In this article, the “Antidogma” team sees the war, authoritarianism, anti-democratic nature of the Azerbaijani state, the export of raw materials and natural resources as traditionalist foundations against global progress. In addition, he presents Azerbaijan as a major obstacle to the economic, ecological, social and cultural challenges of the 21st century, as an internal colonialist and trans-state that denies democratic values. Our team explains the scope of their research as follows: “Why is Azerbaijan against modernity?”. Because, using modernity itself, the state of Azerbaijan strengthens the decadent traditional economic-social public mechanism that protects the sovereignty of the government. Azerbaijan sells its natural resources on the global market and is an economic and political subordinate platform for superpowers. Skyscrapers according to European standards, which cost millions and billions of manats, prestigious festivals and international sports competitions do not make the Republic of Azerbaijan the center of public administration. The most authoritarian country of the Caucasus region, using the metanarratives of modernity, becomes an economic ally of Western civilization and accepts the legal and cultural hegemony of the Western pole. On the one hand, Azerbaijani authoritarianism makes a historical alliance with the modern world, and on the other hand, by declaring war against modernity, it forms its own immune system against its external and internal enemies. This is the essence of this conflict, everything else is its various consequences.
Inland colonial country
Some researchers have done little research on the colonial syndrome in small countries. However, every researcher should work on the analysis of countries with small but authoritarian states. If the great powers have a colonial past, it means that the neo-colonial policy of the superpowers and third world countries remains relevant today in our postmodern world. The postmodern state of Azerbaijan has created internal exploitation regions for 32 years. It is necessary to mention developed cities and underdeveloped regions in the exploitation region. Not only the oil of Baku, the capital city of Azerbaijan, but the wealth of oil, gold and gas deposits, which are considered underground and surface natural resources within the republic, are acquired and distributed among global multinational companies. In addition, there are marginal land areas in all poles of the republic, which the government does not create conditions for the residents of the district and villages to carry out useful work on these lands.
Internal colonization itself includes two aspects: active and passive. Active internal colonization means creating algomerization of the city by exploiting its own resources and peripheral regions. Although the level of prosperity and employment of Baku city residents is low, the city people, unlike peripheral areas, are partially self-sufficient and part of the consumer culture. As a result of the integration of settlements, primarily cities, into a complex dynamic system with intensive production, transport and cultural relations, the urban man cannot rebel like a passive colonial man. An example can be given of the rebellion of the national elite and the British multinational company against the construction of a toxic cyanide lake in the Soyudlu village of Saatli and Gadabey, which rose up due to water scarcity in Azerbaijan. However, the underdeveloped region is remembered not only for protests and uprisings, but also for migration to the city. Passive internal colonization is the exploitation and exploitation of the marginal region by the city and the non-development of that region. Regions and villages cannot isolate themselves from the peasant and raw material economy by exporting their internal resources like metropolises. Because, what the traditionalist state needs is not the increase of metropolises, but precisely the economic union of cities with each other, exploiting the resources of the peripheral regions and providing for the few cities. We can witness the migration of people from regions and villages to cities as a result of lack of prosperity, lack of jobs, slave labor in peripheral zones. The cheap labor force migrating from the periphery to the city of Baku migrates to the suburbs, which have a mixed economy. There is a social gap between the active colonized person and the passive colonized person. Thus, the urban person is oppressed by the city itself, and the person who comes to the city from the marginal zone is first oppressed by the peripheral zone, and secondly by the city itself. We can come to such a conclusion that it exposes Azerbaijan not only to the neo-colonization of other superpowers, but also to its own internal colonization.
In such an economic system relationship, the main differences are established between the cultures of the rulers and the people: language, ethnicity, religious affiliation and sexual orientation. As a result of Baku city’s exploitation of districts and villages, it is repeatedly divided into classes, provinces, communities, dialects, estates, and sects, creating organic internal colonization. As another example, communities of people of the Shia sect of Islam in the Republic of Azerbaijan can be cited as an example. People with Shia morality are persecuted by the authorities for their political views and religious beliefs, arrested on drug charges, kidnapped by the power structures. As for the issue of the national factor, the Talyshes (South) and 343,965 thousand Lezgi (North) who make up 500,000 of the population of Azerbaijan live in the peripheral zones (Lezgis – Guba and Gusar – Talyshes: Astara, Lankaran, Lerik, Masalli) compared to Azerbaijanis living in the capital area. Since they are lagging behind in the fields of education, culture, art and sports, urbanization, and communication, they migrate to central cities to become active colonists from passive colonization. Talysh and Lezgi schoolchildren use their mother tongue as a formal foreign language until the 4th grade. Parents say that the educational materials are far behind the current education system, as they were printed with a translation from Russian 20 years ago. (1)
It should be noted that every colonized region, after becoming independent, becomes an internal colonial zone in the post-colonial period, becoming a carrier of the colonial syndrome of the past.
