Tehran, YJC. I recently took a trip to Azerbaijan with a group of journalists. Along with meeting some of the country’s officials and celebrities, I ran into a number of interesting things which are worth mentioning.
Some of the points are:
1.
Upon our arrival into the
Astara customhouse via land, a car from the embassy was waiting for us. The
car’s license number started with 003, which indicated that it belonged to the
Iranian embassy in Baku.
This kind of licensing foreign embassies’ cars follows some
reasons. The plates are installed on the cars in the order in which the
countries recognized the Republic of Azerbaijan as an independent state with establishing their embassy. Iran
was the 3rd country, following Turkey and France, to recognize
Azerbaijan.
2.
On the entries into the
country as well as inside the country bribery seems to be a common thing, which
has infuriated many who frequent the way. Maybe only because of the embassy
scheduling, our group did not run into that problem.
3. From the Astara border on to Baku, a large proportion of the
road is a single carriageway and there is no highway, which makes the travel a
bit difficult. The Astara-Baku highway is not operational yet.
4. As we move from Astara to Baku, the greenery diminishes. But
the southern parts of the country, especially Masally province and Jalilabad
district enjoy nicer landscape.
5.
People from Azerbaijan and
turkey call each other "ghardash” (meaning brother). Ankara-Baku relations are
very good.
6.
Iranians occupy a special
place in Azerbaijan. An Iranian living in Azerbaijan said that they are there
in all investments; and that one of third-top officials in every company in
Azerbaijan is Iranian.
7.
Iranian
entrepreneurs own a big share of Azerbaijan’s economic and trade sections. The
triple Flame Towers, for example, which are regarded as the symbol of Baku,
were raised by Iranian named Abdulbari Gozall. Ahadpour is also a giant figure
in the country’s economy and owns Az Group Holding. His Bently, seen frequently
in one of the streets of Baku, attracts everyone.
8.
Baku is the country’s trade, politics, and to some extent religious hub.
Most of the country’s people are Shiite. But Shiites from the two sides of the
border are a lot dissimilar in their attendance to some sharia rules such as
hijab. A prominent Azerbaijani cleric has said that a lot of people in the
country are yet unfamiliar with the right sharia rules.
9.
People in the country have a strange attachment to
Mashhad and Karbala, to Hajj and pilgrimage, and to ayatollahs Khamenei and Sistani.
10.
The country’s media have had some progress and many of
them claim to be non-governmental.
11.
An old tradition with Azerbaijanis living in Iraq, a
common feature of the people of Azerbaijan is to have or not to have a gold (golden)
tooth. Many people here have gold-plated teeth. One citizen, though, said that
many people use tooth plates of metals that look like gold but are not gold in
fact.
12. People here have
a similar taste to that of Iranians and their cuisine is much like the Iranian.
Lime has a special place with the people. Beside every cup
of tea, there are some slices of lime.
13.
Baku is generally considered a safe city. Here you do not see things such
as theft, fights, violence, or drunkenness.
14.
The city is nevertheless growing rapidly.
15. Next June, the first round of
the European Games, much like the Asian Games, is to be held in Baku and the
government is busy building all sorts of stadiums for the event. According to
estimations by the Azerbaijani government, 1000 athletes, accompanied by 10
people each, and 1 million spectators are to attend the sports event.
* Hossein Amiri