Orhan Elchuev: "Being a freelancer in Azerbaijan means feeling free"

Interview by Alexei Vlasov, exclusively to VK

This weekend ended with a visit to Moscow by a group of journalists from three South Caucasus republics. They had a meeting with their colleagues from Vestnik Kavkaza. On the sidelines of the forum the editor-in-chief of VK, Alexei Vlasov, spoke to each of the guests from the Caucasus. Today we present his interview with a freelancer from Azerbaijan, Orhan Elchuev.



- What does it mean to be a freelancer in Azerbaijan?



- It is feeling free in the sense that you're not limited by any borders. At the moment I'm doing media management, promotion of various online projects.



- Can you set the rules for yourself?


- You can set the rules, you can choose for yourself the opportunities that exist.



- If we talk about the state of the Internet space of Azerbaijan, which challenges are faced by those who would like to invest in the development of some Internet projects? What is the difficulty?



- The problem of promoting various Internet resources in the Azerbaijani mass media, or rather one of the problems, is the lack of qualified personnel - both journalists and good editors. This is a problem of the post-Soviet space.



- What are the prospects for this business and the market demand?


- The market is in demand as well as throughout the world. Today there are so many online resources that you cannot count them. There are too many resources. And they are present in the Russian segment and in the Azerbaijani segment of the Internet. It is impossible to make a quick profit here. But with a good business plan for a few years this is promising.



- Do the state officials read online resources?



- Of course. The Internet today has the same effect as TV, maybe a little less



- Is this true only for Baku or for the regions too?



- The target audience includes all the territory of Azerbaijan. Internet speed today in our country is one of the highest, we have one of the highest traffic levels in the South Caucasus. There are a great number of sites. Sometimes I monitor publications on various topics. Sometimes I am surprised at how many new publications appear. There are some authors of whom I have not heard. And in general they have good content and keep trying.



- There is the idea of a site, like a social network, which would deal with young professionals from Russia and Azerbaijan – journalists, political scientists and sociologists. How much would this platform be in demand in Azerbaijan? Regular professional communications for remote access?



- I think it would be a great project. We really need a single online resource. Such a project would be in demand. This is very interesting, now I can say it would be very popular and in demand. And it is very necessary. This is what we need today to promote bilateral relations.