The expansion and internal politics of the domestic colonial state
In the history of 32 years of authoritarian rule of the modern Republic of Azerbaijan, only five cities have developed by exploiting marginal regions and villages in terms of economic development. The capital Baku, Ganja, Sumgayit, Khirdalan and Mingachevir are among those five cities. In the 2020 Artsakh/Karabakh war, the anti-democratic government successfully used the collective consciousness for the purpose of revenge under the colonial ideology of the war it launched against the Karabakh Armenians. Due to the demand of the global world market, when it is necessary to acquire more material resources of the power structures and raw materials of the transstate, and due to the weakening of the authoritarian system, internal colonization makes a dialectical transition to the process of external colonization. Thus, the ruling klepto-petrocratic elite successfully transforms its internal colonization into external colonization and starts a war against the foreign enemy, so that the consciousness of the people living in the peripheral and central areas of state-dependent colonization and revenge of the past defeat does not reach its apotheosis of protest within the state. Before the post-war period, if there were 5 united centers in the Republic of Azerbaijan, after the “anti-terror operation” this number increased to 6 (as a result of the transfer of Shusha/Shushin to the control of the Azerbaijani Habi units), since it acquired new territories, this number approached 10.
This trend continues in the current politics of Baku. The Republic of Azerbaijan calls the new territories acquired by the war in the Artsakh/Karabakh region “an integral part of Azerbaijan”. Azerbaijan’s military intervention under the guise of an “anti-terrorist” operation carried out ethnic cleansing aggression against civilian residents living in the Nagorno-Karabakh region, which it calls an “inseparable part”. Ethnic cleansing does not mean killing in gas chambers, shooting in front of a wall, mass extermination. In our modern era, the concept of ethnic cleansing is implemented within the framework of international law. If the right of a sovereign state allows to carry out operations by means of military force, then within this sovereign right, humanitarian crisis, light and coercive terrorism, blockade, local military interventions by means of “special operation”, “anti-terrorist operation”, “local operation”, etc. Aggressive intervention can be implemented under the template of metanarratives. Thus, the local population is forced to migrate from the areas where they live. It should not be forgotten that under the name of “integration”, the Republic of Azerbaijan integrates local Armenians into the irredentist and Armenophobic socio-political total propaganda machine and encourages the granting of second-class citizenship to that community. For almost 3 years after the post-war period, the state of Azerbaijan has not even recognized a unitary unitary state in these areas, and they have not received any local self-government mechanism, as in the defacto Republic of Artsakh. The administration of the Azerbaijani government in Artsakh/Karabakh is administered by official military administrations appointed from Baku. Persons displaced after the First Artsakh/Karabakh war should be prohibited from moving to the Artsakh/Karabakh region. This in itself directly addresses the reason why people who suffered from passive colonialism do not want to leave the phase of active colonization and the lack of sufficient urbanization and jobs in the area as a result of the disproportionate distribution of corrupt power as a result of the investment of 3 billion manats in the region. It should be noted that since December 2022, the internal colonial policy of the anti-democratic Azerbaijani authorities, which has blockaded the population of Artsakh/Karabakh, can be considered an inertial component of the authoritarian rule, so it is questionable what problems the coexistence of two peoples will cause in the region.
Thus, territorial expansion, unthinkable for developed countries in the 21st century, remains the main goal in itself for Baku leaders. For them, space is more important than time. Passive and active colonization began to pose a threat to the small imperial regime. Because solving this problem requires many modern social and technological transformations. However, economic-social and socio-economic change is considered a definite threat to the traditional power of Azerbaijan. The purpose of the postmodern Azerbaijan state is not to make radical changes to eliminate the colonial system, but to strengthen the power structures in order to maintain the authoritarian structure by increasing the production of oil, gas, and gold until the post-neft era, to train new nepotist-bureaucrats, to further exploit the country from the inside, to deepen the social gap and to its neighbors. is to create new enemy images.
