As Azerbaijan braces itself for yet more revelations from classified U.S. Embassy cables released this week by Wikileaks, some interesting developments are occurring on Twitter. In particular, after some less than favorable descriptions of Ilham Aliyev, president of the oil-rich former Soviet republic, as well as his wife, by U.S. diplomats, an account presenting itself as that of the country's First Lady appeared less than a day later.
Although unverified as to its authenticity at time of writing, the Twitter account of Mehriban Aliyeva has a similar style to that of the official presidential Twitter account, and has also referred to hopes that one of Aliyev's daughters will continue the work of the First Lady in the Islamic Education, Scientific and Cultural Organization (ISESCO).
We think it is time to go out of ISESCO. Arzu will continue my work there.
Naturally, and especially since one U.S. cable compared the presidential dynasty to the fictional Corleone family of Godfather film fame, tweets from the account do not take too kindly to Cablegate.
@TuralAhmedzadeh responded.
Another user, @Azer_Cafarov was particularly critical.
@leylanajafli was also unimpressed.
Nevertheless, undaunted, tweets from the account continued.
In response, @SahileAslanova didn't appear too convinced.
An implied accusation that Wikileaks might be purposely targeting Azerbaijan was also made.
@TuralAhmedzadeh again responded.
In all cases, however, there were no responses to comments sent to the Twitter account. At the same time, some even noted that it only followed the official accounts of the Azerbaijani president.
Nevertheless, that wasn't true at the beginning when, in addition to the two presidential accounts, @firstladyaze also followed two others — Safura Alizade, Azerbaijan's entry into the Eurovision Song Contest last year, and somewhat surprisingly, my own personal account.
Meanwhile, while it should be again noted that the account has yet to be verified, some on Facebook nevertheless wondered if governments in the region might become more accountable and start to reach out to people.
Time will tell, but as for myself and Safura Alizade, we were both unfollowed soon after.
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Incidentally, still no verification if the account is genuine or not, but some believe it to be fake.
Still not clear, but will update when more is known. For now, though, there’s been no comment from the presidential account either way.
Tweets on the account now say it is an official Twitter account, run by the First Lady’s assistant. However, the account also says the First Lady will answer questions.
Naturally, I asked a question:
To which I immediately received a response.
I then followed up with another:
And received a response about 10 minutes later:
I didn’t quite understand what that meant so sent another:
To which the response was:
Another Azerbaijani twitter user saw the exchange and commented:
And also received a response:
Had to respond to this.
A final response was sent.
Well, if this is the official account of Azerbaijan’s First Lady, that exchange was quite historical indeed in terms of the use of online tools for cross-border communication.
And if it was the First Lady herself then damn! That just made my day!!! If it is her official account then it’s likely to be an assistant, though, but I can but hope otherwise.
Anyway, would still like some official verification, especially as some still consider the account bogus. One wonders if the presidential administration wouldn’t have come out by now to say so, though.
On the other hand, the media in Azerbaijan or the authorities have not announced that it is an official account. So, still unclear, but we’ll know soon enough, I’m sure, and especially when someone claiming to be the First Lady is answering questions online.
It’s very interesting! I can’t help being reminded of the Queen of Jordan’s Twitter strategy. Do they follow each other? :-)
Solana, official or unofficial account, it only follows the two official accounts of Mehriban Aliyeva’s husband, the President of Azerbaijan.
Anyway, have asked some journalists to see what they can find out re. the account’s authenticity. Will post an update as of when.
Finally, after almost a week, some official reaction from the Azerbaijani State News Agency:
http://www.azertag.com/index_en.jsp?id=3452&date=2010-12-07&lang=en
Pity. Should have known it to good to be true, and there was always that doubt hence my caution above, but there was also a slight amount of hope.
Tragically, as most residents in the region will tell you, there is none.