Azerbaijan's Neft Dashlari oil field has been active since the 1950s. (c) Sergei Grits / AP / Press Association Images. All rights reserved.18 October marks the 25 years of Azerbaijan’s independence from the Soviet Union. Ordinarily this would be a cause for celebration, but the country’s president Ilham Aliyev has decreed it should be marked with a "solemn ceremony". This seems appropriate given that the country has so much to be downbeat about. Most of his compatriots will be keeping a lid on it too.
The breakup of the Soviet Union in 1991 was a tale of sharp contrasts. The states of central Europe and the Baltic region quickly threw off the shackles of communism to rejoin the European family of nations and embrace the human rights and freedoms that came with it. Other former Soviet countries have made more chequered progress, and none more so than Azerbaijan.
Azerbaijan is not alone in the region in suffering from the constitutional gerrymandering of its leaders, but arguably it has come off worst.
