Authors

Veronika Pfeilschifter¹;  ¹ Institute for Caucasus Studies , Germany

Discussion

Since the mid-2000s, a new generation of young leftists has emerged in the South Caucasus countries (Armenia, Azerbaijan, and Georgia). The new left here is marked by a diverse range of political ideologies, including Marxism, social democracy, feminism critical of liberalism, anarchism, and anti- capitalist ecologism, as well as varied social, political, and cultural practices. A central question that has long shaped the global left is: What can we hope for? This sub-project seeks to examine how young and adolescent left-wing Azerbaijanis, both within Azerbaijan and in transnational contexts, conceptualize and express hope.

The second Karabakh/Artsakh war (2020) and the one day war (2023) which led to the forced expulsion of the entire Armenian population from Karabakh dashed hopes among parts of the Azerbaijani leftist youth which had advocated for peace with Armenia. Repressions against civil society have drastically consolidated and the majority of young leftists have either left the country, are in prison, or are forced to be silent not to be arrested. Thus, the Azerbaijani new left now functions as a transnational community.

Against this background, my project poses four major research questions: How do Azerbaijan’s transnational leftists conceptualize hope? How is hope produced, lost and renewed among them? What role does play the “here” (domestic Azerbaijan) and “there” (transnational Azerbaijan) for the mediation of hope? Finally what limitations does hope encounter against the backdrop of political and social repression by the state?

I attempt to answer the research questions by drawing on virtual self-reflection exercises (word associations, images, sounds) conducted with Azerbaijani participants, aged 18 to 33, via an online platform. Half of them reside in Azerbaijan and half outside of Azerbaijan.

Theoretically, I make use of four distinct forms of hope: utopian (Marxist theorist Ernst Bloch), radical (philosopher and psychoanalyst Jonathan Lear), modest (philosopher and feminist theorist Katie Stockdale) and lack of hope (philosopher and psychoanalyst Julie Reshe). I offer these four heterogenous approaches as heuristics for a broad and multifaceted interpretation of hope.