Best Guide On Azerbaijan – 2021
Azerbaijan Flag:
- The flag of Azerbaijan is a tri-color banner of blue, red and green with a white crescent and star emblem in the center the blue represents the Turkic heritage of the people, the red represents progress and social democracy and the green represents the Islamic civilization.
- if you look at Azerbaijan’s borders, it looks like a crazy bird flying while it’s losing one big feather. Located in the central Caucasus region of Eurasia, Azerbaijan is bordered by 5 other countries, and the mighty Caspian Sea to the east.
- The capital’s Baku right along the coast of the Caspian and the country is divided into 9 regions and one interesting autonomous republic.’
- The Nagorno-Karabakh region is not recognized as a sovereign state by any other country in the world and today it is considered as a “Dejure” region of Azerbaijan, even though Azerbaijanis avoid going there.
- The Nakchivan autonomous republic is not a separate country, it is a part of Azerbaijan. This area is the only part of Azerbaijan that has access to Turkey for a very very narrow 8 or so kilometer border along the Aras river, the only problem is because of the whole border blockade.
- The capital Baku is not only the largest city and the best harbor in the Caspian Sea, but is a breathtakingly beautiful architectural wonder with its world-famous Flame Towers completed in 2012.
- Baku has the world’s largest KFC.
- Azerbaijan was actually the first Muslim-majority democratic secular country in the world and they were also the first Muslim-majority country in the world to have theaters, operas and modern-day universities.
An insight into the History and Geography of the Azerbaijan
- Azerbaijan still holds on to its ancient artifacts and historical sites, such as the famous Maiden’s Tower and the even more captivating underwater Sabayil Castle known as the “Atlantis of the Caspian”.
- Azerbaijan has cold Alpine mountains right next to these dry subtropical zones right next to the coast in which where you can find things like orange and lemon groves and tea plantations which kind of need a warmer climate to grow in.
- Azerbaijanis love tea, They even made multiple monuments to tea.
- The Gobustan region south of Baku, one of the world-renowned landforms that Azerbaijan is famous for mud volcanoes. About half of all the world’s mud volcanoes are found right here in Gobustan.
- Azerbaijan is rich in natural gas and petroleum deposits which make about 80% of the economy and because of this overtime Azerbaijan has built a mind-bogglingly complex and elaborate yet strikingly mesmerizing system of trestles, pipelines and causeways that connect the oil reservoirs offshore in the middle of the Caspian.
- In 1949 Azerbaijan actually built the world’s first offshore oil platform in Neft Daşları.
- Azerbaijan has roughly 9 and half million people or roughly the same size as Sweden and ethnically it’s quite homogenous with 91% of the people identifying as ethnically Azerbaijani and the remainder of the 9% minority coming from a slew of other nationalities and people groups.
- The largest populations coming from Russians, Lezgins, Talysh and believe it or not Armenians.
- Azerbaijani language is very close to the Turkish language and people can travel interchangeably between both countries and relatively understand each other. It’s like Spanish and Portugese. Now what’s really interesting is that
- Azerbaijan is one of the few Muslim Shia majority countries in the world. They also have a very interesting culture dynamic in which the majority of people identify as culturally Muslim rather than consistently devoutly observant Muslim.
- Women are allowed to wear whatever they want and are not required to wear hijabs or burkas and religious freedom is allowed.
- Today Azerbaijan has diplomatic relations with over 160 countries mostly centralized in Europe and Asia.
- Azerbaijan’s immediate neighbors to the north and south – Georgia and Iran have always had cordial relations with Azerbaijan and have open borders and trade agreements.
- Most Azerbaijanis disapprove of the relations with Russia mostly because they are more supportive of Armenia and the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict and even took part in fights like the Khojaly massacre.
- Pakistan cheers for Azerbaijan and recognizes their side of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict and has even gone so far as to even unrecognize Armenia as a state.
- Azerbaijan is actually one of the few Muslim-majority countries that actually gets along pretty well with Israel. They provide Israel with fuel and Israel provides them with agricultural and technological assistance.
- The Jewish community has lived peacefully within Azerbaijan for over 1500 years, persecution was virtually unknown to the Jewish community in Azerbaijan, which also served as a safe haven for Jews fleeing from the holocaust.
- Turkey, is you can probably guess is without a doubt Azerbaijan’s best friend. Despite the Sunni / Shia difference they have the closest ties culturally, linguistically and diplomatically.
- Turkey also supports Azerbaijan in nearly all of their disputes and conflicts like a proud older brother. There’s a saying between them – the two of them are one nation, two countries. In conclusion,
- I can guarantee you there’s pretty much no place like Azerbaijan. I mean it’s a Shia-Muslim majority yet kind of secular country that drinks wine and gets along with Israel and has mud volcanoes.
The Government and politics of the Azerbaijan
Also Read: The Complete Guide on World Map
