On revisiting Azerbaijan

As I have promised more than a year ago, I am back with another post. 

Once upon a time there was a Romanian lady who was very interested to revisit the place which was her home for about a year. Thus she applied for a training course in the beautiful country of Azerbaijan and taking into consideration her outstanding qualities of course that she got accepted.

Now let’s speak about the training.

I should mention that I consider myself pretty knowledgeable regarding Azerbaijan as I have lived there, worked with young Azeris, I’ve read a book or two about the Caucasus, I am constantly checking the news about Azerbaijan, but mon Dieu this country never ceases to amaze me.  

The venue: a hotel in the middle of the freaking nowhere and I am not kidding. Who on earth would build a 4 stars hotel, more than 20 km away from Baku, in one of the ugliest neighborhoods, not even that close to the sea as they would like you to believe? Just to give you an idea, I have been told that I am a hero for managing to get to the city center only by public transportation.

Programme. Oh, oh, so naïve of me to believe that all those meetings with representatives and experts from the EU Delegation, State Migration Service, Yia programme, OSCE, IOM would actually take place. But in fairness we did have a fancy opening at a very top hotel in the city of Baku. With no coffee at the end of it. Apparently BP people do love their coffee and they reserved all the coffee in the hotel and us poor youth workers couldn’t even get a sip.

What else? What about wasting about 2 hours to discuss about our hopes and fears? An entire day was dedicated to GTKEO, but it didn’t turn out to be very efficient, as at the end of the day we still didn’t even know the name of most of the people.

There were exercises with no purpose, leading to no conclusion, not to speak about the total lack of interaction.

I honestly estimate that every single activity was delayed with at least half an hour…this in the very few happy cases.

The most “exciting” part was the visit to one of the IDPs camps. I won’t write too much about this one, but let me tell you that the schools in Azerbaijan are a sight to be seen. Every single inch of a wall was covered with photographs of the much beloved leader. But the cherry on the top were the small flags displayed on every desk in the classrooms…unwrapped from their plastic covers.

Some positive aspects. I learnt a lot from the other participants, had some interesting discussions, met friends in Baku, and had some good walks around the city.

P.S. Big thanks to Andreea and my lovely sending organization Gipsy Eye. 

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"First impression" by Alessandro Morello

Being volunteer in Baku, the city you don’t expect, where past and future live together. From the mysterious walled city to the modern Flame Towers, at the crossroads of Europe and Asia a country where hospitality is sacred. I think Azeri people really know how to enjoy life. You can drink a tea, play nard, walk in the streets. The buses has no bus stop and no timetable, for sure you will arrive…just be patient. The traffic jam is the same that you can find in Milan or Rome or every big city on earth but if you are not in a hurry you can wait and try to discourse with the taxi driver mixing English, Azeri and Russian, 20km in 2 hours is not so bad.
If you are Italian, you will discover that Ramazzotti, Celentano, Toto Cutugno are still on the hit parade.

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Cultural Heritage In Italy

Yesterday we had the opportunity to attend an interesting photo exhibition focusing on the Cultural Heritage in Italy. After a failed attempt to join the event without an official invitation (it was the opening night, otherwise it s a free entry event), thanks to Alessandro, our italian volunteer and his connections to the Italian Embassy, we were able to enjoy a quite impressive exhibition held at the Museum Centre. Italy has over 42 sites inscribed in UNESCO World Heritage and the exhibition consisted in three parts: "Environment and Landscapes", "From Rural Settlements to Milllennial Capitals" and "From Prehistory to the Early Christian Era". A lot of memories from my highschool Art History manual suddenly came into my mind and this evening s purpose was accomplished, I am going to visit Italy, for sure! Here is a favourite mosaic of mine from Villa del Casale, Sicilia, depicting two gymnasts.

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Introduction

Salam,

So here it should be my first post about my life in Azerbaijan, but instead I will introduce myself. Menin adim Elenadir and I am one quarter of the Romanian team of EVS volunteers in Baku or that Turkish-Georgian-Azeri looking like girl.

What am I doing here? Well, you can meet me in one of the old city’s museums on weekends. I am playing and discussing with children on Sunday mornings, and on evenings I am discussing with students within some sort of conversation classes.

Do I like it here? Stay tuned for the next post and you will find out.

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Christmas in Baku

I found this picture representative for Azeri's dillema of belonging either to Europe or to Asia, to the west or to the east. But this year, in a predomintally muslim country, I celebrated Christmas and New Year's Eve twice, thanks to my russian orthodox friends.

