This morning as I was browsing articles I came across this one [RU]. Basically a youth initiative called "My President" was created in 2013 [seeing some familiar faces from IRELI]. Its Facebook page has close to 54,000 likes. Its website provides information about the initiative. You can also follow them on Twitter with @MPrezidentim. Not surprisingly its not about any possible or future President but precisely about Ilham Aliyev.
This is what it states on the top of their webpage:
Rough translation:
I am certain- My President is the protector of independence of this country
I think- My President compels us to think of our homeland
I believe- My President will free our lands
I know- My President thinks of every single citizen
I am sure- My President is the provider of healthy and successful future
I consider- My President young in spirit is always by young peoples' side
I am proud- My President is Ilham Aliyev
There is a video clip too with some 1000 young people involved to a song that is called surprise surprise "My President". Its not out yet but there is a behind the scenes clip available.
In a country where there is little or close to no pre-election atmosphere (unless posters calling people to vote counts) this is perhaps the only thing that caught my attention. Surprisingly (or ironically) even this campaign is done in support of the President. Now imagine if this song was called "our candidates" instead of "My President" or "vote for your candidate"- now that would have added some spice to it all. Was this done in Turkey (especially in the light of recent events), I think already there would have been satirical responses.
The day when residents of Baku gathered at the Fountain Square to raise their concerns over killings of conscripts during their military service in Azerbaijan, the country's social media presence was alive as ever. In her analysis of #protestbaku Katy Pearce, pointed out to some interesting facts, but what caught my attention was her evaluation of what she referred to as "Group 4"- the pro- government youth groups, and one very popular young gentleman led by Rauf Mardiyev, who is notorious for his outlandish statements and tweets when it comes to anyone who is, well, lets just say not like him and his support network. The day when everyone was using #protestbaku, he initiated another hashtag #Khadijautan ("shame on Khadija"). Now the readers of this blog, already might be familiar with the name Khadija Ismayil. She is a well known and well respected journalists from Baku, woman of courage and strength. It would not be an exaggeration to add a woman of inspiration.
#Khadijautan was aimed solely at Khadija, accusing her for accusing dead conscript's mother in bargaining. She explained herself in the following Facebook status update:
I wrote "there is a need for mothers in this country who don't bargain over their son's dead bodies"[...].
As Rauf and others were busy throwing dirt at Khadija, none of them, bothered to say anything about the wicked military service of our country. Is it because they consider it impeccable? So who should carry this shame? Certainly not Khadija and thousands of Baku residents, were right there, on the streets, demanding an end to deaths of Azerbaijani soldiers, resignation and final resolution to this situation. This wasn't the first time that a conscript lost his live.
So whose shame is it at the end? Surely its our shame to share if we are talking about shame in general. It is ours to share because it is our country, our soldiers and our government's ill treatment of its citizens, young boys who are sent to complete their military services but who are mistreated. It is our shame for not taking action earlier. Its easy to shame someone, but shouldn't we start from shaming ourselves? Doesn't everything begin from our individual selves? It is shame indeed. But it our shame to share and deal with so all those biased critiques please grow up and take some responsibility ...
Here is a piece of gossip you probably missed watching Eurovision today. A young man, by the name of Rauf Mardiyev sent me a tweet calling me "brainwashed" and "stupid" (indirectly that is, through his tweets) following tweets being sent out throughout the last give or take few years about Azerbaijan, its poor democratic and human rights record, not to mention issues and problems existing with free press, and freedom to speak one's mind. It turns out, Azerbaijan's democracy is limited to only praises and words of gratitude because when it comes to criticism its not all ok.
Translation: @arzugeybulla Will you write anything positive about this #Eurovision? Why don't you understand (your brain doesn't take it literally), what you are doing is damaging #Azerbaijan in the first place
Now, personally I would love to raise praising words when it comes to Azerbaijan, was there a democracy I would be the first to say cheers! Would there be free press and respect for Azerbaijani journalists, I would be the first to say cheers! But Rauf, as long as none of this exists, people continue going through corrupted universities and schools, patients continue to pay bribes in hospitals and fail to receive proper health care there is nothing to praise this country for. Of course, we might have different perceptions of praise- as you say "thousands like you" see Azerbaijan as a shining beacon of whatever it is that you see it to be but as I have said it already earlier today, I am going to repeat it again- WAKE UP!
Yes, Eurovision brought us the Crystal Hall, but at what costs? I much rather prefer couple of hundreds thousands spent on our very own pensioners, on the costs of drugs they need to get, make it free or at least equally accessible for all among so many things that could be done to make lives of Azerbaijani people better.
Yes, it is also true that Eurovision brought us the city beautification, but again, at what costs? So you don't care about those Azerbaijanis who still have no water, gas, or electricity constantly running in their homes in villages all the while you and the tens of thousands like you prefer watching Eurovision and indulge yourself in wealth that is not equally distributed, nor equally accessible to other young people like you.
If you think there is something good to say about Eurovision then talk about illegal evictions our government carried out. You should also talk about beaten, arrested journalists in prisons. Or, wait, I know, you should praise our country for blackmailing, it does it really well.
You might be one of the hundreds of thousands but the value and weight of spoken truth is so much more than the people like you. You are trying to tell a story backwards but what you are failing to see is that the story was already told, many times and just like me, people who know, know... So if you think that by sending me few tweets as the one above, calling me brainwashed I am going to be ashamed of my actions and become a "different" person then you are mistaken (in fact, I am not sure all together why you send me tweets to this day, didn't way close this subject a while ago when you continuously decided for some reason to take up your issues with me as if I am the only person who writes about our inspirational country?). I choose honesty over whatever it is you live and propagate for.
Maybe after watching this report on Azerbaijan (watch on BBC) you will at least stop harassing me on Twitter. Peace out!
Here are the rest of the tweets we exchanged after the initial one:
