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In its first years as an independent state, Azerbaijan was a prime example of post-Soviet chaos - beset by coups and civil strife and astride an ethnic, political and religious divide. Author Goltz was detoured in Baku in mid-1991 and decided to stay, this diary is the record of his experiences.
A Purely Biased BookReviewed by Jack Haroutun, 2009-11-25
It is a shame that Thomas Goltz, a once respected journalist, must cave in to the pressures of the Azerbaijani and Turkish interest groups by writing such frivolous and disingenuous lies. The unabashed bias with which this book is written only exacerbates the problems with how the Nagorno Karabakh people's independence movement is told and framed in the West.
An abysmal adventure in journalism and narrative historyReviewed by Spartak Ter-Martirosyan, 2008-11-18
Thomas Goltz claims that he has something most journalists don't:
guts. Guts, Goltz insists, is something journalists lack when it
comes to presenting controversial facts, often leading to the
intentional obfuscation and disinformation that is then widely
parroted by readers and politicians alike. Unfortunately, after
reading Mr. Goltz's book, it becomes painfully obvious that this
journalist is perhaps the worst individual to be dictating the
morals and ethics that other journalists should be abiding
by.
Goltz prides himself as being one of the most objective journalists
to report on the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict (1988-1994) that raged
on in the South Caucasus between the Armenian populated region
Nagorno-Karabakh and its 70 year long tormentor, Azerbaijan,
following the collapse of the Soviet Union. And at first glance, it
indeed is evident that Goltz likes to bash the Azerbaijani side for
corruption, selfishness, and a lack of patriotism during the war
years, in an admittedly well-written narrative prose.
Goltz's main mission, though not explicitly stated in the book, is
to "break" the myth that the Armenians were the victims of the
Nagorno-Karbakah war. Presenting a relatively sanitized version of
the events, Goltz shows the Armenians as a haughty, disingenuous,
advantage-taking group of people, backed by a monolithic diaspora
dispersed throughout the globe, that is intent on retaking
territory that once belonged to it, at the expense of the poor,
beleaguered nation of Azerbaijan. Thus, in interactions with them,
the Armenians are presented with damaging adjectives and adverbs
that are strewn around the text: an Armenian says something with a
disingenuous and evil "smirk", with the guilty pleasure on the
announcement of a coup in Baku, with apprehension when supposedly
confronted with the "truth" in public. Gone are any mention of the
brutal Armenian massacres by the Azerbaijanis in Baku and Sumgait
and unsourced Armenian brutality towards Azerbaijanis is
overemphasized. In reality, Goltz assembles his own frivolous
strawmen and then proceeds to knock them down, from everything to
supposedly adequate hospitals in Armenia (at a time when Armenia
was perhaps in even worse condition than Azerbaijan) to supposed
media manipulation in the United States. Not once does the reader
ever encounter an Armenian whom Goltz is sympathetic to, his biases
lying squarely with the Azerbaijan camp.
Goltz is correct in respect to journalist having guts. But for a
journalist who is known as "Tommy the Turk" for his own pro-Turkish
proclivities, Goltz clearly demonstrates that the same ethics that
he enjoys to lecture other journalists on is not even respected by
him. Taking a side in a debate is often inevitable when journalists
enter a warzone and it becomes very difficult at times parting fact
from fiction. Goltz may pretend that he is an objective journalist
but to the careful observer that he is simply attempting to put a
more humane face to Azerbaijan and, in the process, sacrificing his
own credibility as an individual who is duty-bound to uphold the
truth.
so who is biased here?Reviewed by Kk, 2008-10-10
It is interesting to see that negative reviews are either from Armenians or Russians (their allies in the war) or anonymous customers, presumably Armenians as well. Well, I am happy and proud to say that I am an Azeri. I could but won't (is this the right place really?) bring as many documented examples of the genocide of Azeris by Armenians (so Hojaly nevere happenned, or it happened but was actually executed by Azeris themselves, or the bodies were actually of Armenians killed by Azeris...?). I suppose each is entitled to their 'objective' opinion on the book and the conflict, but the attemps to rewrite history (including, co-incidentally and rather amuzingly, prior history of the Azeri nation) are not made by the author of this book - they are made by these reviewers who forget one simple fact: that 20% of Azerbaijan's territory is still occupied by Armenia (not the other way around!), including territories other than Nagorny Karabah (which is where my mother and many generations of her predecessors are from), and that over 1 million of Azeris were made refugees from their historic homeland. They use this review board as a platform to launch hateful and degrading remarks about Azerbaijan and the Azeri people, clearly revealing little more than their own blinding and blindingly obvious bias in the matter. Whoever is on their side is right and telling the full truth - the rest are liars, spies, etc
FascinatingReviewed by The International Wanderer, 2007-05-15
Reading this book while visiting a friend in Azerbaijan, I could not put it down. The incredible history of this small country and the current issues both told in a very entertaining narrative that can't be found anywhere else.
A solid historic bookReviewed by Amanda, 2006-05-04
This is one of the rare historic books reflecting the
Armenia-Azerbaijan conflict from both sides. It is reach in
historic and political facts, and also reflects the author's own
eyewitness of the war.
Also in this book, Mr. Goltz makes it clear in the book his
unfriendly relations with Azerbaijani government, and criticizes
the structure of the gorevnment, and it's adiministration which
lead to series of strategic mistakes.
