Azerbaijan

Azerbaijan (UK: /ˌæzərbaɪˈdʒɑːn,

-ˈʒɑːn/ ( listen), US: /ˌɑːzərbaɪˈdʒɑːn, ˌæz-/;[9]
Azerbaijani: Azərbaycan [ɑːzæɾbɑjˈd͡ʒɑn]),
officially the Republic of Azerbaijan
(Azerbaijani: Azərbaycan Respublikası
[ɑːzæɾbɑjˈd͡ʒɑn ɾespublikɑˈsɯ]), is a
country in the Caucasus region of Eurasia.
Located at the crossroads of Eastern
Europe and Western Asia,[10] it is bounded
by the Caspian Sea to the east, the Russian
 Republic of Azerbaijan
Azərbaycan
Respublikası  (Azerbaijani)

Flag National emblem

Anthem: 
Azərbaycan marşı
"March of Azerbaijan"
0:00 / 0:00

Location of Azerbaijan (green) with territory

controlled by the self-proclaimed Nagorno-
 Karabakh Republic shown in light green.[a]

Capital Baku
and largest city 40°23′43″N 49°52′56″E

Official languages Azerbaijani[1]

Ethnic minority Armenian

languages Avar
Budukh
Georgian
Juhuri
Khinalug
Kryts
Kurdish
 Lezgian
Russian
Rutul
Talysh
Tat
Tsakhur
Udi

Ethnic groups 91.6% Azerbaijani

(2009[2]) 2.0% Lezgian
1.4% Armenian
1.3% Russian
1.3% Talysh
2.4% others

Religion 96.9% Islam

3.0% Christianity
0.1% Other[3]
Demonym(s) Azerbaijani
Government Unitary semi-
presidential republic[4]

• President Ilham Aliyev

• Vice President Mehriban Aliyeva

• Prime Minister Ali Asadov

• National Assembly Sahiba Gafarova

Speaker

Legislature National Assembly

Formation

• Democratic Republic 28 May 1918

• Soviet Socialist 28 April 1920

Republic

• Independence from 30 August 1991

 Soviet Union (declared)
18 October 1991
(independence)
25 December 1991

• Full membership into (completed)

21 December 1991
the CIS

• Admitted to the 2 March 1992

United Nations

• Constitution adopted 12 November 1995

Area

• Total 86,600 km2
(33,400 sq mi) (112th)

• Water (%) 1.6

Population

• 2019 estimate 10,127,874[5] (91st)

• Density 115/km2
(297.8/sq mi) (99th)
GDP (PPP) 2019 estimate

• Total $189.050 billion[6]

• Per capita $18,793[6]

GDP (nominal) 2019 estimate

• Total $45.284 billion[6]

• Per capita $4,498[6]

Gini (2005) 26.6[7]
low

HDI (2019)  0.756[8]
high · 88th

Currency Manat (₼) (AZN)

Time zone UTC+4 (AZT)

Driving side right

Calling code +994
ISO 3166 code AZ

Internet TLD .az

The Azerbaijan Democratic Republic

proclaimed its independence from the
Russian Empire in 1918 and became the
first secular democratic Muslim-majority
state. In 1920, the country was
incorporated into the Soviet Union as the
Azerbaijan Soviet Socialist Republic.[11][12]
The modern Republic of Azerbaijan
proclaimed its independence on 30 August
1991,[13] shortly before the dissolution of
the USSR in the same year. In September
1991, the Armenian majority of the
disputed Nagorno-Karabakh region
seceded to form the Republic of
Artsakh.[14] The region and seven
surrounding districts, internationally
recognized as part of Azerbaijan pending a
solution to the status of the Nagorno-
Karabakh through negotiations facilitated
by the OSCE, became de facto independent
with the end of the First Nagorno-
Karabakh War in 1994.[15][16][17][18]
Following the 2020 Nagorno-Karabakh
war, the seven districts and parts of
Nagorno-Karabakh were returned to
Azerbaijani control.[19]
Azerbaijan is a unitary semi-presidential[4]
republic. It is one of six independent Turkic
states and an active member of the Turkic
Council and the TÜRKSOY community.
Azerbaijan has diplomatic relations with
182 countries and holds membership in 38
international organizations,[20] including
the United Nations (since 1992), the
Council of Europe, the Non-Aligned
Movement, the OSCE, and the NATO
Partnership for Peace (PfP) program. It is
one of the founding members of GUAM,
the Commonwealth of Independent States
(CIS)[21] and the Organisation for the
Prohibition of Chemical Weapons.
Azerbaijan also holds observer status in
the World Trade Organization.[20][22]

While around 97% of the population is

Muslim,[23] the Constitution of Azerbaijan
does not declare an official religion and all
major political forces in the country are
secularist. Azerbaijan is a developing
country and ranks 87th on the Human
Development Index.[24] It has a high rate of
economic development[25] and literacy,[26]
as well as a low rate of unemployment.[27]
However, the ruling party, the New
Azerbaijan Party, in power since 1993, has
been accused of authoritarian leadership
and the deterioration of the country's
human rights record, including increasing
restrictions on civil liberties, particularly on
press freedom and political repression.[28]

Etymology
According to a modern etymology, the
term Azerbaijan derives from that of
Atropates,[29][30] a Persian[31][32][33] satrap
under the Achaemenid Empire, who was
later reinstated as the satrap of Media
under Alexander the Great.[34][35] The
original etymology of this name is thought
to have its roots in the once-dominant
Zoroastrianism. In the Avesta's Frawardin
Yasht ("Hymn to the Guardian Angels"),
there is a mention of âterepâtahe ashaonô
fravashîm ýazamaide, which literally
translates from Avestan as "we worship
the fravashi of the holy Atropatene."[36] The
name "Atropates" itself is the Greek
transliteration of an Old Iranian, probably
Median, compounded name with the
meaning "Protected by the (Holy) Fire" or
"The Land of the (Holy) Fire".[37] The Greek
name was mentioned by Diodorus Siculus
and Strabo. Over the span of millennia, the
name evolved to Āturpātākān (Middle
Persian), then to Ādharbādhagān,
Ādharbāyagān, Āzarbāydjān (New Persian)
and present-day Azerbaijan.
The name Azerbaijan was first adopted for
the area of the present-day Republic of
Azerbaijan by the government of Musavat
in 1918,[38] after the collapse of the
Russian Empire, when the independent
Azerbaijan Democratic Republic was
established. Until then, the designation had
been used exclusively to identify the
adjacent region of contemporary
northwestern Iran,[39][40][41][42] while the
area of the Azerbaijan Democratic
Republic was formerly referred to as Arran
and Shirvan.[43] On that basis Iran
protested the newly adopted country
name.[44]
During the Soviet rule, the country was also
spelled in Latin from the Russian
transliteration as Azerbaydzhan (Russian:
Азербайджа́н).[45] The country's name
was also spelled in Cyrillic script from
1940 to 1991 as "Азәрбајҹан".

History

Antiquity

Petroglyphs in Gobustan National Park dating back

to the 10th millennium BC indicating a thriving
culture. It is a UNESCO World Heritage Site
considered to be of "outstanding universal value"
considered to be of "outstanding universal value".

The earliest evidence of human settlement

in the territory of Azerbaijan dates back to
the late Stone Age and is related to the
Guruchay culture of Azykh Cave.[46]

Early settlements included the Scythians

during the 9th century BC.[37] Following the
Scythians, Iranian Medes came to
dominate the area to the south of the Aras
river.[35] The Medes forged a vast empire
between 900 and 700 BC, which was
integrated into the Achaemenid Empire
around 550 BC.[47] The area was
conquered by the Achaemenids leading to
the spread of Zoroastrianism.[48]

From the Sasanid period to the

Safavid period

The Maiden Tower and The Palace of the

Shirvanshahs in the Old City of Baku is a
UNESCO World Heritage Site built in the
11th–12th century.

The Sasanian Empire turned Caucasian

Albania into a vassal state in 252, while
King Urnayr officially adopted Christianity
as the state religion in the 4th century.[49]
Despite Sassanid rule, Albania remained
an entity in the region until the 9th century,
while fully subordinate to Sassanid Iran,
and retained its monarchy. Despite being
one of the chief vassals of the Sasanian
emperor, the Albanian king had only a
semblance of authority, and the Sasanian
marzban (military governor) held most
civil, religious, and military authority.[50]

In the first half of the 7th century,

Caucasian Albania, as a vassal of the
Sasanians, came under nominal Muslim
rule due to the Muslim conquest of Persia.
The Umayyad Caliphate repulsed both the
Sasanians and Byzantines from
Transcaucasia and turned Caucasian
Albania into a vassal state after Christian
resistance led by King Javanshir, was
suppressed in 667. The power vacuum left
by the decline of the Abbasid Caliphate
was filled by numerous local dynasties
such as the Sallarids, Sajids, and
Shaddadids. At the beginning of the 11th
century, the territory was gradually seized
by the waves of Oghuz Turks from Central
Asia, who adopted a Turkoman ethnonym
at the time.[51] The first of these Turkic
dynasties established was the Seljuk
Empire, who entered the area now known
as Azerbaijan by 1067.[52]

The pre-Turkic population that lived on the

territory of modern Azerbaijan spoke
several Indo-European and Caucasian
languages, among them
Armenian[53][54][55][56][57] and an Iranian
language, Old Azeri, which was gradually
replaced by a Turkic language, the early
precursor of the Azerbaijani language of
today.[58] Some linguists have also stated
that the Tati dialects of Iranian Azerbaijan
and the Republic of Azerbaijan, like those
spoken by the Tats, are descended from
Old Azeri.[59][60] Locally, the possessions
of the subsequent Seljuk Empire were
ruled by Eldiguzids, technically vassals of
the Seljuk sultans, but sometimes de facto
rulers themselves. Under the Seljuks, local
poets such as Nizami Ganjavi and Khaqani
gave rise to a blossoming of Persian
literature on the territory of present-day
Azerbaijan.[61][62]

The local dynasty of the Shirvanshahs

became a vassal state of Timur's Empire,
and assisted him in his war with the ruler
of the Golden Horde Tokhtamysh.
Following Timur's death, two independent
and rival states emerged: Kara Koyunlu
and Aq Qoyunlu. The Shirvanshahs
returned, maintaining for numerous
centuries to come a high degree of
autonomy as local rulers and vassals as
they had done since 861. In 1501, the
Safavid dynasty of Iran subdued the
Shirvanshahs and gained its possessions.
In the course of the next century, the
Safavids converted the formerly Sunni
population to Shia Islam,[63][64][65] as they
did with the population in what is modern-
day Iran.[66] The Safavids allowed the
Shirvanshahs to remain in power, under
Safavid suzerainty, until 1538, when
Safavid king Tahmasp I (r. 1524–1576)
completely deposed them, and made the
area into the Safavid province of Shirvan.
The Sunni Ottomans briefly managed to
occupy parts of present-day Azerbaijan as
a result of the Ottoman-Safavid War of
1578–1590; by the early 17th century, they
were ousted by Safavid Iranian ruler Abbas
I (r. 1588–1629). In the wake of the demise
of the Safavid Empire, Baku and its
environs were briefly occupied by the
Russians as a consequence of the Russo-
Persian War of 1722–1723. Despite brief
intermissions such as these by Safavid
Iran's neighboring rivals, the land of what is
today Azerbaijan remained under Iranian
rule from the earliest advent of the
Safavids up to the course of the 19th
century.[67][68]
Contemporary history

Territories of the khanates (and sultanates) in the

18th–19th century

After the Safavids, the area was ruled by

the Iranian Afsharid dynasty. After the
death of Nader Shah (r. 1736–1747), many
of his former subjects capitalized on the
eruption of instability. Numerous self-ruling
khanates with various forms of
autonomy[69][70][71][72][73] emerged in the
area. The rulers of these khanates were
directly related to the ruling dynasties of
Iran, and were vassals and subjects of the
Iranian shah.[74] The khanates exercised
control over their affairs via international
trade routes between Central Asia and the
West.[75]

