Natural Nation: Cultivating a Post-Extractive Azerbaijan
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Natural Nation: Cultivating a Post-Extractive Azerbaijan Zsuzsanna Dominika Ihar 2020 Word count: 31264 A thesis submitted in fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts (Research), Department of Sociology and Social Policy, School of Social and Political Sciences, Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences, University of Sydney. Year of Award: 2021 1 Statement of originality I certify that the intellectual content of this thesis is the product of my own work and that all the assistance received in preparing this thesis and sources have been acknowledged. Zsuzsanna Dominika Ihar 30th December 2020 2 Abstract The past decade has witnessed the proliferation of numerous ‘greening projects’ across Azerbaijan, aimed at transforming environments vandalised by hydrocarbon exploration and industrial agriculture into biodiverse havens, zones of conservation, and sustainable residential developments. This has been achieved via the uptake of remediation, horticulture, and naturalisation technologies by both state and corporate actors, shifting practices of extraction towards that of an alleged ‘post-extraction’. Here, ecological initiatives designed to cultivate and alter physical environments, as well as material interactions, seep into intimate circulations of life, reconfiguring relations between an array of human, vegetal, and animal beings. With a marked capacity for worldmaking, these initiatives have also become foundational elements in state- sponsored projects concerned with the renewal of national identity, territorial borders, and articulations of a cosmopolitan agenda. This dissertation attends to the ways in which more-than-human life has been mobilised by Azerbaijan's government, particularly for the purposes of nation-making and the creation of post- extractive environments. I look at how these processes have led to the reconfiguration of more- than-human relations and the transformation of everyday life in the name of a bourgeoning form of eco-nationalism. Simultaneously, I attend to the rejection of such reconfigurations by communities who articulate alternative understandings of the more-than-human, and locate value and potential in relations deemed unviable, unruly, and disordered by the post-extractive Azeri state. To this end, drawing on Science and Technology Studies (STS), relational ethnography, and more-than-human geography, I extend the concept of ecologized biopolitics to examine how the cultivation of seed orchards, mass-tree planting campaigns, urban greening projects, and 3 biodiversity monitoring work in tandem with processes of militarisation, securitisation, and urban gentrification. In addition, I speculate on the continued viability of nature as a general concept and instead propose a reformulation of nature as a set of substantive material conditions with exploitable affordances. Finally, I offer an extended theorisation of environmental naturalisation (and remediation) as foremost a political practice, allowing the Azeri state and select members of its populace to mobilise a range of material practices and affective logics around nationhood, land, and belonging in the attempted realisation of a 'clean', 'green', and 'cosmopolitan' future. Such practices and visions, I stress, do not go uncontested. The promissory register of environmental care is shown to be particularly vulnerable to co- optation by the state, with nationalist rhetoric increasingly mimicking concepts of multispecies entanglement and ecological harmony, assuring the revival of life in zones of acute contamination, conflict, and ruin. I explore the emergent relations between humans and nonhumans incorporated into state-sponsored environmental projects, as well as the differential framings of life. I foreground the experiences of those outside of the category of biological ally and charismatic companion, cast off as a killable invasive and pest. Through this, the conceptualisation of environmental custodianship as a morally unproblematic venture will be contested and instead linked to practices of displacement, resettlement, and extermination – whether through the unquestioned razing of industrial zones to make way for state-owned property development, or the entrenchment of militarism in the everyday. Within the scope of my research I use cultivation as a touchstone for several interweaving processes: technologically produced 'natural' environments, the obfuscation of militarism via environmental greening, and the collapsing of boundaries between the nation and nature in the general imaginary. These processes allude to the non-existence of an originary or intrinsic natural world which could come to constitute the 'authentic' or 'legitimate' sovereign state. Ultimately, 4 through cultivation material arrangements settle into political attachments to land, imposing authority, and encouraging an investment in productivity and further exploitation. Despite the role that cultivation has in nation- and nature-making, I propose that it may also foster the creation of nonsovereign imaginaries, where environments resistant to co-optation by nationalist agenda, and the mandates of the state, are dreamt up and put into practice. By returning to its root kwelə-, meaning to 'move around, sojourn, dwell', cultivation transforms into a practice of wandering – moving through feral communities, ruderal allotments, and pockets of messy, experimental, and unlikely co-existence. 