Azerbaijan

Before I start sharing with you our adventures in Denmark, I would like to get to know each other. And that would be impossible without mentioning my love to my home country Azerbaijan and to my second home Canada. I would like to dedicate few posts to my both homes. Azerbaijan is small country located at the Caspian Sea. It has unique location on the border of Europe and Asia. We have quite the neighbors (Russia, Iran, Turkey, Georgia and Armenia) and quite a history, thanks to our strategic location. It’s a country with rich heritage, amazing food, and warm people. Me and my husband met in the capital city of Azerbaijan – Baku. If you want to know more about how we met, let me know and I can write about that too. Baku is a big vibrant city with over 2 million people. It’s a mix of East and West in one place. And that makes our culture quite complex and interesting at the same time…

Although majority of Azerbaijanis and our language have turkic origin, you can meet people from very mixed backgrounds in the country. At least that is the case in the capital city- Baku, where I grew up. Majority of my own Ancestors were Azerbaijani, however I also have some Russian/Ukrainian and Turkish Ancestors as well.

Without deep diving into history, I would like to share that throughout history our people and our culture have been influenced by different nations and religions. We have been part of persian, arab, turkic empires. And before we gained independence as country in 1991, we have been part of Soviet Union and have been majorly influenced by ideologies of the closed off socialist state. Since early 90s we are getting a lot of western influence as well. Navigating through all the changes in such a short period of time hasn’t been easy for generations of our grandparents, parents, or my generation of millennials.

However, Azerbaijan is small but mighty country, rich with natural resources and full of hard-working people who are eager to learn and create. So, I think we’ll catch up with a lot of things very soon…

Growing up in Baku it seemed to me that there were some secret forces pulling society towards west or east. In addition to that during Soviet Union our society lost some of its identity and it felt like it was constantly trying to figure it all out. Newer generations often face a lot of resistance and judgement from previous, highly controlling generations. A lot of conservative values and traditions still hold considerable influence in the country.

Despite growing up relatively privileged by Azerbaijani standards, I never felt truly happy. I remember often feeling quite confused and lost.

In addition to navigating living in such a complex society, I was put to Russian school (Russian sector). So, growing up I barely watched or read in Azerbaijani language and mostly grew up influenced by Russian and Western media. A lot of times I felt that I don’t belong…

I know one thing for sure when I was young, I had a lot of questions. And it didn’t seem like I could find answers within my own society.  Today I feel happier, at peace with myself, my heritage and got answers to a lot of my questions. However, I’m not perfect. I’m still work in progress. I observed a lot, learned a lot, and consider myself lucky for the opportunities I got in life. But time has come. I can no longer keep it to myself and must share things I learned and learn today with others.

Thank you, dear friends, for all the support. Stay tuned for Life in Canada next. 😊