▲2014: Lokbatan Oil Field. From nowhere, a Soviet Volga screeched to a halt. A tall man unfolded himself from the car and demanded my documents. I was arrested, the reason, ‘this is a strategic object'.
Since the 19th century, Azerbaijan’s wealth has come from oil. Baku, its oil-pumping epicentre, curls around the Caspian Sea and has become a focal point for those following apparent dreams of prosperity, drawing over half the population, five out of nine million people, into the city.
Since the second oil boom of 2005, Azerbaijan’s ever-expanding capital has continued its rapid transformation.
2017: The Qaradagh Quarry is where much of the stone used in the renovation of Baku was mined.
2015: A man builds a wall. Large walls are a common sight in Baku, often serving no other purpose than to block out less ‘pleasant’ sights, such as the more dilapidated housing of the poor or areas under construction.
2014: Yasamal, a working-class district in north Baku. Many residents arrived from the countryside after independence, yet others are internally displaced persons from Nagorno-Karabakh living in disused schools and dormitories.
2016: East of Baku, a vast barren city suburb wends it way down to a sliver of land 19 kilometres long.
An area that was the first in the region to drill for oil and remains the sole domain of the state-run oil pumping company SOCAR.
The peninsula is also used as a departure point for oil workers to ferry to off-shore platforms.
As the sun breaks, the dawn light outlines the city’s newly newbuilt skyline of shiny skyscrapers, hotels, and shopping malls. Traces of old Soviet city planning are dwarfed against mushrooming luxury apartments, commercial centres and renovated cultural sites – a playground for the Bakuvian elite and foreign oil workers alike. It’s impressive and has all the trappings of any modern metropolis.
2016: A couple sits in an old Lada while Port Baku, a luxury shopping area is visible behind them; directly situated next to White City, an upmarket housing development. Its prices remain unattainable to most Bakuvians.
2015: Baku Olympic Stadium in Baku’s Koroglu district stand behind snaking oil pipelines.
Koroglu has undergone extensive remodelling which began in earnest in 2014 in preparation for the European Games held in the summer of 2015. Seen by critics as a costly public relations move to promote Azerbaijan.
The showpiece stadium, an immense, white circular structure which at night flashes the colours of the Azerbaijani flag has, for some, become a symbol of misspent public funds.
Remodelled public spaces offer the appearance of prosperous globalisation. But despite the glitz, the country is deeply unequal and behind the billboards and sandstone walls many struggle to get by.
Over the last month, Azerbaijan’s official government news agency Azertac has published multiple articles focusing on ethnic Azerbaijani candidates running for the ruling Georgian Dream party, while failing to provide a platform for Azerbaijani opposition candidates.
On 16 October, Azertac interviewed Georgian Dream MP Zaur Darghalli, who said that his party had guaranteed stability in Georgia, and elaborated on how it was able to keep the peace for the last 12 years.
‘These elections are
Ethnic Talysh activist Mirhafiz Jafarzade, who advocated for the creation of Talysh school textbooks in Azerbaijan, has been sentenced to 16 years in prison on charges of treason.
Jafarzade, who is also a Russian citizen, was found guilty of treason in the form of espionage on Thursday. Jafarzade was detained by the authorities in November 2022.
That day, pro-government media reported that the trial had determined that Jafarzade worked ‘in secret cooperation with foreign special services
Russian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova has said Azerbaijan is taking ‘constructive’ actions to facilitate the right to return of Nagorno-Karabakh Armenians, as evidence mounts of the demolition of residential and cultural heritage buildings in Nagorno-Karabakh.
‘We have repeatedly commented on and emphasised the constructive steps taken by Baku to provide the population that left their native places with the opportunity to return there’, Zakharova said during a press briefing o
Peace talks between Armenia and Azerbaijan appear to be at a standstill as Armenia continues to push for an agreement to be signed ahead of November’s COP29 summit in Baku.
On Tuesday, Sargis Khandanyan, an MP from Armenia’s ruling Civil Contract party, told Armenpress that Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan offered to organise a meeting to conclude and sign a peace agreement ahead of the summit, which is scheduled to be held in Baku between 11–22 November.
He said that Pashinyan made the offer
