The Voice of Mirza Xazar: Category National memory

Kurban Said: History of exotic writer unveils many lives

Mirza Khazar — Mon, 07 Mar 2005 22:31:00 -0500

History of exotic writer unveils many lives By Jerome Weeks The Dallas Morning News Review "The Orientalist: Solving the Mystery of a Strange and Dangerous Life" by Tom Reiss Random House, "Ali and Nino" opens with a very telling geography quiz. The 1937 novel is a minor classic, a "Romeo and Juliet" story of young romance and adventure set in the Caucasus Mountains amid warring Bolsheviks, Muslims and Christians. To introduce all of this to the reader, author Kurban Said has Ali's teacher pose a question: Trapped as this region of Azerbaijan is amid Iran, Russia and Armenia, which way should it turn: to Asia or to Europe? Where does its future lie? It's a trap the best-selling author himself never escaped. In the '20s and '30s, Said used the exotic image that Westerners have of his native land to shape a celebrity reputation for himself as a dashing warrior-prince, a mysterious, Near Eastern exile who'd eluded Bolsheviks and fascists. He eluded them because he never existed. Neither did his compatriot, Essad Bey, author of one of the first histories of the area, "Blood and Oil in the Orient." Both men were actually inventions of Lev Nussimbaum, son of a Jewish millionaire. He created these legends about himself just as he adopted Islam: out of a dream of the fabulous Orient, a childhood memory of his hometown of Baku, where Jews and Muslims interacted peacefully and the czars held sway before the Soviets smashed it all. With "The Orientalist: Solving the Mystery of a Strange and Dangerous Life," Tom Reiss has written a spellbinding history of Nussimbaum's deceptions. I flatter myself as being reasonably conversant with the Russian Revolution, yet there's history here — of religious sects and nihilist assassins — of which I knew little. The late critic Edward Said famously argued that our notions of the "Orient" were as much a creation of Western imperialists as any cultural reality. But it's hard not to see Nussimbaum as a figure from the "Arabian Nights." His native region is so oil-soaked that hillsides, even the Caspian Sea itself, can roar into flame. Azerbaijan, it turns out, is based on the Persian word for "fire." And Baku is the seaport home of the oil millionaires, where mansions tower among the mosques, but the grandest building in town is a copy of the casino at Monte Carlo. When the Bolsheviks brought all this down, the Nussimbaums fled. Trekking across deserts and mountains, they eventually settled in Paris, then Berlin, then Italy — much like other Russian émigrés. In fact, the one thing the book truly needs is a good map. By this time, Nussimbaum had re-created himself as Essad Bey, Muslim and monarchist. He became a counterrevolutionary cultural interpreter, writing the first biographies of Stalin and Lenin. Even the Nazis found him fascinating: After all, here was a Semite who was more Caucasian than they were. What he actually was, Reiss argues, is a rarity nowadays, a Jewish Orientalist. It's a modern myth that Jews and Muslims have always been at war. For centuries, they often were the best interpreters of each other. Nussimbaum was so in love with his dream of pashas and turbans that he came to live inside it. But he finally, sadly, was unable to escape that dream, as World War II erupted around him. Reiss has uncovered diaries and letters and Nazi collaborators. He takes us with him as he follows shadowy leads through the streets of Vienna, interviewing relatives and publishers. It may be part detective yarn, part author biography, part travel saga, but "The Orientalist" is completely fascinating. Copyright © 2005 The Seattle Times Company

Kurban Said: History of exotic writer unveils many lives

Mirza Khazar — Mon, 07 Mar 2005 16:31:00 -0500

History of exotic writer unveils many lives

By Jerome Weeks

The Dallas Morning News Review "The Orientalist: Solving the Mystery of a Strange and Dangerous Life" by Tom Reiss Random House, "Ali and Nino" opens with a very telling geography quiz.