Thereafter, the area was under the

successive rule of the Iranian Zands and
Qajars.[76] From the late 18th century,
Imperial Russia switched to a more
aggressive geo-political stance towards its
two neighbors and rivals to the south,
namely Iran and the Ottoman Empire.[77]
Russia now actively tried to gain
possession of the Caucasus region which
was, for the most part, in the hands of
Iran.[78] In 1804, the Russians invaded and
sacked the Iranian town of Ganja, sparking
the Russo-Persian War of 1804–1813.[79]
The militarily superior Russians ended the
Russo-Persian War of 1804–1813 with a
victory.[80]
The siege of Ganja Fortress in 1804 during the
Russo-Persian War of 1804–1813

Following Qajar Iran's loss in the 1804–

1813 war, it was forced to concede
suzerainty over most of the khanates,
along with Georgia and Dagestan to the
Russian Empire, per the Treaty of
Gulistan.[81]

The area to the north of the river Aras,

amongst which territory lies the
contemporary Republic of Azerbaijan, was
Iranian territory until it was occupied by
Russia in the 19th
century.[11][82][83][84][85][86] About a decade
later, in violation of the Gulistan treaty, the
Russians invaded Iran's Erivan
Khanate.[87][88] This sparked the final bout
of hostilities between the two, the Russo-
Persian War of 1826–1828. The resulting
Treaty of Turkmenchay, forced Qajar Iran
to cede sovereignty over the Erivan
Khanate, the Nakhchivan Khanate and the
remainder of the Lankaran Khanate,[81]
comprising the last parts of the soil of the
contemporary Azerbaijani Republic that
were still in Iranian hands. After
incorporation of all Caucasian territories
from Iran into Russia, the new border
between the two was set at the Aras River,
which, upon the Soviet Union's
disintegration, subsequently became part
of the border between Iran and the
Azerbaijan Republic.[89]

Qajar Iran was forced to cede its

Caucasian territories to Russia in the 19th
century, which thus included the territory of
the modern-day Azerbaijan Republic, while
as a result of that cession, the Azerbaijani
ethnic group is nowadays parted between
two nations: Iran and Azerbaijan.[90]
Nevertheless, the number of ethnic
Azerbaijanis in Iran far outnumber those in
neighboring Azerbaijan.[91]

After the collapse of the Russian Empire

during World War I, the short-lived
Transcaucasian Democratic Federative
Republic was declared, constituting the
present-day republics of Azerbaijan,
Georgia, and Armenia. It was followed by
the March Days massacres[92][93] that took
place between 30 March and 2 April 1918
in the city of Baku and adjacent areas of
the Baku Governorate of the Russian
Empire.[94] When the republic dissolved in
May 1918, the leading Musavat party
declared independence as the Azerbaijan
Democratic Republic (ADR), adopting the
name of "Azerbaijan" for the new republic;
a name that prior to the proclamation of
the ADR was solely used to refer to the
adjacent northwestern region of
contemporary Iran.[39][40][41] The ADR was
the first modern parliamentary republic in
the Muslim world.[11][95][96] Among the
important accomplishments of the
Parliament was the extension of suffrage
to women, making Azerbaijan the first
Muslim nation to grant women equal
political rights with men.[95] Another
important accomplishment of ADR was
the establishment of Baku State University,
which was the first modern-type university
founded in the Muslim East.[95]

Map presented by the delegation of Azerbaijan in the

1919 Paris Peace Conference

By March 1920, it was obvious that Soviet

Russia would attack Baku. Vladimir Lenin
said that the invasion was justified as
Soviet Russia could not survive without
Baku's oil.[97][98] Independent Azerbaijan
lasted only 23 days until the Bolshevik
11th Soviet Red Army invaded it,
establishing the Azerbaijan SSR on 28 April
1920. Although the bulk of the newly
formed Azerbaijani army was engaged in
putting down an Armenian revolt that had
just broken out in Karabakh, Azerbaijanis
did not surrender their brief independence
of 1918–20 quickly or easily. As many as
20,000 Azerbaijani soldiers died resisting
what was effectively a Russian
reconquest.[99]

On 13 October 1921, the Soviet republics

of Russia, Armenia, Azerbaijan, and
Georgia signed an agreement with Turkey
known as the Treaty of Kars. The
previously independent Republic of Aras
would also become the Nakhichevan
Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic
within the Azerbaijan SSR by the treaty of
Kars. On the other hand, Armenia was
awarded the region of Zangezur and
Turkey agreed to return Gyumri (then
known as Alexandropol).[100]

During World War II, Azerbaijan played a

crucial role in the strategic energy policy of
the Soviet Union, with 80 percent of the
Soviet Union's oil on the Eastern Front
being supplied by Baku. By the Decree of
the Supreme Soviet of the USSR in
February 1942, the commitment of more
than 500 workers and employees of the oil
industry of Azerbaijan were awarded
orders and medals. Operation Edelweiss
carried out by the German Wehrmacht
targeted Baku because of its importance
as the energy (petroleum) dynamo of the
USSR.[11] A fifth of all Azerbaijanis fought
in the Second World War from 1941 to
1945. Approximately 681,000 people with
over 100,000 of them women went to the
front, while the total population of
Azerbaijan was 3.4 million at the time.[101]
Some 250,000 people from Azerbaijan
were killed on the front. More than 130
Azerbaijanis were named Heroes of the
Soviet Union. Azerbaijani Major-General Azi
Aslanov was twice awarded the Hero of
the Soviet Union.[102]

Independence

Red Army paratroops during the Black January

tragedy in 1990

Following the politics of glasnost, initiated

by Mikhail Gorbachev, civil unrest and
ethnic strife grew in various regions of the
Soviet Union, including Nagorno-
Karabakh,[103] an autonomous region of
the Azerbaijan SSR. The disturbances in
Azerbaijan, in response to Moscow's
indifference to an already heated conflict,
resulted in calls for independence and
secession, which culminated in the Black
January events in Baku.[104] Later in 1990,
the Supreme Council of the Azerbaijan SSR
dropped the words "Soviet Socialist" from
the title, adopted the "Declaration of
Sovereignty of the Azerbaijan Republic"
and restored the flag of the Azerbaijan
Democratic Republic as the state flag.[105]
As a consequence of the failed coup which
occurred in August in Moscow, on 18
October 1991, the Supreme Council of
Azerbaijan adopted a Declaration of
Independence which was affirmed by a
nationwide referendum in December 1991,
while the Soviet Union officially ceased to
exist on 26 December 1991.[105] The
country now celebrates its Independence
Day on 18 October.[106]

The early years of independence were

overshadowed by the First Nagorno-
Karabakh war with the ethnic Armenian
majority of Nagorno-Karabakh backed by
Armenia.[107] By the end of the hostilities in
1994, Armenians controlled up to 14–16
percent of Azerbaijani territory, including
Nagorno-Karabakh itself.[108][109] During
the war many atrocities were committed
including the massacres at Malibeyli and
Gushchular, the Garadaghly massacre, the
Agdaban and the Khojaly
massacres.[110][111] Furthermore, an
estimated 30,000 people have been killed
and more than a million people have been
displaced.[112] Four United Nations
Security Council Resolutions (822, 853,
874, and 884) demand for "the immediate
withdrawal of all Armenian forces from all
occupied territories of Azerbaijan."[113]
Many Russians and Armenians left and
fled Azerbaijan as refugees during the
1990s.[114] According to the 1970 census,
there were 510,000 ethnic Russians and
484,000 Armenians in Azerbaijan.[115]

Military situation in the Nagorno-Karabakh region

prior to the 2020 Nagorno-Karabakh war

In 1993, democratically elected president

Abulfaz Elchibey was overthrown by a
military insurrection led by Colonel Surat
Huseynov, which resulted in the rise to
power of the former leader of Soviet
Azerbaijan, Heydar Aliyev.[116] In 1994,
Surat Huseynov, by that time the prime
minister, attempted another military coup
against Heydar Aliyev, but he was arrested
and charged with treason.[117] A year later,
in 1995, another coup was attempted
against Aliyev, this time by the commander
of the OMON special unit, Rovshan
Javadov. The coup was averted, resulting
in the killing of the latter and disbanding of
Azerbaijan's OMON units.[118][119] At the
same time, the country was tainted by
rampant corruption in the governing
bureaucracy.[120] In October 1998, Aliyev
was reelected for a second term. Despite
the much improved economy, particularly
with the exploitation of the Azeri-Chirag-
Guneshli oil field and Shah Deniz gas field,
Aliyev's presidency was criticized due to
suspected election frauds, high levels of
economic inequality and domestic
corruption.[121]

Ilham Aliyev, Heydar Aliyev's son, became

chairman of the New Azerbaijan Party as
well as President of Azerbaijan when his
father died in 2003. He was reelected to a
third term as president in October
2013.[122] On 27 September 2020, new
clashes in the unresolved Nagorno-
Karabakh conflict resumed along the
Nagorno-Karabakh Line of Contact. Both
the armed forces of Azerbaijan and
Armenia reported military and civilian
casualties.[123] The Nagorno-Karabakh
ceasefire agreement and the end of the
six-week war between Azerbaijan and
Armenia was seen as a victory and was
widely celebrated in Azerbaijan.[124]

Geography

Köppen-Geiger climate classification map for

Azerbaijan.[125]
Caucasus Mountains in northern Azerbaijan

Geographically, Azerbaijan is located in the

South Caucasus region of Eurasia,
straddling Western Asia and Eastern
Europe. It lies between latitudes 38° and
42° N, and longitudes 44° and 51° E. The
total length of Azerbaijan's land borders is
2,648 km (1,645 mi), of which
1,007 kilometers are with Armenia,
756 kilometers with Iran, 480 kilometers
with Georgia, 390 kilometers with Russia
and 15 kilometers with Turkey.[126] The
coastline stretches for 800 km (497 mi),
and the length of the widest area of the
Azerbaijani section of the Caspian Sea is
456 km (283 mi).[126] The territory of
Azerbaijan extends 400 km (249 mi) from
north to south, and 500 km (311 mi) from
west to east.

Three physical features dominate

Azerbaijan: the Caspian Sea, whose
shoreline forms a natural boundary to the
east; the Greater Caucasus mountain
range to the north; and the extensive
flatlands at the country's center. There are
also three mountain ranges, the Greater
and Lesser Caucasus, and the Talysh
Mountains, together covering
approximately 40% of the country.[127] The
highest peak of Azerbaijan is Mount
Bazardüzü (4,466 m), while the lowest
point lies in the Caspian Sea (−28 m).
Nearly half of all the mud volcanoes on
Earth are concentrated in Azerbaijan, these
volcanoes were also among nominees for
the New7Wonders of Nature.[128]

The main water sources are surface

waters. However, only 24 of the 8,350
rivers are greater than 100 km (62 mi) in
length.[127] All the rivers drain into the
Caspian Sea in the east of the country.[127]
The largest lake is Sarysu (67 km2), and
the longest river is Kur (1,515 km), which is
transboundary with Armenia. Azerbaijan
has several islands along the Caspian sea,
mostly located in the Baku Archipelago.

Since the independence of Azerbaijan in

1991, the Azerbaijani government has
taken measures to preserve the
environment of Azerbaijan. National
protection of the environment accelerated
after 2001 when the state budget
increased due to new revenues provided by
the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan pipeline. Within
four years protected areas doubled and
now makeup eight percent of the country's
territory. Since 2001 the government has
set up seven large reserves and almost
doubled the sector of the budget
earmarked for environmental
protection.[129]

Landscape

Mount Bazarduzu, the highest peak of Azerbaijan, as

seen from Mount Shahdagh
The landscape of Khinalug valley

Azerbaijan is home to a vast variety of

landscapes. Over half of Azerbaijan's
landmass consists of mountain ridges,
crests, highlands, and plateaus which rise
up to hypsometric levels of 400–
1000 meters (including the Middle and
Lower lowlands), in some places (Talis,
Jeyranchol-Ajinohur and Langabiz-Alat
foreranges) up to 100–120 meters, and
others from 0–50 meters and up
(Qobustan, Absheron). The rest of
Azerbaijan's terrain consists of plains and
lowlands. Hypsometric marks within the
Caucasus region vary from about
−28 meters at the Caspian Sea shoreline
up to 4,466 meters (Bazardüzü peak).[130]

The formation of climate in Azerbaijan is

influenced particularly by cold arctic air
masses of Scandinavian anticyclone,
temperate air masses of Siberian
anticyclone, and Central Asian
anticyclone.[131] Azerbaijan's diverse
landscape affects the ways air masses
enter the country.[131] The Greater
Caucasus protects the country from direct
influences of cold air masses coming from
the north. That leads to the formation of
subtropical climate on most foothills and
plains of the country. Meanwhile, plains
and foothills are characterized by high
solar radiation rates.[132]

9 out of 11 existing climate zones are

present in Azerbaijan.[133] Both the
absolute minimum temperature (
−33 °C or −27.4 °F ) and the absolute
maximum temperature ( 46 °C or 114.8 °F )
were observed in Julfa and Ordubad –
regions of Nakhchivan Autonomous
Republic.[133] The maximum annual
precipitation falls in Lankaran (1,600 to
1,800 mm or 63 to 71 in) and the minimum
in Absheron (200 to 350 mm or 7.9 to
13.8 in).[133]
Murovdag is the highest mountain range in the
Lesser Caucasus.

