Azerbaijan

Azerbaijan (Azerbaijani: Azərbaycan), officially the Republic of Azerbaijan (Azerbaijani: Azərbaycan Respublikası), is a country in the Caucasus region of Eurasia. Its capital is Baku, the Caspian Sea coastal city. Located at the crossroads of Eastern Europe and Western Asia, it is bounded by the Caspian Sea to the east, Russia to the north, Georgia to the northwest, Armenia to the west, and Iran to the south.The Nakhichevan Autonomous Republic (an exclave of Azerbaijan) borders Armenia to the north and east, Iran to the south and west, and Turkey to the northwest. The Nagorno-Karabakh region in the southwest of Azerbaijan proper declared itself independent from Azerbaijan in 1991, but it was not recognized by any nation and was considered a legal part of Azerbaijan. Azerbaijan reconquered the region in 2023.

Azerbaijan is a secular state, and has been a member of the Council of Europe since 2001. The Azerbaijani people (or simply Azeris) are the majority population, most of whom (about 85%) are traditionally adherents of Shi'ism. The remaining Muslims are Sunni. Other religions include Russian Orthodoxy (2.5%), Armenian Apostolic (2.3%), other (6%). The country is formally an emerging democracy, but with strong authoritarian rule.

Its official language is Azerbaijani.

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Quotes

A

Important projects initiated by Azerbaijan are being carried out in order to meet the energy demand not only of the region, but also the European continent, The country is absolutely independent in this area,” the minister said. “We even sell energy and the energy carriers to other countries. At the same time, Azerbaijan, thanks to the reforms held, is reducing its dependence on oil, and the country’s economy will develop in the future as well.
- Energy Minister Natig Aliyev, Hellenic Shipping News (February 3, 2016), "Azerbaijan ready to cooperate with Indonesia in energy sector"

A Formula One race will improve our country's image. When we took an obligation to host this event two years ago, we could not forecast such a sharp decline in the oil price
- Vakhid Akhmedov, a lawmaker with the ruling party and a member of the parliamentary economic commission, referring to Grand Prix, Channel News Asia (Feb 3 2016), "Oil crisis takes shine off Azerbaijan's lavish sports events"

B

I refuse to think of Azeris as inauthentically Muslims or semi-Muslims. Even following 73 years of secular Soviet rule They are Muslim and proud.
- Yuval Ben-Ami, "The cure to Islamophobia: Azerbaijan" (27 February 2011), 972
By mid-1921, the Red Army had overcome opposition in the Caucasus and Central Asia, although its invasion of Poland in 1920 was driven back. These conflicts were linked to rivalry between the great powers. The conflict in the Caucasus was in part an instance of the struggle between Britain and the Soviet Union. The British saw Armenia, Azerbaijan and Georgia, each of which briefly became independent in the Russian Civil War, as a buffer for their interests in Iraq, Persia (Iran) and India; and as a source of raw materials, notably oil from Azerbaijan and access to oil from Georgia. In late 1918, the British landed troops in the Black Sea port of Batumi, the terminus of the railway to the oil-producing centre of Baku on the Caspian Sea. This was a commitment advocated by Mackinder. Torpedo-armed coastal motor boats were sent overland to the Caspian Sea. However, under pressure from too many commitments, the British withdrew their forces from late 1919. Benefiting from the divisions between the Caucasus republics, the Soviets advanced and took them over in 1920–1.
- Jeremy Black, The Cold War: A Military History (2015)

While separatist nationalisms developed and were increasingly expressed, there was no protracted attempt to use the extensive military resources of the Soviet state to prevent the collapse of the Soviet Union. Already, in 1986–7, the government had refused to employ force to support party leaders in the Baltic Republics. When the crisis rose to a height, counterreform attempts by the Soviet military, keen to preserve the integrity of the state, led to action against nationalists in Georgia (1989), Azerbaijan (1990), Lithuania (1991), Latvia (1991), and Moldova (1992). However, these steps were small-scale, and there was no significant violent supporting action by the 25 million Russians living within the Soviet Union but outside Russia, those, for example, who played a key role in crises in Crimea and eastern Ukraine in 2014.
- Jeremy Black, The Cold War: A Military History (2015)

