Reviews
Review | People and Trees: A Trilogy — exploring boyhood in rural Soviet Azerbaijan
A collection of three novellas, People and Trees encapsulates the experiences of a boy growing up in post-World War II Azerbaijan.
World War II
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Georgia
Putin urges Georgians to ‘preserve the good traditions of friendship’ ahead of Victory Day
Russian President Vladimir Putin specifically congratulated the people of Georgia and Moldova as opposed to those countries’ heads of state.
Azerbaijan
In last-minute cancellation, Aliyev will not attend Moscow Victory Day celebration
The news of the cancellation was announced by Kremlin official Yuri Ushakov.
Chechen and Ingush Deportations
Russia amends schoolbooks labelling victims of Stalinist deportations ‘Nazi collaborators’
Russia’s Ministry of Education has made changes to a history textbook that referred to North Caucasian nations that were deported from their homes during World War II as ‘Nazi collaborators’. The textbook spurred controversy in the North Caucasus, where several nations were deported en masse to Siberia and Central Asia during World War II for allegedly collaborating with the invading Nazi Germany. These included the Karachays, the Balkars, the Ingush, and the Chechens in the North Caucasus,
Armenia
Voice | ‘I went to war at 17’
In 1941, aged just 17, Vardanush Zakaryan was called to serve in the Soviet Army — at the height of WWII. Shortly thereafter, her husband was also sent to the front. For the next four years, the two saw each other infrequently, but their love never died. ‘I went through a lot. I lost my dad when I was a child, so I moved from Tiflis, where I was born and lived, to Baku, where I began to live with my mom and stepfather. I was 12 when my mother died. So I grew up an orphan. One parent is buried
Aukh District
The deported Chechens of Daghestan still unable to return to their homes
Seventy-seven years after the deportation of the entire Chechen and Ingush nations to Central Asia, Chechen returnees from a small corner of Daghestan still dream of returning to their homes. Every year on 23 February, Chechens and Ingush people mark the tragic anniversary of the Soviet deportations of 1944 on the orders of Stalin — a genocidal event that cost the lives of up to one-third of their total population. In recent years, the largest events to commemorate the day have been held not
Azerbaijan
Elderly in Azerbaijan: venerated yet lonely
Despite the veneer of patriarchy and the respect for the elderly, the life of old people in Azerbaijan is hard, especially when they are lonely. With an average pension of $100, they can only hope for help from shelters, kind neighbours, and volunteers. Global trends Azerbaijanis consider themselves a patriarchal country with all the attributes of one, including respect for the elderly and care for the retired. But reality is sometimes quite different from the announced tradition. T