This is a fundamental difference between current Azerbaijan and the former USSR. Although the “progress” of the official Soviet ideology is understood in the dogmatic and mechanical communist framework, if it was the USSR’s appeal to “progress”, today’s Baku doctrine is the defense of traditional values that are interpreted very vaguely. In fact, Ilham Aliyev’s war against the Artsakh/Karabakh Armenians and Armenia is only the most obvious and tragic element of his extensive special “anti-terrorist operation” against modernity. The main enemy of Baku in this war is ethno-cultural and gender diversity, energy transition and the modern world of digital nomads. The tribe of Azerbaijan’s sovereignty is trying to stop the ongoing development of modern societies and throw history into the past.
The form of government of the Republic of Azerbaijan is anti-democratic unitary and sovereign-presidential, the right to vote and be elected is only on paper, lack of economic prosperity and freedom of political self-expression, the actual activity of local self-government and municipalities, trade unions, independent mass media, “About Media” Adoption of the “law” draft, censorship and elimination of NGOs, communities, organizations, parties with different political spectrum by power structures or adoption of the “Law on Parties”, discrimination against national minorities, lack of cultural and administrative autonomy , promotion of psychological xenophobic construction, deaths, threats, hate-discrimination against LGBTQ+ community, women and homosexuals, creation of stigma and stereotypes, dependence on natural resources in the world market towards the post-oil age and internal colonization system, skeptical approach to green energy, irredentism and new war Does not the mobilization of the masses with the danger mean the Azerbaijani state’s war against modernity? From the issue of democracy to the energy economy, from the energy economy to solving the climate change problem, the state of Azerbaijan continues not to become a part of our modern world.
Internal colonial state versus nature
The past and modern history of Azerbaijan can be divided into two parts: The initial development is a factor “which is seen in more burning of energy and more use of fossil raw materials.” Today, the authoritarian government of Azerbaijan continues the momentum of the 19th and 20th centuries. This approach can be symbolically called the world of Leviathan, which consists of the global competition of empires. Instead of measuring progress by reducing energy costs through the use of renewable sources in harmony with nature, Azerbaijan fires rubber bullets at the thirsty inhabitants of Saatli in the face of a natural crisis, violent measures are seen against the willowy inhabitants of Gadabay who oppose the construction of a new cyanide lake. The population of Artsakh/Karabakh is blockaded, leading to a humanitarian crisis and a delayed ethnic massacre, and eventually outright cleansing.
In the context of primarily anthropogenic, industrial-induced global warming, it means an overdue transition to a new, ecological mindset vital to humanity. We must understand that all the elements of our planet are a synergistic and self-regulating system that is variable but interdependent. Although the authoritarian Azerbaijani authorities repeatedly use the narrative of “transition to green energy” (2), the concept of Green economy requires consideration of global democratic diversity, decentralization, and at the same time ethical equality. If we want no subject of authoritarian states and world politics to build their success at the expense of the suffering of others, the development of the democratic transit process is imperative. Otherwise, authoritarian states and individuals themselves will suffer as a result.
As for statistics, compared to authoritarian Azerbaijan and hybrid democratic Armenia, according to the results of 2021, although the wind energy capacity of Azerbaijan is 67 MW, the total production of alternative sources has reached 1316 MW. And in Armenia, on January 1, 2022, the total installed capacity of renewable energy production facilities in the republic was 528 MW, ahead of Azerbaijan.
At the same time, hydrocarbons make up more than two-thirds of Azerbaijan’s exports, and the proceeds from them are directed to armaments, aggressive propaganda and the enrichment of a narrow circle of the Baku elite. In the world ranking of oil exporting countries, Azerbaijan is in 24th place with the production of approximately 1,041,000 barrels per day (2022 data), and in 2022, the SOCAR oil company will receive 77.6 billion from Switzerland, 24.3 from Turkey, 11.1 from Azerbaijan, 1.9 from the UAE, and 1.1 billion from Georgia. got an income of manat. This situation leads to great social inequality, when 90% of the national wealth belongs to one percent of the population and the main income is concentrated in Baku. The remaining regions of Azerbaijan remain practically resource colonies. The most prestigious and highly paid jobs in Azerbaijan are not associated with intellectual and creative modern professions, but with law enforcement agencies or the raw materials industry.
But today’s Azerbaijan is an example of such intolerant “political egoism” that tries to impose its renewed pseudo-imperial worldview on other countries, especially on neighboring states whose sovereignty it has openly violated. Azerbaijan Leviathan keeps humanity dependent on its fossil fuels, supporting archaic dictatorial regimes both inside the country and in other countries (eg Turkey, Russia, Belarus, Pakistan, etc.) under the name of “anti-terrorist operation” against all the values of the free and modern world. starting the war, he draws the of the empire in the sovereign territories of other states.