Rivers and lakes form the principal part of

the water systems of Azerbaijan, they were
formed over a long geological timeframe
and changed significantly throughout that
period. This is particularly evidenced by
remnants of ancient rivers found
throughout the country. The country's
water systems are continually changing
under the influence of natural forces and
human introduced industrial activities.
Artificial rivers (canals) and ponds are a
part of Azerbaijan's water systems. In
terms of water supply, Azerbaijan is below
the average in the world with
approximately 100,000 cubic metres
(3,531,467 cubic feet) per year of water per
square kilometer.[133] All big water
reservoirs are built on Kur. The
hydrography of Azerbaijan basically
belongs to the Caspian Sea basin.

The Kura and Aras are the major rivers in

Azerbaijan, they run through the Kura-Aras
Lowland. The rivers that directly flow into
the Caspian Sea, originate mainly from the
north-eastern slope of the Major Caucasus
and Talysh Mountains and run along the
Samur–Devechi and Lankaran
lowlands.[134]

Yanar Dag, translated as "burning

mountain", is a natural gas fire which
blazes continuously on a hillside on the
Absheron Peninsula on the Caspian Sea
near Baku, which itself is known as the
"land of fire." Flames jet out into the air
from a thin, porous sandstone layer. It is a
tourist attraction to visitors to the Baku
area.[135]

Biodiversity
The Karabakh horse is the national animal of
Azerbaijan.

The first reports on the richness and

diversity of animal life in Azerbaijan can be
found in travel notes of Eastern travelers.
Animal carvings on architectural
monuments, ancient rocks, and stones
survived up to the present times. The first
information on the flora and fauna of
Azerbaijan was collected during the visits
of naturalists to Azerbaijan in the 17th
century.[127]

There are 106 species of mammals, 97

species of fish, 363 species of birds, 10
species of amphibians and 52 species of
reptiles which have been recorded and
classified in Azerbaijan.[127] The national
animal of Azerbaijan is the Karabakh
horse, a mountain-steppe racing and riding
horse endemic to Azerbaijan. The
Karabakh horse has a reputation for its
good temper, speed, elegance and
intelligence. It is one of the oldest breeds,
with ancestry dating to the ancient world.
However, today the horse is an endangered
species.[136]

Azerbaijan's flora consists of more than

4,500 species of higher plants. Due to the
unique climate in Azerbaijan, the flora is
much richer in the number of species than
the flora of the other republics of the South
Caucasus. 66 percent of the species
growing in the whole Caucasus can be
found in Azerbaijan.[137] The country lies
within four ecoregions: Caspian Hyrcanian
mixed forests, Caucasus mixed forests,
Eastern Anatolian montane steppe, and
Azerbaijan shrub desert and steppe.[138]
Azerbaijan had a 2018 Forest Landscape
Integrity Index mean score of 6.55/10,
ranking it 72nd globally out of 172
countries.[139]

Politics

Government building in Baku

The son of former President Heydar Aliyev, Ilham
Aliyev, succeeded his father and has remained in
power since 2003.

The structural formation of Azerbaijan's

political system was completed by the
adoption of the new Constitution on 12
November 1995. According to Article 23 of
the Constitution, the state symbols of the
Azerbaijan Republic are the flag, the coat
of arms, and the national anthem. The
state power in Azerbaijan is limited only by
law for internal issues, but for international
affairs is additionally limited by the
provisions of international agreements.[140]
The Constitution of Azerbaijan states that
it is a presidential republic with three
branches of power – Executive, Legislative,
and Judicial. The legislative power is held
by the unicameral National Assembly and
the Supreme National Assembly in the
Nakhchivan Autonomous Republic. The
Parliament of Azerbaijan, called Milli
Majlis, consists of 125 deputies elected
based on majority vote, with a term of 5
years for each elected member. The
elections are held every five years, on the
first Sunday of November. The Parliament
is not responsible for the formation of the
government, but the Constitution requires
the approval of the Cabinet of Ministers by
Milli Majlis.[141] The New Azerbaijan Party,
and independents loyal to the ruling
government, currently hold almost all of
the Parliament's 125 seats. During the
2010 Parliamentary election, the
opposition parties, Musavat and
Azerbaijani Popular Front Party, failed to
win a single seat. European observers
found numerous irregularities in the run-up
to the election and on election day.[142]

The executive power is held by the

President, who is elected for a seven-year
term by direct elections, and the Prime
Minister. The president is authorized to
form the Cabinet, a collective executive
body, accountable to both the President
and the National Assembly.[4] The Cabinet
of Azerbaijan consists primarily of the
prime minister, his deputies, and ministers.
The president does not have the right to
dissolve the National Assembly but has
the right to veto its decisions. To override
the presidential veto, the parliament must
have a majority of 95 votes. The judicial
power is vested in the Constitutional Court,
Supreme Court, and the Economic Court.
The president nominates the judges in
these courts. The European Commission
for the Efficiency of Justice (CEPEJ) report
refers to the Azerbaijani justice model on
the selection of new judges as best
practice, reflecting the particular features
and the course of development towards
ensuring the independence and quality of
the judiciary in a new democracy.[143][144]

Azerbaijan's system of governance

nominally can be called two-tiered. The
top or highest tier of the government is the
Executive Power headed by President. The
President appoints the Cabinet of
Ministers and other high-ranking officials.
The Local Executive Authority is merely a
continuation of Executive Power. The legal
status of local state administration in
Azerbaijan is determined by the Provision
on Local Executive Authority (Yerli Icra
Hakimiyati), adopted 16 June 1999. In
June 2012, the President approved the new
Regulation, which granted additional
powers to Local Executive Authorities,
strengthening their dominant position in
Azerbaijan's local affairs[145] Chapter 9 of
the Constitution of the Azerbaijan Republic
addresses major issues of local self-
government, such as the legal status of
municipalities, types of local self-
government bodies, their basic powers and
relationships to other official entities. The
other nominal tier of governance is
municipalities (Bələdiyə) and members of
municipalities are elected by a general
vote in Municipal elections every five
years. Currently, there are 1,607
municipalities across the country. The Law
on Municipal Elections and the Law on the
Status of Municipalities were the first to be
adopted in the field of local government (2
July 1999). The Law on Municipal Service
regulates the activities of municipal
employees, their rights, duties, labor
conditions and social benefits, and
outlines the structure of the executive
apparatus and the organization of
municipal service. The Law on the Status
of Municipalities regulates the role and
structure of municipal bodies and outlines
state guarantees of legal and financial
autonomy. The law pays special attention
to the adoption and execution of municipal
programs concerning social protection,
social and economic development, and the
local environment.

The Security Council is the deliberative

body under the president, and he organizes
it according to the Constitution. It was
established on 10 April 1997. The
administrative department is not a part of
the president's office but manages the
financial, technical and pecuniary activities
of both the president and his office.[146]

Although Azerbaijan has held several

elections since regaining its independence
and it has many of the formal institutions
of democracy, it remains classified as "not
free" (on border with "partly free") by
Freedom House.[147][148] In recent years,
large numbers of Azerbaijani journalists,
bloggers, lawyers, and human rights
activists have been rounded up and jailed
for their criticism of President Aliyev and
government authorities.[149] A resolution
adopted by the European Parliament in
September 2015 described Azerbaijan as
"having suffered the greatest decline in
democratic governance in all of Eurasia
over the past ten years," noting as well that
its dialogue with the country on human
rights has "not made any substantial
progress."[150] On 17 March 2016, the
President of Azerbaijan signed a decree
pardoning more than a dozen of the
persons regarded as political prisoners by
some NGOs.[151] This decree was
welcomed as a positive step by the US
State Department.[152] On 16 March 2017
another pardon decree was signed, which
led to the release of additional persons
regarded as political prisoners.[153]

Azerbaijan has been harshly criticized for

bribing foreign officials and diplomats in
order to promote its causes abroad and
legitimize its elections at home, a practice
which has been termed as Caviar
diplomacy.[154][155][156][157] However, on 6
March 2017, ESISC (European Strategic
Intelligence and Security Center) published
a report called "The Armenian Connection",
in which it attacked human rights NGOs
and research organisations criticising
human rights violations and corruption in
Azerbaijan. ESISC in that report asserted
that the "Caviar Diplomacy" report
elaborated by ESI aimed to create a
climate of suspicion based on slander to
form a network of MPs that would engage
in a political war against Azerbaijan and
that the network, composed of European
PMs, Armenian officials, and some NGOs
(Human Rights Watch, Amnesty
International, "Human Rights House
Foundation", "Open Dialog, European
Stability Initiative, and Helsinki Committee
for Human Rights) was financed by the
Soros Foundation.[158][159] According to
Robert Coalson (Radio Free Europe), ESISC
is a part of Baku's lobbying efforts to
extend the use of front think tanks to shift
public opinion.[160] Freedom Files
Analytical Centre said that "The report is
written in the worst traditions of
authoritarian propaganda".[161]

Foreign relations
President İlham Aliyev with President of Turkey
Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, 31 October 2017

The short-lived Azerbaijan Democratic

Republic succeeded in establishing
diplomatic relations with six countries,
sending diplomatic representatives to
Germany and Finland.[162] The process of
international recognition of Azerbaijan's
independence from the collapsing Soviet
Union lasted roughly one year. The most
recent country to recognize Azerbaijan was
Bahrain, on 6 November 1996.[163] Full
diplomatic relations, including mutual
exchanges of missions, were first
established with Turkey, Pakistan, the
United States, Iran[162] and Israel.[164]
Azerbaijan has placed a particular
emphasis on its "special relationship" with
Turkey.[165][166]

Azerbaijan has diplomatic relations with

158 countries so far and holds
membership in 38 international
organizations.[20] It holds observer status
in the Non-Aligned Movement and World
Trade Organization and is a correspondent
at the International Telecommunication
Union.[20] On 9 May 2006 Azerbaijan was
elected to membership in the newly
established Human Rights Council by the
United Nations General Assembly. The
term of office began on 19 June 2006.[167]
Azerbaijan was first elected as a non-
permanent member of the UN Security
Council in 2011 with the support of 155
countries.