The 1937 novel is a minor classic, a "Romeo and Juliet" story of young romance and adventure set in the Caucasus Mountains amid warring Bolsheviks, Muslims and Christians. To introduce all of this to the reader, author Kurban Said has Ali's teacher pose a question: Trapped as this region of Azerbaijan is amid Iran, Russia and Armenia, which way should it turn: to Asia or to Europe? Where does its future lie? It's a trap the best-selling author himself never escaped. In the '20s and '30s, Said used the exotic image that Westerners have of his native land to shape a celebrity reputation for himself as a dashing warrior-prince, a mysterious, Near Eastern exile who'd eluded Bolsheviks and fascists. He eluded them because he never existed. Neither did his compatriot, Essad Bey, author of one of the first histories of the area, "Blood and Oil in the Orient." Both men were actually inventions of Lev Nussimbaum, son of a Jewish millionaire. He created these legends about himself just as he adopted Islam: out of a dream of the fabulous Orient, a childhood memory of his hometown of Baku, where Jews and Muslims interacted peacefully and the czars held sway before the Soviets smashed it all. With "The Orientalist: Solving the Mystery of a Strange and Dangerous Life," Tom Reiss has written a spellbinding history of Nussimbaum's deceptions. I flatter myself as being reasonably conversant with the Russian Revolution, yet there's history here — of religious sects and nihilist assassins — of which I knew little. The late critic Edward Said famously argued that our notions of the "Orient" were as much a creation of Western imperialists as any cultural reality. But it's hard not to see Nussimbaum as a figure from the "Arabian Nights." His native region is so oil-soaked that hillsides, even the Caspian Sea itself, can roar into flame. Azerbaijan, it turns out, is based on the Persian word for "fire." And Baku is the seaport home of the oil millionaires, where mansions tower among the mosques, but the grandest building in town is a copy of the casino at Monte Carlo. When the Bolsheviks brought all this down, the Nussimbaums fled. Trekking across deserts and mountains, they eventually settled in Paris, then Berlin, then Italy — much like other Russian émigrés. In fact, the one thing the book truly needs is a good map. By this time, Nussimbaum had re-created himself as Essad Bey, Muslim and monarchist. He became a counterrevolutionary cultural interpreter, writing the first biographies of Stalin and Lenin. Even the Nazis found him fascinating: After all, here was a Semite who was more Caucasian than they were. What he actually was, Reiss argues, is a rarity nowadays, a Jewish Orientalist. It's a modern myth that Jews and Muslims have always been at war. For centuries, they often were the best interpreters of each other. Nussimbaum was so in love with his dream of pashas and turbans that he came to live inside it. But he finally, sadly, was unable to escape that dream, as World War II erupted around him. Reiss has uncovered diaries and letters and Nazi collaborators. He takes us with him as he follows shadowy leads through the streets of Vienna, interviewing relatives and publishers. It may be part detective yarn, part author biography, part travel saga, but "The Orientalist" is completely fascinating. Copyright © 2005 The Seattle Times Company

