Browsing through the archives of western news outlets of the early 1990s, Azerbaijan is not a country mentioned all too often. The limited coverage that does exist, though, mentions Azerbaijan only in the context of the dissolution of the Soviet Union, the war with neighbouring Armenia over the mountainous territory of Nagorno-Karabakh, and most notably, the so-called ‘Contract of the Century’ signed in 1994 under the leadership of Heydar Aliyev, a former KGB strongman and the country’s president at the time.
For another decade, most media focused on energy—the lucrative future this small nation could offer not only to itself, but to the numerous foreign companies involved in the country’s energy ventures, as well as the European capitals interested in diversifying their energy portfolios. Outside the energy bubble, Azerbaijan’s name would only emerge in an election year. Every five years, including in 1994, the contested presidential and parliamentary elections would be described as neither free nor fair.
Aliyev’s game of thrones
Fast-forward to 2015, and Azerbaijan has gone from a small nation on the coast of the Caspian no one knew much about to a country, which prides itself on unprecedented development. Baku is a bustling capital of glass skyscrapers and designer shops—the Dubai of the Caucasus.