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On arrival Training

In Georgia I found the same light and colours as in my hometown in Romania, then I found out from David, our pitoresque hotel owner that they are on the same latitude. The small historical village of Signagi surprised me with their Museum featuring a retrospective with the works of Niko Pirosmani,the most known and tragic painter of Georgia.
I had very interesting conversations with the polish, french, german and estonian volunteers that ended in a snow fight, my first glass of cha-cha and a lot of Tamada about love and frienship.

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Tourist routes (3)

Palace of the Shirvanshahs

The Palace of the Shirvanshahs is a unique monument of medieval architecture located on top of one of the hills of Icherisheher and it is a monument of universal importance.

In the 15th century the Shirvanshah dynasty under Ibrahim I of Shirvan transferred his country's capital from Shemakha to Baku, and committed himself to the construction of the "palace". The building is believed to be a memorial complex built around the sacred place of worship (pir) and a tomb of Seyyid Yahya Bakuvi who was a Helwati Sufi saint. The Shirvanshahs were patrons of the Helwati Sufi order and Shirvanshah Khalilullah I was buried with his family in the grounds of the palace. Other historians argue that the building was used as the ruler's palace, however both theories suffer from the absence of evidence. It is known however, that wells inside the grounds of the "palace" were considered to have healing qualities until recent times, as was the hill where the palace was built.

After the Safavid conquest of Baku in 1501, the Sufi order was expelled and over centuries the "palace" fell into ruin, and was known in Baku as Baku Khans palace; this toponym moved into Russian historiography, first cited by Bartold.

The main building of the complex was started in 1411 by Shirvanshah Sheykh Ibrahim I. The two-storey building of the palace numbers about 50 different dimensions and outlines of the constructions connected with 3 narrow winding staircases. The big lancet portal directly leads from the courtyard to the second floor, into a high octahedral lodging covered with a cupola. A small, also an octagonal vestibule, located behind it, connects it with the rest of the lodgings in the palace.

Turbe (Mausoleum) of Shirvanshahs in Baku. 15th century.

Divankhana is a small stone pavilion. It is situated inside a small courtyard surrounded by a gallery-arcade on three sides. The Divankhana pavilion consists of an octahedral hall covered with a stone cupola both inside and outside. The well-proportioned high portal of the main entrance is decorated with an ornament and Arabic inscription. The ornament pictures the interlacing fig and vine leaves. The portal is also decorated with two medallions inside of which there are inscriptions in Kufic Arabic.

The Mausoleum of the Shirvanshahs is of a rectangular shape and crowned with a hexahedral cupola which is decorated from outside with multi-radial stars. The inscription on the entrance doorway indicates the purpose of the building, "Khalilullah I, the greatest Soltan, Great Shirvanshah, the namesake of the divine prophet, the defender of the religion ordered to construct this light burial-vault for his mother and son in 839" (1435–1436). On two drop-shaped medallions in the flannel parts of the portal there are inscriptions with the architect's name - Memar Ali (architect Ali).

The Palace Mosque (1430s) is situated in the lower court of the complex. The laconicism of its prismatic volumes, completed with two slightly pointed cupolas, is shaded by a well-proportioned vertical line of the minaret rising above in the north-eastern corner of the building. There are 2 chapels for prayers in the mosque: a hall of a large size for men and a hall of a small size for women, also a couple of small subsidiary rooms. There is an inscription laid under the stalactite belt of the minaret which reads, "The greatest Soltan Khalilullah I ordered to build this minaret. May Allah exalt the days of his governing and reign. The year of 845" (1441–1442).

Seyid Yahya Bakuvi's Mausoleum is situated in the southern part of the complex. Seyid Yahya Bakuvi was a royal scholar in the court of Shirvanshah Khalilullah. The Mausoleum is of an octahedral shape and covered with an octahedral marquee. It consists of ground and underground parts. The upper part of the Mausoleum served to perform the cult rites, and the lower one housed the sepulchral vault. There are three small lancet windows with a stone bar - shabaka on the southern, eastern and western verges of the Mausoleum.

The Shirvanshahs' Palace complex also includes the portal of Eastern Gates, the so-called "Sultan Murad's Gate" (1585). It was built within the walls of the citadel rather later than all the other constructions of the complex during Ottoman occupation of 1585-1603rd century. The gates were named by them in honor of Sultan Murad III.

The Palace Bath-house is situated on the lowest terrace of the complex. It was discovered in 1939 and dates to 17th century. The archaeological excavations exposed a big bath-house consisting of 26 rooms. On the basis of the surviving remains of the walls of the bath-house one can say that its rooms used to be covered with cupolas and the light penetrated through the openings in the cupolas. The bath-house was semi-underground for keeping the heat in winter and the cool in summer.

The Shirvanshahs' Palace complex was declared a museum-reserve in 1964 and was taken under the state protection. Major restoration works are ongoing.

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