The Boy From Baku: Kurban Said

Mirza Khazar — Thu, 03 Mar 2005 21:50:00 -0500

The Boy From Baku

By Elizabeth Kiem

March 4, 2005

The Orientalist: Solving the Mystery of a Strange and Dangerous Life

By Tom Reiss

The arid, windswept capital of Azerbaijan is not a tourist mecca. Most travelers to Baku come in search of oil, not romance. But for many Azeris and not a few foreigners, a trip to this desert metropolis of dust, derricks and derelict buildings is nothing short of a pilgrimage. Guided daily along wide boulevards and labyrinthine alleyways, the romantic faithful come to Baku to trace the paths of literary lovers Ali and Nino. Published in 1937 under the pseudonym Kurban Said, "Ali and Nino" has been translated into 17 languages and embraced by Azerbaijan as its "national novel." The story revolves around star-crossed lovers — she a Christian, he a Muslim — in Baku on the eve of revolution, and captures the city's cosmopolitan heyday while exploring the richly exotic cultures of the broader Caucasus at that time. For decades, the nostalgic portrait of a past era and an enduring inter-ethnic love story, "Ali and Nino" was as well known as its author was mysterious. The identity of Kurban Said has long been the subject of heated, sometimes litigious, debate, with one camp claiming him as Azeri poet Josef Vezir, and another an Austrian baroness. Others asserted, correctly, that Said was a pseudonym for Essad Bey, a curious and prolific writer of biography and history living among expatriates in inter-war Berlin and Vienna. But crediting the enigmatic Bey only enhanced the mystery; Leon Trotsky himself, after reading Bey's book about Stalin, had wondered aloud, "Who is this Essad Bey?" American journalist Tom Reiss spent a decade tracking down the furtive provenance of "Ali and Nino." Doubting the claims of both the Austrian baroness and the Azeri poet, Reiss diligently conducted interviews, pored over letters and manuscripts, and shuttled between Europe and the Caucasus to better pin down the author who claimed to be both a Mohammedan prince and the official biographer of Mussolini. In "The Orientalist," Reiss makes the convincing case that Essad Bey was actually a Jew named Lev Nussimbaum. More than just the investigative account implied by its subtitle, "The Orientalist" is the story of a man who refashioned his roots to reflect his own sense of self. Nussimbaum was born in Baku in 1905, into the privileged world of an oil magnate's son in a town supplying half of the world's petroleum. Revolution, exile and world war would break open the bars of his gilded cage soon enough, but Nussimbaum's early youth would set a standard for the writer in later years, as a sort of anti-hero. As a teenager on the cusp of celebrity, he adopted the persona of Essad Bey. Institutionalized antisemitism was still to come in his adopted home of Germany, and it appears that his Islamic conversion was motivated neither by security nor by faith. Reiss suggests that in approaching an imam in the Ottoman Embassy in Berlin, Essad Bey was adopting citizenship into the multiethnic Oriental worldview he cherished, one he had glimpsed in Baku — where desert Arabs, tribal warriors and Persian potentates strolled together between mosque and café. When he went to literary salons, Bey sported fezzes, turbans, bandoliers and daggers, and therefore emerged as a curious conflation of romantic ideals and cultural stereotypes, consistent only in his distaste for a revolutionary world order. In the first half of "The Orientalist," Reiss expertly weaves Nussimbaum's story into a sweeping review of the ethnic makeup of the Caucasus and the history of the revolutionary movement of Russia. But by the time Essad Bey makes his flamboyant entrance, Reiss is at pains to keep his balance of history and biography. New waves of émigrés arrive in Berlin as steadily as the currency falls and political fates reverse, and Reiss struggles valiantly to debrief the reader on them all. The result is an acceptable, if selective, social history of Weimar in which Essad Bey meanders like the hero of a "Where's Waldo?" book. This is not entirely Reiss's fault. An eccentric in Berlin's cabaret culture is hardly exceptional. But it is part of the book's greater shortcoming. "The Orientalist" demystifies Kurban Said, but not merely because it has unmasked him. Reiss dutifully accounts for Nussinbaum/Bey's whereabouts during 36 years. And in a journalistic coup, Reiss even grants the story closure, having obtained Kurban Said's last manuscript, written on his deathbed in an Italian fishing village. He transmits the reminiscences of near-ancient school friends (Lev had big ears and was clever), reprints photographs of the dashing Bey (he was at ease among his closest friends) and quotes from the final lines of Kurban Said (he was still dreaming at his lonely end). But Bey is nearly silenced by the anecdotal evidence that Reiss has accumulated for his profile. There is little drama to be salvaged from the mystery he has solved; even scarcer is a sense of danger in the motivations of his politically buffeted subject; in short, an incredible life becomes easily, if sadly, credible. Essad Bey, it should be remembered, wrote a number of biographies, all of which were nearly as fantastic as his fairy-tales of the Caucasus. In his life, as in his writing, he allowed truth some elasticity, knowing that fact is only stranger than fiction when treated as such. Reiss should be applauded for setting the record straight, but it is his subject we must thank for making the life and times of Lev Nussimbaum, aka Essad Bey, aka Kurban Said, "strange and dangerous." Elizabeth Kiem is a journalist and a literary critic living in Brooklyn. FORWARD NEWSPAPER

The Boy From Baku: Kurban Said

Mirza Khazar — Thu, 03 Mar 2005 15:50:00 -0500

The Boy From Baku

By Elizabeth Kiem

March 4, 2005

The Orientalist: Solving the Mystery of a Strange and Dangerous Life

By Tom Reiss

Mark Almond: Aliev In Britain (1998)

