[1]
By John Helmer, Moscow
@bears_with [2]
The qutab is an exceptional meat pie in a world that’s full of meat pies.
That’s because it is the national meat pie of Azerbaijan, and because there is nothing quite like it outside the Azeri borders or culture [3].
It is baked with a thin flatbread which is stuffed with heavily seasoned mincemeat of sheep, goat or beef. You might call the combination of meats, onions, pomegranate syrup, herbs, and spices complicated if you weren’t persuaded how uniquely tasty it is.
It’s the same with the politics of Azerbaijan. They are not to be confused with the politics of Russia, Turkey, Armenia, Iran, and Georgia, Azerbaijan’s neighbours, just as there can be no mistaking the qutab for a pirog, gozleme, lahmajoun, kubdari, or لاهم بی آجین (lahm bi ajeen). Caution: if you are MAGA supporter, it would be your big mistake to call any of them a pizza.
Mistaking the superficial appearance of things for the reality is what sophomores do because they haven’t learned to know better. It’s what state propaganda organs and their spokesmen do because they are paid money and because information warfare is what politicians do to advance their interests. Repeating that the qutab or pirog is a pizza over and over will convince many taste testers, according to the Big Lie [4] doctrine of Adolph Hitler, Winston Churchill and their student, Joseph Goebbels.
Forcing taste testers at the point of a gun or bribing them with money will also work to turn the Azeri and the Russian pies into an American pizza for a time; this is to speak literally as well as metaphorically. In Russia, that time was ten years long – the decade Boris Yeltsin was president.
Very recently, his successor President Vladimir Putin acknowledged [5] publicly how long it has taken for him to learn. “I thought that the contradictions with the West were primarily ideological. It seemed logical at the time – Cold War inertia, different views of the world, values, the organization of society. But even when the ideology disappeared, when the Soviet Union ceased to exist, the same, almost routine deviation from Russia’s interests continued. And it was not because of ideas, but because of the pursuit of advantages – geopolitical, economic, strategic.”
Right now the reality of the conflict between Azerbaijan and Russia isn’t how the propaganda, the force of arms, and the corruption of money are explaining it. To understand, click to listen to this discussion with Nima Alkhorshid, starting at Minute 42:30 [6]:
For background on the history of the conflict, the politics involved on all sides, and the reasons of state and of profit at stake now, there is a great deal to read; most Azeri and Armenian readers are very familiar with this history:
[7]Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?app=desktop&v=M5IAZtlVvoE [8]
A preliminary accident-cause report [9] was issued February 5, 2025, which focused on the failure of the aircraft’s hydraulic control systems, not on the cause of this failure which, initially, the Azeri pilots blamed on a bird strike and an explosion inside the cabin.
A few days earlier in mid-January 2025, Russian media had published a verbatim recording of pilot communications with air traffic controllers in Grozny and Rostov (Russia) from 07:36: to 09:02:47, and from then until 09:27 with Aktau (Kazakhstan) air traffic control. The two pilots were killed in the crash. It is unclear whether the transcript, taken from Russian air controller and airport tapes, has been edited. The flight black box decoding was done in Brazil, where the aircraft was manufactured, and the black boxes kept by the Azerbaijan government; it has not released the pilot tapes.
Because of the communications and navigation jamming problems the pilots flew into, they had decided to return to Baku two minutes before the aircraft was hit. The pilots then radioed [10] “bird strike in the cabin… Uh, the bird’s impact and in the cab two chairs exploded.” They requested clearance to land at Mineralnye Vody (230 kms northwest) or Makhachkala (169 kms southeast), depending on the weather and visibilioty conditions. They reported they had lost navigational and altitude controls, also cabin oxygen. They were then cleared to land at Mineralnye Vody, but the pilots refused, insisting they would return to Baku, 483 kms to the south. Four minutes later they asked [11] for a weather report for Aktau, 438 kms to the east.
To date, there has been no public release from the Russian or Azeri governments, or in media reporting, on the process which had been under way for clearing, delaying, or diverting regularly scheduled commercial flights from Baku to the Russian Caucasus in advance of or during Ukrainian drone attacks. The first of these to strike near Grozny took place two months earlier, on October 29, 2024 [12]; a second followed on December 4; a third on December 12, a fourth on December 15 [13]. There is no information on what measures were taken by Russian and Azeri aviation officials to protect civil flights as the Ukrainian attacks intensified. There is controversy in Chechnya and in Moscow on the readiness of the air defence systems protecting Grozny before the crash on December 25 [14]. It is thus possible that there was inadequate advance warning from Grozny to Baku before takeoff or during the 66-minute flight. It is also possible the Azeri pilots may have ignored the warning, or acted too slowly after it was transmitted.
