After reading the article entitled ”Freedom of Social Media in Azerbaijan. An Armenian Point of View” by Shushan Khachatryan, I can partly agree with her remarks. Yet it’s just hard for me to support the author’s conclusion, for we shouldn’t connect the issue of social media freedom in Azerbaijan to having Armenian friends on Facebook. Yes, it may look a little strange that [...]

It seems that whole Europe observed events in Azerbaijan, starting in Ismailli on 23 January and then moving to recent protests in Baku, held on Saturday 26 January. The protest in central Baku was a response to events in Ismailli. The gathering was organized via Facebook, the same as the one connected with the death [...]

23 years passed since the bloody day in our nation`s history – 20 January, the Black Saturday - and events which we call now “the Black January”. On this day, our nation, struggling for the freedom and territorial integrity for Azerbaijan, showed its heroism. The night of 19 January and the following day left bitter memories. On that [...]

For last three days the whole Azerbaijan, including bloggers from Baku, have been discussing the mysterious death of a young soldier servicing in the Azerbaijani army. Twitter is full of posts reading: “Rest in Peace, Jeyhun Gubadov, Allah rəhmət eləsin”.  Jeyhun Gubadov was born in 1994 and died on 7 January 2013. He served in one [...]

On 13 and 15 December, the Association ”Dom Kaukaski w Polsce” (The Common House of Caucasus) organized in Warsaw a presentation of the book authored by Azerbaijani writer Nushaba Asad Mamedli, titled „Pieśń pożegnalna” (“A Farewell Song”).  The story was translated into Polish and printed in the capital of Poland. Thus far, the title has been published in [...]

After reading the article “Absurdities of everyday life”, in which Lukasz Grajewski shared his remarks after visiting the capital of Azerbaijan, Baku, I started to wonder about some points. Why? The author mentioned several points which are obviously noticed by those visiting Baku for the first time. It’s highly possible that any other guest or tourist [...]

This year’s October demonstration against the ban on hijabs worn by girls in state schools was more violent than usual. With police forces involved, the whole event turned into – according to more Islamist-orientated media – a clash between religious citizens and the state. What about average citizens,  not highly interested in politics? How does [...]

Today Azerbaijan is celebrating National Flag Day for the third time. Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev signed an order to declare 9 November as National Flag Day on 17 November 2009. The Azerbaijani Democratic Republic, which existed until 1920, adopted the Azerbaijani tricolor as the national flag of Azerbaijan Democratic Republic on 9 November 1918. After [...]

The initiative of dr Hijran-Aliyeva Sztrauch brought new life to the old idea of Prometheism, resulting in the journal reborn: “New Prometheus”. The idea of creating a scientific journal focused on the concept of  Prometheism, with their long history, once again helped to gather interested experts  in one place, allowing them to share their views. The “New Prometheus” was  proposed by [...]

“What do you understand by the word peace?” was the topic of recent training, which was organized by Elchin Huseyn, a student of BSU ( Baku State University) and future political scientist,  on 16 October. Only 15 students were chosen to participate in the training. The main purpose of this project was to create “Peace” – [...]

When seeking shadow during summer heat in the capital of Azerbaijan, don’t miss the enchanting city park located in the quarter bordered by Khagani Street, Uzeyir Hajibeyov Street, Gogol Street and Rasul Rza Street. It is the famous green landmark in the center of the old downtown Baku. You can also take a path towards [...]

The European Movement of Azerbaijan has been chosen as a participant of the 4th annual meeting of the Civil Society Forum as part of the “Eastern Partnership”. The Forum will be held on November 29-30 in Stockholm, Sweden. In addition, the European Movement of Azerbaijan has received membership in the Azerbaijan National Platform of Civil Society [...]

An explosion took place on the Turkish area of the Baku-Tbilisi-Erzurum gas pipeline near the town Kars on 3 October, causing some damage. The gas transported via Baku-Tbilisi-Erzurum comes from Azerbaijani field “Shah Deniz”.  According to media reports, the explosion was so strong that it was heard 20 kilometers from the place of incident.  The [...]

Around one hundred people trying to hold a protest in front of the U.S. Embassy in Azerbaijan and the explosion at the factory producing washing powder in Sumgait marked the opening of this week in Baku. Reaction of Azerbaijan to the provocative film “Innocence of Muslims” Yet on Sunday, according to AZE.az, around 3pm a group [...]

Every year a number of projects are implemented in any part of Azerbaijan. This summer also was full of trainings, courses and international projects. Here are photos presenting one of them, held within the EU’s “Youth in Action” Programme. The Project The training “Youth for Peace via Cultures Project”, entitled “Learning to Live Together – [...]

Baku celebrated the anniversary of Muslim Magomayev’s birthday on 17 August – on this occasion, the IRELI Youth Public Union organized a concert in memory of the great Azerbaijani singer and composer. Here I present the photos from the event: members of “IRELI” Youth Public Union visiting the grave of Muslim Magomayev and the concert [...]

On Saturday, the “IRELI” Public Union together with the Azerbaijan State Philharmonic Hall will hold a concert dedicated to Muslim Magomaev, a great artist of Azerbaijan. The event will be held at 6pm on 18 August 18 in the Chamber and Organ music hall. On the birthday anniversary of the great musician, who left an [...]

This year, Baku will host a concert dedicated to Muslim Magomaev, the great artist and singer of Azerbaijan, who died in 2008. The event will take place on 18 August, a day after the 70th anniversary of his birthday. The superstar Innokentiy Smoktunovsky, a very famous and talented actor during the Soviet time, said once [...]

Azerbaijan has sent the second convoy with humanitarian aid to Krasnodar region, which was affected by flood, on Tuesday, 10 July. The first convoy humanitarian aid – 22 trucks with necessary supplies – was sent on 8 July. According to the commander of civil defense forces, major-general Ilham Abdullayev, at the direction of President Ilham Aliyev, [...]

Performances of Azerbaijani meykhana singers Intigam and Ehtiram Rustamov became a new factor in Azerbaijani-Russian national relations, when the video with Azerbaijani “ditties” was suddenly and rapidly spread on YouTube. The video was made at the wedding in the southern-azerbaijani region, in Astara. Everything would be ok, if Russians did not believe that meykhana came after [...]

On Monday, Azerbaijan celebrated the 94th anniversary of establishing the Azerbaijan Democratic Republic. The two years following events of 28 May 1918 laid the foundations of the country that nowadays enjoys its independence. The creation of the Azerbaijan Democratic Republic (ADR) was inextricably linked with the national independence movement. The history of the Republic is [...]

Today Baku holds the Finals of the 2012 Eurovision Song Contest. The competition during Semi finals was severe and some last minute problems turned out unavoidable. For instance, three of “Buranovskie Babushki”, participants from Russia, have almost lost their unique shoes. From the first day of the competition, foreign journalists have been literally hunting for [...]