Ilham Aliyev with Russian president Vladimir Putin at

the Caspian Sea Summit in Aktau, Kazakhstan,
August 2018
Foreign policy priorities of Azerbaijan
include, first of all, the restoration of its
territorial integrity; elimination of the
consequences of occupation of Nagorno-
Karabakh and seven other regions of
Azerbaijan surrounding Nagorno-
Karabakh;[168][169] integration into European
and Euro-Atlantic structure; contribution to
international security; cooperation with
international organizations; regional
cooperation and bilateral relations;
strengthening of defense capability;
promotion of security by domestic policy
means; strengthening of democracy;
preservation of ethnic and religious
tolerance; scientific, educational, and
cultural policy and preservation of moral
values; economic and social development;
enhancing internal and border security; and
migration, energy, and transportation
security policy.[168]

Azerbaijan is an active member of

international coalitions fighting
international terrorism. Azerbaijan was one
of the first countries to offer support after
the September 11 attacks.[170] The country
is contributing to peacekeeping efforts in
Kosovo, Afghanistan and Iraq. Azerbaijan
is an active member of NATO's Partnership
for Peace program. It also maintains good
relations with the European Union and
could potentially one day apply for
membership.[168]

Administrative divisions

Azerbaijan is divided into 10 economic

regions; 66 rayons (rayonlar, singular
rayon) and 77 cities (şəhərlər, singular
şəhər) of which 12 are under the direct
authority of the republic.[171] Moreover,
Azerbaijan includes the Autonomous
Republic (muxtar respublika) of
Nakhchivan.[108] The President of
Azerbaijan appoints the governors of these
units, while the government of Nakhchivan
is elected and approved by the parliament
of Nakhchivan Autonomous Republic.
Absheron Economic Region
Absheron (Abşeron)
Khizi (Xızı)
Baku (Bakı)
Sumqayit (Sumqayıt)
Aran Economic Region
Aghjabadi (Ağcabədi)
Aghdash (Ağdaş)
Barda (Bərdə)
Beylagan (Beyləqan)
Bilasuvar (Biləsuvar)
Goychay (Göyçay)
Hajigabul (Hacıqabul)
Imishli (İmişli)
Kurdamir (Kürdəmir)
Neftchala (Neftçala)
Saatly (Saatlı)
Sabirabad (Sabirabad)
Salyan (Salyan)
Ujar (Ucar)
Yevlakh (Yevlax)
Zardab (Zərdab)
Mingachevir (Mingəçevir)
Shirvan (Şirvan)
Yevlakh (Yevlax)
Mountainous Shirvan Economic Region
Aghsu (Ağsu)
Gobustan (Qobustan)
Ismailly (İsmayıllı)
Shamakhy (Şamaxı)
Ganja-Qazakh Economic Region
Aghstafa (Ağstafa)
Dashkasan (Daşkəsən)
Gadabay (Gədəbəy)
Qazakh (Qazax)
Goygol (Göygöl)
Goranboy (Goranboy)
Samukh (Samux)
Shamkir (Şəmkir)
Tovuz (Tovuz)
Ganja (Gəncə)
Naftalan (Naftalan)
Quba-Khachmaz Economic Region
Quba (Quba)
Qusar (Qusar)
Khachmaz (Xaçmaz)
Shabran (Şabran)
Siyazan (Siyəzən)
Kalbajar-Lachin Economic Region
Gubadly (Qubadlı)
Kalbajar (Kəlbəcər)
Lachin (Laçın)
Zangilan (Zəngilan)
Lankaran Economic Region
Astara (Astara)
Jalilabad (Cəlilabad)
Lankaran (Lənkəran)
Lerik (Lerik)
Masally (Masallı)

Yardimly (Yardımlı)
Lankaran (Lənkəran)
Nakhchivan
Babek (Babək)
Julfa (Culfa)
Kangarli (Kəngərli)
Ordubad (Ordubad)
Sadarak (Sədərək)
Shahbuz (Şahbuz)
Sharur (Şərur)
Nakhchivan (Naxçıvan)
Shaki-Zagatala Economic Region
Balakan (Balakən)
Gabala (Qəbələ)
Gakh (Qax)
Oghuz (Oğuz)
Shaki (Şəki)
Zaqatala (Zaqatala)
Shaki (Şəki)
Upper Karabakh Economic Region
Aghdam (Ağdam)
Fuzuli (Füzuli)
Jabrayil (Cəbrayıl)
Khojaly (Xocalı)
Khojavend (Xocavənd)
Shusha (Şuşa)
Tartar (Tərtər)
Khankendi (Xankəndi)
Shusha (Şuşa)
Azerbaijan is divided into 10 economic regions.

Note: The cities under the direct authority

of the republic in italics.

Largest cities

Military
Azerbaijani Navy fleet during the 2011 military
parade in Baku

The history of the modern Azerbaijan army

dates back to Azerbaijan Democratic
Republic in 1918, when the National Army
of the newly formed Azerbaijan
Democratic Republic was created on 26
June 1918.[172][173] When Azerbaijan
gained independence after the dissolution
of the Soviet Union, the Armed Forces of
the Republic of Azerbaijan were created
according to the Law on the Armed Forces
of 9 October 1991.[174] The original date of
the establishment of the short-lived
National Army is celebrated as Army Day
(26 June) in today's Azerbaijan.[175] As of
2002, Azerbaijan had 95,000 active
personnel in its armed forces. There are
also 17,000 paramilitary troops.[176] The
armed forces have three branches: the
Land Forces, the Air Forces and the Navy.
Additionally the armed forces embrace
several military sub-groups that can be
involved in state defense when needed.
These are the Internal Troops of the
Ministry of Internal Affairs and the State
Border Service, which includes the Coast
Guard as well.[108] The Azerbaijan National
Guard is a further paramilitary force. It
operates as a semi-independent entity of
the Special State Protection Service, an
agency subordinate to the President.[177]

Contingent from the Azerbaijani military during the

Moscow Victory Day Parade, 9 May 2015

Azerbaijan adheres to the Treaty on

Conventional Armed Forces in Europe and
has signed all major international arms
and weapons treaties. Azerbaijan closely
cooperates with NATO in programs such
as Partnership for Peace and Individual
Partnership Action Plan. Azerbaijan has
deployed 151 of its Peacekeeping Forces
in Iraq and another 184 in Afghanistan.[178]

The defense budget of Azerbaijan for 2011

was set at US$3.1 billion.[179] In addition to
that, $1.36 billion was planned to be used
for the needs of the defense industry,
which bring up the total military budget to
4.6 billion.[179][180] Azerbaijani President
Ilham Aliyev said on 26 June 2011 that the
defence spending reached $3.3 billion that
year.[181]
Azerbaijan's defense budget for 2013 is
$3.7 billion.[182][183]

Azerbaijani defense industry manufactures

small arms, artillery systems, tanks,
armors and noctovision devices, aviation
bombs, pilotless vehicles, various military
vehicles and military planes and
helicopters.[184][185][186][187]

Economy
After gaining independence in 1991,
Azerbaijan became a member of the
International Monetary Fund, the World
Bank, the European Bank for
Reconstruction and Development, the
Islamic Development Bank, and the Asian
Development Bank.[188] The banking
system of Azerbaijan consists of the
Central Bank of Azerbaijan, commercial
banks and non-banking credit
organizations. The National (now Central)
Bank was created in 1992 based on the
Azerbaijan State Savings Bank, an affiliate
of the former State Savings Bank of the
USSR. The Central Bank serves as
Azerbaijan's central bank, empowered to
issue the national currency, the Azerbaijani
manat, and to supervise all commercial
banks. Two major commercial banks are
UniBank and the state-owned International
Bank of Azerbaijan, run by Abbas
Ibrahimov.[189]

Pushed up by spending and demand

growth, the 2007 Q1 inflation rate reached
16.6%.[190] Nominal incomes and monthly
wages climbed 29% and 25% respectively
against this figure, but price increases in
the non-oil industry encouraged
inflation.[190] Azerbaijan shows some signs
of the so-called "Dutch disease" because
of its fast-growing energy sector, which
causes inflation and makes non-energy
exports more expensive.[191]
In the early 2000s the chronically high
inflation was brought under control. This
led to the launch of a new currency, the
new Azerbaijani manat, on 1 January 2006,
to cement the economic reforms and
erase the vestiges of an unstable
economy.[192][193]

In 2008, Azerbaijan was cited as one of the

top 10 reformers by the World Bank's
Doing Business Report.[194]

Azerbaijan led the world as the

top reformer in 2007/08, with
improvements on seven out of
10 indicators of regulatory
reform. Azerbaijan started
operating a one-stop shop in
January 2008 that halved the
time, cost and number of
procedures to start a business.
Business registrations increased
by 40% in the first six months.
Azerbaijan also eliminated the
minimum loan cutoff of $1,100,
more than doubling the number
of borrowers covered by the
credit registry. Also, taxpayers
can now file forms and pay their
taxes online. Azerbaijan's
 extensive reforms moved it far
up the ranks, from 97 to 33 in
the overall ease of doing
business.

Azerbaijan is also ranked 57th in the

Global Competitiveness Report for 2010–
2011, above other CIS countries.[195] By
2012 the GDP of Azerbaijan had increased
20-fold from its 1995 level.[196]

According to World Bank's Doing Business

report 2019, Azerbaijan improved its
position in the Ease of doing business rank
from 57 to 25.[197][198][199][200] As a result
of implementing a record number of
reforms mainly involving institutional
changes among the 10 top improvers, to
do business in Azerbaijan became easier,
such as time and cost to get construction
permit reduced significantly (time by 80
days and cost by 12.563 AZN), process of
connecting electricity grid rationalized, as
well as getting credit simplified.[197]

Energy and natural resources

A pumping unit for the mechanical extraction of oil

on the outskirts of Baku
Two-thirds of Azerbaijan is rich in oil and
natural gas.[201]

The South Caucasus Pipeline is bringing natural gas

through Turkey to Europe

The history of the oil industry of Azerbaijan

dates back to the ancient period. Arabian
historian and traveler Ahmed Al-Belaruri
discussed the economy of the Absheron
peninsula in antiquity, mentioning its oil in
particular.[202] There are many pipelines in
Azerbaijan. The goal of the Southern Gas
Corridor, which connects the giant Shah
Deniz gas field in Azerbaijan to Europe,[203]
is to reduce European Union's dependency
on Russian gas.[204]

The region of the Lesser Caucasus

accounts for most of the country's gold,
silver, iron, copper, titanium, chromium,
manganese, cobalt, molybdenum, complex
ore and antimony.[201] In September 1994,
a 30-year contract was signed between the
State Oil Company of Azerbaijan Republic
(SOCAR) and 13 oil companies, among
them Amoco, BP, ExxonMobil, Lukoil and
Equinor.[188] As Western oil companies are
able to tap deepwater oilfields untouched
by the Soviet exploitation, Azerbaijan is
considered one of the most important
spots in the world for oil exploration and
development.[205] Meanwhile, the State Oil
Fund of Azerbaijan was established as an
extra-budgetary fund to ensure
macroeconomic stability, transparency in
the management of oil revenue, and
safeguarding of resources for future
generations.

Access to biocapacity in Azerbaijan is less

than world average. In 2016, Azerbaijan
had 0.8 global hectares[206] of biocapacity
per person within its territory, half the
world average of 1.6 global hectares per
person.[207] In 2016 Azerbaijan used 2.1
global hectares of biocapacity per person
– their ecological footprint of
consumption. This means they use more
biocapacity than Azerbaijan contains. As a
result, Azerbaijan is running a biocapacity
deficit.[206]

Azeriqaz, a sub-company of SOCAR,

intends to ensure full gasification of the
country by 2021.[208] Azerbaijan is one of
the sponsors of the east–west and north–
south energy transport corridors. Baku–
Tbilisi–Kars railway line will connect the
Caspian region with Turkey, is expected to
be completed in July 2017. The Trans-
Anatolian gas pipeline (TANAP) and Trans-
Adriatic Pipeline (TAP) will deliver natural
gas from Azerbaijan's Shah Deniz gas to
Turkey and Europe.[203]

Azerbaijan extended the agreement on

development of ACG until 2050 according
to the amended PSA signed on 14
September 2017 by SOCAR and co-
ventures (BP, Chevron, Inpex, Equinor,
ExxonMobil, TP, ITOCHU and ONGC
Videsh).[209]

Agriculture
Azerbaijan has the largest agricultural
basin in the region. About 54.9 percent of
Azerbaijan is agricultural land.[126] At the
beginning of 2007 there were
4,755,100 hectares of utilized agricultural
area.[210] In the same year the total wood
resources counted 136 million m³.[210]
Azerbaijan's agricultural scientific research
institutes are focused on meadows and
pastures, horticulture and subtropical
crops, green vegetables, viticulture and
wine-making, cotton growing and
medicinal plants.[211] In some areas it is
profitable to grow grain, potatoes, sugar
beets, cotton[212] and tobacco. Livestock,
dairy products, and wine and spirits are
also important farm products. The
Caspian fishing industry concentrates on
the dwindling stocks of sturgeon and
beluga. In 2002 the Azerbaijani merchant
marine had 54 ships.[213]

Some products previously imported from

abroad have begun to be produced locally.
Among them are Coca-Cola by Coca-Cola
Bottlers LTD., beer by Baki-Kastel, parquet
by Nehir and oil pipes by EUPEC Pipe
Coating Azerbaijan.[214]

Tourism
Shahdag Mountain Resort is the country's largest
winter resort.

