In the Shadow of Aliyev: Travels in Azerbaijan

PAPERBACK
HARDBACK 1898948720 / 45.00

SKU: ISBN 1898948739 Category:

£16.99

Description

Drawing on his experiences as a traveller in Azerbaijan and as a resident in Baku, Jason Thomson paints a fascinating portrait of a country emerging from the trauma of its Soviet past. Amid vivid descriptions of striking Azeri landscapes, from the mud-belching deserts of Gobustan to the snow-capped peaks of the Greater Caucasus, Thomson enters an exotic world inhabited by the likes of eccentric artists, local policemen who lord over their mountain village fiefdoms and a host of other memorable characters. Meanwhile detours to far-flung points on the post-Soviet map offer insights into life in Georgia, Moscow and the young republics of Central Asia.
As well as providing an account of Azerbaijan’s history, culture and politics, Thomson explores a range of topical and controversial issues that have wider implications for the regions of the Caucasus and Central Asia – including the post-independence economic melt-down, the abandonment of social programmes, the humanitarian consequences of conflict in Nagorno-Karabakh, and the tangled geopolitics of Caspian oil and gas.

– 352 pages with Illustrations

Published by Bennett & Bloom , 2005

IN THE SHADOW OF ALIYEV

Content

1. Surrounded by Aliyev
2. The ‘live stones’
3. Flight to Nakhchivan
4. Train to Tbilisi
5. Walking through history
6. Moscow interlude
7. “Mail will not be delivered’
8. Economic meltdown
9. ‘Motherland is a city flat’
10. Government in retreat
11. Mud volcanoes
12. ‘The regime is to blame’
13. Fortress in the mist
14. A Talysh detour
15. Consequences of conflict
16. Christmas Kazakh-style
17. Spring and summer
18. Landlsides and Latvians
19. The invisible oil bonanza
20. The Uzbek heartland
21. Bakuites in the Park
22. Artist among reapers
23. Postscript

Notes
Bibliography
Index
The Azerbaijani alphabet