AZERBAIJAN DESCENDING INTO THE THIRD WORLD AFTER A DECADE OF INDEPENDENCE

Journal of Third World Studies, Spring 2004 by Rasizade, Alec

Both Armenia and Georgia have also lost one million people to Russia each. It is paradoxical to watch how, instead of moving away from their former colonial master after gaining national independence, millions of Caucasians are moving now into Russia, voting with their feet for economic reintegration with the power which their leaders are still blaming for all their perils and for conspiracy to undermine their independence. Among them are thousands of pauperized and disillusioned intellectuals whom I saw ten years ago leading crowds and shouting anti-Russian slogans in central squares of Baku and denouncing in firebrand speeches the very Russia where they today seek refuge and relief.

Even more ironic is to observe by contrast the dramatic transformation of their antagonists (and our new "friends") - the formerly pro-Moscow local communist honchos and the omnipresent KGB types, who are nowadays mostly successful businessmen engaged in the "global economy." Their leaders are calling for the expansion of NATO to cover Transcaucasia against the "Russian imperialism" in almost the same cliches which they had been using a decade ago to denounce the "American imperialism."

The aforementioned social woes are only the tip of the iceberg of horrendous problems facing this little republic with great oil revenue ambitions. It can smash the Caspian oil concessions at any time regardless of the double-standard criteria by our businessmen and politicians. Verily, the real life, ignored by our policymakers, is more grotesque than any fiction, as we have learned from the September 11 tragedy.

INSTITUTIONALIZED CORRUPTION

"Never ask a 'new Azeri' where he made his first million," advised an old friend at the foreign ministry in Baku. Ten years of chaos allowed many opportunists to get rich quick. Some did so honestly; but most cheated and swindled fellow citizens, bribed and purloined from the state or small investors. That era is coming to an end. Some former officials and "businessmen" who lined up their pockets are now in jail or exile, but many more of those formerly on the take are walking free. In this new brave world of Azerbaijan, why question too closely how some people, many of whom, the conflict of their official and commercial interests notwithstanding, are now ministers, ambassadors, generals, judges, party leaders, members of parliament and other pillars of Azeri society, made their early fortunes?

Illegal business has infiltrated all levels of government and is inseparable from the state. The state has become privatized by clientalistic networks; it, along with the legislature and the political opposition, has become a means for realizing private interests. When corruption persists at the top, it percolates throughout the society: people expect to pay and receive bribes, and that culture of corruption becomes institutionalized. Azeris are fond of saying that corruption is so endemic that the country would come to a stop without it. American foreign policy does not address this problem in Azerbaijan where it pervades every nook and cranny.12