In Limbo between Tradition and Liberty: Situational Analysis of LGBT+ in Azerbaijan

Being one of the under-researched post-Soviet Republics, Azerbaijan is the country where the official discourse on LGBTI+ people is absenteeism, as the government chooses to ignore the problem and refuses to adopt a positive or negative stance; public opinion, on the other hand, is overwhelmingly negative, therefore the majority of LGBTI+ people in the nation live in disguise. In the last decades, the ILGA-Europe Reports (2022) also showed that LGBT rights are very problematic in the country and require a strict effort to develop. As the traditional background (family relations, religion, etc.) is still very influential on the nation, and on the other hand the tenacity for Europeanization is being promoted, the situation has become very complex and problematic for LGBT people in the country. The LGBT people face different challenges from both the public and political sides. On one hand, the young LGBT people who seek liberty find out the moving ways from the country to more developed ones, on the other hand, the people who prefer to stay strive to adapt to conventional conditions and disguise themselves somehow. In this context, as there is not any comprehensive academic research on the LGBT+ situation in Azerbaijan, this study aims to project their problems and suggestions. In doing so, the semi-structured in-depth interview analysis will be conducted with 10 male participants (aged between 18-42)and live in Baku, the capital city of Azerbaijan. The pariticpants will be selected by snow-ball sampling technique. Based on de Certeau’s (1984) approach, while the strategies are related to structures of power, tactics are used by individuals to create spaces for themselves. From this point of view, the interviews will ask the research questions as to how those people struggle with the problems and what kind of tactics they implement. In addition, the legal background will be also dealt within the study. Considering there is no reception study about that issue in the literature, it is believed the findings can be directive for future studies.