Azerbaijan Impressions
It was stifling hot in August in Azerbaijan! The desert radiated heat while pulsating to the rhythm of black arms digging into golden sands iin the fields upon fields of oil rigs. My journey to this relatively new country only took me to areas right around Baku, the Caspian Sea, and the Gobustan Peninsula; I didn’t have a chance to become familiar with the country inland, where the gas fields take over.
My main purpose for coming to Baku was to get to the Gobustan petroglyphs so that I could see how they compared to those in Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan, and found them to be quite similar with lots of ibex and hunting scenes but also lots of images of people dancing in what seemed to be rituals and boats, which were not in the land-locked countries. While I found Gobustan interesting and wished I’d had more time to investigate, it was simply too hot (ca. +45c) to stay any longer than the couple of hours I did. The trip was well worthwhile, however, as Baku is fascinatingly disturbing city.
Like its Southern Caucasus sister capitals, it is expanding, and like Tbilisi it is has a mix of new architectural gems along with older structures, though most of these are old Soviet buildings. The difference between the Soviet buildings in Armenia and Baku, however, is that in Azerbaijan’s city, they have all been updated, renovated, sand-blasted with new facades added. They now look quite nice. Unfortunately, when I asked who could afford to live in all the new and remodeled buildings I was told that most are empty because the people who were kicked out of their old apartments for the renovations or for entirely new construction, have been given compensation for their old place that does not equate to what it costs to buy a new one in the city. The people are forced to leave and move to the suburbs, many of which are still not on the city train’s transportation network, so they have to purchase cars – and gas – and drive LA style to work. At least the roads are new six plus lanes, so there doesn’t seem to be perennial traffic jams, but given the outsourcing to the suburbs it’s bound to happen sooner rather than later.
The roads are indicative of the modernization of the region around the capital. Another example is the remodeling of an ancient Zoroastrian fire temple on the Peninsula. Until a few years ago the temple was surrounded by the oil rigs, but a group of Indian Zoroastrians came up with the money to save the site. The Azeri's have now built an entirely new Caravanserei - it wasn't quite finished when I was there - on the site where an old one once stood. There is a 10-12 foot wall bordering the complex that separates it from the still existent pumps in the surrounding desert. The temple itself was fascinating as it had all four arches intact, not like the ones in Iran. The flame was supposed to have been brought from there, so there is still that connection with the homeland of the faith. On the walls encompassing the main temple are small worship rooms. I was very surprised to see one dedicated to Shiva Nataraja and another to Ganesha until I remembered who sponsored the renovations. Even Zoroastrians in India can't do without the Dancer of the Universe and the Elephant God.
Azerbaijan is ruled, and I use the term consciously, by a President who functions as a mini-dictator. Human rights abuses have been noted by various international presses in his quest to redo the country. His models seem to be some of the Central Asian ‘Presidents’ and Tzar Vladi, with whom he seems to have an on-again, off-again relationship. Like Ashgabat, Baku is one man’s vision of the future. He is planting trees in the desert as his Turkmenistan counterpart has and has recently started moving the oil fields right by Baku off to the suburbs. He has built a beautiful boardwalk promenade along the Caspian that extends for miles. He has maintained the Old City and widened the streets while still keeping the character of the ancient town, complete with the Maiden Tower and Castle. And he has built stadiums to welcome European and Asian athletes so that he can show off his city. The buildings which housed the first European Games last June will all stand empty for the next two years before hosting the next international competitions. This while his own people are being forced to leave the city. Instead, he is hoping to woo international investors back to the country. Baku was an ancient city along the Silk Road and had oil production as early as the 11th C, but fell into oblivion for a number of centuries until British and other foreign companies came in to develop the oil industry in the late 19th C. Prior to the Soviet Union, Baku’s downtown was primarily foreign owned. Now, international investors are once again being courted, but as people’s tastes have changed and not many want to look out at dirty rigs, there has been a massive remodeling of the coastline. Even extending south of the core of the city, the beaches have been bought up by developers building multimillion dollar homes where the rigs used to be. I have no idea if anyone has conducted any water pollution studies, or even if they would be allowed, but I suspect that it’s not all that clean.
Baku is not a city for pedestrians. Cars rule. Even crossing the street is difficult as the crosswalks underneath the main road separating the boardwalk from Old Town are over a half a kilometer apart. Once on either side, though, pedestrians can move freely. The boardwalk takes one along the edge of the Caspian, with a view of the oil rigs in the distance, while the Old Town is complete with renovated Caravanserei and carpet dealers. Vendors display their wares as they did in the old days along the Silk Road. Today, though, a decent coffee, an Italian Lavazza, is available under mist sprayed awnings to compensate for the heat. It only takes about an afternoon to visit the main sites in the Old Town, which leaves plenty of time for the National Museum and for wandering around the many fountain-rich plazas surrounded by above and below-ground shopping malls.
Baku is disturbing in its modern Disneyesque Ashgabatesque feel yet the people I spoke with were proud of the changes, even as it cost them their homes. They want people to come and admire their city. I just wonder, though, what will happen to this city if we ever do change our collective ways and minimize our dependence of fossil fuels. On the other hand, there is an abundance of sand, sun and water here.
The three countries of the South Caucasus region are dramatically different. The two Christian lands, Georgia and Armenia, have different apostolic churches, traditions and artistic styles. Azerbaijan is officially a secular country, although the majority of the population is Muslim. Mosques in Baku still have calls to prayer, but the tones don’t overwhelm the senses. Economic growth is important to all three, but in Baku it seems to have become the new religion. While each country has a number of ethnic groups, they each appear to have more homogeneous populations than many European countries.
I left Azerbaijan and flew back to Istanbul for the final leg of this summer’s Odyssey. The Golden Horn with all its messes, honking freighters, blaring muezzins and international populace was a refreshing sight. Istanbul is, as Constantinople was, an amazingly vibrant and diverse city.
