In the Shadow of Aliyev: Travels in Azerbaijan - Couverture rigide

Thomson, Jason

Couverture rigide

ISBN 10 : 1898948720 ISBN 13 : 9781898948728

Editeur : Bennett & Bloom, 2005

Synopsis

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A propos du livre

Présentation de l'éditeur :

From 1998 until 2000, Jason Thomson resided in Azerbaijan while working on a Canadian government internship with the United Nations Development Programme. In the Shadow of Aliyev: Travels in Azerbaijan portrays the post-Soviet world that he lived in, traveled through and grappled with understanding. Situated in the southern Caucasus region, Azerbaijan is a little known country in the middle of a geographically ambiguous and volatile region where Europe, Asia and the Middle East collide. Through a unique combination of humour and scholarly rigour, Thomson depicts his experiences as a Baku resident and the quirks of traveling in the beautiful and little-explored rural regions of the country. Along the way, a series of side trips to other far-flung points on the disintegrating, end-of-twentieth-century post-Soviet map yield telling snapshots of Georgia, Moscow and Central Asia. Memorable characters and landscapes fill the book: Heroes of the Great Patriotic War, scorching deserts dotted with gurgling mud volcanoes, epic battles in dusty and still-Soviet post offices, and an odd cast of authority figures, ranging from Stalin¹s guards to law-inventing police officers ruling over mountain village fiefdoms. Interspersed with these vignettes are a wealth of historical anecdotes and sobering descriptions of the current hardships facing Azerbaijanis ­ the economic meltdown, the vapourising of social programmes, the humanitarian consequences of conflict, and the issues surrounding the perpetually anticipated (yet more highly touted than visible) oil bonanza. Also provided is extensive background information on the unresolved armed conflict between Azerbaijan and Armenia over Nagorno-Karabakh, and on the tangled geopolitics surrounding the construction of a controversial oil pipeline from Baku to Turkey. A timely report on a fascinating and often unnoticed area, In the Shadow of Aliyev: Travels in Azerbaijan records the impact and depth of rapid change that has resulted from a decade of capitalism being imposed upon the post-Soviet world

À propos de cette édition

• Éditeur: Bennett & Bloom
• Date d'édition: 2005
• ISBN 10: 1898948720
• ISBN 13: 9781898948728
• Reliure: Relié
• Nombre de pages: 224