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  • Protests in Egypt Reverberating in Azerbaijan

    Protests in Egypt Reverberating in Azerbaijan

    Thursday, February 3rd, 2011
    by Asbarez

    BAKU (EurasiaNet)`Like many Azerbaijanis, Elnura Jivazade, a resident
    of the Baku suburb of Khirdalan, is watching Egypt's political
    upheaval closely. Unlike most Azerbaijanis, however, Jivazade sees
    Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak each morning; his statue, a symbol of
    Azerbaijani-Egyptian friendship, stands in a Khirdalan park that she
    passes each weekday on her way to work.

    `I always wondered why this monument is standing here, and what will
    happen to it if the dictatorship falls in Egypt,' she told
    EurasiaNet.org. `Now, Mubarak's regime is falling, but he is still
    sitting here in the park with such confidence.'

    The wider question of how Azerbaijanis will or should interpret
    Egyptian protestors' ongoing struggle against Mubarak appears to be
    gaining increasing currency among critics of Azerbaijani President
    Ä°lham Aliyev and many young Azerbaijanis.

    Ties between the two countries largely hinge on energy ` the State Oil
    Company of the Azerbaijani Republic, or SOCAR, is involved in the oil
    trade and processing in Egypt ` and on good works. First Lady Mehriban
    Aliyeva, head of the Heydar Aliyev Foundation, serves on the board of
    the Alexandria Library and has a secondary school named in her honor
    in the Cairo suburb of Qaulubiyya, which contains a monument to the
    late President Heydar Aliyev.

    The two countries' first ladies also both appeared in a pop song
    dedicated to peace, written by Egyptian First Lady Suzanne Mubarak and
    performed by the Azerbaijani singer Tunzale Agayeva.

    Officials in Baku appear to be taking measures to ensure that public
    parallels between the Egyptian and Azerbaijani leaderships stop there.
    Days after protests began in Tunisia and Egypt, the Azerbaijani
    government's anti-corruption commission, overseen by presidential
    administration Chief of Staff Ramiz Mehdiyev, met on Jan. 27 for the
    first time since 2009. A number of import duties, often seen as
    benefiting government-friendly monopolists, have been abolished as
    well.

    Building public trust

    Sources in the government told EurasiaNet.org that in recent days they
    have received directives advising them to avoid irritating the
    population and to work effectively and build public trust.

    Some government critics, meanwhile, are trying to highlight
    similarities between Mubarak's and Aliyev's administrations. A group
    of 100-plus non-partisan and opposition candidates, along with
    activists from political parties and non-governmental organizations,
    gathered on Jan. 29 to urge the Azerbaijani government to either hold
    new parliamentary elections or brace for popular protests similar to
    those seen in Egypt and Tunisia.

    The leaders of the group's main opposition parties ` Musavat and the
    Popular Front of Azerbaijan ` have not said whether or not they would
    be the ones organizing protests. Azerbaijan's opposition is not known
    for its political muscle, but one political commentator, Å?ahveled
    Ã?obanoÄ?lu, said events in Egypt and Tunisia have shattered myths about
    political change in Muslim countries.

    `The first myth is that there is no opposition. If you don't see the
    opposition, it does not mean there is no opposition,' said Ã?obanoÄ?lu.
    `Election results in both of these countries show the absolute
    leadership of the ruling parties. So, where did all of these
    protesters come from?'

    The second myth, he added, is that an Islamic opposition will come to
    power if a secular government collapses ` a concept that some local
    critics argue prompted the Azerbaijani government's recent arrest of
    an Islamic political leader and clampdown on the hijab in schools,
    among other measures.

    Despite Azerbaijan's lack of a robust opposition, one political
    analyst, a government critic in Baku, expressed hope that the example
    of Tunisia and Egypt would encourage Azerbaijanis ` where the median
    population age is similarly young, at 28.5 years old ` to push for
    `systemic changes.'

    Tunisia, Egypt and Azerbaijan all suffer from `corruption, poverty . .
    . rigged elections, a refusal to share power, [excessive influence by
    families of the] first ladies, and monopolization of the economy in
    favor of the ruling families,' said Arastun Orujlu, director of Baku's
    East-West Research Center.

    Still, political analyst Rasim Musabekov, a non-partisan member of
    parliament, said there was little chance that the situation in Arab
    countries, especially Egypt and Tunisia, could influence developments
    in Azerbaijan, given the countries' dissimilar histories.

    `Only if the process of change will be successful and will pave the
    way to stable and democratic regimes, might they have an impact on the
    situation in Azerbaijan,' Musabekov said.

    But government critics like Orujlu still said events in Egypt and
    Tunisia had sent a powerful message.

    `No matter what the government and opposition in Azerbaijan are
    learning from what is going on in North Africa, there is something
    that has already changed in the world,' Orujlu said. `It is an
    understanding that you can't rely on dictators.'




    From: A. Papazian
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