I was born in Baku on March 13, 1978 and have spent most of my life here. I do not consider myself a native though, since my parents moved here from Shamakhi, 100 kilometres or so to the east. As a child, I lived in the capital’s Khutor region, which at the time was mainly home to Armenians. Most of my friends were Armenians until I turned 10, when they fled the inter-ethnic violence that heralded the Karabakh war.