On 22 October, political analyst and famous blogger Ilgar Mammadov delivered a lecture to the students of the Free Thought University (FTU) about NATO and Azerbaijan.

Thanks to Internet and in particular, Wikipedia, he said, we all can now learn about NATO, its history and structures just in a few minutes. Thus, he wouldn’t talk about them, instead, would focus on questions like “does Azerbaijan need NATO?” – he added. Then Ilgar asked a question from the eager audience – who thinks that Azerbaijan is a bridge between the East and the West? A few people raised their hands, what was a good sign according to Ilgar. For the notion of being a bridge as a post-Soviet discourse which once invaded all major CIS countries was in fact stereotypical. After all, who wants to live under a bridge? – Ilgar repeated a famous question from 1990s.

How we can benefit from NATO and should we join that organization? Does the region needs to undertake such an integration process and should it be followed with integration in local scale such as South Caucasus integration? Would Azerbaijan benefit or lose from these processes?

Ilgar Mammadov and the students of FTU had fruitful discussions over these questions throughout the lecture. After all, we haven’t gained our independence to build new walls – was the common consensus.