Visit Azerbaijan

Visit Azerbaijan

Azerbaijan (æzərbaɪˈdʒɑːn/ az-ər-by-jahn; Azerbaijani: Azərbaycan [ɑzærbɑjdʒɑn]), officially the Republic of Azerbaijan (Azerbaijani: Azərbaycan Respublikası), is a transcontinental country in the Caucasus region, situated 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 exclave of Nakhchivan is bounded by Armenia to the north and east, Iran to the south and west, while having a short border with Turkey in the northwest.

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The Azerbaijan Democratic Republic proclaimed its independence in 1918 and became the first Muslim-majority democratic and secular republic. It was also the first Muslim-majority country after Egypt to have operas, theaters and modern universities. The country was incorporated into the Soviet Union in 1920 as the Azerbaijan Soviet Socialist Republic.

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Azerbaijan proclaimed its independence on 30 August 1991, before the official dissolution of the USSR. In September 1991, the disputed Armenian-majority Nagorno-Karabakh region re-affirmed its willingness to create a separate state as the Nagorno-Karabakh Republic. The region, effectively independent since the beginning of the Nagorno-Karabakh War in 1991, is internationally recognized as part of Azerbaijan until a final solution to its status is found through negotiations facilitated by the OSCE.

Azerbaijan is a unitary constitutional presidential republic. The country is a member state of the Council of Europe, the OSCE and the NATO Partnership for Peace (PfP) program. It is one of the six independent Turkic-speaking states, being an active member of the Turkic Council and the TÜRKSOY community. Azerbaijan has diplomatic relations with 158 countries and holds membership in 38 international organizations. It is one of the founding members of GUAM, the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) and Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons.

A member of the United Nations since 1992, Azerbaijan was elected to membership in the newly established Human Rights Council by the United Nations General Assembly on 9 May 2006 (the term of office began on 19 June 2006). Azerbaijan is also a member state of the Non-Aligned Movement, holds observer status in World Trade Organization and is a correspondent at the International Telecommunication Union.

The Constitution of Azerbaijan does not declare an official religion, and all major political forces in the country are secularist, but the majority of people and some opposition movements adhere to Shia Islam. Azerbaijan has a high level of human development which ranks on par with most Eastern European countries. It has a high rate of economic development and literacy, as well as a low rate of unemployment.

However, corruption in Azerbaijan is widespread, especially in the public service. The ruling party, New Azerbaijan Party, has been accused of authoritarianism and human rights abuses.
According to a modern etymology, the name of Azerbaijan derives from that of Atropates, a Persian satrap under the Achaemenid Empire, who was later reinstated as the satrap of Media under Alexander the Great. The original etymology of this name is thought to have its roots in the once-dominant Zoroastrian religion. In the Avesta, 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."

Atropates ruled over the region of Atropatene (present Iranian Azerbaijan). 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." The Greek name is mentioned by Diodorus Siculus and Strabo. Over the span of millennia the name evolved to Āturpātākān then to Ādharbādhagān, Ādharbāyagān, Āzarbāydjān and present-day Azerbaijan (in Armenia, the country is called Adrbejan, yet another archaic form).

Ultimately, the name Azerbaijan comes from Azar-Payegan. This word is translatable as Guardian of Fire, "The Treasury" and "The Treasurer" of fire or "The Land of Fire" in Modern Persian. The name was changed to Azerbaijan following Arab conquest in the 7th century AD, where Arabic lacked the letters of G and P, thus the spelling of Azer-payegan was modified to reflect this.
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 the Azykh Cave. The Upper Paleolithic and late Bronze Age cultures are attested in the caves of Tağılar, Damcılı, Zar, Yataq-yeri and in the necropolises of Leylatepe and Saraytepe.

Early settlements included the Scythians in the 9th century BC. Following the Scythians, Iranian Medes came to dominate the area to the south of the Aras. The Medes forged a vast empire between 900–700 BC, which was integrated into the Achaemenids Empire around 550 BC. The area was conquered by the Achaemenids leading to the spread of Zoroastrianism. Later it became part of Alexander the Great's Empire and its successor, the Seleucid Empire. During this period, Zoroastrianism spread in the Caucasus and Atropatene. Caucasian Albanians, the original inhabitants of northeastern Azerbaijan, ruled that area from around the 4th century BC, and established an independent kingdom that came under the cultural influence of the Armenians.

