Stories about Azerbaijan from November, 2007
Azerbaijan: Sheki
Carolyn & Jesse's Azerbaijan Peace Corps Blog posts photographs and an account of a visit to the Azerbaijani mountain town of Sheki.
Azerbaijan: Djulfa
Blogian reports that a documentary highlighting the destruction of an Armenian cemetery in the Azerbaijani exclave of Nakhichevan is being distributed to members of the U.S. Congress. However, the Armenian blogger is concerned by the [nationalist] content as well as the professionalism of the film.
Azerbaijan: Armenian Cemetary Deaths
Quoting various news sources, Blogian reports that three Azerbaijanis have died while trying to remove the wall surrounding an Armenian cemetery to make room for a new road.
Azerbaijan: Trafficking
Blogian says that war and conflict often prevents Armenians and Azeris from looking at the similarities between the two nations. Unfortunately, one thing that both Armenia and Azerbaijan have in common is a high rate of human trafficking.
Russia: Tatarstan Warns Against Karabakh Independence
Window on Eurasia writes: “By recognizing Nagorno-Karabakh, Abkhazia, South Osetia or Transdniestria as independent, as many in Moscow are now urging, the Russian government would undermine the territorial integrity of its own country, a senior member of Tatarstan’s parliament told a Baku newspaper.”
Caucasus: LGBT Conference
Unzipped: Gay Armenia has an exclusive interview with Christopher Atamian, President of the Armenian Gay & Lesbian Association of New York on the situation of the LGBT community in Armenia. The interview also details plans to hold a conference on LGBT rights in the Caucasus in the very near future.
Azerbaijan: Terror Plot Reality Check
Asking Tough Questions in Tough Places is skeptical about the way last month's foiled attempt to stage terrorist attacks on government offices and diplomatic missions in Baku, capital of the Republic of Azerbaijan, was reported.
Azerbaijan: Islam and Iran
Paul Goble's Window on Eurasia looks at the reported rise of radical Islam in Azerbaijan as well as the geopolitical and regional implications of relations between Iran and Azerbaijan.
Azerbaijan: Pollution & Religious Freedom
Leigh's new adventures in Azerbaijan posts links to two articles on pollution and religious freedom in the country. In the first, the blog says that the article explains why infant mortality is twice as high as the national average in Sumgait because of pollution, while the second is to a...
Azerbaijan: Halloween Bayram!
More Peace Corps Volunteers post an account of preparing for Halloween and introducing the event to schoolchildren in Azerbaijan. This time, albeit belatedly, is the turn of Carolyn & Jesse's Azerbaijan Peace Corps Blog.
Russia: Stalin and the Kurds
Window on Eurasia writes about “the tangled history of Moscow’s involvement with the Kurds during World War II and in the last years of Stalin’s reign.”
Azerbaijan: Environmental Damage
Registan looks at the environmental damage industrialization from the Soviet era, as well as that accompanying Azerbaijan's current oil boom, has caused in the city of Sumgait.
Caucasus: Coming Out
Unzipped: Gay Armenia details and analyzes recent examples from Georgia, Azerbaijan and Armenia of gay men “coming out” about their sexual orientation, as well as cases of others “outing” rivals in entertainment and politics.
Azerbaijan: Halloween
Veemo in the Azerbaijan, a Peace Corps blog, reports on this year's Peace Corps Volunteers Halloween party. The blogger says that it was a perfect opportunity to introduce local Azerbaijanis to American culture, updates readers on teaching English in the former Soviet republic, and says that despite the recent failed...
Azerbaijan: Transport
Newly arrived in Azerbaijan, Carolyn and Jesse describe the situation with transport and money in the oil-rich former Soviet republic. In an extended post accompanied by many photographs, Carolyn & Jesse's Azerbaijan Peace Corps Blog is a welcomed addition to the blogosphere in the South Caucasus.
