On February 2, Baku hosted a youth forum dedicated to the 25th anniversary of the Azerbaijan Youth Day. The main character was President Ilham Aliyev. Aliyev`s communication with the youth took place in the format of questions and answers. The set of questions and answers can be considered as a vision of the problems and challenges that concern not so much the youth as the authorities of Azerbaijan. This conclusion follows from the fact that the range of issues of challenges and threats has not changed over the past two decades, although the world and challenges have changed during this time not only outside the context of Azerbaijan, but also in the country itself.

In fact, the format of the forum should have been different, if we follow the tradition established by Heydar Aliyev in 1997, when he signed an order according to which the day of the 1st Azerbaijani Youth Forum – February 2, was announced as the “Azerbaijani Youth Day” (azerb. Az?rbaycan G?ncl?ri gunü).

According to the established tradition, the holiday is held every three years. Basically, on the eve of the forum, that is, within a few months, regional and city conferences are held throughout the country. During these conferences, members-delegates to the Forum are elected, reporting hearings are held by the heads of local departments for youth and sports, who report to the youth of their region and city on the work done. During the forum, youth delegates evaluate the work of the government in the direction of youth development, and based on their proposals, initiatives and ideas, action programs in the field of youth policy are formed.

In general, the idea of the forum is that it is on the basis of the proposals, assessments and criticism of young delegates to form youth activities for the next three years.

Interestingly, World Youth Day, which was established after the end of World War II in 1945, is celebrated annually on November 10th. It is held under the auspices of the World Federation of Democratic Youth. Perhaps this aegis was the reason why the Azerbaijani authorities, who are allergic to the word democracy, decided to hold a sovereign youth day, protected from the influence of globalism.

The theme of the threat of globalization sounded like a refrain in President Aliyev’s answers to the questions of young forum participants, “concerned” with the influence of globalism, color revolutions, but striving to protect national values from the bad influence of the global Versace perfume, Diors and vulgar BTS music.

Aliyev called the main enemies of globalization, global forces trying to establish control over the country, and also outlined a system to counter this, based on the priority of national values over world ones.

The questions of the forum participants did not touch upon the real problems of the country’s youth, such as unemployment, drug addiction, lack of a clear vision of the role and prospects for realizing the potential of youth, a decrease in the proportion of young people in the structure of the country’s population, etc.

“As for new challenges, it is connected with globalization. It is true that the term “globalization” is currently being removed from the world’s lexicon as a term. Because there is a lot of resistance to this trend in the world, but it remains an idea. That is, globalization is being introduced today under a different name. The main goal of this trend is to interfere in the internal affairs of different countries, to unite people, especially young people, around common values, black values, to educate cosmopolitan youth and, of course, to rule these countries,” the President set the direction of the monologue.

He again accused the West, where the Azerbaijani youth runs and directs its gaze, of inciting Islamophobia and ethnic intolerance. Intimidating young people who are sufficiently informed and able to feel the difference between Azerbaijan and Europe, Aliyev called on the audience, on the contrary, to come to their senses from the idea of integrating into the Western community: “Many values have changed on the other side since then, and I would call them worthless. But how will the Azerbaijani child who will stay there grow up, in what environment will he grow up, who will teach him, what will he learn from him? This needs to be thought about, and, taking into account all these factors, I would strongly recommend that they return to serve the Motherland.”

It is not known what thoughts the forum participants, selected strictly according to the form and idea, took possession of, however, social networks, which remain the only measure of real public opinion, are full of criticism of the government, which every day tightens the belt on the belt of the average Azerbaijani by increasing prices, fines, tariffs and other tools for pumping out personal funds of citizens.

Aliyev, who, by his own admission, draws information from social sources, urged young people not to succumb to the informational provocations of the authors of color revolutions: “I am sure that the youth of Azerbaijan will never succumb to these conspiracies. Azerbaijani youth have repeatedly shown their greatness in civilian life, in the army and at the border – everywhere, and I am sure that they will continue to actively and successfully defend the dignity of our state.”

But it seems that the president was concerned not so much with outside influence as with internal socio-economic problems that developed for objective (pandemic) and subjective (poor management) reasons. In the latter case, the government, knowing about the impending problems, could not consolidate its efforts to avoid the crisis, including in the field of youth policy.

Towards the end of 2017, Minister of Labor and Social Protection Salim Muslimov said that over the next 8 years, Azerbaijani youth may face the problem of employment: “By 2025, it is still planned to open another 450 thousand new jobs in the country, which will average thousand jobs annually. The number of young people who have reached the age of 18 in 2017-2025 will exceed the number of jobs created by 2.5 times. Until 2025, 125.2 thousand people will reach the age of 18 every year. During this period, on average, 100,000 young people will be employed for the first time on average.”

These plans were not destined to come true. Apparently, this is why the “Azerbaijan Youth Development Strategy for 2015-2025” was not mentioned at the youth forum. The section “expected results” has a sharp dissonance with modern reality.

According to the CIS State Statistics Committee for 2020, over the past 10 years, the share of young people in the population of Azerbaijan has decreased by 3.6%. At the same time, the birth rate was growing, but the outflow of young people from the country was growing, noticeably outpacing the birth rate. This was especially noticeable among young people of all age groups from 15 to 29 years old, and especially in the group of 20-24 years old. At the same time, the expenditures of the consolidated budgets remained the lowest in the CIS – 0.9% of GDP. A decrease in the number of young people in relation to the labor force has been noted. In 2019, about 63% of young people were looking for work. This is slightly less than in 2015 – 65%. As a result of the pandemic, the situation has deteriorated markedly, especially in the youth-dominated tourism and services sector.

Almost doubled drug addiction, five times substance abuse. Especially among men – respectively, up to 64.8 drug addicts and 1.2 drug addicts per 100 thousand people. Deaths from suicide have more than doubled.

Of course, we can talk about achievements, although there was no analysis of them at the forum, but a list of problems should have been put at the forefront so that through their solution it would be possible to increase achievements. However, this did not happen. There were no proposals to the government. But they couldn’t be.

In order to offer, one must be able to plan in the free flight of thought, and for this one must be young. The President looked at the forum much younger than his younger fellow citizens, not only because at the age of 60 he pulls himself up on the horizontal bar 15 times and swims in good summer weather at sea, but because he at least defends his convictions confidently and consistently. The future, i.e. the youth of the country, did not show any glimmers of confidence and consistency, and this is the main danger, if not a threat to the country’s vague future.

Source: Turan News Agency