Politically, there is reluctance to accept or acknowledge publicly that the Ukrainian drone attacks have been disrupting aviation links between the two capitals. The terms of President Putin’s apology to President Aliyev on December 28 reflects this.
[15]Source: http://en.kremlin.ru/catalog/persons/192/events/76003 [16]
[17]Left to right: The two brothers who died during the Yekaterinburg arrest raid on June 28, Ziyaddin and Huseyn Safarov; their brother, Seyfeddin Huseynli, a well-known writer and journalist in Baku [18]. The case of Azeri military officer, Ramil Safarov, convicted in Hungary of murdering a fellow officer because he was Armenian in 2004, is connected because Ziyaddin and Huseyn were nephews of Ramil, and because the government in Baku has made Ramil a national hero for his murder [19].
[20]Baku television video of the arrests of Russians at the Sputnik office. The Russian media reaction [21] was swift in retaliation. “Not only were the Azerbaijani media filled with outright anti-Russian, if not outright Russophobic rhetoric, but some [Baku] politicians actually called for an uprising in Russia…Of course, Aygun Attar and her ilk have turned everything upside down – those who are really familiar with Russian national politics understand perfectly well that there is no ‘Russian chauvinism’ and Islamophobia in the Russian Federation; rather, on the contrary, Islamophilia is flourishing. But these messages are aimed at a very specific audience – the domestic consumer, and Azerbaijanis in Russia. However, unfortunately, the threat of migrant protests is quite real, given that there are a lot of migrants in Russia, and various diasporas (including the Azerbaijani one) have great power in the Russian Federation. In theory, diasporas can become a factor of political instability in Russia, as they are instruments of political influence of third countries…The aggravation of relations between Russia and Azerbaijan has shown us Baku's true attitude towards Moscow – you can talk about ‘brotherly friendship’ and ‘multi-nationalism’ as much as you like, but in fact Azerbaijan is very cool towards the Russian Federation…The rhetoric of the Azerbaijani media at the moment is not much different from the rhetoric of similar Ukrainian media. With such ‘friends’ there is no need for enemies.”
The Russian Foreign Ministry spokesman, Maria Zakharova, announced [22] that “the relations between Russia and Azerbaijan are in the nature of a strategic alliance,” but that “there are forces which do not like this”, adding the Ukraine was trying to “add fuel to the fire.”
She and Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov attempted to play down the conflict. “We are maintaining contacts with the Azerbaijani side on this matter, including along law enforcement lines,” Zakharova announced [23]. “We are convinced that all emerging issues should be resolved in a spirit of partnership, using the existing political and diplomatic channels. This approach, in practice, serves the fundamental interests of the peoples of our two countries.” According [24] to Peskov: “We still believe that logic dictates one thing: Russia and Azerbaijan are and should remain close partners and allies, as the two nations share a common history, along with a shared present and future. The issues that arise should undoubtedly be addressed in a constructive way, reflecting the spirit of our bilateral relations.”
[25]Source: https://president.az/en/articles/view/55498 [26] Aliyev’s decisions to supply fuel and other military assistance to the Kiev regime since the commencement of the Special Military Operation, two days after the signing the Declaration, amount to violations of Article 17, in the Russian view.
[27]Source: https://monocle.ru/monocle/2025/28/azerbaydzhan-pereshel-granitsy/ [28]
[29]Source: https://www.aa.com.tr/en/russia-ukraine-war/azerbaijan-s-president-urges-ukrainians-to-never-accept-occupation-/3636060 [30] For more on Aliyev’s scheme to establish the “Zangezur Corridor” – also known as the Nahichevan and Meghri Corridors, running east-west between Azeri Nakhichevan, Turkey further to the west, and mainland Azerbaijan, along the frontier with Iran, read this [31].
Asked how he interprets the current conflict, a Russian with long experience in multi-million dollar business in Moscow, who was born Jewish in Baku and educated there, said: “We think that the absolute rulers can do whatever they want. But in this case they both act as hostages of their population’s mentality.”
“First- the plane. Russia had to express publicly its regrets, condolences, pay compensation and damages; participate in the funerals; mourn with the friend as they called Ilham and his father. But the big part of the Russian population may not like that. Azerbaijan could have accepted the private ‘I am sorry’ call from Putin but the big part of the Azeri population would not like it.”
“Second – the police raids on the Azeri gangs. Policemen want promotions and well-being, and if there is a small evidence of a crime, they catch people in mass if they belong to one ethnic group. Normal practice. But again, a big part of the population wants things done brutally with the aliens. Brutality and arrogance come to a certain high level and then things calm down as the rulers don’t need unnecessary headaches.”