Tourism is an important part of the

economy of Azerbaijan. The country was a
well-known tourist spot in the 1980s.
However, the fall of the Soviet Union, and
the First Nagorno-Karabakh War during the
1990s, damaged the tourist industry and
the image of Azerbaijan as a tourist
destination.[215]
It was not until the 2000s that the tourism
industry began to recover, and the country
has since experienced a high rate of
growth in the number of tourist visits and
overnight stays.[216] In the recent years,
Azerbaijan has also become a popular
destination for religious, spa, and health
care tourism.[217] During winter, the
Shahdag Mountain Resort offers skiing
with state of the art facilities.[218]

The government of Azerbaijan has set the

development of Azerbaijan as an elite
tourist destination as a top priority. It is a
national strategy to make tourism a major,
if not the single largest, contributor to the
Azerbaijani economy.[219] These activities
are regulated by the Ministry of Culture
and Tourism of Azerbaijan. There are 63
countries which have visa-free score.[220]
E-visa[221] – for a visit of foreigners of
visa-required countries to the Republic of
Azerbaijan.

According to Travel and Tourism

Competitiveness Report 2015 of the World
Economic Forum, Azerbaijan holds 84th
place.[222]

According to a report by the World Travel

and Tourism Council, Azerbaijan was
among the top ten countries showing the
strongest growth in visitor exports
between 2010 and 2016,[223] In addition,
Azerbaijan placed first (46.1%) among
countries with the fastest-developing
travel and tourism economies, with strong
indicators for inbound international visitor
spending last year.[224]

Transportation

The convenient location of Azerbaijan on

the crossroad of major international traffic
arteries, such as the Silk Road and the
south–north corridor, highlights the
strategic importance of transportation
sector for the country's economy.[225] The
transport sector in the country includes
roads, railways, aviation, and maritime
transport.

Azerbaijan is also an important economic

hub in the transportation of raw materials.
The Baku–Tbilisi–Ceyhan pipeline (BTC)
became operational in May 2006 and
extends more than 1,774 kilometers
through the territories of Azerbaijan,
Georgia, and Turkey. The BTC is designed
to transport up to 50 million tons of crude
oil annually and carries oil from the
Caspian Sea oilfields to global
markets.[226] The South Caucasus Pipeline,
also stretching through the territory of
Azerbaijan, Georgia, and Turkey, became
operational at the end of 2006 and offers
additional gas supplies to the European
market from the Shah Deniz gas field.
Shah Deniz is expected to produce up to
296 billion cubic meters of natural gas per
year.[227] Azerbaijan also plays a major role
in the EU-sponsored Silk Road Project.[228]

In 2002, the Azerbaijani government

established the Ministry of Transport with
a broad range of policy and regulatory
functions. In the same year, the country
became a member of the Vienna
Convention on Road Traffic.[229] Priorities
are upgrading the transport network and
improving transportation services in order
to better facilitate the development of
other sectors of the economy.

The 2012 construction of Kars–Tbilisi–

Baku railway was meant to improve
transportation between Asia and Europe
by connecting the railways of China and
Kazakhstan in the east to the European
railway system in the west via Turkey. In
2010 Broad-gauge railways and electrified
railways stretched for 2,918 km (1,813 mi)
and 1,278 km (794 mi) respectively. By
2010, there were 35 airports and one
heliport.[108]
Science and technology

Shamakhi Astrophysical Observatory

In the 21st century, a new oil and gas

boom helped to improve the situation in
Azerbaijan's science and technology
sectors, and the government launched a
campaign aimed at modernization and
innovation. The government estimates that
profits from the information technology
and communication industry will grow and
become comparable to those from oil
production.[230]

Azerbaijan has a large and steadily

growing Internet sector, mostly
uninfluenced by the financial crisis of
2007–2008; rapid growth is forecast for at
least five more years.[231]

The country has also been making

progress in developing its telecoms sector.
The Ministry of Communications &
Information Technologies (MCIT), as well
as being an operator through its role in
Aztelekom, is both a policy-maker and
regulator. Public payphones are available
for local calls and require the purchase of
a token from the telephone exchange or
some shops and kiosks. Tokens allow a
call of indefinite duration. As of 2009, there
were 1,397,000 main telephone lines[232]
and 1,485,000 internet users.[233] There are
four GSM providers: Azercell, Bakcell,
Azerfon (Nar Mobile), Nakhtel mobile
network operators and one CDMA.

In the 21st century a number of prominent

Azerbaijani geodynamics and geotectonics
scientists, inspired by the fundamental
works of Elchin Khalilov and others,
designed hundreds of earthquake
prediction stations and earthquake-
resistant buildings that now constitute the
bulk of The Republican Center of Seismic
Service.[234][235][236]

The Azerbaijan National Aerospace

Agency launched its first satellite AzerSat
1 into orbit on 7 February 2013 from
Guiana Space Centre in French Guiana at
orbital positions 46° East.[237][238][239] The
satellite covers Europe and a significant
part of Asia and Africa and serves the
transmission of TV and radio broadcasting
as well as the Internet.[240] The launching
of a satellite into orbit is Azerbaijan's first
step in realizing its goal of becoming a
nation with its own space industry, capable
of successfully implementing more
projects in the future.[241][242]

Demographics

Population pyramid

As of January 2019, 52.8% of Azerbaijan's

total population of 9,981,457 is urban, with
the remaining 47.2% being rural. 50.1% of
the total population is female. The sex
ratio in the same year was 0.99 males per
female.[243]

The 2011 population growth-rate was

0.85%, compared to 1.09% worldwide.[108]
A significant factor restricting population
growth is a high level of migration. In 2011
Azerbaijan saw a migration of −1.14/1,000
people.[108]

The Azerbaijani diaspora is found in 42

countries[244] and in turn there are many
centers for ethnic minorities inside
Azerbaijan, including the German cultural
society "Karelhaus", Slavic cultural center,
Azerbaijani-Israeli community, Kurdish
cultural center, International Talysh
Association, Lezgin national center
"Samur", Azerbaijani-Tatar community,
Crimean Tatars society, etc.[245]

Ethnic groups

Ethnic composition (2009)[2]

Azerbaijani 91.6%

Lezgian 2.0%

Armenian 1.4%

Russian 1.3%

Talysh 1.7%

Other nations 2.4%

Ethnicities of Azerbaijan

The ethnic composition of the population

according to the 2009 population census:
91.6% Azerbaijanis, 2.0% Lezgians, 1.4%
Armenians (almost all Armenians live in
the break-away region of Nagorno-
Karabakh), 1.3% Russians, 1.3% Talysh,
0.6% Avars, 0.4% Turks, 0.3% Tatars, 0.3%
Tats, 0.2% Ukrainians, 0.1% Tsakhurs, 0.1%
Georgians, 0.1% Jews, 0.1% Kurds, other
0.2%.[2]

Urbanisation

In total, Azerbaijan has 78 cities, 63 city

districts, and one special legal status city.
These are followed by 261 urban-type
settlements and 4248 villages.[246]

Languages

The official language is Azerbaijani, which

is a Turkic language. Azerbaijani is spoken
by approximately 92% of the population as
a mother tongue.[247] Russian and
Armenian (only in Nagorno-Karabakh) are
also spoken, and each are the mother
tongue of around 1.5% of the population
respectively.[247] There are a dozen other
minority languages spoken natively in the
country.[248] Avar, Budukh,[249] Georgian,
Juhuri,[249] Khinalug,[249] Kryts,[249] Lezgian,
Rutul,[249] Talysh, Tat,[249] Tsakhur,[249] and
Udi[249] are all spoken by small minorities.
Some of these language communities are
very small and their numbers are
decreasing.[250] Armenian was the majority
language in Nagorno-Karabakh with
around 76% in 1989.[251] After the first
Nagorno-Karabakh war, the population is
almost exclusively Armenian at around
95%.[252]

Religion

The Bibi-Heybat Mosque in Baku. The mosque is

built over the tomb of a descendant of
Muhammad.[253]

Azerbaijan is considered the most secular

Muslim-majority country.[254] Around 97%
of the population are Muslims.[255] 85% of
the Muslims are Shia and 15% Sunni;[256]
the Republic of Azerbaijan has the second
highest proportion of Shia Muslims of any
country in the world.[257] Other faiths are
practised by the country's various ethnic
groups. Under article 48 of its Constitution,
Azerbaijan is a secular state and ensures
religious freedom. In a 2006–2008 Gallup
poll, only 21% of respondents from
Azerbaijan stated that religion is an
important part of their daily lives.[258]

Of the nation's religious minorities, the

estimated 280,000 Christians (3.1%)[259]
are mostly Russian and Georgian Orthodox
and Armenian Apostolic (almost all
Armenians live in the break-away region of
Nagorno-Karabakh).[108] In 2003, there
were 250 Roman Catholics.[260] Other
Christian denominations as of 2002
include Lutherans, Baptists and
Molokans.[261] There is also a small
Protestant community.[262][263] Azerbaijan
also has an ancient Jewish population with
a 2,000-year history; Jewish organizations
estimate that 12,000 Jews remain in
Azerbaijan.[264][265][266][267] Azerbaijan also
is home to members of the Baháʼí, Hare
Krishna and Jehovah's Witnesses
communities, as well as adherents of the
other religious communities.[261] Some
religious communities have been
unofficially restricted from religious
freedom. A U.S. State Department report
on the matter mentions detention of
members of certain Muslim and Christian
groups, and many groups have difficulty
registering with the SCWRA.[268]

Education

Classroom in Dunya School

A relatively high percentage of Azerbaijanis
have obtained some form of higher
education, most notably in scientific and
technical subjects.[269] In the Soviet era,
literacy and average education levels rose
dramatically from their very low starting
point, despite two changes in the standard
alphabet, from Perso-Arabic script to Latin
in the 1920s and from Roman to Cyrillic in
the 1930s. According to Soviet data, 100
percent of males and females (ages nine
to forty-nine) were literate in 1970.[269]
According to the United Nations
Development Program Report 2009, the
literacy rate in Azerbaijan is 99.5
percent.[270]
Since independence, one of the first laws
that Azerbaijan's Parliament passed to
disassociate itself from the Soviet Union
was to adopt a modified-Latin alphabet to
replace Cyrillic.[271] Other than that the
Azerbaijani system has undergone little
structural change. Initial alterations have
included the reestablishment of religious
education (banned during the Soviet
period) and curriculum changes that have
reemphasized the use of the Azerbaijani
language and have eliminated ideological
content. In addition to elementary schools,
the education institutions include
thousands of preschools, general
secondary schools, and vocational
schools, including specialized secondary
schools and technical schools. Education
through the ninth grade is compulsory.[272]

Culture

The Azerbaijani carpet and Kalaghai, a

UNESCO Masterpiece of Intangible
Heritage of Humanity.

The culture of Azerbaijan has developed

as a result of many influences; that's why
Azerbaijanis are, in many ways, bi-cultural.
Today, national traditions are well
preserved in the country despite Western
influences, including globalized consumer
culture. Some of the main elements of the
Azerbaijani culture are: music, literature,
folk dances and art, cuisine, architecture,
cinematography and Novruz Bayram. The
latter is derived from the traditional
celebration of the New Year in the ancient
Iranian religion of Zoroastrianism. Novruz
is a family holiday.[273]

The profile of Azerbaijan's population

consists, as stated above, of Azerbaijanis,
as well as other nationalities or ethnic
groups, compactly living in various areas
of the country. Azerbaijani national and
traditional dresses are the Chokha and
Papakhi. There are radio broadcasts in
Russian, Georgian, Kurdish, Lezgian and
Talysh languages, which are financed from
the state budget.[245] Some local radio
stations in Balakan and Khachmaz
organize broadcasts in Avar and Tat.[245] In
Baku several newspapers are published in
Russian, Kurdish (Dengi Kurd), Lezgian
(Samur) and Talysh languages.[245] Jewish
society "Sokhnut" publishes the newspaper
Aziz.[245]

Music and folk dances

Uzeyir Hajibeyov merged traditional Azerbaijani
music with Western styles in the early 20th century.