Mirza Khazar — Fri, 25 Feb 2005 11:59:00 -0500

Aliev In Britain By Mark Almond The Daily Mail July 20, 1998 It wasn’t supposed to be like this. Tomorrow New Labour’s ethical policy will drown symbolically in a poisonous cocktail of blood and oil when the Queen shakes hands with Azerbaijan’s President Aliev. Her Majesty may be forgiven for thinking this is one export-driven photo-opportunity too many. The Queen has dutifully entertained tyrants of all stripes but she has never had to shake hands with a SMERSH agent before. Heydar Aliev from oil-rich Azerbajan, deep beyond the Caucasus in the south of the old Soviet Union, started his climb to the top of the greasy _ and in his case grisly _ pole as agent in the most feared unit of Stalin’s secret police in 1944. As fans of James Bond remember, SMERSH stood for "Death to Traitors." Its agents were hand-picked to be killers of Stalin’s enemies, real and imagined. Aliev’s rapid rise up the KGB’s hierarchy suggest that he was rewarded for his handiwork at the "wet" end of its deadly business. In more than fifty years of serving then exercising absolute power, Aliev has been ruthless abo ut getting his way. Whether hands-on as a young man or from behind a KGB bureaucrat’s desk, he has callously despatched unknown thousands to their fate. Today, as President of Azerbaijan his secret police regularly arrest scores of critics allegedly plotting against him and thousands languish in his old haunts, the ex-KGB prisons. Others simply disappear. Yet Aliev’s Azerbaijan is respectable. There is one word to explain this bizarre fact: Oil. Aliev’s is a rags to riches story _ but one built across the bones of rivals and the backs of his own people. A poor boy from one of the most remote Soviet regions he clawed his way to the very top in the Kremlin. In person he possesses the hypnotic charm of a Caucasian snake. He can smile but when he bites, it is in the throat. Whether as a servant of Stalin, crony of Brezhnev or master of his own would-be Kuwait on the Caspian Aliev has always mixed guile with gut-wrenching ruthlessness in order to get his own way. Under Brezhnev, Aliev’s sinsister fawning on the corrupt and senile Communist boss saw him rise through the KGB to become leader of the Azeri Communist Party. He repaid Brezhnev with a diamond studded gift worth $30,000 and put up a palace in his capital Baku for when the old man came snuffling for more trinkets. Nowadays visiting Western politicians and oil merchants vie with for the dubious privilege of sleeping where Brezhnev snored off a vodka-drenched banquet in his honour. Aliev made it into the Politburo itself. He was the first Azeri, indeed, the first man of Muslim origin to enter the Kremlin’s holy of holies. But the rise of Mikhail Gorbachev catapulted Aliev from power and privilege. He was made the scapegoat for the rampant corruption gnawing away at the Soviet system. Back home in remote Azerbajan, Aliev seemed finished. But the fund of connections and cash built up there over years at the top meant that he had the launching pad for a comeback once Gorbachev fell and the Soviet Union disappeared in 1991. Aliev bided his time and then with the aid of a mixed gang of local mafiosi and ex-KGB he struck. Although he likes to describe himself as stepping into a power vacuum in June, 1993, in fact his elected predecessor, Elchibey, was toppled by a coup on the eve of just the sort of signing ceremony which fills Mr Aliev’s week in London. Suddenly the old Soviet boss of oil rich Azerbajan was back at the helm. Being a man who moves with the times and recognizing that lip-service to democracy is now the spirit of the age, Aliev decided to have himself elected president in October, 1993. As he remarked at the time, "I was always a democrat. It’s just that you didn’t notice." Azeri democracy was uniquely Aliev-style. Arriving as an observer in one polling station, my passport details were entered in the voters' register then the ballot paper was filled out for me _ in Aliev's’ favour. My protests that I was a foreigner unable to vote were laughed off: "The whole world wants Aliev to win." Two Turks _ more in tune with the local customs _ voted several times for Aliev. Despite such farcical scenes the Western election observing agency, the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe, from describing Aliev’s electoral shenanigans as the "unimpeded expression of people’s choice." A few more impediments would have made for more democracy. But oil decreed that Aliev had won 98.9% of the votes _ a modest 1% fall from his last Soviet-era total. Aliev is up for re-election in October. I wouldn’t be surprised if Robin Cooke isn’t given a special postal vote to mark of Aliev’s approval of his well-oiled ethical foreign policy. A gaggle of ex-Tory Mps and former Foreign Office diplomats know the value of keeping in with Aliev. So does a host of stars of George Bush’s Administration. Aliev retains ex-Secretary of State, James Baker and Ex-National Security Adviser, Brent Scowcroft, and a galaxy of Washington insiders to polish his image and oil access to the levers of Western power. No doubt none of these grand panjandrums would have touched Aliev the KGB general with a barge pole. But you can take the man out of the KGB, can you take the KGB out of the man? His ability to tap into Western politicians’ greed for consultancy fees is a sinister omen of the waning of our establishment’s ethical defences against taking foreign despots’ money since the Cold War. The West’s oil men in Azerbajan itself are insulated from the terrible hardships of ordinary people there. No trickle down effect is noticeable so far as fat fees are paid up front to Aliev’s favoured few, especially family members like his son who run the local oil industry. Inside hospitals without basic equipment or Aliev’s overflowing prisons where TB is rife, Britain’s ethical foreign policy is likely to be regarded as a hollow joke. Leaving ethics aside is Britain backing the future? Even Smersh agents die. Aliev is an astoundly lively seventy-five year old, but old men pass away. He has been careful to purge potential successors as likely impatient rivals. All the deals being signed this week could be so many pieces of paper if Aliev turns toes up. Once his predecessor, Elchibey was toppled his memos of understanding with Western companies went into the dustbin of history. Cynical Bill Clinton has already started lining up a successor to Aliev even while his friend, Tony Blair is wining and dining Aliev. Clinton’s candidate is no natural democrat. Rasul Guliyev one of Aliev’s former aides as speaker of the Azeri Parliament, now spends a lot of time in the USA badmouthing his former boss. Denouncing corrupt oil deals is certainly popular among ordinary Azeris. It could be that currying favour with Azerbaijan’s boss turns out to be worse than unethical. It might not even be profitable. The first act of any successor, democratic or otherwise, will be to rip up this week’s deals. That will be enormously popular with the long-suffering people of Azerbaijan. It would not be the first time oil companies have backed a corrupt regime only to see it toppled by revolution. Iran is just across the southern border. Twenty years haven’t passed since the Shah’s regime there fell in ignominy only months after he was received with pomp in the White House. My guess is that once the infrastructure for Azerbajan’s twenty-first oil industry is in place. Aliev will fall or die _ or both (as is the way in that part of the world) _ and Western investments will be nationalised by his successor. Whatever you call its policy, the Foreign Office is likely to be left with oil all over its face. Mark Almond is Lecturer in Modern History at Oriel College, Oxford. He has observed elections and visited prisons in Azerbaijan in 1993 and 1995.

