Azerbaijan Update

Okay, I admit it. I've been a bad blogger. I said I'd update you Sunday on Azerbaijan, and it's Friday. First, I was busy and "Person of the Week" was a higher priority. Second, the result of the election was a little depressing, here's the rundown:

Dictator Ilham Aliyev's New Azerbaijan Party "won" an absolute majority in parliament, though observers were significantly less than impressed with the fairness of the vote. The pro-Democracy "Azadliq" movement took a few days to get it's act together, but did hold a street protest on Wednesday. Several thousand people showed up, but not enough to trigger a revolution. The opposition were not given permits for protests on other days. So, the bogus vote will probably stand because the opposition was not well organized and many people were admittedly too scared to protest.

Sliver Lining: Now Azadliq knows what their shortcomings are, and they will fix them. Also, international pressure on President Aliyev will increase due to the relatively strong media coverage of this event.

The "Carnation Revolution" has not been cancelled, just postponed. I think that Azadliq will be much better organized by the time Aliyev himself comes up for re-election in 2008, then the fur is really going to fly.

Technorati Tag: Azerbaijan