| Mission Report: Azerbaijan: August 2010 |
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 Azerbaijan is a land of almost overwhelming contrasts. Its capital of Baku is spotlessly clean, but 20 miles north is the most ecologically devastated region on earth, capable of killing you if you linger in the wrong place for too long. Despite being 94 percent Muslim, the country gave a collective shrug upon hearing about the death of Osama Bin Laden. The 600-foot-high ultramodern “Flame Towers” overshadow a beautiful and ancient mosque. And the Baku-based biznizmen and mafiya park their customized Mercedes next to battered Soviet-era Ladas (“why do Ladas have heated bumpers? So it’s more comfortable when you push them in the winter!”).The Republic of Azerbaijan regained its independence after the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991 and is currently riding the wave of its second oil boom in two decades. It is almost impossible to drive anywhere in the capital city of Baku, because construction equipment is in operation everywhere. Unemployment is less than one percent, new buildings are popping up like mushrooms after a spring rain, and the adult HIV-AIDS infection rate is only about one in 2,500, one-tenth that of the USA. As always, the best part of a nation is its people, and Azeris are unusually friendly and helpful. Tourists are returning to this beautiful land in great numbers, and for good reason. ABORTION IN AZERBAIJAN But of all of Azerbaijan’s contradictions and contrasts, the most startling is that Azeris adore babies and stare with incomprehension at anyone who says that they do not want children — yet three-fourths of all of their pregnancies end in abortion. This nation also suffers from one of the highest sex ratio imbalances among newborns in the world due to sex-selection abortions — 112 boys to 100 girls. Abortion is simply a way of life here. There is no controversy over it, and questioning it is met with the same reaction as if you ask why people eat or sleep. 
Brian with Fr. Joseph of the Salesians of Don Bosco and four of Mother Teresa’s Sisters of Charity.
This means that the nascent pro-life movement in Azerbaijan has a daunting task ahead of it. THE SUICIDE OF AZERBAIJAN Although the government would like to reduce the numbers of abortions, it is going about it the wrong way, by flooding the country with contraceptives, which only makes things worse. The USA has been saturated with “family planning” for more than four decades now, but has also had more than 53 million abortions. However, such appeals to reason fall on deaf ears in Baku, because the most rabidly anti-life organizations in the world are pumping tens of millions of dollars into the country every year. These groups include EngenderHealth, the Adventist Development and Relief Association (ADRA), Medicins Sans Frontieres (MSF), the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), and, of course, the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA). Nobody in power can explain why all of this population control is necessary. In 1965, Azeri women averaged 5.6 children per family; now it is below replacement at 1.9 children per family and is projected to soon plunge to only 1.3, a level from which no country has ever recovered. In effect, these population control groups are assisting in the suicide of the nation of Azerbaijan. As always, the reason that population control is so pervasive is that there is a lot of money in it. There is plenty of hope, despite the dismal numbers, although there are only about 300 Catholics and 50,000 other Christians in the entire country. Six Don Bosco priests and three brothers from Slovakia, along with four of Mother Teresa’s Sisters of Charity, work from the only Catholic parish in the country, Immaculate Conception in Baku. The Catholics are very fervent, and it shows. They have wonderful artists, who often depict St. Don Bosco, Blessed John Paul, St. Dominic Savio, and one of Azerbaijan’s favorites, St. Laura Vikunya (Vicuña). Add to this a couple of small (but very pro-life) Baptist churches, a strong Couples for Christ group, and a handful of enthusiastic lay people, and you have the foundation of a national movement to protect human life. HLI MISSION TO AZERBAIJAN 
Immaculate Conception Church in Baku.
After 13 hours in the air, my flight arrived in Baku at the ghastly hour of 4:15 AM. Vilavyet, who would drive me around all week, met me there, and we drove to the Old City of Baku to a place called the Noah’s Ark Hotel. After a couple of hours sleep, it was up and out to see a bit of Baku. I was very favorably impressed by its modernity and cleanliness. At five in the morning, little old ladies wearing babushkas are out sweeping the streets, even the four-lane highways. I saw only a handful of pieces of trash in the city the entire time I was there. I had a couple of talks at the Immaculate Conception Church in Baku on organizing and fetal development. This is the only parish in all of Azerbaijan; a sheik kindly donated the land which it was built upon, replacing the beautiful and ornate church that was destroyed by the murderous thug Stalin. The corruption in Azerbaijan is pervasive; the entire city is under construction, causing terrible traffic jams. The friends and relatives of the President and the ministers own most of the construction companies, so they get all the contracts. People complain when the street is torn up and repaved — because it was just torn up and paved two months ago! The traffic crawls at all hours because of the construction, which causes constant bottlenecks. Late one evening, it took us an hour and a half to drive barely a mile. The questions from the people in Azerbaijan can sometimes be startling. One young Catholic lady thought that she was guilty of a serious sin because she had had a miscarriage, and had been feeling terrible shame for years. I carefully and repeatedly emphasized very strongly that this was God’s unknowable will and not her fault, and she seemed to be greatly relieved. If reassuring this young wife was the only thing I had done on this trip, it would have been worth all the trouble of getting here. Some other people actually thought that the Catholic Church teaches that it is only permissible to have sex when you are trying to have a baby! Inexplicably, it took a long time to sort that one out. As we were driving around, my driver Vilavyet told me his conversion story and how he went through law school and became a government prosecutor. But the corruption was so pervasive that he quit in disgust after only 18 months. No matter how horrible the crime, if you have enough money for bribes, or know the right people, you can get away with murder — literally! In fact, some people do not even mind being prosecuted, because you can make many contacts and friends in the court system. 
The organizational team for what will hopefully become HLI-Azerbaijan.
ESTABLISHING A PRO-LIFE PRESENCE Upon traveling back to Baku, we held an organizational meeting with pro-life leaders at the Immaculate Conception Church, and charted the way forward. We agreed to start slowly, with intensive pro-life training first, followed by demonstrating to the government that teaching natural family planning (NFP) is healthiest — for women, for marriages, and for the nation. Human Life International will be with these gallant people all the way, because although the challenges are great, so will be the rewards of their labors. Once a nation’s people get addicted to abortion, it is almost impossible for them to turn away from it and embrace life. But we have confidence that Azerbaijan, with a strong pro-life presence and the urging of the Holy Spirit, will soon see how disastrous the culture of death can be, and will fully embrace life. |