Mark Almond: Aliev In Britain (1998)

Mirza Khazar — Fri, 25 Feb 2005 05:59:00 -0500

Aliev In Britain

By Mark Almond

The Daily Mail July 20, 1998

It wasn’t supposed to be like this. Tomorrow New Labour’s ethical policy will drown symbolically in a poisonous cocktail of blood and oil when the Queen shakes hands with Azerbaijan’s President Aliev. Her Majesty may be forgiven for thinking this is one export-driven photo-opportunity too many. The Queen has dutifully entertained tyrants of all stripes but she has never had to shake hands with a SMERSH agent before. Heydar Aliev from oil-rich Azerbajan, deep beyond the Caucasus in the south of the old Soviet Union, started his climb to the top of the greasy _ and in his case grisly _ pole as agent in the most feared unit of Stalin’s secret police in 1944. As fans of James Bond remember, SMERSH stood for "Death to Traitors." Its agents were hand-picked to be killers of Stalin’s enemies, real and imagined. Aliev’s rapid rise up the KGB’s hierarchy suggest that he was rewarded for his handiwork at the "wet" end of its deadly business. In more than fifty years of serving then exercising absolute power, Aliev has been ruthless abo ut getting his way. Whether hands-on as a young man or from behind a KGB bureaucrat’s desk, he has callously despatched unknown thousands to their fate. Today, as President of Azerbaijan his secret police regularly arrest scores of critics allegedly plotting against him and thousands languish in his old haunts, the ex-KGB prisons. Others simply disappear. Yet Aliev’s Azerbaijan is respectable. There is one word to explain this bizarre fact: Oil. Aliev’s is a rags to riches story _ but one built across the bones of rivals and the backs of his own people. A poor boy from one of the most remote Soviet regions he clawed his way to the very top in the Kremlin. In person he possesses the hypnotic charm of a Caucasian snake. He can smile but when he bites, it is in the throat. Whether as a servant of Stalin, crony of Brezhnev or master of his own would-be Kuwait on the Caspian Aliev has always mixed guile with gut-wrenching ruthlessness in order to get his own way. Under Brezhnev, Aliev’s sinsister fawning on the corrupt and senile Communist boss saw him rise through the KGB to become leader of the Azeri Communist Party. He repaid Brezhnev with a diamond studded gift worth $30,000 and put up a palace in his capital Baku for when the old man came snuffling for more trinkets. Nowadays visiting Western politicians and oil merchants vie with for the dubious privilege of sleeping where Brezhnev snored off a vodka-drenched banquet in his honour. Aliev made it into the Politburo itself. He was the first Azeri, indeed, the first man of Muslim origin to enter the Kremlin’s holy of holies. But the rise of Mikhail Gorbachev catapulted Aliev from power and privilege. He was made the scapegoat for the rampant corruption gnawing away at the Soviet system. Back home in remote Azerbajan, Aliev seemed finished. But the fund of connections and cash built up there over years at the top meant that he had the launching pad for a comeback once Gorbachev fell and the Soviet Union disappeared in 1991. Aliev bided his time and then with the aid of a mixed gang of local mafiosi and ex-KGB he struck. Although he likes to describe himself as stepping into a power vacuum in June, 1993, in fact his elected predecessor, Elchibey, was toppled by a coup on the eve of just the sort of signing ceremony which fills Mr Aliev’s week in London. Suddenly the old Soviet boss of oil rich Azerbajan was back at the helm. Being a man who moves with the times and recognizing that lip-service to democracy is now the spirit of the age, Aliev decided to have himself elected president in October, 1993. As he remarked at the time, "I was always a democrat. It’s just that you didn’t notice." Azeri democracy was uniquely Aliev-style. Arriving as an observer in one polling station, my passport