Living in an increasingly restricted society, failed by traditional media and broadcasting tightly controlled by the government, Internet users in Azerbaijan have embraced new media and social networking sites like Facebook as last refuge. Their usage of these online tools for communication and networking, mobilizing and news sharing, as well as advocacy and activism has resulted in what one blogger has effectively called Republic of Facebook .

Below are the excerpts and the summary of his blog post reproduced by the kind permission of the author.

Published in a start-up blog titled Bakrabo4iy , the post starts with a short retreat to the Soviet times:

In the USSR, the people were discussing politics in kitchen, sitting on white greased stools. Trusted friends would gather in the evenings and would have freethinking conversations. Without anxiety and fear that someone can spy on them, ideas of communism would be criticized harshly.

In Azerbaijan, everything is virtual and ironic nowadays. It is Facebook that plays the role of underground kitchen. The social networking site created by Mark Zuckerberg in 2004 to connect young people and transformed into something like global Classmates all over the world, it has become almost the last bastion of freedom in Azerbaijan.

Then the writer gives a description of internet users in Azerbaijan dividing them into two loose groups. The first group, according to the post, consists of the majority with low educational level and poor Internet skills, who use those skills to meet mostly their material and physical desires. Then, there follows a description of the minority:

The second group of people in Azerbaijan is traditionally supposed to be abnormal. These unique smart guys and gals can be met only in Facebook. The majority of them know several languages and almost all speak English. All of them have higher education. Many studied abroad. They are liberals, democrats, intellectuals, cosmopolitans and objectivists.

The activities of this minority in Facebook are jokingly labeled ‘hooliganism’ by the author in an apparent hint to the ‘hooliganism’ charges that the arrested bloggers are indicted of.

What today happens in Facebook can be compared only to the Matrix. As if you live in a fine and fluffy world where opposition may revolt from time to time. And you do not pay any attention to them. It was always like that, and thus, it is sound and reasonable. So was always, it is self-evident.

But then you enter Facebook and see that quite affluent and successful people talk about those acute problems, which you already knew about, but could not accept their existence – all of these were beneath the fog for you. As if Morpheus has called you, appointed a meeting and gave a pill. Take it if you want to learn the truth, don’t take if you don’t. A choice is yours.

And here comes the Republic of Facebook:

Facebook is the non-existing Republic of Crimea of Vasily Aksyonov – the great writer had created an utopian republic not grasped by the red army and moving on his own way of development.

However, it is not correct to consider Facebook as a political hobby group. Facebook is an avant-garde, non-conformism, objectivism, talent, tolerance and the most important – honesty.

Jacobin Club of the pacifists.

Proclaimed on 28 May, 1918 and overthrown by Russian Bolsheviks on 28 April, 1920, ADR maintained a true democracy: gave a suffrage to the women (1919) and the youth, long before the main European nations did; created a truly democratic parliament, where assigned MP quotas to almost all ethnic minorities, and even gave special representation to workers’ unions; and made preparation to summon the Constituent Assembly (alas, interrupted by the Russian Bolshevik invasion). Besides, ADR remained strictly committed to the parliamentary form of government, where the Council of Ministers was accountable to the parliament, and was dismissed in the case if it lost the confidence of the majority of MPs.

While all state, public and private TV channels preferred to broadcast exclusively cultural content with concerts and patriotic songs, Azeri youth and youth movements decided to mark the anniversary with various flash mobs. Throughout the city, young people wore T-Shirts with a letter of ADR initials and posed for photographs in groups to form a full picture – "A.D.R."

Some members of OL! Youth Movement drew an interesting graffiti dedicated to ADR:

And young members of oppositional parties paid a traditional visit to a remote Bakuvian village of Novkhani to lay flowers in front of a statue of Mammed Amin Rasul-zadeh, one of the founders of ADR. Despite Rasul-zadeh’s a prominent role in establishment and policies of the first Azerbaijani republic, his memory is in official exile in Azerbaijan. While his name was stripped from Baku State University (which he helped to found) and from school textbooks, and his image removed from national banknotes, the place in downtown where it was planned to erect a statue of him recently was occupied by a huge fountain.

Political Analyst based in Baku, Ilgar Mammadov has taken his daughter to the same fountain – in his words – to the statue of Rasul-zadeh that doesn’t exist.

However, as his 5-year-old daughter was waving Azerbaijani flag near the fountain, at least 8-9 policemen approached them and tried to prevent from further actions near the fountain.

Police has also harassed the youth who were engaged in flash mobs. As Ilgar Mammadov reports in his blog, police have detained three young people who had themselves photographed in ADR t-shirts near Baku’s famous Maiden Tower. According to Radio Free Euope/ Radio Liberty, this was not a single case – police have detained members of at least three youth movements, and it seems indiscriminately, as they have also rounded-up some people not engaged in flash mobs. Vugar Safarov from AN Network has told RFE/RL Azeri Service that they were detained while walking in downtown:

Policeman has approached us and demanded our IDs, and we gave them. Then they took us to 9th Police Division of Sabayel District. When we asked for the reason, they told us that they are investigating the reason. After a while one policemen said that we were planning a picket, thus they have detained us. One guy asked what picket is and the policeman answered that a flower picket. We declared that we were just marking the holiday. And they answered us that we should go and mark the holiday with a party.

