INTELLECTUAL AND CULTURAL SETBACK IN AZERBAIJAN
NEWS.am
12:03 / 08/11/2009
Azerbaijani website 1news.az raised a concern with intellectual level
of modern Azerbaijani society. The author of article under "Classics
should be read (now and then)…" head, published August 11, states:
"Under Soviet regime Azeris were not the most literate nation of
all Soviet republics. Only Muscovites and intellectuals in regions
were those being in fond of reading and constantly enriching their
library…"
"Under various reasons, like instability in the first years
of Azerbaijan independence, Armenian-Azerbaijani conflict,
Nagorno-Karabakh military conflict, the majority of reading people
left Baku. Due to social-economic problems and shifting priorities,
book is no more a thoughtful gift, as well as library is not host’s
pride," the author asserts, acknowledging that Armenians and Russians
being the intellectual and cultural backbone of Azerbaijani SSR left
Baku and regions under the mentioned circumstances.
The author recalls that within last 70 years Azerbaijani alphabet has
been changed thrice which also impacted the reading circles. "By no
means all could easily adapt to new alphabet and deprive themselves
of a pleasure to read modern literature published in the country,"
the author concludes.
I concur wholeheartedly with the author on uneasy lot of the
nation that lacks alphabetic script due to historical and cultural
setback. However one can argue for the advantages and disadvantages
of the modern Azerbaijani publications – propagandist and agitation
literature, as well as some ‘historical’ piece of writing that are
fully donated by Mehriban Aliyeva’s foundation. Should one read this
stuff? It’s a rhetorical question…
"Another reason for decreasing number of readers after independence is
definitely the advocated switch of political benchmarks. The result –
everything from Turkey is considered right and proper in Azerbaijan,"
the text reads "Russian-speaking mass was replaced by Turkish-speaking
passion". And here the information of Turkish Radical daily (referring
to Independent Trade Union of educators data) is right to the point,
stating that average Turk reads one book in 10-year period. Conclusions
on the prospects of Azerbaijani intellectual growth reading this
statistics inevitably come to mind.