details were entered in the voters' register then the ballot paper was filled out for me _ in Aliev's’ favour. My protests that I was a foreigner unable to vote were laughed off: "The whole world wants Aliev to win." Two Turks _ more in tune with the local customs _ voted several times for Aliev. Despite such farcical scenes the Western election observing agency, the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe, from describing Aliev’s electoral shenanigans as the "unimpeded expression of people’s choice." A few more impediments would have made for more democracy. But oil decreed that Aliev had won 98.9% of the votes _ a modest 1% fall from his last Soviet-era total. Aliev is up for re-election in October. I wouldn’t be surprised if Robin Cooke isn’t given a special postal vote to mark of Aliev’s approval of his well-oiled ethical foreign policy. A gaggle of ex-Tory Mps and former Foreign Office diplomats know the value of keeping in with Aliev. So does a host of stars of George Bush’s Administration. Aliev retains ex-Secretary of State, James Baker and Ex-National Security Adviser, Brent Scowcroft, and a galaxy of Washington insiders to polish his image and oil access to the levers of Western power. No doubt none of these grand panjandrums would have touched Aliev the KGB general with a barge pole. But you can take the man out of the KGB, can you take the KGB out of the man? His ability to tap into Western politicians’ greed for consultancy fees is a sinister omen of the waning of our establishment’s ethical defences against taking foreign despots’ money since the Cold War. The West’s oil men in Azerbajan itself are insulated from the terrible hardships of ordinary people there. No trickle down effect is noticeable so far as fat fees are paid up front to Aliev’s favoured few, especially family members like his son who run the local oil industry. Inside hospitals without basic equipment or Aliev’s overflowing prisons where TB is rife, Britain’s ethical foreign policy is likely to be regarded as a hollow joke. Leaving ethics aside is Britain backing the future? Even Smersh agents die. Aliev is an astoundly lively seventy-five year old, but old men pass away. He has been careful to purge potential successors as likely impatient rivals. All the deals being signed this week could be so many pieces of paper if Aliev turns toes up. Once his predecessor, Elchibey was toppled his memos of understanding with Western companies went into the dustbin of history. Cynical Bill Clinton has already started lining up a successor to Aliev even while his friend, Tony Blair is wining and dining Aliev. Clinton’s candidate is no natural democrat. Rasul Guliyev one of Aliev’s former aides as speaker of the Azeri Parliament, now spends a lot of time in the USA badmouthing his former boss. Denouncing corrupt oil deals is certainly popular among ordinary Azeris. It could be that currying favour with Azerbaijan’s boss turns out to be worse than unethical. It might not even be profitable. The first act of any successor, democratic or otherwise, will be to rip up this week’s deals. That will be enormously popular with the long-suffering people of Azerbaijan. It would not be the first time oil companies have backed a corrupt regime only to see it toppled by revolution. Iran is just across the southern border. Twenty years haven’t passed since the Shah’s regime there fell in ignominy only months after he was received with pomp in the White House. My guess is that once the infrastructure for Azerbajan’s twenty-first oil industry is in place. Aliev will fall or die _ or both (as is the way in that part of the world) _ and Western investments will be nationalised by his successor. Whatever you call its policy, the Foreign Office is likely to be left with oil all over its face. Mark Almond is Lecturer in Modern History at Oriel College, Oxford. He has observed elections and visited prisons in Azerbaijan in 1993 and 1995.