Music of Azerbaijan builds on folk

traditions that reach back nearly a
thousand years.[274] For centuries
Azerbaijani music has evolved under the
badge of monody, producing rhythmically
diverse melodies.[275] Azerbaijani music
has a branchy mode system, where
chromatization of major and minor scales
is of great importance.[275] Among national
musical instruments there are 14 string
instruments, eight percussion instruments
and six wind instruments.[276] According to
The Grove Dictionary of Music and
Musicians, "in terms of ethnicity, culture
and religion the Azerbaijani are musically
much closer to Iran than Turkey."[277]

The Azerbaijani Mugam, a UNESCO Masterpiece of

Intangible Heritage of Humanity 16th-century
miniature of Nizami Ganjavi's Khosrow and Shirin
tragic romance
Mugham, meykhana and ashiq art are
among the many musical traditions of
Azerbaijan. Mugham is usually a suite with
poetry and instrumental interludes. When
performing mugham, the singers have to
transform their emotions into singing and
music. In contrast to the mugham
traditions of Central Asian countries,
Azerbaijani mugham is more free-form and
less rigid; it is often compared to the
improvised field of jazz.[278] UNESCO
proclaimed the Azerbaijani mugham
tradition a Masterpiece of the Oral and
Intangible Heritage of Humanity on 7
November 2003. Meykhana is a kind of
traditional Azerbaijani distinctive folk
unaccompanied song, usually performed
by several people improvising on a
particular subject.[279]

Ashiq combines poetry, storytelling, dance,

and vocal and instrumental music into a
traditional performance art that stands as
a symbol of Azerbaijani culture. It is a
mystic troubadour or traveling bard who
sings and plays the saz. This tradition has
its origin in the Shamanistic beliefs of
ancient Turkic peoples.[280] Ashiqs' songs
are semi-improvised around common
bases. Azerbaijan's ashiq art was included
in the list of Intangible Cultural Heritage by
the UNESCO on 30 September 2009.[281]

Since the mid-1960s, Western-influenced

Azerbaijani pop music, in its various forms,
that has been growing in popularity in
Azerbaijan, while genres such as rock and
hip hop are widely produced and enjoyed.
Azerbaijani pop and Azerbaijani folk music
arose with the international popularity of
performers like Alim Qasimov, Rashid
Behbudov, Vagif Mustafazadeh, Muslim
Magomayev, Shovkat Alakbarova and
Rubaba Muradova.[282] Azerbaijan is an
enthusiastic participant in the Eurovision
Song Contest. Azerbaijan made its debut
appearance at the 2008 Eurovision Song
Contest. The country's entry gained third
place in 2009 and fifth the following
year.[283] Ell and Nikki won the first place at
the Eurovision Song Contest 2011 with the
song "Running Scared", entitling Azerbaijan
to host the contest in 2012, in
Baku.[284][285] They have qualified for every
Grand Final up until the 2018 edition of the
contest, entering with X My Heart by singer
Aisel.[286]

There are dozens of Azerbaijani folk

dances. They are performed at formal
celebrations and the dancers wear
national clothes like the Chokha, which is
well-preserved within the national dances.
Most dances have a very fast rhythm.[287]

Literature

Painting of Khurshidbanu Natavan, one of the most

distinguished Azerbaijani poets. She was also the
daughter of the last ruler of the Karabakh Khanate.
Among the medieval authors born within
the territorial limits of modern Azerbaijani
Republic was Persian poet and
philosopher Nizami, called Ganjavi after
his place of birth, Ganja, who was the
author of the Khamseh ("The Quintuplet"),
composed of five romantic poems,
including "The Treasure of Mysteries,"
"Khosrow and Shīrīn," and "Leyli and
Mejnūn."[288]

The earliest known figure in Azerbaijani

literature was Izzeddin Hasanoglu, who
composed a divan consisting of Persian
and Turkic ghazals.[289][290] In Persian
ghazals he used his pen-name, while his
Turkic ghazals were composed under his
own name of Hasanoghlu.[289]

Classical literature in Azerbaijani was

formed in the 14th century based on the
various Early Middle Ages dialects of
Tabriz and Shirvan. Among the poets of
this period were Gazi Burhanaddin, Haqiqi
(pen-name of Jahan-shah Qara Qoyunlu),
and Habibi.[291] The end of the 14th
century was also the period of starting
literary activity of Imadaddin Nesimi,[292]
one of the greatest Turkic[293][294][295]
Hurufi mystical poets of the late 14th and
early 15th centuries[296] and one of the
most prominent early divan masters in
Turkic literary history,[296] who also
composed poetry in Persian[294][297] and
Arabic.[296] The divan and ghazal styles
were further developed by poets Qasem-e
Anvar, Fuzuli and Khatai (pen-name of
Safavid Shah Ismail I).

The Book of Dede Korkut consists of two

manuscripts copied in the 16th century,[298]
was not written earlier than the 15th
century.[299][300] It is a collection of 12
stories reflecting the oral tradition of
Oghuz nomads.[300] The 16th-century poet,
Muhammed Fuzuli produced his timeless
philosophical and lyrical Qazals in Arabic,
Persian, and Azerbaijani. Benefiting
immensely from the fine literary traditions
of his environment, and building upon the
legacy of his predecessors, Fizuli was
destined to become the leading literary
figure of his society. His major works
include The Divan of Ghazals and The
Qasidas. In the same century, Azerbaijani
literature further flourished with the
development of Ashik (Azerbaijani: Aşıq)
poetic genre of bards. During the same
period, under the pen-name of Khatāī
(Arabic: ‫ ﺧﻄﺎﺋﯽ‬for sinner) Shah Ismail I
wrote about 1400 verses in Azerbaijani,[301]
which were later published as his Divan. A
unique literary style known as qoshma
(Azerbaijani: qoşma for improvization) was
introduced in this period, and developed by
Shah Ismail and later by his son and
successor, Shah Tahmasp I.[302]

In the span of the 17th and 18th centuries,

Fizuli's unique genres as well Ashik poetry
were taken up by prominent poets and
writers such as Qovsi of Tabriz, Shah
Abbas Sani, Agha Mesih Shirvani, Nishat,
Molla Vali Vidadi, Molla Panah Vagif,
Amani, Zafar and others. Along with Turks,
Turkmens and Uzbeks, Azerbaijanis also
celebrate the Epic of Koroglu (from
Azerbaijani: kor oğlu for blind man's son), a
legendary folk hero.[303] Several
documented versions of Koroglu epic
remain at the Institute for Manuscripts of
the National Academy of Sciences of
Azerbaijan.[290]

Modern literature in Azerbaijan is based on

the Shirvani dialect mainly, while in Iran it is
based on the Tabrizi one. The first
newspaper in Azerbaijani, Akinchi was
published in 1875.[304] In the mid-19th
century, it was taught in the schools of
Baku, Ganja, Shaki, Tbilisi, and Yerevan.
Since 1845, it was also taught in the
University of Saint Petersburg in Russia.

Folk art
Traditional Azerbaijani clothing and musical
instruments

Azerbaijanis have a rich and distinctive

culture, a major part of which is decorative
and applied art. This form of art is
represented by a wide range of
handicrafts, such as chasing, jeweler,
engraving in metal, carving in wood, stone,
and bone, carpet-making, lasing, pattern
weaving and printing, knitting and
embroidery. Each of these types of
decorative art, evidence of the
endowments of the Azerbaijan nation, is
very much in favor here. Many interesting
facts pertaining to the development of arts
and crafts in Azerbaijan were reported by
numerous merchants, travelers, and
diplomats who had visited these places at
different times.[305]

The Azerbaijani carpet is a traditional

handmade textile of various sizes, with a
dense texture and a pile or pile-less
surface, whose patterns are characteristic
of Azerbaijan's many carpet-making
regions. In November 2010 the Azerbaijani
carpet was proclaimed a Masterpiece of
Intangible Heritage by UNESCO.[306][307]

Handwork coppery in Lahij

Azerbaijan has been since ancient times

known as a center of a large variety of
crafts. The archeological dig on the
territory of Azerbaijan testifies to the well-
developed agriculture, stock raising,
metalworking, pottery, ceramics, and
carpet-weaving that date as far back as to
the 2nd millennium BC. Archeological sites
in Dashbulaq, Hasansu, Zayamchai, and
Tovuzchai uncovered from the BTC
pipeline have revealed early Iron Age
artifacts.[308]

Azerbaijani carpets can be categorized

under several large groups and a multitude
of subgroups. Scientific research of the
Azerbaijani carpet is connected with the
name of Latif Karimov, a prominent
scientist and artist. It was his
classification that related the four large
groups of carpets with the four
geographical zones of Azerbaijan, Guba-
Shirvan, Ganja-Kazakh, Karabakh and
Tabriz.[309]

Cuisine

Dushbara, a traditional Azerbaijani meal

The traditional cuisine is famous for an

abundance of vegetables and greens used
seasonally in the dishes. Fresh herbs,
including mint, cilantro (coriander), dill,
basil, parsley, tarragon, leeks, chives,
thyme, marjoram, green onion, and
watercress, are very popular and often
accompany main dishes on the table.
Climatic diversity and fertility of the land
are reflected in the national dishes, which
are based on fish from the Caspian Sea,
local meat (mainly mutton and beef), and
an abundance of seasonal vegetables and
greens. Saffron-rice plov is the flagship
food in Azerbaijan and black tea is the
national beverage.[310] Azerbaijanis often
use traditional armudu (pear-shaped)
glass as they have very strong tea
culture.[311][312] Popular traditional dishes
include bozbash (lamb soup that exists in
several regional varieties with the addition
of different vegetables), qutab (fried
turnover with a filling of greens or minced
meat) and dushbara (sort of dumplings of
dough filled with ground meat and flavor).

Architecture

Momine Khatun Mausoleum in Nakhchivan built in

the 12th century

Azerbaijani architecture typically combines

elements of East and West.[313]
Azerbaijiani architecture has heavy
influences from Persian architecture. Many
ancient architectural treasures such as the
Maiden Tower and Palace of the
Shirvanshahs in the Walled City of Baku
survive in modern Azerbaijan. Entries
submitted on the UNESCO World Heritage
tentative list include the Ateshgah of Baku,
Momine Khatun Mausoleum, Hirkan
National Park, Binagadi asphalt lake,
Lökbatan Mud Volcano, Shusha State
Historical and Architectural Reserve, Baku
Stage Mountain, Caspian Shore Defensive
Constructions, Ordubad National Reserve
and the Palace of Shaki Khans.[314][315]
Among other architectural treasures are
Quadrangular Castle in Mardakan, Parigala
in Yukhary Chardaglar, a number of bridges
spanning the Aras River, and several
mausoleums. In the 19th and early 20th
centuries, little monumental architecture
was created, but distinctive residences
were built in Baku and elsewhere. Among
the most recent architectural monuments,
the Baku subways are noted for their lavish
decor.[316]

The task for modern Azerbaijani

architecture is diverse application of
modern aesthetics, the search for an
architect's own artistic style and inclusion
of the existing historico-cultural
environment. Major projects such as
Heydar Aliyev Cultural Center, Flame
Towers, Baku Crystal Hall, Baku White City
and SOCAR Tower have transformed the
country's skyline and promotes its
contemporary identity.[317][318]

Visual art

A miniature painting of a battle scene on the walls of

the Palace of Shaki Khans, 18th century, city of Shaki
Azerbaijani art includes one of the oldest
art objects in the world, which were
discovered as Gamigaya Petroglyphs in
the territory of Ordubad Rayon are dated
back to the 1st to 4th centuries BC. About
1500 dislodged and carved rock paintings
with images of deer, goats, bulls, dogs,
snakes, birds, fantastic beings and also
people, carriages and various symbols had
been found out on basalt rocks.[319]
Norwegian ethnographer and adventurer
Thor Heyerdahl was convinced that people
from the area went to Scandinavia in about
100 AD, took their boat building skills with
them, and transmuted them into the Viking
boats in Northern Europe.[320][321]

