Mr. Hikmet Hadjy-zadeh

Mr. Hikmet Hadjy-zadeh is co-founder and president of the Far Centre for Economic and Political Research, a Baku-based think tank that conducts research on economic and political reform, press and religious freedoms, rule of law, and institutional strengthening aimed at deepening democracy in Azerbaijan.

He has previously served as Azerbaijan’s vice-premier and ambassador to Russia, and as a journalist, political party leader, and creator and webmaster of Democracy House (www.kitabxana.org), the first online library of the social sciences in the Azeri language. He is the author of Democracy: A Long Way to Go (2001), an Azeri-language reader featuring classics of democracy and democratic reform, from Plato to Václav Havel.

During his fellowship, Mr. Haji-zada plans to examine the phenomenon of quasi-democratic regimes, using Azerbaijan as his primary case study. He would also plan to identify the reforms that would be needed to make countries democratic not merely in name but also in practice.

Publications

Islam & Religious Freedom in Independent Azerbaijan 1997-2011. LAP Lambert Academic Publishing, 2011.

"Azerbaijani Independence was ‘Birth of Freedom,’" Institute for War & Peace Reporting, December 23, 2011.

Presentations

"Azerbaijan: 20 Years of Independence," University of Michigan Armenian Studies Program, January 31, 2012.

"What Is To Be Done with Pseudo-Democracies: The Case of Azerbaijan," National Endowment for Democracy, January 25, 2012. (Full Report ::PDF)

"Azerbaijan: Growing Voices of Dissent," Azerbaijani Americans for Democracy, December 21, 2011.

Interviews

Voice of America, Azerbaijani Service, Azərbaycan gəncliyi fəal, zirək və ağıllıdır! (“Azerbaijani Youth are Active and Skilled”), January 9, 2012.

Voice of America, Azerbaijani Service,  Azərbaycan avtokratları üçün demokratiya onların ömürlük vəzifədə qalması, gəlir mənbəyi, özbaşınalığı üçün alətdir, January 4, 2012.