My Life in Azerbaijan - Not "so lovely" Encounters

October 8, 2010

The weather has been cool and damp. It rains often and the route I walk on now is nearly deserted. All the teahouses are closed for the winter and most of my Azeri friends do not come out to greet me. I guess they are in “Hibernation”. I think I ought to be a more careful or I should change my route to avoid some of the quietest areas. These past couple weeks, I had some “not so lovely” encounters during my daily walk. Even thought I did not feel an immediate danger, I should have taken precaution.

One section of my routine walk passes through a dense wooden area. It has a little hill and is well hidden from the main path. Usually I feel very safe in this secluded spot because summer time, young Azeri lovers hide here to have their privacy. I like to walk here because of the hill. There are not many hills in the park, so I take full advantage of this section for my exercise.

Few days ago, I climbed up to this hill as usual. Half way to the top, I heard a man shouting “Kıtçay”, (means Chinese). His voice did not sound friendly, so I hurried up to the top. I could hear him running after me and repeating the word “Kıtçay”. The minute I reached the top, I looked back and saw this man with dirty suit and fuzzy hair racing up to me. I felt the goose bumps all over, so I surveyed around me and “dam!” no one was nearby. Immediately, I started to run and luckily the man was in no shape or form to compete with me. He lagged behind. Once I kept my distance, I held up my phone and told him I was calling the police, so he stopped. He was angry, continued shouting “Kıtçay” waving his hand with a bottle of liquor, jumping up and down. He was drunk. I should have called Jeyhun, our PC security officer, but I did not...

Yesterday, another Azeri man approached me by the park entrance. His style was entirely different but it scared me as well. I met this man few days ago, he introduced himself to me and I felt his friendliness, so I chatted with me and told him about my Peace Corps story. He was on his forty but he looked much older. (most Azeri look older than their real age) He dressed well, had arrogant attitude, he probably was quite well off. I did not recognize him right away, so when he walked towards me, I just said “Salam”. He stopped in front of me and blocked my way, and then he said.

Mən sənə xoşlayıram, .....mənim seviləm....” (I like you.....my lover...)

I did not catch 100% of what he said, but I understood some of the words which made me feel very uneasy, especially the word “seviləm”. So I explained to him my Azeri was very poor, I did not understand. He at once repeated the sentence with a much more firm tone of voice and put two figures next to each other to clarify his meaning, this time I caught another word “istəyirəm” (want). Now I was sure I understood him correctly. Nevertheless, I pretended I did not. Politely, I said “Sag olun” (goodbye) and walked away. He went on saying something to me, but I could careless, just continued walking.

Finally, it was this crazy young fellow, who kept saying “I love you, I love you, I love!” every time I met him. He is Russian man who loves to meet foreigner. Carol and I met him once months ago, and he remembers me. I know that he did not mean any harm, just expressed his friendliness in a wrong way. He did try to grab my arm and asked me to dinner once, I just told him that I was married and that was the end of it.

Again, with three different encounters, I still did not feel unsafe. Most Azeri men I met were very friendly and courteous. There are bad apples in every tree, so I am not going to lock myself inside my own apartment just because of those incidents. Usually I have my cellular phone with Jeyhun’s number ready, as soon as I press the “send” button, Jeyhun and I will be connected.

But starting tomorrow, I will take my daily walk earlier and avoid the quiet sections.