2026 Iran War
Opinion | Why Azerbaijan quietly needs Iran’s mullahs it publicly despises
Azerbaijan’s entire strategic architecture depends on Iran remaining a pariah state.
Javid Agha
Javid Agha is an exiled journalist and researcher focusing on Azerbaijan and the wider South Caucasus. He is also a member of the Baku Research Institute and the founder of LNK.az platform — Azerbaijan’s first AI-powered media bias and reliability evaluator.
Azerbaijan
Azerbaijan deletes plan for detailed surveillance system minutes after publication
The plan outlined how the State Security Service would collect and access personal data.
Azerbaijan–Russia Relations
Explainer | What was behind the recent spat between Azerbaijan and Russia?
The very public falling out between Baku and Moscow was arguably the most significant break in bilateral relations since they were first established.
Azerbaijan
Opinion | Four years of entrapment: why Azerbaijan’s land borders remain closed
Four years since the coronavirus pandemic began, Azerbaijan’s land borders remain closed to all civilian traffic. While officially this is to prevent the spread of the coronavirus, a number of theories exist regarding the real reason behind the measure. In the spring of 2020, Azerbaijan followed the example of many other countries, closing its land borders to prevent the transmission of the coronavirus, alongside a host of other preventive measures. Later the same year, the Second Nagorno-Kar
Azerbaijan
Opinion | On the apologists of Baku’s Military Trophy Park
The recently opened Military Trophy Park in Baku is a shameful display that will bring no benefit to ordinary Azerbaijanis. Even the Park’s defenders are forced to rely on false and disingenuous comparisons to justify its existence. On 12 April, about five months after the end of the 44-day war between Azerbaijan and Armenia, the Military Trophy Park in Baku was opened to official fanfare and a highly publicised visit by President Ilham Aliyev. While some Azerbaijanis denounced this Park
2020 Azerbaijani Parliamentary Election
Opinion | This election was our first ‘OK boomer’ to Azerbaijan’s political order
From boredom and camaraderie to confrontations with carousel voters, this was my experience as an observer in Azerbaijan’s recent election. This was a classic Azerbaijani election: ballot stuffing, voting carousels, dead people voting, and foreign observers parroting each other about how everything was transparent and democratic. Anyone interested in Caucasus politics is well-aware of this kind of stuff. But reading about it or watching videos of it on YouTube and Facebook is very different
