Azerbaijan

I have thought long and hard about whether or not I should even travel to Azerbaijan. A country that has been ruled so authoritarianly for decades that one must speak of a dictatorship. A country that performs worse than Russia in both the Democracy Index and the Freedom House! Since the collapse of the USSR, this country has been ruled by the Aliyev dynasty, first by Heydar Aliyev until his death in 2003, then by his son Ilham. Ilham Aliyev was awarded the title of the most corrupt person in the world by the Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project in 2012 and he denies the existence of Armenia as a state by claiming that Armenia is traditionally Turkish and Azerbaijani territory. Aliyev is courted by the US and the EU due to Azerbaijan's dependence on oil. This reminds me of the comment made by former US President Harry S. Truman about Somoza, the former dictator of Nicaragua: 'It's a bastard, but it's our bastard!' In Azerbaijan, pictures of both Aliyevs are omnipresent, pompous buildings, squares and streets are named after Heydar Aliyev, as is the airport in Baku (Some people might now argue that as a Bavarian, I don't need to get upset about the name of the Munich airport!). Nevertheless, my curiosity won and I flew from Tbilisi to Baku on July 28th. Unfortunately, it was not possible to travel by land due to Corona, as Azerbaijan still has its borders closed.

As mentioned in the last post, my start in Azerbaijan was a bit problematic. It started already at Tbilisi airport when I received an email saying that my hotel in Baku, which I booked three weeks ago, suddenly wants almost twice as much money from me. After arriving in Baku, no taxi driver was willing to take me to the city for less than 50 Azerbaijani Manat, which corresponds to about 30€ (The taxi price for the return trip today was 10 Manat!). So I took the bus, where the bus driver tricked me and stole almost 20 Manat from me! When I arrived at the hotel, I insisted on not paying more than the original price, which resulted in me getting a completely dirty room without a functioning air conditioning. Although I booked a room with air conditioning. So after the first sleepless night at over 30 degrees room temperature, I demanded my money back for the second and third night and moved to a very nice hostel. In the following days, I was luckily able to revise my first impression of the people of the country. The Azerbaijanis, or Azeris, are just as warm-hearted and hospitable as the Georgians and Armenians! Unfortunately, at the beginning, I encountered some dishonorable exceptions.

In the afternoons of July 28th and 29th, I visited Baku. The city is a very interesting mixture of an oriental medieval old town with city walls and a huge modern city. In the old town, you can find caravanserais, which are often used as restaurants today, hammams, i.e. baths, a fortress, some mosques, and the symbol of the city, the Maiden Tower. The Azerbaijanis belong mostly to the Shiite denomination of Islam. However, Islam is practiced very moderately overall. Most women do not wear headscarves and alcohol is available everywhere. In the new town, thanks to the oil, there are often very pompous luxury buildings, some skyscrapers, and many upscale boutiques in the pedestrian zone. On July 30th, I took a trip with a small group of 7 people to the surroundings of Baku. The trip went partly along the coast of the Caspian Sea and partly through the desert to Gobustan, where there are rock paintings, called petroglyphs, that are up to 36,000 years old. Some are immediately recognizable, while others require a bit of imagination. Afterwards, we saw something that I haven't seen anywhere else: mud volcanoes! Half of all mud volcanoes worldwide are in Azerbaijan! After a lunch break, we went to a Zoroastrian fire temple! Zoroastrianism is a minority religion practiced in India, Pakistan, Iran, and also in Azerbaijan. The best-known followers of this religion are two musicians, Freddie Mercury and the conductor Zubin Mehta. Afterwards, we visited Yanar Dag, the 'burning mountain'. Natural gas comes out of the ground there, burning stronger or weaker for centuries. Back in Baku, we made a stop at the Heydar Aliyev Center, where the regime's megalomania is expressed. From July 31st to August 3rd, I left Baku and went to the mountains to Sheki, 5 hours by bus and 300 km from Baku. Sheki is a wonderful small town with a perfectly preserved caravanserai, several old mosques, and the Khans Palace, the main attraction of the city. The interior of the palace is decorated with beautiful paintings and it's a shame that you are not allowed to take photos there. On August 2nd, I took a day trip from Sheki by minibus to the small town of Gakh, from where I continued by taxi to the village of Ilisu near the Russian border. There I went on a mountain hike to the ruins of an old tower and to the Salala waterfall. I particularly liked my accommodation in Sheki, which was as I knew it from most cases in Georgia and Armenia: a private accommodation with a very nice and hospitable family! Back in Baku, I visited the carpet museum, a building shaped like a carpet! The art of carpet weaving has a similarly long tradition in Azerbaijan as it does in Iran. Then my last evening in the Caucasus had come and the big change of location via Dubai to Malaysia was due.

Now it's time to draw a short conclusion about this region: All three countries are absolutely fascinating, there is so much exciting to discover everywhere, and the people are very hospitable and warm-hearted! Particularly interesting is the cultural transition from Europe to Asia. Overall, traveling on your own without a car can sometimes be a bit difficult, especially without knowledge of Russian! Public transportation often offers little comfort and takes some getting used to. Most of the time, you travel in cramped marshrutkas (singular: marshrutka), as the often heavily aging minibusses are called in the successor states of the USSR. Many of them would not pass the TÜV in Germany, once the exhaust pipe was broken and the exhaust gases entered the bus! I only had a proper coach from Baku to Sheki and back. Overall, traveling in Southeast Asia or South America is certainly more comfortable, but the distances in the Caucasus are shorter! Unfortunately, the relationship between these three countries is not the best, especially the relationship between Armenia and Azerbaijan is catastrophic! The reasons for this are not only the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict! On the other hand, one must wish the Georgians that they can preserve their state independence. The threat posed by Russia is often noticeable! I wish all three countries that they will focus on their commonalities and that old conflicts can be resolved.