Ariel Cohen: Aliev Dynasty or Azerbaijiani Democracy?

Mirza Khazar — Fri, 25 Feb 2005 05:48:00 -0500

Aliev Dynasty or Azerbaijiani Democracy?

Securing A Democratic Transition

by Ariel Cohen, Ph.D. August 6, 2003 |

Heritage Foundation

Azerbaijan’s ailing president Heydar Aliev's bedside appointment of his son Ilham to the position of Prime Minister—and thus heir to the presidency—is forcing the Bush Administration to face the eventual passing of the Azeri leader. Because the United States has been involved in Azerbaijan since the collapse of the Soviet Union and has much at stake in the leadership transition, it should protect its interests and encourage a democratic succession in Azerbaijan. U.S. priorities in Azerbaijan include strengthening the Western orientation of Azerbaijan’s foreign and domestic policy, including the preservation of a secular state. A democratic transition, if successful and bloodless, would serve as an important example to South Caucasus and Central Asian states, which suffer from a democracy deficit. Benefits of a Democratic Transition Under a constitutional amendment approved during a summer 2002 referendum, Azerbaijan’s prime minister becomes the interim president in the event of that the chief executive either dies in office or is incapacitated. The father-son team is also the ruling New Azerbaijan Party’s candidates in forthcoming presidential elections, now scheduled for October 15. A secular Azerbaijan, with a more democratic multiparty system and a free press and that is being increasingly integrated into Euro-Atlantic structures, could play a part in deterring radical Islamist takeovers in the Russian-controlled Dagestan and other Muslim areas in the North Caucasus. If Aliev’s son, his heir-apparent, were to lose the transition struggle, there is little danger of a radical Islamic backlash. Moderate democratic nationalists, not fundamentalists, would likely come to power, with the Azerbaijani elite agreeing on a pro-Western orientation and a secular state. Neighboring Georgia is in a political tailspin and could benefit from an example of a successful democratic transition from a political system dominated by a charismatic, Soviet-era leader. After its scandal-ridden presidential election on March 5, Armenia could also benefit from seeing a democratic process in neighboring Azerbaijan. The authoritarian states of Central Asia, particularly, need a model of a peaceful transition away from post–Soviet-era rulers. And the broader Muslim world—including many countries undergoing or contemplating a father-to-son handover of power—could benefit from a positive example in a fellow Muslim state. U.S. Interests. The East-West transportation corridor, including access to the energy resources of the Caspian Sea, has been a top priority of the United States during its last three administrations. Today, oil and gas are flowing from the Absheron Peninsula and the Caspian offshore fields to the Black Sea. The Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan Pipeline will export up to 1 million barrels per year of high quality Caspian crude oil by 2005. The United States may also consider basing elements of its air power on the Absheron Peninsula, particularly as it reduces its presence at the Incirlik military base in Turkey and with future deployments in Bulgaria and Romania. Deployment in Azerbaijan will allow the United States to project power further into Central Asia and deter Iran from the north. Finally, the United States has invested heavily in Azerbaijan, including hundreds of millions of dollars in assistance, and has developed diplomatic and security expertise in the Caspian region. Major U.S. oil companies are investing billions of dollars in developing Azerbaijani oil and natural gas fields and export pipelines. Both the Azerbaijani people and the United States need the stability and predictability that would come from a democratic Azerbaijan. What the Bush Administration Should Do. If President Aliev does not participate in the presidential elections scheduled for mid-October 2003, Azerbaijan could have a free and fair election process. To this end, the Bush Administration should: Encourage a political process—with agreement from all factions—to conduct free, fair, and transparent elections. The U.S. State Department can clarify this position through the U.S. Embassy in Baku and Azerbaijani Embassy in Washington, D.C., with a follow-up visit to Baku by Assistant Secretary of State Elizabeth Jones, Assistant Secretary of State Lorne Craner, or Deputy Assistant Secretary of State Lynn Pascoe. Recommend that theU.S. House International Relations Committee or the Helsinki Commission conduct hearings on democracy in Azerbaijan. Request thatthe International Republican Instituteand National Democratic Instituteprepare a pre-election assessment, an election observation mission, and a post-election report. Request the OSCE Office of Democratic Institutions and Human Rights to launch similar missions. Ensure participation of international observers in the elections in order to guarantee international recognition of the next government’s legitimacy. Ensure through diplomatic channels that Russia and Turkey do not intervene to support competing political factions and reassure Moscow and Ankara that their interests will be respected. Azerbaijan can clarify to Russia that its leasing rights to the Gabala radar early warning station will be maintained, while the United States can assure Turkey that it supports completion of the Baku-Ceyhan Pipeline. Continue the quest for a peaceful solution to the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, including restoration of Azerbaijani territorial integrity and sovereignty, through an additional round of trilateral consultations with Azerbaijan and Armenia. The United States should also continue to support the Minsk Process, which began in the early 1990s under the auspices of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe and is the only existing multilateral process on Nagorno-Karabakh. Deter Iran, through diplomatic channels, from interfering in the electoral process. If Iran intervenes, the United States and Turkey could send a Turkish or joint U.S.–Turkish air force squadron to Baku, as Turkey did after Iran encroached on Azerbaijani territorial waters in July 2001. Conclusion. The post-Aliev transition will not only set a precedent for Azerbaijan, but will also have greater geopolitical and geo-economic repercussions throughout the region. A democratically elected Azerbaijani leader would likely desire to continue relations with the American superpower and improve Azerbaijan’s security by bolstering Baku’s ties with its neighbors. The country’s next leader should enjoy democratic legitimacy based on a transparent and constitutional transition. —Ariel Cohen, Ph.D., is Research Fellow in Russian and Eurasian Studies in the Kathryn and Shelby Cullom Davis Institute for International Studies at The Heritage Foundation.

