As Azerbaijan braces itself for yet more revelations from classified U.S. Embassy cables [1] 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. [3]
Naturally, and especially since one U.S. cable compared the presidential dynasty [4] to the fictional Corleone family of Godfather film fame, tweets from the account do not take too kindly to Cablegate.
@TuralAhmedzadeh [6] responded.
Another user, @Azer_Cafarov [8] was particularly critical.
@leylanajafli [11] was also unimpressed.
Nevertheless, undaunted, tweets from the account continued.
In response, @SahileAslanova [14] didn't appear too convinced.
An implied accusation that Wikileaks might be purposely targeting Azerbaijan was also made.
@TuralAhmedzadeh [6] 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 [18], Azerbaijan's entry into the Eurovision Song Contest last year, and somewhat surprisingly, my own personal account [19].
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.