Two Sides of the Same Coin

I’m going to be interviewing Gunel Ashirova, and she’s an immigrant from Azerbaijan, a country ravaged with corrupt systematic political greed and corruption. She’s a 5’4 woman in her late 20s, with fair complexion and wavy, brown hair. She comes from a semi-Muslim background, but religion is a complex climate to talk about; because where she’s from, Muslims didn’t get to openly practice their religion. She has a very interesting background, because she was born in Georgia and grew up for quite a while in Azerbaijan. The reason this is significant is because both countries were under the rule of the Soviet Union, yet currently one country’s citizens suffer while the other country’s prospers. Those 3 countries were the central topic of discussion during the interview – and Soviet Union was significant because, historically speaking, served as a catalyst involved in carving out these countries’ future and current state. The interview itself was held in a quiet café, over some tea. The warm lighting and the ambience of the café helped both me and Gunel relax and helped build rapport that much faster. This also allowed for clearer thinking leading to a higher quality of yield of information. Gunel, existing on both sides of the “coin” talks about how vastly different living in each country is and how Azerbaijan has ended up as an authoritarian dictatorship.

When asked about the issue, it didn’t take her long to point her fingers towards the problem that’s central to this all: dictatorship. Georgia, where Gunel was born, and Azerbaijan, where she grew up, were both under the Soviet Union, an authoritarian dictatorship. This kind of reminded me of back home, where the propaganda is somewhat similar and the Prime Minister, who can’t be in office for more than 2 terms, each of 4 years, yet has held office for more than 2 decades now due to illegal votes. Also, something to note, both countries had different cultures, different religions and different languages and dialects. Azerbaijan’s religion was Islam and Georgia’s was orthodox Christian. However, since they were both under the Soviet Union, Azerbaijan never had a solid religious identity, and instead, practiced selective Islam. This was partly because the culture blended together under the same rule but mostly because the Soviet Union didn’t let them openly practice Islam. Having grown up in a Muslim family, even though, I, myself, am not Muslim anymore, I realize how Muslim people very fervently and passionately believe in it. And to not let them practice that and forcing them to selectively follow it; they’re practically stealing a whole set of self-identities and individualism from people.

When the Soviet Union collapsed in 1991, it was expected the dogmatic, socioeconomic, political and issues related to freedom of expression would solve themselves, seeing as independency usually means a green flag in terms of change. However, it continued in both countries until 2003, November, when the Georgian population decided it had had enough. “After more than a decade of turmoil and decline, Georgia has emerged as one of the world’s most dynamic laboratories of democracy. The major event in this new chapter of its history is the “Rose Revolution”. A three-week period of political intrigue and public demonstrations in November 2003 led to Eduard Shevardnadze’s resignation, and the result was that a demoralized and lethargic society suddenly seemed to turn into an energetic experiment in democracy” (Monson, 2009). However, according to Gunel, in contrast, Azerbaijan is still suffering from the chronic corruption that plagues it to this very day. Gunel: “It’s only democracy in name. The leader controls the elections and spreads the propaganda to set [legitimize] his position. The country is still economically bad [in turmoil], because all the top people keep hogging all the money, [with] very little for the regular people.” This contrast was especially alarming when Gunel talked about Azerbaijan being rich in resource, and with a lower population count compared to Georgia too. Ironically, even with the lack of natural resources, Georgia’s population seem to be experiencing a higher quality of life than Azerbaijan, as Gunel said: “For example, my uncles they’re living in [a] small village in Georgia… and they’re making money there… [and] they’re rich[er] now.”.

I think the nature of this conflict is now more relevant than ever, because when I think about it, I can draw parallels to it in terms of where I live, the US. Dictators, democracy, I think these are all just useless labels in a way – what’s more important is to look at what’s happening. A few select people control most of the money, have the ability to pass laws in personal interests and do whatever they want. If there would be a Venn Diagram of Democracy in America and Dictatorship in Azerbaijan, there wouldn’t be a lot of things different economically. Furthermore, my conversation with Gunel is indicative of how dire the issues in Azerbaijan, and has left me thinking of how serious Azerbaijan’s political turmoil is, and is reflective of the way information is so easy to manipulate and propaganda to spread, in this rapidly digitizing age. This video is very indicative it of how easy it is to spread propaganda: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lp8XqOUTU3w. Overall, I don’t think one person being in power is to the benefit of anyone, regardless of whether that person has best interests at heart or not. Power corrupts, such is the nature of it. I don’t think a couple of people in power is very beneficial either, because the only people who knows what’s best for the people is the people themselves and that’s something we all should be thinking about.