Passing for Muslim

Mirza Khazar — Sun, 20 Feb 2005 12:15:00 -0500

Passing for Muslim

A real-life shape-shifter's story is stranger than fiction. By Malcolm Jones Newsweek Feb. 14 issue - The story of a Jew masquerading as a Muslim sounds like a bad joke. But the story of Lev Nussimbaum, who became Essad Bey and then Kurban Said, is hauntingly true. Born in 1905 in Azerbaijan, the son of a Jewish oil tycoon, Nussimbaum spent most of his life on the run. He was chased by the Soviets, then the Nazis and finally the Italian Fascists. Along the way, the subject of "The Orientalist," Tom Reiss's absorbing portrait of this man and his times, turned himself into a prolific and highly regarded author, with 17 books to his credit, including early biographies of Stalin and Lenin and Azerbaijan's one literary classic, "Ali and Nino." But it was when the teenage Lev passed through Constantinople that his life changed completely: he became enchanted with the Muslim world. What he fell for was more ideal than reality—an egalitarian fantasy world of Christians, Muslims and Jews. But he wasn't just playing dress-up. Steeping himself in the history and culture of Islam, he did everything he could to transform himself into a Muslim prince, and became a poster boy for the shape-shifting identities that characterized Europe between the world wars. Nussimbaum's distinction was merely to be more flamboyant than—well, just about anyone. "The Orientalist" is not without its faults. Reiss comes off as one of those people who, when you ask where you can mail a letter, start by giving you the history of the Postal Service. Where a few pages of background on the Weimar Republic or Russian emigres would suffice, he throws in whole chapters. As a result, Nussimbaum disappears for pages at a time. That's a shame, because as long as Reiss sticks with his Orientalist, he has a fascinating story to tell and he tells it well. he final chapters, in which an impoverished Lev moves to Italy, hoping to write an officially sanctioned biography of Mussolini, are heartbreaking. With only a couple of years to live—he would die in 1942 at the age of 36—he took up residence in Positano. Suffering from Raynaud's syndrome—a circulatory disease with gangrenous effects—he subsisted on morphine, hashish and the kindness of strangers. And always he wrote, scribbling his memoirs on any scrap of paper he could find, including cigarette papers. The locals knew him only as "the Muslim," but a half century after his death they remembered his exquisite manners, which were, at that point, about all he had left. In one of the last letters he wrote, when he was having trouble keeping things straight, he told a friend, "Don't be frightened—but I regret to tell you with all formality that I have lost my mind." He sounds like the hero of some too-fantastic movie, or of one of his own romances. It is to Reiss's considerable credit that in the pages of "The Orientalist," Lev Nussimbaum/Essad Bey/Kurban Said comes to life as altogether, albeit bizarrely, human. © 2005 Newsweek, Inc.