G

Most narratives about the end of the Soviet Union focus on Baltic, Georgian and Ukrainian activism, but there is a powerful case to be made that the USSR died on the streets of Baku in January 1990 when Moscow dispatched units of the Soviet military to put down the aspirations of the Azerbaijani people for freedom and independence.
- Paul A. Goble, "Bashkortostan Events the ‘Black January’ of Putin Regime, ‘Idel-Ural’ Portal Says", Window on Eurasia (January 26, 2024)

Tehran’s Center for the Study of Iran and Eurasia says that plans approved by the leaders of Azerbaijan and Iran in Tashkent a week ago to open a corridor via Iranian territory between Azerbaijan and Nakhchivan represent “a strategic breakthrough” for both countries.
- Paul A. Goble, "Iranian Journal Says Plans for Corridor from Azerbaijan to Nakhchivan via Iran ‘a Strategic Breakthrough’", Window on Eurasia (November 21, 2023)

What American politicians fail to understand (or at least it seems to me) is that today's Azerbaijan is quite a different place than the chaotic, war-torn, nearly failed state that the United States dealt with in its early years of independence.
- Thomas Goltz, www.foreignpolicy.com, June 11, 2010, Bad Blood in Baku. The angry ally Obama can't afford to lose[1].

H

For the past 10-15 years, the number of protected areas, national parks and nature reserves have increased dramatically in the country. Some years ago, the residents of the regions killed wild animals to protect their livestock from predators. To protect the wild nature the government pays compensation to residents who suffered losses, with the condition that they will not kill wild animals any more. For the past 4-5 years the government have conducted several projects on modernization and reconstruction of water mains and sewer lines in rural areas located on the banks of these rivers. Special equipment cleans waste waters, and sewage water do not dump directly into these rivers
- Chairman of Green Movement of Azerbaijan Farida Huseynova, AZERNEWS (February 2, 2016), "Azerbaijan improves environmental performance"

M

We hope these tensions won't do a major damage to relations between the regional countries [referring to Turkey]. We also maintain very close relations with Russia and hence we'll do everything in our power to tap a way out of this crisis
- Foreign Minister, Elmar Mammadyarov, told a news conference on Tuesday, TASS: Word (February 3, 2016), "Azerbaijan to put every effort into tapping solution to Russia-Turkey crisis — FM"

The European companies are operating here to demonstrate their experience that Azerbaijan could use in practice. Azerbaijan and the EU enjoy very close relations that develop from year to year. We hope to get Azerbaijani gas in 2020. Moreover, according to available information, the implementation of TANAP project is ahead of schedule.
- EU Ambassador to Azerbaijan Malena Mard, AZERNEWS (February 3, 2016), "EU follows developments in privatization in Azerbaijan"

You have a beautiful country, beautiful people. I witnessed this during my visit to Azerbaijan.
- Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum said he was deeply impressed by development processes in Azerbaijan, AZERNEWS (February 3, 2016), "Azerbaijan, UAE consider areas for economic cooperation, sign documents"

S

Although there was peaceful abandonment of communism in most states of the former Soviet Union, some terrible exceptions occurred. Russian and Moldovan elites fought for supremacy in Moldova (which had dropped its Soviet name of Moldavia). Tribal and religious rivalries produced a vicious civil war in Tajikistan on the Afghan border. Chechnya rose in revolt against the Russian Federation. A bloody war sputtered on between Armenia and Azerbaijan about the Armenian-inhabited enclave in Karabagh. But it could have been so much worse and most of the countries of the former USSR at least achieved independence without bloodshed.
- Robert Service, Comrades!: A History of World Communism (2010)

V

Although cooperation between Latvia and Azerbaijan has deepened in recent years, I consider that there is still huge potential for the further expansion of our relations, especially in political, economic, and cultural areas,
- Latvian President Raimonds Vējonis said in an interview with The Business Year journal, AZERNEWS (February 2, 2016), "Latvia appreciates Azerbaijan’s role in SGC realisation"