Azerbaijani website 1news.az raised a concern with intellectual level of modern Azerbaijani society. The author of article under “Classics should be read (now and then)…” head, published August 11, states: “Under Soviet regime Azeris were not the most literate nation of all Soviet republics. Only Muscovites and intellectuals in regions were those being in fond of reading and constantly enriching their library…”

“Under various reasons, like instability in the first years of Azerbaijan independence, Armenian-Azerbaijani conflict, Nagorno-Karabakh military conflict, the majority of reading people left Baku. Due to social-economic problems and shifting priorities, book is no more a thoughtful gift, as well as library is not host’s pride,” the author asserts, acknowledging that Armenians and Russians being the intellectual and cultural backbone of Azerbaijani SSR left Baku and regions under the mentioned circumstances.

The author recalls that within last 70 years Azerbaijani alphabet has been changed thrice which also impacted the reading circles. “By no means all could easily adapt to new alphabet and deprive themselves of a pleasure to read modern literature published in the country,” the author concludes.

I concur wholeheartedly with the author on uneasy lot of the nation that lacks alphabetic script due to historical and cultural setback. However one can argue for the advantages and disadvantages of the modern Azerbaijani publications – propagandist and agitation literature, as well as some ‘historical’ piece of writing that are fully donated by Mehriban Aliyeva’s foundation. Should one read this stuff? It’s a rhetorical question…

“Another reason for decreasing number of readers after independence is definitely the advocated switch of political benchmarks. The result – everything from Turkey is considered right and proper in Azerbaijan,” the text reads “Russian-speaking mass was replaced by Turkish-speaking passion”. And here the information of Turkish Radical daily (referring to Independent Trade Union of educators data) is right to the point, stating that average Turk reads one book in 10-year period. Conclusions on the prospects of Azerbaijani intellectual growth reading this statistics inevitably come to mind.