Hamida Giyasbayli

39 Posts

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Hamida had been exploiting herself in the peacebuilding field for 10 years when the war in Nagorno-Karabakh broke out. Now she is exploring journalism to pursue her passion for human rights. She care

Imdad Alizade, who fled his home during the first Nagorno-Karabakh War, at a family gathering in the kindergarten they reside in in 2015.

Armenia–Azerbaijan Conflict

Azerbaijan’s children of war: Part II

by Hamida Giyasbayli

•7 min read

Leyla and Imdad were only children when the First Nagorno-Karabakh War broke out. In part two of this series on the lives of Azerbaijani internally displaced persons (IDPs), they tell the stories of their lives after the end of the First Nagorno-Karabakh War. [Read: Azerbaijan’s children of war: Part I] After the 1994 ceasefire that brought an end to the First Nagorno-Karabakh War, Leyla Jahangirova’s family, who fled their home village of Tugh, in Nagorno-Karabakh, several years prior, move

Azerbaijan

Opinion | Azerbaijan’s eco-nationalism is not up to the task

by Hamida Giyasbayli

•5 min read

An independent environmentalist group, Ecofront, disclosed illegal activities of more than 20 falconers, during the non-hunting season. Only a few connected falconers’ high profile status with corruption. Ecofront is an eco-activist group that investigates and campaigns against environmental crime and abuse in Azerbaijan. Their campaign this spring uncovered ongoing illegal hunting of little bustards, the caucasian crane (of which only up to 250 pairs remain in the wild), and the black-belli

Leyla and her mother, Tugh village, 28 June 1985.

Armenia–Azerbaijan Conflict

Azerbaijan’s children of war: Part I

by Hamida Giyasbayli

•7 min read

Leyla and Imdad were only children when the First Nagorno-Karabakh War broke out, in part one of this multi-part series on the lives of Azerbaijani IDPs, they tell the stories of their displacement and survival. With the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991, armed conflicts in the Caucasus have resulted in more than 2 million refugees and IDPs across the region — with reverberations of these conflicts, displacing more people still. The latest tragedy, the Second Nagorno-Karabakh War, initial

Azerbaijan

Blogger accused of insulting fallen soldier attacked in Azerbaijan

by Hamida Giyasbayli

•2 min read

Fuad Rasulzadeh, a controversial comedy blogger was violently beaten over a joke about Khudayar Yusifzadeh, a famous soldier who had died during the Second Nagorno-Karabakh War. Rasulzadeh reportedly told the joke to his friend who then published it in a tweet. The tweet, published on 21 March reads: ‘it’s been a while since Khudayar released a new song’. Later Rasulzadeh came forward taking responsibility for the joke. On 28 April several men assaulted Rasulzadeh on the street and dissemin

Azerbaijan

Video sparks debate about sexual harassment in Azerbaijan

by Hamida Giyasbayli

•2 min read

Azerbaijani ex-MP and university professor Huseynbala Miralamov was fired after being caught on camera inappropriately touching his woman employee. In the video the woman smiles at first, but when she realizes that they are being recorded, covers her face in shock and runs away. The video rapidly went viral in Azerbaijan, where local media disseminated it without blurring the woman’s face. The story went so viral that American late night talk show host Jimmy Kimmel included the clip in one

Khashuri Station in Georgia. Photo: Robin Fabbro/OC Media.

Abkhazia

Is an interconnected Caucasus on the horizon?

by Hamida Giyasbayli

•10 min read

The new status quo in the aftermath of the second Nagorno-Karabakh war has opened new possibilities for regional cooperation. While the three South Caucasian countries are still trying to come to terms with the new reality, their powerful neighbours dream big of new, highly profitable transport corridors of global significance. For three decades, the South Caucasus has been divided by barbed wire, trenches, and the other physical manifestations of mutually disputed and unrecognised lines of di

OC Insider