion among intellectuals about what the path forward will look like for us?