This is not the first time when Baku police arrest young people while walking in the streets. 18 days ago they had arrested a group of youth who was trying to lay flowers in front of State Oil Academy, where a shooter gunned down 12 people, mostly students, before killing himself. The Government had refused to declare a mourning day in honour of the victims and proceeded with millions-dollar-worth Holiday of Flowers in honour of late Azeri president Heydar Aliyev, who is also the father of the incumbent Azeri President. When hundreds of youth and students took the streets to express their protest, police detained around 50 people, and just dispersed the protesters by force.

While foreign heads of states have sent their congratulations to the Azerbaijani government, "the young citizens of Azerbaijan" weren’t forgotten either. The International Federation of Liberal Youth issued a statement congratulating Azeri youth with the anniversary of ADR and expressed its support for "the liberal and democratic young people of Azerbaijan in their struggle for a more free and just society, as they are the rightful heirs of the Azerbaijan Democratic Republic."

Also, three Secretary-Generals of the Young European Federalists, European Liberal Youth and International Federation of Liberal Youth respectively have posted in Facebook a photo of theirs wearing T-shirts with ADR initials. As one young Facebook user noted in exitement, this was the best Independence Day gift ever

All early reports talked about “terror” and “terroristS”, until an official from the Presidential Administration intervened and said that “such incidents happen in many countries” by apparently comparing it to other rampages in American and European colleges. As a person following this news scrupulously, I can say that after this official statement all the news reports changed their tunes. Officially, and unofficially it was not a terror act anymore! There was a “loner” (probably a psychopath) who killed 13 people for no reason.

However, ladies and gentlemen, I have some questions.

Why were TVs so slow in reporting the news?

During the whole incident the first and foremost thing that made public furious, was the slow reaction of Azeri media to the rampage. I myself learned the news from a phone call by a friend who in turn learned it from a Turkish TV, and then I got updates from my sister through an SMS, who in turn was at another university. Anger at Azeri media accompanied the news on Azeri discussion boards, Facebook, blogs, phone calls and SMS through which Bakuvians were updated about the incident.

As one friend of mine abroad wrote in an email to me:

What I noticed […] was the LACK of any kind of news coming out of Az[erbaijan]. I have a general pattern of how it emerged internationally. It took about three hours before Singapore and Australia picked it up. It was on FOX news US at 3 pm [Baku time]. AP and BBC and Reuters picked it up.

I was startled how nobody in AZ could make a statement. Why so slow?

Here is how one blogger described what happened on Azeri TV:

There were two hours of skirmish, people were slaughtered, even the Russian TV channels have shown this in all news releases, but here, NO television channels have shown anything until now. NOTHING. Just imagine – people are killed just beside us, and no channels, which are keen to tell what colour is the lingerie of [our pop] stars and who is the supplier of silicone for each of them, have not told that this morning we had a tragedy which had no precedence in the contemporary history of our country.

And here is another blogger:

At 12:36: F@$#% you! Nisa and Tunzala [two female performers] sing in live translation.

At 14:04: In AZTV [State TV] the first news was about [President] Ilham Aliyev’s visit to Belgium. Only after that they told about the skirmish.
I have nothing to say…

So, why were TVs so slow in reporting the news?

How many shooters were there?

Officially, there was only one shooter. However, let us look at the early reports from the scene. This APA report (with updates) quotes some witnesses saying, "Two terrorists summoned the students in one room and demanded from police to let them go out of building".

This Day.az report is more interesting. At 10:55, one official reports that the shooter is killed, and then at 12:26, there is a report of another shooter who has barricaded himself in one of the rooms. At 11:37 – a report of one shooter which has escaped from the scene.

And this piece from Guardian before alteration of its text was saying that:

Russian news agencies identified the gunman as a Georgian citizen, Mursal Gamidov. The shootings may have broken out following a row between a rival group of foreigners at the college and Azeri students, the agencies suggested.

The Azeri press agency this morning quoted a senior police officer as saying that the gunmen were "terrorists" who had been "neutralised". A student told the news agency Reuters he believed two gunmen were involved.

"As far as I know there were two terrorists. One of them committed suicide and the other was arrested," he told the agency. He said the shootings erupted at 9am just after classes began.

As the shooter was using a Russian semi-automatic Makarov pistol, a military expert interviewed by RFE/RL Azeri service cast a doubt that some of these shots could be made with Makarov. However, he abstained from going one-step further and asking another question – what if there were more than one shooter and another shooter could have another pistol capable of those shots?

And here is the Turkish newspaper Hurriyet talking of two assailants!

So, how many shooters were there?

Who was Farda Gadirov?

