A prominent Azerbaijani legal and economic expert has sharply criticized the state of academic research in the country, arguing that Azerbaijan has failed to build real scientific schools or produce internationally recognized scholars in key fields.
Speaking to Pravda.az, Akram Hasanov said that despite the abundance of academic titles and dissertations, the country lacks genuine scientific achievement.
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“There is no real science here. How can we talk about Nobel-level research when there is no scientific foundation to begin with?” he said. “In Azerbaijan, economics is empty. There is no academic research. The same applies to law, history, philology, political science, sociology – it makes no difference.”
Hasanov stressed that scientific credentials in the country have largely become symbolic.
“Doctoral dissertations are mostly formalities. There is no substantial work behind them. Where are the academic books? Where are the groundbreaking studies devoted to Azerbaijan’s economy?” he asked. “In the fields of economics and law, we have never had true scholars.”
He acknowledged that Azerbaijan once had distinguished researchers in history, citing the late Farida Mammadova, Ziya Bunyadov, and Igrar Aliyev. But today, he argues, even these disciplines have been overtaken by politics.
“History and philology have become completely politicized,” Hasanov said. “And in humanitarian disciplines more broadly, there is not a single scholar who can be considered a real scientist.”
His remarks have sparked debate online, touching on long-standing concerns about the quality of academic work, the integrity of dissertations, and the absence of internationally recognized research output in the social sciences.
