MARDIYEV | my point of view

Ceyhun Osmanlı

To what extent is the Azerbaijani youth active, do you think?

The political activeness of the youth cannot be considered separately from the activeness of the whole population of the country. The activeness percentage among the young people is the same as in other age categories of the country’s population and if there is no artificial influence from outside aimed at the young generation, the degree of activeness will not differ.

Do you mean that the youth almost does not differ from the older generation?

Certainly, it does. First of all, the young people do not have much life experience and, therefore, they define their future by means of mistakes and tests. In the countries like Azerbaijan with a stable political area, the rate of the sociopolitical active people does not exceed 3-5% that join parties, public organizations and so on. In period of the election campaign this indicator may grow to 7% but not more. After the elections, people return to their usual life, everyday cares and plans. A similar situation is observed in the youth sector of Azerbaijan. Young people are active in the youth organizations of the parties, student organizations of high schools, public organizations, youth movements. This format fully meets the needs of youth people

You have stressed the “artificial influence”. What do you mean when saying “artificial” and how tensions may appear?

We have witnessed much through 10 years of working in the youth sector of the country: we have seen the one day organizations in period of elections, political adventurers, open provocateurs that provoked the public with their speeches and disappeared when their direct participation in protests was required.

For example, there is a plan to hold parliamentary elections in Azerbaijan by the year end. And today, some irresponsible politicians and separate columnists in oppositional press are developing an idea of holding some radical steps in 2010 saying young people should be in the vanguard of this process. They want to make use of the young people as the object of political process. We witnessed this during the elections held in 2000, 2003 and 2003. I recalled the past years when reading their statements in press. In our childhood almost equal pictures were distributed to children to raise their attentiveness. The task was to find five differences. Unfortunately, it is impossible to find any difference between the statements of our opposition activists and what they said three, five and ten years ago.

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