Azerbaijan promised Europe to put on a good show at Eurovision 2012. After taking first prize in the international music contest in 2011 the South Caucasian republic made a new name. The editor-in-chief of the information analysis agency Vestnik Kavkaza, Alexei Vlasov, thinks that this country is capable of a lot. “Azerbaijan is a young country from the demographic point of view. It hasn’t yet chosen what direction it will go in the future. It has great potential, which will work if oil revenues are invested in human resources,” the expert says.
The weakest point
The beginning of the new independent life was rather difficult: the bloody events of Black January, when the Soviet army shot at protesting demonstrators; the military conflict with Armenia and the economic collapse of the early 90s. The unsettled situation around Nagorno-Karabakh is one of the weakest points of the country today, Vlasov believes.
Speaking in June 2011 at a parade marking the anniversary of the national army, Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev reported with pride on the military potential of the country: in 2011 a fifth of the state budget was spent on the military, amounting to $3.3 billion.This sum surpasses Armenia’s budget. However, disproportionate military spending is not a reason for pride, Vlasov considers: “These huge sums of money could be spent on other aims.”
Oil good and evil
In Azerbaijan one can see wide-scale building everywhere, especially in Baku. The capital’s residents are sometimes amazed at the speed of change in their city. Some of the oil dollars, which provide economic stability to Azerbaijan, are spent on developing infrastructure and urban building. “There is no variety of state resources, as there is in other countries,” Vlasov says.
A crucial moment in the history of Azerbaijan was signing of the so-called "Contract of the Century" with major foreign concerns. Even though by 1994 the country had already experienced three years of independence, in that year a new epoch, not only in the economy, but also in politics, started for Azerbaijan, according to the head of the Baku Centre for Energy Studies, Rovshan Ibragimov.
Oil and gas revenues started to feed the state budget from the late 90s, which enabled the republic to enter the list of economic leaders among the former Soviet republics, as well as survive in the financial crisis without losses. In 2010 Azerbaijan exported nearly 32 billion tons of oil, which cost 13 billion euros.
However, oil and gas resources also have a negative influence the country. “Oil revenues help to hide problems,” Farkhad Mekhdiyev, the associated professor of the International Law Department at Azerbaijan's Kavkaz University . “It is not clear what branch can stand on its own legs. Thus, the effectiveness of management decreases.” The other major problem of the republic, he thinks, is lack of qualified staff in all spheres, apart from the oil industry. “We have money, but we are poor in the sphere of human resources,” Mekhdiyev adds.
No nostalgia for the USSR
Valeria, who is 26 years old, works as a finance manager for the US project on the development of Azerbaijan. She thinks that a good education is valued in the country, and unless someone is a fool, he or she can find a good job. A good job means working in the oil sector, financial institution, international company or organization, or having your own business. The minimum salary in Azerbaijan is 75
euros a month.
Young people do not miss the Soviet Union at all. “I think that our country benefited. The transitional period was difficult, especially for our parents. But I don’t want to live in a country where everybody should be similar,” Valeria says. In modern Azerbaijan she likes freedom of choice. You can decide to stay in the country or leave. She doesn’t like unwritten rules in a society, as you cannot fight against them and have to adapt.
Azerbaijani functionalism
In Azerbaijan a model of strict power functions. It was founded by Heydar Aliyev and continued by his son Ilham, the current president. According to the constitution of the country, the head of state has the right to be re-elected indefinitely. In the Democracy Index-2010, developed by the Economist Intelligence Unit centre, Azerbaijan takes the 135th place among 167 authoritarian states. The editor-in-chief of Vestnik Kavkaza, Alexei Vlasov, thinks that different approaches should be used for the former Soviet republics. “I visited almost all countries of the post-Soviet space, and I see that there are notions effective and ineffective systems. At the moment the Azerbaijani model is effective. Meanwhile, the model of, for example, Turkmenistan, is not, even though it is also wealthy. What will happen in the future is hard to tell. The main target of Azerbaijan is boosting its potential.” As it should, using the capabilities it gained after the dissolution of the USSR.
Deutsche Welle
