Since the New Year’s Eve, different regions of Azerbaijan have experienced turmoil. In five districts – Fizuli, Agjabedi, Siyezen, Agsu and Lankaran in the south – people participated in spontaneous social protests over incredible price hikes and against the government’s impossible social policy.
However, some commentators found the simultaneity of this kind of protests odd. If the regional rallies were not spontaneous, is it possible to describe them as another clash between power clans while the central government is obviously weakening? Or is it the effect “from abroad,” as some claim, and the first manifestation of the geopolitical stalemate, in which the central authorities found themselves after years of “multipronged policy”?
Again, the most whimsical version came from the government: these are all tricks of the eternal opposition, i.e Musavat party and the Popular Front. Musavat leader Arif Hajili was even summoned to the General Directorate for Combating Organized Crime (dubbed “bandotdel” in the vernacular) over this issue, where he was actually retold the same version mixed with accusations and warnings. It turns into a paradox: in recent years, the authorities have asserted that the opposition has no social base, and that it was not even capable of rallying enough people for a tiny demonstration, and now demonstrations broke out in five districts!
All this, of course, was accompanied by harsh repressions and arrests of citizens from the opposition – the Popular Front and Musavat.
These arrests and other fitful actions of the authorities (suffice it to mention decrees “On the non-cash sale of excisable goods in Azerbaijan” and “On the increase of the amount of duty-free importation of goods for individuals for the amount of up to $10,000” and the infamous Ctrl + Z, only after two weeks (!)) make it clear that the authorities are overcome with fear. Fear of their utter helplessness in the already unfolding economic collapse, despite the fact that everything that is happening is just the very beginning! Fear in the face of uncontrollable political processes as a result of the economic collapse and the most basic fear of losing power. A wounded animal is way more dangerous. It’s a basic truth, and apparently we should brace ourselves for a new, powerful wave of repression and crackdown.
However, the paradox of the current situation in Azerbaijan is that the stronger the repression, the more retrograde the current government appears, the greater is its military-police aggrandizement, and the more hopeless the country’s political future and present look. And it becomes inevitable to ponder over a new, already post-Aliyev future of Azerbaijan. It seems clear to everyone that the status quo cannot last long, and we all need to think about what is awaiting us, at least because nobody will do it for us.
But even the ones tho are most disgruntled with the Aliyev clan cannot imagine today what the future will look like. Yet it is almost impossible. The Aliyevs have reigned in our country for too long, treating it like their own backyard, and gradually turning Azerbaijan into
terra incognita
for most of us, where we became virtually strangers in our homeland. After the Aliyevs spent many years creating some kind of ersatz authoritarian regime – the Latin American type, even the most seasoned oppositionists and dissidents simply do not know now what the post-Aliyev Azerbaijan may look like.
What’s more important is that the Aliyev rule for the past 23 years (!) has almost never been merely a result of the military-police apparatus. The late Aliyev elicited support and loyalty from a certain part of the society with his obsolete and intuitive feel of the soviet population, who became docile at the sight of the KGB general, especially those at the bottom of the social ladder and the so-called “intelligentsia” (you see the connection!). The second Aliyev did it by throwing crumbs from the king’s petrodollar table. And the second Aliyev enjoyed a much more loyal attitude from the “new generation,” middle class youth with western education who know how to tie a tie, ironically gaze through the lens of their expensive glasses, and voraciously applaud to their superiors with a fake expression. Here the most basic cynicism rules the day. The most important thing here was to get access to the coffers and nothing more.
Çingiz Babayev
Çingiz Babayev
But regardless of what happens next, it is important to understand that we will all be held responsible for the yearslong crimes of the Aliyev government. Collective responsibility for all these actions will be akin to a certain mass catharsis, the purification of the whole society, because these crimes somehow involved broad masses of various social levels, from those who organized “labor” rallies or received “envelopes” to those who personally participated in tortures and even kidnappings. Of course, none of this can happen without lustration. Otherwise, the pornographic landscape of our society simply has no chance, at least for a partial purification and repentance. Lustration and the subsequent purification (not in the ancient-Aristotelian sense, as a sin, but from a purely legal perspective) should concern all segments of society.
Some formerly ardent supporters, but in reality just sycophants like the current “people’s choice” and experienced “presidential candidate” Zahid Oruj, are already beginning to realize this collective responsibility and probably wish to jump the sinking ship. And it’s only natural. Back in ancient times, it was observed that if rats living in ship basements start leaving the ship hurriedly, it means that the ship is ill-fated. Indeed, there turned out to be a clear connection between the behavior of rats and the subsequent fate of the ship.
If you try to follow the logical chain, a string of events that have occurred since the second default, the last year’s black date 21.12, there can be only one name for these events – the Agony.
Incidentally, this is the last stage of death, which is associated with the activation of compensatory mechanisms aimed at preventing death of the vital forces of the body or structure. In most cases, agony precedes death, but in some cases agony is a reversible condition…
Yeah, “the year of multiculturalism” promises to be very interesting.
P.S. Dear readers, I almost forgot that in addition to all this, there is another, undoubtedly important development – Buryatia will erect a monument to Heydar Aliyev. Meanwhile, the oil barrel continues its incredible descent, dragging along with it into abyss our fake society created over years and our forlorn homeland, thereby exacerbating its agony from hell…
The views expressed in this article are the author’s own and do not necessarily reflect Meydan TV’s editorial policy.
