Carnival of the Revolutions

This week's Carnival of the Revolutions has gone up at Blogrel, which I was delighted to discover is an Armenian-oriented blog created by writers who--like me--are non-Armenians wise enough to recognize a great thing when they see it. I haven't written much about Armenia, just one post that I can recall, but that's only because my connection is more familial and culinary than political. (Now that I think of it, if I found time to write about Belgian frites, I should do the same for the amazing yogurt kefta soup my step-daughter makes.)

The crew at Blogrel have done an admirable job of bringing together this week's collection of revolution- and democracy-oriented stories. In particular, this week I recommend looking at the progress and regress of democracy in Azerbaijan, which I wrote about back in June. Blogrel points us to Marianna Idrisova Gurtovnik's observations on the lead-up to elections there--a fascinating look at the behind-the-scenes reality of the electoral side of democratic revolutions, the not-so-boring stuff that goes on while we're posting photos of people dancing in the streets. Blogrel no doubt has tons more on the topic of change in Azerbaijan; I will get to it when my eyes are a little less bleary.

Blogrel is also going up in my sidebar as a Consciousness-Raising Link. Have a look.