Over the centuries, Azerbaijani art has

gone through many stylistic changes.
Azerbaijani painting is traditionally
characterized by a warmth of colour and
light, as exemplified in the works of Azim
Azimzade and Bahruz Kangarli, and a
preoccupation with religious figures and
cultural motifs.[322] Azerbaijani painting
enjoyed preeminence in Caucasus for
hundreds of years, from the Romanesque
and Ottoman periods, and through the
Soviet and Baroque periods, the latter two
of which saw fruition in Azerbaijan. Other
notable artists who fall within these
periods include Sattar Bahlulzade, Togrul
Narimanbekov, Tahir Salahov, Alakbar
Rezaguliyev, Mirza Gadim Iravani, Mikayil
Abdullayev and Boyukagha Mirzazade.[323]
 Unknown Azerbaijani painter[324] (1479) –
Khosrow looks bathering Shirin
(Azerbaijani miniature from Nizami Ganjavi's
Khosrow and Shirin, Nizami Museum of
Azerbaijani Literature)

Usta Gambar Karabakhi – Tree of Life

(Palace of Shaki Khans)
 (Palace of Shaki Khans)

Mirza Gadim Iravani – Portrait of sitting

woman
(National Art Museum of Azerbaijan)
 Bahruz Kangarli – Landscape with mountains
(National Art Museum of Azerbaijan)

Azim Azimzade – Ruins of Reichstag

(National Art Museum of Azerbaijan)

Cinema
Scene from the Azerbaijani film In the Kingdom of
Oil and Millions, 1916

The film industry in Azerbaijan dates back

to 1898. In fact, Azerbaijan was among the
first countries involved in
cinematography.[325] Therefore, it is not
surprising that this apparatus soon
showed up in Baku – at the start of the
20th century, this bay town on the Caspian
was producing more than 50 percent of the
world's supply of oil. Just like today, the oil
industry attracted foreigners eager to
invest and to work.[326] In 1919, during the
Azerbaijan Democratic Republic, a
documentary The Celebration of the
Anniversary of Azerbaijani Independence
was filmed on the first anniversary of
Azerbaijan's independence from Russia, 27
May, and premiered in June 1919 at
several theatres in Baku.[327] After the
Soviet power was established in 1920,
Nariman Narimanov, Chairman of the
Revolutionary Committee of Azerbaijan,
signed a decree nationalizing Azerbaijan's
cinema. This also influenced the creation
of Azerbaijani animation.[327]
In 1991, after Azerbaijan gained its
independence from the Soviet Union, the
first Baku International Film Festival East-
West was held in Baku. In December 2000,
the former President of Azerbaijan, Heydar
Aliyev, signed a decree proclaiming 2
August to be the professional holiday of
filmmakers of Azerbaijan. Today
Azerbaijani filmmakers are again dealing
with issues similar to those faced by
cinematographers prior to the
establishment of the Soviet Union in 1920.
Once again, both choices of content and
sponsorship of films are largely left up to
the initiative of the filmmaker.[325]
Television

There are three state-owned television

channels: AzTV, Idman TV and Medeniyyet
TV. There is one public channel and 6
private channels: İctimai Television, Space
TV, Lider TV, Azad Azerbaijan TV, Xazar
TV, Real TV and ARB.[328]

Human rights in Azerbaijan

Rashadat Akhundov, the co-founder of Nida Civic

Movement, was sentenced to 8 years of
imprisonment on 6 May 2014.

The Constitution of Azerbaijan claims to

guarantee freedom of speech, but this is
denied in practice. After several years of
decline in press and media freedom, in
2014, the media environment in Azerbaijan
deteriorated rapidly under a governmental
campaign to silence any opposition and
criticism, even while the country led the
Committee of Ministers of the Council of
Europe (May–November 2014). Spurious
legal charges and impunity in violence
against journalists have remained the
norm.[329] All foreign broadcasts are
banned in the country.[330]

According to the 2013 Freedom House

Freedom of the Press report, Azerbaijan's
press freedom status is "not free," and
Azerbaijan ranks 177th out of 196
countries.[331]

Christianity is officially recognized, but in

practice it is often oppressed. All religious
communities are required to register to be
allowed to meet, under the risk of
imprisonment. This registration is often
denied. "Racial discrimination contributes
to the country’s lack of religious freedom,
since many of the Christians are ethnic
Armenian or Russian, rather than Azeri
Muslim."[332][333]

Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty and Voice

of America are banned in Azerbaijan.[334]
Discrimination against LGBT people in
Azerbaijan is widespread.[335][336]

During the last few years, three journalists

were killed and several prosecuted in trials
described as unfair by international human
rights organizations. Azerbaijan had the
biggest number of journalists imprisoned
in Europe in 2015, according to the
Committee to Protect Journalists, and is
the 5th most censored country in the
world, ahead of Iran and China.[337] Some
critical journalists have been arrested for
their coverage of the COVID-19 pandemic
in Azerbaijan.[338][339]

A report by an Amnesty International

researcher in October 2015 points to '...the
severe deterioration of human rights in
Azerbaijan over the past few years. Sadly
Azerbaijan has been allowed to get away
with unprecedented levels of repression
and in the process almost wipe out its civil
society'.[340] Amnesty's 2015/16 annual
report[341] on the country stated ' ...
persecution of political dissent continued.
Human rights organizations remained
unable to resume their work. At least 18
prisoners of conscience remained in
detention at the end of the year. Reprisals
against independent journalists and
activists persisted both in the country and
abroad, while their family members also
faced harassment and arrests.
International human rights monitors were
barred and expelled from the country.
Reports of torture and other ill-treatment
persisted.

The Guardian reported in April 2017 that

"Azerbaijan's ruling elite operated a secret
$2.9bn (£2.2bn) scheme to pay prominent
Europeans, buy luxury goods and launder
money through a network of opaque
British companies .... Leaked data shows
that the Azerbaijani leadership, accused of
serial human rights abuses, systemic
corruption and rigging elections, made
more than 16,000 covert payments from
2012 to 2014. Some of this money went to
politicians and journalists, as part of an
international lobbying operation to deflect
criticism of Azerbaijan's president, Ilham
Aliyev, and to promote a positive image of
his oil-rich country." There was no
suggestion that all recipients were aware
of the source of the money as it arrived via
a disguised route.[342]
Sport

Shakhriyar Teimour
Mamedyarov Radjabov
was the was the
2013 World 2019 World
Rapid Chess Cup and
and three- three-time
time European
European Team Chess
Team Chess champion.
champion.
Freestyle wrestling has been traditionally
regarded as Azerbaijan's national sport, in
which Azerbaijan won up to fourteen
medals, including four golds since joining
the International Olympic Committee.
Currently, the most popular sports include
football and wrestling.[343]

Football is the most popular sport in

Azerbaijan, and the Association of Football
Federations of Azerbaijan with 9,122
registered players, is the largest sporting
association in the country.[344][345] The
national football team of Azerbaijan
demonstrates relatively low performance
in the international arena compared to the
nation football clubs. The most successful
Azerbaijani football clubs are Neftchi Baku,
Qarabağ, and Gabala. In 2012, Neftchi
Baku became the first Azerbaijani team to
advance to the group stage of a European
competition, beating APOEL of Cyprus 4–2
on aggregate in the play-off round of the
2012–13 UEFA Europa League.[346][347] In
2014, Qarabağ became the second
Azerbaijani club advancing to the group
stage of UEFA Europa League. In 2017,
after beating Copenhagen 2–2(a) in the
play-off round of the UEFA Champions
League, Qarabağ became the first
Azerbaijani club to reach the Group
stage.[348] Futsal is another popular sport
in Azerbaijan. The Azerbaijan national
futsal team reached fourth place in the
2010 UEFA Futsal Championship, while
domestic club Araz Naxçivan clinched
bronze medals at the 2009–10 UEFA
Futsal Cup and 2013–14 UEFA Futsal
Cup.[349] Azerbaijan was the main sponsor
of Spanish football club Atlético de Madrid
during seasons 2013/2014 and
2014/2015, a partnership that the club
described should 'promote the image of
Azerbaijan in the world'.[350]

Azerbaijan is one of the traditional

powerhouses of world chess,[351] having
hosted many international chess
tournaments and competitions and
became European Team Chess
Championship winners in 2009, 2013 and
2017.[352][353][354] Notable chess players
from country's chess schools that made a
great impact on the game in world,
includes Teimour Radjabov, Shahriyar
Mammadyarov, Vladimir Makogonov,
Vugar Gashimov and former World Chess
Champion Garry Kasparov. As of 2014,
country's home of Shamkir Chess a
category 22 event and one of the highest
rated tournaments of all
time.[355]Backgammon also plays a major
role in Azerbaijani culture.[356] The game is
very popular in Azerbaijan and is widely
played among the local public.[357] There
are also different variations of
backgammon developed and analyzed by
Azerbaijani experts.[358]

Baku National Stadium was used for the first

European Games in June 2015.

Azerbaijan Women's Volleyball Super

League is one of strongest women
leagues in world. Its women's national
team came fourth at the 2005 European
Championship.[359] Over the last years,
clubs like Rabita Baku and Azerrail Baku
achieved great success at European
cups.[360] Azerbaijani volleyball players
include likes of Valeriya Korotenko, Oksana
Parkhomenko, Inessa Korkmaz, Natalya
Mammadova and Alla Hasanova.

Other Azerbaijani athletes are Namig

Abdullayev, Toghrul Asgarov, Rovshan
Bayramov, Sharif Sharifov, Mariya Stadnik
and Farid Mansurov in wrestling, Nazim
Huseynov, Elnur Mammadli, Elkhan
Mammadov and Rustam Orujov in judo,
Rafael Aghayev in karate, Magomedrasul
Majidov and Aghasi Mammadov in boxing,
Nizami Pashayev in Olympic weightlifting,
Azad Asgarov in pankration, Eduard
Mammadov in kickboxing, and K-1 fighter
Zabit Samedov.

Azerbaijan has a Formula One race-track,

made in June 2012,[361] and the country
hosted its first Formula One Grand Prix on
19 June 2016[362] and the Azerbaijan
Grand Prix in 2017, 2018 and 2019. Other
annual sporting events held in the country
are the Baku Cup tennis tournament and
the Tour d'Azerbaïdjan cycling race.

