When it rains, Baku is flooded with sewage. When the heat rises, the capital — and much of the country — suffers from severe water shortages. Our gas warms homes in 13 foreign countries, yet mountain villages here have become uninhabitable and are being abandoned for lack of gas.
From Vietnam to Somalia, from the UAE to French island territories, the regime funds education abroad and hands out grants. At home, thousands of teachers are laid off each year, more than 10,000 students are expelled from universities for being unable to pay tuition, and 1,500 schools face closure.
As oil revenues fall, the shortfall is made up through ever-rising fines. Aliyev has created a reality where those without cars are relieved — knowing that, like drivers, any meagre earnings would be drained by penalties.
On every international index of freedoms, economic and social development, education, and healthcare, our country sits at the bottom — alongside failed states. We have been conditioned to accept it.
Corruption, monopolies, official arbitrariness, lawlessness, repression, and one-man rule have shackled the nation and stifled its growth.
Soon, our independence will turn 34 — 32 of those years ruled by a single family. And this is happening in the land of Rasulzadeh, in Azerbaijan — the first democratic republic in the Turkic and Muslim world.
How much longer will we envy the achievements of nations that have built functioning states, while merely sighing at our own decline? If we are to change our country, each of us must act — as proactive, free-spirited citizens.