August 1st was Alphabet day in Azerbaijan. I arrived in Baku, the capital, a few days earlier to find people a little confused about how they were going to cope with the alphabet change from Cyrillic to Latin script. This is their third language switch in the past century. There has been a campaign to change the alphabet for the past 10 years, since Azerbaijan declared its independence from the Soviet Union. Cyrillic script was imposed upon Azerbaijan under Stalin in the 1930s. For ten years before that, the Latin script had been in use. Up to the late 1920s, Arabic was the common script. This most recent change is an attempt to draw closer to the West and further away from the former Soviet Union.
All Azeri language newspapers, official documents, commercial signs and outdoor advertising, new magazines and books must change to the Latin alphabet. However, the government ruling says Azeri-language dubbing must be used on foreign-language movies and TV programs.
Young people will have few problems, as they have been learning the Latin script over the past decade. However, others will experience difficulties, particularly older people.
Imagine what it would be like in Ireland today if we changed our alphabet to Cyrillic, the same alphabet the Russians use. Most of us would become illiterate overnight! Apart from teaching the Latin alphabet in schools, there has been no education offered to the older population to help them become familiar with the changes. Many older people say they will be forced to read only Russian language newspapers, giving them a rather slanted version of the local news.
Despite nearly 200 years of Russian and Soviet rule, oil-rich Azerbaijan has retained its original culture and identity at a complex crossroads of cultures and civilisations along the Silk Road between Europe and Asia. In the early days of the 20th century, Azerbaijan supplied almost half of the world's oil. Ethnically Turkic, Azeris speak a language very close to Turkish, and follow the Shi'ite Muslim faith within a devoutly secular state.
Following the collapse of the Soviet Union, Azerbaijan declared its independence in December 1991. The country had briefly experienced independence once before when, after a century of Russian rule, it established a nascent democratic republic from 1918-1920 amidst the chaos of the Bolshevik revolution. But the country was quickly brought back into the northern empire.
Since independence in 1991, the country has been wracked by war, civil strife, tumultuous government and a depressed economy. Although the country lays claim to some of the world's largest energy reserves, much-anticipated wealth has not yet materialised for its population. Even though there have been considerable oil investments, Azerbaijan has remained extremely poor, while suffering serious corruption.
Foreign investment has remained in the hands of political elites while economic conditions for the country's people have worsened. Yet it has survived, stabilised and joined the Council of Europe. It is pledged to democratise, although opposition political parties would say, with justification, that the Government has a long way to go in this respect.
All elections to date have been marred to varying degrees by violence, intimidation, ballot box stuffing, massive fraud and interference by local and national government officials. President Aliyev has ruled like a Soviet leader, with an autocratic style wrapped in the trappings of democracy.
Under the strong-handed rule of President Heydar Aliyev, a former KGB and Communist Party veteran, Azerbaijan has achieved a fragile political stability, reaching a ceasefire with Armenia after over 30,000 lives were lost on both sides and one million Azerbaijani citizens displaced. Armenia captured and continues to occupy 20 per cent of Azerbaijan's territory, known as Nagorno-Karabakh. The President is ailing and already a struggle for power has begun.
The latest crisis occurred in late July, when Iranian military planes and an Iranian battle-ship violated the sea borders of Azerbaijan, penetrating 200km into the Azeri sector of the Caspian. The Azeri ship Geophysic-3 was conducting oil exploration work when it was approached by the Iranian battleship which directed its guns towards it, forcing the Azeri vessel to leave the area. President Aliyev has said he wants to resolve the issue peacefully.
The media tends to practice self-censorship; although censorship was abolished in 1998, reporters continue to face sentences and fines. The government has a monopoly on broadcast media and has been responsible for closing down many independent TV and radio stations. There is little or no separation of power between the branches of government. The Azeri people thought that by joining an important body like the Council of Europe, the government would be embarrassed into developing a more lawful, less corrupt and more democratic country. Their perception was that the Council of Europe would be a panacea for all their anti-democratic ills. This may surprise many in the West who would regard the Council of Europe as little more than a debating chamber. Azeris now feel that their faith in the power of the council of Europe was misplaced. Since becoming members, they feel let down, isolated and helpless. Not for the first time has a post-communist country felt such disappointment with its new found Western friends.
They Azeris have learned a hard lesson about the superficiality of the West's promise of democracy. Unfortunately for them, that's politics.
Mary Cummins is a media adviser to the Irish delegation of the EPP-ED group, European Parliament.