Azerbaijan hosted several major sport

competitions since the late 2000s,
including the 2013 F1 Powerboat World
Championship, 2012 FIFA U-17 Women's
World Cup, 2011 AIBA World Boxing
Championships, 2010 European Wrestling
Championships, 2009 Rhythmic
Gymnastics European Championships,
2014 European Taekwondo
Championships, 2014 Rhythmic
Gymnastics European Championships, and
2016 World Chess Olympiad.[363] On 8
December 2012, Baku was selected to
host the 2015 European Games, the first to
be held in the competition's history.[364]
Baku also hosted the fourth Islamic
Solidarity Games in 2017,[365] 2019
European Youth Summer Olympic
Festival[366] and it is also one of the hosts
of UEFA Euro 2020.[367]

See also
Outline of Azerbaijan
Index of Azerbaijan-related articles
Aran to Azerbaijan name change
Azerbaijan (newspaper)
List of World Heritage Sites in
Azerbaijan

Notes
a. The region is internationally
recognized as part of Azerbaijan.
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4. LaPorte, Jody (2016). "Semi-
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Azerbaijan's regime is a curious
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presidency. In addition to the
considerable formal powers laid out
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president also benefits from the
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Since Independence. M.E. Sharpe.
pp. 165, 284. "Indicative of general
regional trends and a natural
reemergence of previously oppressed
religious identity, an increasingly
popular ideological basis for the
pursuit of political objectives has
been Islam.... The government, for its
part, has shown an official
commitment to Islam by building
mosques and respecting Islamic
values... Unofficial Islamic groups
sought to use aspects of Islam to
mobilize the population and establish
the foundations for a future political
struggle.... Unlike Turkey, Azerbaijan
does not have the powerful
 ideological legacy of secularism... the
conflict with Armenia has bred
frustration that is increasingly being
answered by a combined Islamic and
nationalist sentiment, especially
among younger people... All major
political forces are committed to
secularism and are based, if anything,
on a nationalist agenda."
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27. "Employment statistics in
Azerbaijan" . The State Statistical
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Azerbaijan. Retrieved 26 May 2007.
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29. Houtsma, M. Th. (1993). First
Encyclopaedia of Islam 1913–1936
 (reprint ed.). Brill. ISBN 978-90-04-
09796-4.
30. Schippmann, Klaus (1989).
Azerbaijan: Pre-Islamic History.
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31. Minahan, James (1998). Miniature
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34. Nevertheless, "despite being one of
the chief vassals of Sasanian
Shahanshah, the Albanian king had
only a semblance of authority, and
the Sassanid marzban (military
governor) held most civil, religious,
and military authority.
35. Swietochowski, Tadeusz (1999).
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3 . Darmesteter, James (2004).
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3 . Atabaki, Touraj (4 September 2006).
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Battleground of the Great Powers .
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39. Atabaki, Touraj (2000). Azerbaijan:
Ethnicity and the Struggle for Power
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1860645549.
40. Dekmejian, R. Hrair; Simonian,
Hovann H. (2003). Troubled Waters:
The Geopolitics of the Caspian
Region . I.B. Tauris. p. 60. ISBN 978-
1860649226. "Until 1918, when the
Musavat regime decided to name the
newly independent state Azerbaijan,
this designation had been used
exclusively to identify the Iranian
province of Azerbaijan."
41. Rezvani, Babak (2014). Ethno-
territorial conflict and coexistence in
the caucasus, Central Asia and
 Fereydan: academisch proefschrift.
Amsterdam: Amsterdam University
Press. p. 356. ISBN 978-9048519286.
"The region to the north of the river
Araxes was not called Azerbaijan
prior to 1918, unlike the region in
northwestern Iran that has been
called since so long ago."
42. Fragner, B.G. (2001). Soviet
Nationalism: An Ideological Legacy to
the Independent Republics of Central
Asia. I.B. Tauris and Company.
pp. 13–32. "In the post Islamic sense,
Arran and Shirvan are often
distinguished, while in the pre-Islamic
era, Arran or the western Caucasian
 Albania roughly corresponds to the
modern territory of the Republic of
Azerbaijan. In the Soviet era, in a
breathtaking manipulation, historical
Azerbaijan (northwestern Iran) was
reinterpreted as "South Azerbaijan" in
order for the Soviets to lay territorial
claim on historical Azerbaijan proper
which is located in modern-day
northwestern Iran."
43. Atabaki, Touraj (2000). Azerbaijan:
Ethnicity and the Struggle for Power
in Iran . I.B.Tauris. p. 8. ISBN 978-
1860645549.
44. Bournoutian, George A. (2016). The
1820 Russian Survey of the Khanate
of Shirvan: A Primary Source on the
Demography and Economy of an
Iranian Province prior to its
Annexation by Russia . Gibb
Memorial Trust. p. 18. ISBN 978-
1909724839. "(...) the Baku and
Elisavetpol guberniias, declared their
independence (to 1920), and, despite
Iranian protests, took the name of
Azerbaijan (as noted, the same
designation as the historical region in
northwestern Iran) (...)"
45. Comrie, Bernard (1981). The
languages of the Soviet Union .
 Cambridge [England]: Cambridge
University Press. p. 162. ISBN 978-
0521298773. OCLC 6627395 .
4 . Azakov, Siyavush. "National report on
institutional landscape and research
policy Social Sciences and
Humanities in Azerbaijan" (PDF).
Azerbaijan National Academy of
Sciences. Archived from the original
(PDF) on 16 November 2011.
Retrieved 27 May 2007.
47. H. Dizadji, M.D., F.A.C.P., F.A.C.C
(2010). Journey from Tehran to
Chicago: My Life in Iran and the
United States, and a Brief History of
 Iran. USA: Trafford Publishing. p. 105.
ISBN 978-1426929182.
4 . Chaumont, M. L. (1984). "Albania" .
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49. Shaw, Ian (2017). Christianity: The
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50. Ehsan Yarshater (1983). The
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51. Barthold, V.V. Sochineniya; p. 558:
“Whatever the former significance of
the Oghuz people in Eastern Asia,
 after the events of the 8th and 9th
centuries, it focuses more and more
on the West, on the border of the Pre-
Asian cultural world, which was
destined to be invaded by the Oghuz
people in the 11th century, or, as they
were called only in the west, by the
Turkmen.”
52. Canby, Sheila R.; Beyazit, Deniz;
Rugiadi, Martina; Peacock, A. C. S.
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53. Hewsen, Robert H.; Salvatico,
Christoper C. (2001). Armenia: A
Historical Atlas . University of
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54. Samuelian, Thomas J. (1982).
Hewsen, Robert H. (1982). Thomas J.
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Armenian Influence upon the
Caucasian Albanians". Classical
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55. Hewsen, Robert H. (2001). Armenia: a
Historical Atlas. Chicago: University
of Chicago Press. pp. 32–33, map 19
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Orontids' Kingdom of Armenia).
5 . Моисей Хоренский. Армянская
География VII в. Перевод
Патканова К.П. СПб., 1877. стр.
40,17
57. Hewsen, Robert H. "The Kingdom of
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Chico, CA, 1983
5 . Yarshater, E. (1987). "The Iranian
Language of Azerbaijan" .
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59. Ludwig, Paul (1998). Proceedings of
the Third European Conference of
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89500-070-6.
0. Roy, Olivier (2007). The new Central
Asia: geopolitics and the birth of
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1. "Neẓāmī" . Encyclopædia Britannica
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 2009. Archived from the original on 4
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4. Malcolm Wagstaff, John (1985). The
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. Akiner, Shirin (2004). The Caspian:
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7. Swietochowski, Tadeusz (1995).
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in Transition . Columbia University
Press. pp. 69, 133. ISBN 978-0-231-
07068-3.
. L. Batalden, Sandra (1997). The newly
independent states of Eurasia:
 handbook of former Soviet
republics . Greenwood Publishing
Group. p. 98. ISBN 978-0-89774-940-
4.
9. Walker, Christopher J. (1980).
Armenia, the survival of a nation .
Croom Helm. p. 45. ISBN 978-
0709902102. "Tsitsianov next moved
against the semi-independent Iranian
khanates. On the thinnest of pretexts,
he captured the Muslim town of
Gandja, the seat of Islamic learning in
the Caucasus (...)"
70. Saparov, Arsène (2014). From
Conflict to Autonomy in the
 Caucasus: The Soviet Union and the
Making of Abkhazia, South Ossetia
and Nagorno Karabakh. Routledge.
ISBN 978-1317637837. "Even though
these principalities [the khanates]
had not been under Iranian suzerainty
since the assassination of Nadir
Shah in 1747, they were traditionally
considered an inalienable part of
Iranian domains. (...) To the semi-
independent Caucasian principalities
the appearance of the new Great
Power (...)"
71. Kashani-Sabet, Firoozeh (May 1997).
"Fragile Frontiers: The Diminishing
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 Journal of Middle East Studies. 29
(2): 210.
doi:10.1017/s0020743800064473 .
"In 1795, Ibrahim Khalil Khan, the wali
of Qarabagh, warned Sultan Selim III
of Aqa Muhammad Khan's ambitions.
Fearing for his independence, he
informed the Sultan of Aqa
Muhammad Khan's ability to subdue
Azerbaijan and later Qarabagh,
Erivan, and Georgia."
72. Barker, Adele Marie; Grant, Bruce
(2010). The Russia Reader: History,
Culture, Politics. Duke University
Press. p. 253. ISBN 978-0822346487.
"But they were relatively more
 accessible given the organization of
small, centralized, semi-independent
khanates that functioned through the
decline of Iranian rule after the death
of Nadir Shah in the mid-eighteenth
century (...)"
73. Avery, Peter; Hambly, Gavin (1991).
The Cambridge History of Iran.
Cambridge University Press. p. 126.
ISBN 978-0-521-20095-0. "Agha
Muhammad Khan could now turn to
the restoration of the outlying
provinces of the Safavid kingdom.
Returning to Tehran in the spring of
1795, he assembled a force of some
60,000 cavalries and infantry and in
 Shawwal Dhul-Qa'da/May, set off for
Azarbaijan, intending to conquer the
country between the rivers Aras and
Kura, formerly under Safavid control.
This region comprised a number of
khanates of which the most
important was Qarabagh, with its
capital at Shusha; Ganja, with its
capital of the same name; Shirvan
across the Kura, with its capital at
Shamakhi; and to the north-west, on
both banks of the Kura, Christian
Georgia (Gurjistan), with its capital at
Tiflis."
74. Encyclopedia of Soviet law By
Ferdinand Joseph Maria Feldbrugge,
 Gerard Pieter van den Berg, William B.
Simons, Page 457
75. King, Charles (2008). The ghost of
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7 . Hacikyan, Agop Jack; Basmaijan,
Gabriel; Franchuk, Edward S.;
Ouzounian, Nourhan, eds. (2005). The
Heritage of Armenian Literature:
From the eighteenth century to
modern times. Detroit: Wayne State
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0814332214.
77. Gabor Agoston, Bruce Alan Masters.
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7 . Multiple Authors. "Caucasus and
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79. Tucker, Spencer C., ed. (2010). A
Global Chronology of Conflict: From
the Ancient World to the Modern
Middle East. ABC-CLIO. p. 1035.
ISBN 978-1851096725. "January
1804. (...) Russo-Persian War.
Russian invasion of Persia. (...) In
January 1804 Russian forces under
 General Paul Tsitsianov (Sisianoff)
invade Persia and storm the citadel
of Ganjeh, beginning the Russo-
Persian War (1804–1813)."
0. Goldstein, Erik (1992). Wars and
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415-07822-9.
1. Timothy C. Dowling )2014). Russia at
War: From the Mongol Conquest to
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ISBN 1598849484
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Newly Independent States of Eurasia:
 Handbook of Former Soviet
Republics . Greenwood Publishing
Group. p. 98. ISBN 978-0-89774-940-
4.
3. E. Ebel, Robert, Menon, Rajan (2000).
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0063-1.
4. Andreeva, Elena (2010). Russia and
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(2000). The Great Ottoman-Turkish
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. Ernest Meyer, Karl, Blair Brysac,
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04576-1.
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"Perhaps the most important legacy
of Yermolov was his intention from
early on to prepare the ground for the
conquest of the remaining khanates
under Iranian rule and to make the
River Aras the new border. (...)
Another provocative action by
Yermolov was the Russian
occupation of the northern shore of
Lake Gokcha (Sivan) in the Khanate
of Iravan in 1825. A clear violation of
Golestan, this action was the most
significant provocation by the
Russian side. The Lake Gokcha
occupation clearly showed that it was
Russia and not Iran which initiated
hostilities and breached Golestan and
 that Iran was left with no choice but
to come up with a proper response."
. Dowling, Timothy C., ed. (2015).
Russia at War: From the Mongol
Conquest to Afghanistan, Chechnya,
and Beyond. ABC-CLIO. p. 729.
ISBN 978-1598849486. "In May 1826,
Russia, therefore, occupied Mirak, in
the Erivan khanate, in violation of the
Treaty of Gulistan."
9. Alexander Mikaberidze (2015).
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Rowman & Littlefield. p. 664.
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Europe, Russia, and Central Asia
2003 Taylor and Francis, 2003.
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Further reading
Altstadt, Audrey. Frustrated Democracy
in Post-Soviet Azerbaijan (2018)
Olukbasi, Suha. Azerbaijan: A Political
History. I.B. Tauris (2011). Focus on
post-Soviet era.
 Goltz, Thomas. Azerbaijan Diary : A
Rogue Reporter's Adventures in an Oil-
Rich, War-Torn, Post-Soviet Republic. M
E Sharpe (1998). ISBN 0-7656-0244-X

External links

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 Country profile from BBC
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