In the 4th and 3rd centuries BC, following the overthrow of the Achaemenid Empire, the southwestern part of modern Azerbaijan was part of the Kingdom of Armenia ruled by the Orontid Dynasty; between the years 189 BC and 428 AD the western half of modern Azerbaijan, including the exclave of Nakhchivan, were included into the Kingdom of Greater Armenia ruled by Armenia's Artaxiad and Arsacid dynasties, the latter itself a branch of the eponymous Arsacid dynasty of Parthia. Visit Azerbaijan

After the partition of the Kingdom of Armenia by Persia and Byzantium in 387 AD, the provinces of Artsakh and Utik, which had an ethnically mixed population, passed to Caucasian Albania.
The Persian Sassanids turned Caucasian Albania into a vassal state in AD 252, while King Urnayr officially adopted Christianity as the state religion in the 4th century. Despite Sassanid rule, Albania remained an entity in the region until the 9th century, while fully subordinate to Sassanid Persia, and retained its monarchy. Visit Azerbaijan

In the first half of the 7th century AD, the Islamic Umayyad Caliphate repulsed both the Sassanids and Byzantines from the Caucasus region and turned Caucasian Albania into a vassal state after the Christian resistance, led by King Javanshir, was suppressed in 667. Caucasian Albania however, came already under nominal Muslim rule through the Muslim conquest of Persia, as it made up part of the Sassanid territory upon advent of the Muslim conquest. Visit Azerbaijan

The power vacuum left by the decline of the Abbasid Caliphate was filled by numerous local dynasties such as the Sallarids, Sajids, Shaddadids, Rawadids and Buyids. At the beginning of the 11th century, the territory was gradually seized by waves of Turkic Oghuz tribes from Central Asia. The first of these Turkic dynasties established was the Seljuqs, which entered the area now known as Azerbaijan by 1067. Visit Azerbaijan
The pre-Turkic population that lived on the territory of modern Azerbaijani Republic spoke several Indo-European and Caucasian languages, among them – Armenian language and an Iranian language called the Old Azari language, which was gradually replaced by a Turkic language, the early precursor of the Azerbaijani language of today. To distinguish it from the Turkic Azerbaijani or Azeri language, this Iranian language, is designated as the Azari language (or Old Azari language), because the Turkic language and people are also designated as "Azari" in the Persian language. Visit Azerbaijan

However some linguists have also designated the Tati dialects of Iranian Azerbaijan and the Republic of Azerbaijan, like those spoken by the Tats, as a remnant of Azari. Locally, the possessions of the subsequent Seljuq Empire were ruled by Atabegs, who were technically vassals of the Seljuq sultans, being sometimes de facto rulers themselves. Under the Seljuq Turks, local poets such as Nizami Ganjavi and Khagani Shirvani gave rise to a blossoming of Persian literature on the territory of present-day Azerbaijan. The next ruling state of the Jalayirids was short-lived and fell under the conquests of Timur. Visit Azerbaijan

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 Ak Koyunlu. The Shirvanshahs returned, maintaining a high degree of autonomy as local rulers and vassals from 861 until 1539. During their conquest and persecution by the Iranian Safavids in 1501, the last dynasty imposed Shia Islam upon the formerly Sunni population, as it did over its territories in modern-day Iran, as it was battling against the Sunni Ottoman Empire. Visit Azerbaijan

This, in combination with another series of events, the Safavids laid the foundation for the fact that both the contemporary Republic of Azerbaijan and Iran are the only Shia majority countries ever since. Despite efforts of the Safavids, the Ottomans briefly managed to occupy swaths of present-day Azerbaijan twice over the centuries. Also, Baku and its environs were briefly managed by the Russians in the early 18th century through the consequences of the Russo-Persian War (1722-1723). Despite these very brief intermissions by Safavid Iran's neighboring rivals, the land of what is nowadays Azerbaijan remained under intermittent Iranian rule from the earliest advent of the Safavids up to the course of the 19th century.  Visit Azerbaijan

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