Erdogan-way Azerbaijan: is it very good or very bad?

The exact date of arrival of the high guest is unknown. What does R.T. Erdogan intend to solve in Baku with President I.Aliyev if there are no problems between the two countries? Maybe  Turkey led by Erdogan sees  Azerbaijan as the closest part of the satellite Turkic world? Moreover, in one of the latest statements Erdogan, speaking of the Turkish financial problems, touched on unexpectedly Azerbaijan, saying that "someone" is speculating currency, trying to collapse the financial market of Azerbaijan. On that day, the Azerbaijani and Turkish armies conducted joint military exercises.

After the constitutional referendum held in Turkey to significantly strengthen the presidential power, concerns were voiced in Azerbaijani society caused by the negative influence of the Erdoganian style of government on Azerbaijan. "Erdogan is an emotional, unpredictable politician, he is a populist, he likes harsh statements and does not have much piety in dealing with his allies. This is a problem for Turkey itself and ricochets for us," said Nurani Kasimova, a political columnist for the Ekho newspaper.

It is noteworthy that the Azerbaijanis living in Turkey, citizens of this country  do not like Erdogan, obviously, knowing the price of authoritarianism and not wanting that their new Motherland also  be a dictatorial style of government.  The majority of Azerbaijanis living in Turkey voted against constitutional changes: 61% against Erdogan, and 39% for. This is an important message for the Azerbaijani authorities," says journalist Natig Javadli.

Just like in Turkey, unwanted websites were banned in Azerbaijan by court decision. Political scientist Elkhan Shainoglu points to the closure  of access to the worldwide Internet encyclopedia "Wikipedia" in Turkey after one of the Wiki authors called Erdogan "a dictator". The political scientist compares this decision of the Turks with the ostrich syndrome, which hid its head in the sand. "Turkey's departure from Wikipedia  is advantageous to its opponents," Shainoglu said. In Baku they continued this political line, refusing close cooperation with European structures. The Azerbaijani OSCE office is closed, the Milli Mejlis of Azerbaijan has devoted a whole meeting to the indiscriminate criticism of Europe, becoming on the side of Turkey in its conflict with the EU and understanding that such speeches spoil Azerbaijan's relations with the European Union.

Does not Azerbaijan go too far in its desire to be more Erdogan-way than the president of Turkey himself?

Political observer Nijat Hajiyev is looking for objective reasons for Erdogan's policy and its influence on Azerbaijan. "It's difficult to judge Erdogan. He has about 1153 km of the border between Syria and Iraq - that is, the border with the war. And on the Syrian side, along with Kurdish units patrol US soldiers. In Turkey, there are local, militant Kurds backed by the world forces. Turkey has closed borders with Armenia; it has weak trade and political ties with Shiite Iran, near Greece and Bulgaria with territorial claims. How can Erdogan be in such conditions? Authoritarianism can help it to manage the country's mobility unanimously, rather than struggling with inter-party fragmentation. This situation forces him to be aggressive in all areas, including Azerbaijan. Therefore, when he needs, he makes pressure on official Baku, especially since Azerbaijan is in a more vulnerable position. Firstly, because of the Karabakh conflict, and secondly, all our economic projects of Baku are closed on Turkey. Therefore, Erdogan, to a certain extent, turned in a headache for the Azerbaijani government. "

Elkhan Shainoglu has not yet been beating the alarm bells, believing that, except for Erdogan's direct guilt in the 23-month detention in solitary confinement, in Baku, journalist Rauf Mirkadyrov, the activity of the Turkish president does not create problems for Azerbaijan. He recalled the involvement of Azerbaijan in the Erdogan struggle against the political mafia of the Muslim preacher Fatullah Gulen, but "the Gulen network stretched in the form of a secret box was also dangerous in Azerbaijan," he shared with Turan. But he, in his Facebook status, expressed concern over the absence of the Karabakh issue in the agenda of discussions between Putin and Erdogan at their meeting on May 3. E.Shainoglu explained the reluctance to discuss the Karabakh issue by the fact that "Erdogan does not intend to waste time on a wide discussion with Putin on the topic, the achievement of which is impossible."

Let's clarify: following in the wake of Erdogan, in 2016 official Baku succeeded in closing the "Caucasus" University in Azerbaijan and the network of secondary schools secretly classified as belonging to the secret network of Gulen. For the same reason, in November, Elnur Aslanov, head of the Gulen network in Azerbaijan, was dismissed from the Presidential Administration of Azerbaijan. Journalist Rauf Mirkadyrov lived in Ankara, criticizing the policies of Erdogan, Putin and Aliyev.  He was extradited by Turkish authorities to law enforcement bodies of Azerbaijan in April 2014, and in December 2015 was sentenced to six-year imprisonment for espionage in favor of Armenia. However, in the autumn of 2016, he legally left for permanent residence in Switzerland, and was granted political refugee status there.

If Azerbaijan actively cooperates with the European Union, the government of the country would adopt from the Europeans democratic rules of state organization and cooperation of the authorities with the society. Obviously, then, Azerbaijanis going abroad would not have to shyly look away, meeting with accusations of numerous convictions and tortures of the citizens of the country. The recent death in the Baku remand prison of Democrat Mehman Galandarov is just one of the numerous and obviously not last attacks on the self-esteem of Azerbaijanis and the image of the country abroad.

However, in Baku they chose another model for imitation. In Azerbaijan, civil servants were dismissed from work on charges of political commitment to the opposition. The other day, a fifth state employee was fired for participating in an opposition rally in Baku, April 8. The Erdogan style of state management spread to Azerbaijan. If to remind the dates of I.Aliyev’s and  R.T. Erdogan coming to power, and to be chronologically consistent, it is  possible to  assert about the same process, but with the opposite vector - from Baku to Turkey.