Azerbaijani colonialism against gender inequality
This inequality also manifests itself in the ethnic, gender and generation contrast of Azerbaijani power compared to modern countries. Although ethnically non-Azerbaijani peoples make up about 10% of the population in Azerbaijan, they are represented in the government with only a few exceptions. In Azerbaijan, only 1% of ministerial positions are held by women, and in Armenia, 2%. In 2023, among the 16 members of the Cabinet of Ministers of Armenia, only 3 were over fifty, and among the 17 members of the Azerbaijani government, only 7 were under fifty.
During the era of Ilham Aliyev, Azerbaijani propaganda is increasingly fighting against LGBTQ+ people. Probably, the authorities see these people as an obstacle to fill the cannon fodder that can be used in pseudo-imperial wars. Although same-sex marriage is prohibited in Azerbaijan, half of the children living in Azerbaijan are raised by their mothers and grandmothers, and half of them grow up in specific same-sex families. This situation arose as a result of the fact that the life expectancy of Azerbaijani men is significantly shorter than in other countries, which was aggravated by the increasing military losses three years ago. Boys who are raised in an all-female family and receive no education in childhood often have a frustrated desire to assert their masculinity through aggression. Azerbaijani homophobia hypocritically manifests itself in prisons, during police torture, in the army, etc. turns into a massive spread of violent homosexuality.
How much Azerbaijan is not against modernity?
If we use the criteria of modernity that I will present, it is interesting to evaluate how Azerbaijan, which is against modernity, looks like from this point of view.
In general, unlike Armenia, the situation seems quite optimistic. The United Nations (UN) has published a survey of countries around the world in terms of e-government development and an accompanying ranking (the E-Government Development Index). If we look at these statistics, Armenia ranks 68th among 193 countries with an index of 0.7136, and Azerbaijan ranks 70th with an index of 0.7100. (3)
The Gender Inequality Index is a composite indicator of the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) that measures human development worldwide in terms of gender equality. According to these indicators, Armenia ranked 53rd with an index ratio of 0.216, and Azerbaijan ranked 70th among 170 countries with an index of 0.294. (4)
The European section of the International Lesbian and Gay Association (ILGA) annually publishes a ranking of European countries according to the level of protection of the rights of gays and lesbians. In this report, Armenia is 46th among 49 countries with 8%, and Azerbaijan is the last after Turkey with 2%. (5)
Is federalization possible for the decolonization of Azerbaijan?
In order to free Azerbaijan from its dependence on raw materials, it is necessary to free the government that defends this economic model from the state. Cities should be industrialized, industry, finance, and market income should be the main force for the transition to the digital and green economy, the welfare state, and the progress of production means and technologies in the post-industrial era. With today’s economic system, the state of Azerbaijan can turn into totalitarianism.
Federalization is primarily intersubjective relations. As a result of Ilham Aliyev’s policy in today’s Azerbaijan, regional self-government and interregional agreements have long been eliminated, and all ministers and deputies are appointed “vertically” from Baku. The status of the only Nakhchivan Autonomous Republic within the state of Azerbaijan has been canceled a long time ago and is directly subordinated to the policy of official Baku.
The democratization and informal institutionalization of Azerbaijan is closely related to the administrative division of its territory. However, this territorial designation is not only a matter of democratization procedure, but also a matter of economic opportunities. There may be approaches from different paradigms around this topic, but these positions seem to be an attempt to predetermine the future of different regions without taking into account the interests of those who live there today. Therefore, it seems more appropriate to leave the solution of these issues to the discretion of the regional institutions. After the democratization procedure, local parliaments in different regions of Azerbaijan must be given the right to free elections with the participation of all regional political parties, which are now banned. We can also encounter an interesting thesis here. Instead of people’s deputies and people’s representatives, the representation of people’s councils and communities that will replace them can lead to the foundation of direct democracy in Azerbaijan. These people’s councils and communities will have to decide for themselves whether their region should be governed in the form of independence or a (con)federal union. Victory over authoritarian Azerbaijan means democratic acceptance of any decision. This victory will be considered as the Caucasus’ step towards modernity.
Sources:
3) https://big-i.ru/innovatsii/trendy/853688/
4) https://nonews.co/directory/lists/countries/gender-inequality
antidoqma 
Bir şərh yazın