Azerbaijan Diary: A Rogue Reporter's Adventures in an Oil-Rich, War-Torn, Post-Soviet Republic

All I have to say is that he was in an overloaded helicopter escaping from a soon-to-be overrun village and they cleared a mountain pass by 5 feet. Insanely good book about the part of the world I'd most like to visit.

Plus, my professor met him in a bar in Tiflis.

First the ad hominem: Goltz is the worst kind of journalist in that he pairs a vocal bias with zero understanding of history. A deadly combination where peoples' lives are at stake. He doesn't just report the facts (though he does indeed report some very valuable facts), he writes incomplete accounts of complex military events, and delivers emotionally inspirational keynote addresses to groups of Azerbaijanis, which you can find transcripts of on the web. Not the kind of guy you want feeding you information about an under-reported war in a distant place.

Unfortunately, it's all we have in English (and, to be fair, what we have not in English is even more biased and emotional.) Hence two stars instead of one. And Goltz is not only up front about his pro-Turkic bias (his wife is Turkish), he is honest about the failings of the Azerbaijani government's policies, and reasons for loss of this war. He does say that the Azeris didn't need the Armenians as enemies when they had their own government... and that is the painful truth. There are also a lot of interesting anecdotes here, in spite of what the more vituperative reviewers claim.

The real value of the book, however, is as study in the psychology of the mind of a megamaniacal dilettant (i.e., Goltz) who, like many of journalists, believe they are participants in, not just the scribes of, history. Witness lines from this book such as "It was my own little gesture at stopping World War III". Is that supposed to be humorous?

Taken as a piece of literature, subject matter aside, the problem with the book is Goltz's unbearable self-importance and flat tone of voice (the sections on Kelbajar and Khojali excepted). Goltz published an earlier book called "Requiem for a Would-be Republic" from which most of this book is extracted. "Requiem" has a very rushed (and amateurish) feel and in "AZ Diary" he didn't even bother to correct that. I think Goltz has read a little too much Hunter S. Thompson. Or maybe he's rushing to meet some deadline? If Mr. Goltz is reading this, I would recommend he read Michael Herr's "Dispatches" before writing another book.

Goltz also, the reader will notice, behaves like he knows the history of the region, when clearly he doesn't know anything but what he was told on the ground.

If you can overlook pretentiousness, absence of historical context and flatness of tone, there is some value in this book. If only a better and more imaginative writer had Goltz's courage to be in Azerbaijan at the time of the conflict.

I agree with other reviewers that Mr. Goltz is probably not a paid propagandist. There is no evidence of this; To me he comes off as just a sucker who got taken in by a cause not rightly his, and who wants, for personal reasons, to be the champion of a people he sees, rightly or wrongly, as victims of injustice.

Finally, a writer who is not afraid to tell the truth. If you listen to all the pro-Armenian propoganda, you would think that all Azeris are monsters. The book does an excellent job in exposing the real truth behind the conflict. It shows you the real horror, aggression, unbelievable violence Azeris had to go through. The chapters brought me to tears and made me remember all the horrors I saw and experienced first hand. The images of little children lying lifeless, old people burned to death with fingers cut up are just some of the things I have to live with my whole life. Years have passed but I still haven't recovered from all the horror and cruelty I saw back when I was a child. If just one person can learn the real truth from reading this book, I'll know my struggles were not in vain. God bless the United States and God bless Azerbaijan. My heart goes out to all who suffered.

One question that I have to Thomas Goltz is how much money was he paid by Azeri propaganda machine?

I am a refugee from Karabakh, Shahumyan region, which was completely destroyed by Azeri army by fall 1992 just because It was populated by Armenians. More than 500 innocent people mostly elderly, who could not cross mountains to get refuge, were tortured and killed by Azeries. My own grandfather got killed by an artillery shell while digging potatoes in our back yard.

Mr. Goltz, every person deserves the right to live free and Armenians of Karabakh are no exception. They have the right to defend their land and freedom and what they did is no different from American Revolution against colonial England.

God Bless America, God Bless Armenia and INDEPENDENT Karabakh!

This book is a completely bias/one-sided perception of the events in and around Nagorno-Karabagh. How can Karabagh be claimed by Azerbaijan when it contains CENTURIES old churches and artifacts Armenian in orgin present till TODAY! He neglects to mention the massacres of Sumgait, Baku, Shushi, Kirovabad, Maragha, and Stepanakert where hundreds of Armenian men, women, and children were beaten, raped, and burned alive. Goltz has even lobbied in Congress for Azerbaijan, opposing Section 907(1992) which "condemned the human rights violations by the Azeri's."

On November 20, 2003 (today) Goltz hosted a lecture at the University of CA in Irvine and was swarmed by questions after the lecture that exposed the contradictions in his book, the holes in his assertions, and his omissions of key historical insight. He was only able to dodge the questions before he left the lecture hall with an audience still present.

THOMAS GOLTZ IS AZERBAIJAN'S AND TURKEY'S POLITICAL PUPPET!