A ten years of solitude

The isolation of the six post-Soviet countries (Azerbaijan, Armenia, Belarus, Georgia, Moldova, Ukraine) from the Neighborhood and their accumulation on a single partnership platform was not accidental and this can be seen from the names of both geopolitical projects - Good Neighbors and Partners. That is, the post-Soviet countries are partners, not just neighbors. At one time, this distinction was clearly defined by the German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier: Europe"s neighbors are from the South, and European neighbors are from the East. This definition was valid, since the six participants in the partnership went through a two-hundred-year school of Europeanization, and how paradoxical it is as a result of Russian expansion, which itself was Europeanized as a result of Peter I, who had been hacked to the West.

European politics, economics, culture, philosophy, education became dominant in the Russian, and then in the Soviet empires. They were deformed to a certain extent under the conditions of communist authoritarianism, but did not lose their essence, since communism as a partner doctrine was also introduced by the Western European school of philosophy.

Azerbaijan, as the only Muslim country of the Eastern Partnership, over whom the Eastern despotic worldview most dominates, is not occasionally among the participants of the program. In the second half of the 19th century, the country began to experience the flourishing of a European worldview and culture under the influence of Russian humanitarian expansion and the oil boom, which opened the way for Western capital and created the soil for direct European integration. Let's assume that Azerbaijani students have already joined the Western mentality not only through Russian universities, but also directly - while studying in universities in Western Europe. The strong influence of the West can be visually traced in the pre-revolutionary architecture of Baku, of which practically all Azerbaijanis are so proud, and which the new elite are trying to emulate in modern construction. Finally, the Europeanization of that time most clearly manifested itself in the essence of the Azerbaijan People's Republic of 1918-1920, which clearly defined its place in the European family of nations. Thus, the national democratic movement began during the collapse of the USSR and continued in the post-Soviet period.

Everything is interconnected. In the 19th century, society was undergoing a European renaissance, backed by another oil boom. The same student voyage to European universities, but with a much more serious scale. Western oil companies in Baku, the energy and transport integration of the blood vessels of the country, the region into the European space. The multifaceted areas of cooperation with Europe, which by its scale significantly exceeds cooperation with its northern and southern neighbors, have significantly shifted the vector of development of Azerbaijan.

However, in its European aspiration, the country is torn between contradictions - a return to common human values ​​and Eastern despotic thinking of governing the country. This screaming contradiction cannot be noticed by any foreigner who visited Azerbaijan, and even more so has lived here for some time.

Of all the countries of the Eastern Partnership, Azerbaijan is the leader on the number of violations of human rights, political prisoners, the absence of a justice system, a free press, freedom of assembly, freedom of business, corruption, and many other negatives which make the country a leader on negative positions in international reports and ratings.

Along with Belarus, Azerbaijan is the only partnership country that is not a member of the WTO and thus creates a serious obstacle to free economic activity, trade - important conditions for prosperity.

Azerbaijan is alone despite the fact that with the availability of unique raw materials and human resources, its government managed to plunge the country into a crisis and a consistent lag behind its partners in the partnership.

After 10 years of the Eastern Partnership, this program has not been able to become an Eastern express for Azerbaijan. The government continues to slow down the process of European integration formally under the pretext of recognizing the jurisdiction of Azerbaijan over Nagorno-Karabakh, but in reality because of the blocking democracy, which in the ruling circles is seen as the Trojan horse of dismantling the authoritarian system ensuring the interests of the minority, but not the majority.

However, it should be noted that, nevertheless, Azerbaijan celebrated the 10th anniversary of loneliness in the Eastern Partnership program not only by the refusal of the government to sign a new comprehensive agreement with the EU, but also with a new awakening society looking to the West. This desire will be decisive in the agenda of EU-Azerbaijan relations, even if the government does not want it.