Azerbaijan: Surprising Old News

Two pieces of media report may indicate how far Iranian and other Middle East emissaries have gone in Azerbaijan, how this factor is underestimated and how the country lacks an independent media.

A recent study in Azerbaijan, a country which established the first Western type parliament in Muslim orient back in 1918, discovered that more than half of young people prefer establishing the Sharia, Islamic law.

Azadlyq, a popular opposition newspaper, immediately attacked the study,  accusing its organizers in collaboration  with the authoritarian government, without providing any visible proof.

The study was conducted by Baku-based independent Adam Center for Public Opinion Research, supported by the National Endowment for Democracy, a Washington D.C-based non-profit organization and FAR CENTRE, local reputable think-tank, carrying out the economic and political research on transition to democracy.

According to the study released in June, but conducted in 2009 among respondents between18-30, 53 percent of them prefers establishing the Sharia law in country.

In other news, last month a few more Azerbaijani banks, some with Iranian shareholders, announced that their services will be based on Sharia, following Kovser Bank’s earnings report, which claims that introducing the Sharia rules years ago doubled the income. Saudis are minority shareholders at the bank.

The fact is that Azerbaijan is a secular state under Constitution article 18 and 48. The development was almost unnoticed by mainstream media. I couldn’t find any media that gave in-depth coverage of this trend for many years.

The Baku-based APA news agency  was quoting the International Bank of Azerbaijan’s chairman Jahangir Hajiyev as saying “our main aim is to bring the Islamic banking in Azerbaijan” without mentioning the Sharia.

(Avoiding confusion: Islam is a religion and tradition, Sharia is an Islamic law system, considered as superior to any constitution.)

The story was apparently confirmed by the National Bank Chairman Elman Rustamov at the Baku conference Entitled “Islamic Finance: Towards Global Resilience and Inclusiveness”.

Why did the media attack the first news on opinion poll and didn’t notice another one on deliberate introduction of Sharia laws?

The answer is simple. There is no Western-type media that discovers and displays new trends in society, regardless of whether the news is pleasant or not.

In this case, the opposition media probably don’t want to recognize that another, more powerful force is emerging within the society. The government media tend to say that “the situation is under control”.

The situation has been evident for many years. Emissaries from the Middle East have been preparing Azerbaijani people for Sharia rules for almost two decades. But the media left this trend without in-depth coverage.

Facebook and some internet forums are exceptions, where the problem is recognized and challenged by individuals. Local volunteers created a Facebook groups like “No to Iranian Shiism, Saudi Vahabism and Turkish Nurcu Movement” to challenge introducing the Sharia.

By definition, the trend should be noticed by surrogate broadcasting like BBC or RFE/RL, if the local media unable to implement its main task. This is theoretical. Practice seems different.

BBC Azerbaijani service has a limited profile in country’s news space. Limited air time, limited workforce, limited theme choice…

The relatively popular RFE/RL’s Azerbaijani broadcasting, where I worked for 12 years, has very good professional code, good reporters and excellent logistics. But at the same time, it has two known problems. 1. The service’s editorial policy is lagging behind local news sources. 2. The service’s program evaluation needs to be improved.

There is probably another factor as to why this trend remains unnoticed by local media. The core employees and managers of mainstream media and the main opposition forces were students of the late 80’s, a time when it was hard to find anyone young, who would imagine or wish to live under the Sharia law. Recently I read two complains on Facebook. One of the users says she was unaware that there are so many people against Sharia. Another guy complained that he was surprised at how many people support the Sharia. Both of them seem right: she is 18, he is 45.

Religious Nurcu movement from Turkey, Vahhabits from Saudi Arabia and Iranian Shiite institutions successfully penetrated to country’s education system. Now, according to the 2009 Gallup survey in Azerbaijan, youth between 14 and 25 is a segment, who believe (68%) in religious institutions more than any other age group.

It is hard to define the main political trends in a country located on the key geographical area in terms of energy security and expansion of democracy, just by reading the newspaper, watching TV or listening to radio news. There is almost no media outlet in Azerbaijani language fully accepting western journalism standards. (I mean reporting events, discovering new trends, presenting different views, without engaging in propaganda). Many media outlets are monopolized by ruling elite and engaged in propaganda, others associated with the marginalized opposition. The third group, registered as an independent news media, is noticeably politicized.

In this background the Western journalism trend is very weak and Islamic media becomes more powerful than independent one in a country, located on a strategic position between Russia and Iran. Azerbaijan Islam News – Deyerler website, ruled by Iranian trained religious leader Ilgar Ibrahimoglu and Islam-Azeri website, associated with activists, educated in Muslim countries have almost the same Alexa traffic rank as RFE/RL’s Azerbaijani website.

But it is not all the story. The religious Nurcu movement controls the Xazar TV which broadcast directly from Baku, Azerbaijani Public TV (ITV) airs so-called documentaries, narrated by famous Turkish anti-Darvinist Adnan Oktar, other local TV – Space airs an Iranian made serial, called “Hazrat Yusuf” … And the news media doesn’t discuss it.