When Azerbaijan-born journalist Azad Safarov moved to Ukraine as a child, one of the first things that shocked him was that Ukrainian teachers didn’t beat pupils at school even when they misbehaved.
Living in Ukraine taught Safarov freedom, and he finds it difficult to adjust to the customs and traditions in his native land, he told the Kyiv Post.
For instance, Safarov remembers his mother trying to get him to marry his cousin when he was in his early 20s and being told that it had been planned ever since the day they were born.
“I love my motherland, but it’s better to love it from a distance,” the 35-year-old told the Kyiv Post.
New life
Now a freelancer traveling back and forth between Germany and Ukraine, Safarov’s most notable works include reporting he did with big names like CNN.
He co-founded the charity organization Voices of Children aiming to provide psychological support to children living along the frontline of the war in Donbas.
Safarov knows the region well, because that’s where his father settled more than 27 years ago. Safarov’s father left his homeland Azerbaijan to start a new life in Donetsk in the 1990s, and his family joined him soon after.
Safarov’s father rides a bicycle in Siberia, Russia in 1979.
Back in the 1990s, it was tough to land a job in Azerbaijan that would pay enough to feed a family, Safarov said. To sustain his family, his father put up stands in Donetsk where he sold products in detail, from oatmeal to cigarettes.
After the Soviet Union collapsed in 1991, roughly 45,000 Azerbaijani were living in Ukraine, according to Jeyhun Kesemen, general secretary at the Council of Azerbaijanis in Ukraine. They came for work, military service, or to pursue education.
The Azerbaijani diaspora population grew because newcomers brought their family with them, reaching about 120,000 to 150,000 members today. A lot of those who set family roots here switched citizenship, according to Kesemen.
“The Azerbaijani-Ukrainian relationship continues today,” Kesemen said.
Safarov switched to Ukrainian citizenship too, despite a tough childhood. Other kids would often bully him because he looked different from the rest, teasing him about the color of his skin and telling him to “go back” to his country, he said.
However, it helped him become stronger because he spent a lot of time on his own in public libraries. When Safarov wasn’t studying, he was working with his father, selling everyday products outdoors, a common thing for Azerbaijani children from poor families.
In a Muslim family-first culture like Azerbaijan, it is expected for the sons to live with their parents even when they go into adulthood and be obedient to them.
The business grew steadily in the first year, but their home was robbed at gunpoint, which left the family starting over from scratch. His father died early because of a heart disease caused by constant stress when Safarov was only 13-year-old.
Ukrainian patriot
In 2007, shortly after graduating from university with a degree in journalism, Safarov came to Kyiv with only a bag and Hr 3,000 (worth about $600 at the time), not knowing where to start.
His future was uncertain at first, but he soon found a job in a newspaper and some accommodation in a Soviet-style communal apartment where he almost had a room to himself.
“I don’t know how many rats were already living there,” he said. “When I was going to shower, it was so dirty I had to stand on one leg.”
Safarov soon began a career in 5 Kanal, a local television channel. When the EuroMaidan revolution that ousted the pro-Russian then-President Viktor Yanukovych started in November 2013, he was on the ground almost every day to cover the protest.
“When I saw how people were suffering on Maidan (and) being beaten, I couldn’t go to my chief and say ‘okay, can I go and make stories about animals’ or about anything else,” he said.
Berkut officers from Yanukovych’s infamous riot police once beat him and his crew badly in front of cameras.
“If anybody like Yanukovych tries again to seize power here, I will be the first to go outside and protest,” he said.
“I feel patriotic for this country, and I will do my best to return what I have got from Ukraine.”
Breaking cultural norms
Unlike Safarov, diaspora activist Ilhama Allakhverdiieva was born in Ukraine.
She sees herself as a bridge between the two cultures.
In 2010, she co-founded the Union of Azerbaijani Youth in Ukraine (SAMU) with her university friends to deepen the ties between the two countries, engaging in cultural diplomacy and promoting Azerbaijani culture in Ukraine.
Her father first stepped foot in Ukraine in the 1970s while serving in the Soviet army. He married an Azerbaijani woman in his homeland, according to tradition, and settled in the city of Pripyat.
Allakhverdiieva was born there, near Chornobyl, where the world’s worst nuclear accident in history took place in 1986.
She was too young to remember the accident clearly. Allakhverdiieva only has faint memories from the day her family fled back to Azerbaijan when the reactor exploded. The trip didn’t last long, as her father was called to work as a liquidator on the site of the tragedy a week after the explosion.
He is still alive and has lived in Kyiv ever since, like Allakhverdiieva. “Ukraine is my motherland,” she told the Kyiv Post.
Her father was particularly worried about how others would perceive her when they find out that she held an event for the Azerbaijani diaspora in Ukraine, which is problematic for a patriarchal society, she said.
Nevertheless, she sees more Azerbaijani girls stepping out of their comfort zone, often inspired by other female role models.
“Kyiv is the most amazing place on earth,” she said. “I sincerely love this city.”