Officially, the shooter was Farda Gadirov. He is a Georgian citizen of Azeri descent, 29 years old. Loner. However, he never studied at State Oil Academy. Besides, he was hardly ever in Baku. According to this RFE/RL Azeri report, his family moved from Georgia to Russia 15 years ago, and Farda was living with his family in Russia for 15 years! So, how did he end up in the hall of State Oil Academy’s second corps? I only learned about that corps a month ago!

According to these Vesti.az (1, 2), and RFE/RL Azeri reports (1, 2, 3, 4), suddenly, a few month ago, Farda said at home that he is going back to their village. Then he moved to his village in Georgia, where he spent all his days at home, watching satellite TV, listening to music, exercising and doing sport. After a month of self-isolation, he declared to people in the village that he was going to Baku, as his friend has promised to find a decent job for him there. The rest you know – he appears at State Oil Academy fully armed, and even after he shoots himself, police find three ammunition belts and 71 unused bullets at his corps. The rest of the bullets he shot exactly in the faces of 25 moving (even running) targets with Makarov pistol, killing 12 of them. You still say a psycho?

Then how can a psycho get that pistol and those bullets? How can that psycho shoot moving and running people (targets) with precise headshots?

So, who was Farda Gadirov?

Why hasn’t a national mourning day been declared yet?

Here is another point that makes people furious. It makes people so furious that more than 2,000 students defy an unofficial ban on rallies in the city centre and gather near the assaulted university with slogans “No to Te
rror”, “No to Corruption”, and “National Mourning Day”. They are so furious that instead of the usual truncheons being used, they are asked and begged to break up and go away.

Here is how Turan Information Agency reported from the rally:

Thousands of young people scan "No Terror!," "No Corruption." From the Oil Academy the demonstrators headed for the Musical Academy, but were stopped by police cordons. By 1.30 p.m. the students were blocked between the Oil Academy and Atabank. Yashar Aliyev, deputy chief of police station, asked the demonstrators to stop, but they refused and moved towards the Jafar Jabbarly monument.

The students said that if their demands are not met and mourning is not announced, they will gather to another mass demonstration.

And here is the video of the rally, at RFE/RL Azeri website.

We know that 10th of May is the birthday of Azerbaijan’s late president Heydar Aliyev, and the government plans to hold a “Holiday of Flowers” under the open air and NEAR THE SAME PLACE . However, it is still 2nd of May, so why hasn’t a national mourning day been declared yet?

Here we are!

When I opened my mailbox today – to my surprise – I encountered an email from a friend, which alerts about what seems a similar-schemed expulsion. According to information disseminated by Dalga Youth Movement the head of its Southern Regional Office Parviz Azimov has been expelled on charges of participation in an alleged fight from Lankaran State University, where he was a senior student.

This is what Dalga Youth Movement forwarded through emails:

The head of the south regional office of Dalga Youth Movement Parviz Azimov has faced various prosecution and pressure by university authorities due to his articles and current acitivities. Finally, on February 27th he was expeled from Lankaran State University with false accusation. We would like to remind that, Parviz Azimov studies at the fourth grade at above-mentioned university and has not had any problems so far. University authorities, who could not find any evidences about his education, orginazed false sabotage against him. They accused him in alleged fight at the university and expeled him.

As Dalga Youth Movement we urgently request to stop this illegitimate act, to restore Parviz Azimov’s education at the university, and we want people who organized this sabotage against him apolagize. We state that we will use any possible means to restore justice and to defend Parviz Azimov’s rights. We call everybody to support us in our way of defending the law and human rights. We demand the related organs to fulfill their duties.

And here is the post by Eric, Parviz’s teacher at one journalism course. Reading it you once again understand what all this “fight” is about:

Parviz was one of my best students while I was in Azerbaijan. He was the only one of my students to actually produce articles about corruption in the nation’s education system. I had quite a few students who spoke about it – but naturally it was a very daunting subject to tackle. Many of my students were still studying at universities – so really digging into this subject could be dangerous for their academic careers.

As it was for Parviz.

When he first suggested writing about corruption at the university, I cautioned him about taking on the subject. To do it right would be difficult, and would certainly anger important people. Nonetheless, he was resolute – and for his final project he wrote both blog entries and a long newspaper article on the subject – an article that named names. I was more nervous than he about publishing the article.

I don’t think it was one article that caused the university to finally kick him out. Parviz is one of those students that is challenging or infuriating, depending on your perspective. Once he grabbed hold of an issue, he didn’t let go – the mark of really excellent journalist. This time, Parviz obviously infuriated enough people at the university to close that door to him.

He has great talent and energy – so I don’t worry about him finding some position that suits his interests. But to be honest, I do worry about his personal safety. Azerbaijan is a dangerous place for journalists who challenge the system. A number of journalists have been mysteriously assaulted and murdered in Azerbaijan in recent years. Currently, Uzbekistan is the only European or Central Asian country that has more journalists behind bars than Azerbaijan, according to the Committee to Protect Journalists.

And last not least, here is re-posting of Parviz’s newspaper article (in Azeri), about corruption in Lankaran State University, which is titled "Open bazaar in closed rooms". I suppose it is the article that Eric mentions.