5 Table of Contents Acknowledgements 7 Abbreviations 8 Chapter 1. Cultivating 9 Chapter 2. Field of Play: Militarised Environments and a Biodiverse State 27 -An Axe to Grind 35 -Pollution as a Weapon of War 50 -Border Trees and Biodiverse Arsenals 62 Chapter 3. Unruly Subjects & Unsupervised Worlds: Finding an Alternative 71 through the Cracks -The Black City’s Oasis 77 -Tending to a Ruderal Home 81 -When Stray Becomes Yoldaş 92 -Breaking Bread with Uninvited Guests 97 Conclusion. Uprooting 103 Bibliography 105 6 Acknowledgments This thesis would not have been possible were it not for the support and guidance of many people. First and foremost, my friends and interlocutors in the Black City, for inviting me in for a cup of tea and proceeding to spend countless hours sharing stories of survival and know-how. Most especially, Aytəkin, who put up with my faulty Azerbaijani and showed me kindness amidst confusion. In line with confidentiality agreements, others remain unnamed — though this does not lessen my gratitude and admiration. My supervisors, Associate Professors Sonja van Wichelen and Astrida Neimanis, have been unwaveringly generous, patient, and attentive; encouraging me to not only develop my own habits as a scholar but also my own language. I would like to thank Dr. Sophie Chao for believing in my capacity to do justice to the work. The collectives I had a chance to be a part of also deserve mention – particularly the MSJ reading group, Everyday Militarisms, and, the Biopolitics of Science Network. Amidst the pandemic, these groups ended up being a salve against loneliness and solipsism. I am grateful for the care and love of my friends during my time as a graduate student — with special thanks to Zachary Moore-Boyle and Emma Cross for the crisis meetings, ocean dips and sneaky book discounts. Thank you to my parents for constantly asking and helping, particularly during times I opted for silence and stubbornness. My partner, Gabriel, for showing me that one does not require elegant proof. And finally, to Spánik Erzsébet, for everything. This work was supported by the Australian Government Research Training Program (RTP), the University of Sydney Grants-in-Aid scheme, and the Kath O'Neil Scholarship. 7 Abbreviations AZERCOSMOS: Azercosmos Open Joint Stock Company AZERTAC: Azerbaijan State News Agency BP: British Petroleum IDP: Internally Displaced Person/People MENR: Ministry of Ecology and Natural Resources MFA: Ministry of Foreign Affairs OECD: Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development OIPA: The International Organization for Animal Protection OSCE: Conference on Security and Cooperation in Europe SOCAR: The State Oil Company of Azerbaijan Republic 8 Chapter 1 Cultivating Opening Invocation Arriving in the capital city of Azerbaijan by plane provides a bird's-eye view of vast turquoise waters dotted with black smudges and the reflective sheen of rigs. The Caspian Sea seemingly bleeds into an arid landscape where metallic shapes merge with uneven buildings and miscellaneous clusters of life, rejecting simplification all whilst demanding absolute attention. It is dizzying and messy but manages to accurately depict the complexity of a country undergoing considerable economic, political and social shifts – a space where there might just be enough leeway for something provisional and unexpected to emerge. However, at ground level and away from the expansiveness of higher altitudes, one settles into a different line of sight. The smudges, gradients, and vast vistas of water and land seen during the flight to Baku are all but obstructed and hidden by the walls and barriers lining the highway between Heydar Aliyev airport and the rest of the city. Whilst some are made of sandstone and resemble archaic city walls, most of the structures are made of uniform plastic panels decorated with vivid illustrations and digital renderings of flora and fauna. With illustrations of sprawling scenery, vivid garden beds in bloom, and an assortment of animals dotting the landscapes with softened and quasi-humanised features, the worksite walls are transformed