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Travel to Azerbaijan — Unbiased reviews and great deals
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Republic of Azerbaijan
National Name: Azarbaycan
Respublikasi
President: Ilham Aliyev (2003)
Prime Minister: Artur Rasizade
(2003)
Current government officials
Land area: 33,436 sq mi (86,600 sq km);
total area: 33,436 sq mi (86,600 sq km)
Population (2008 est.): 8,177,717
(growth rate: 0.7%); birth rate: 17.5/1000; infant mortality rate:
56.4/1000; life expectancy: 66.3; density per sq mi: 243
Capital and largest city (2003 est.):
Baku, 2,118,600 (metro area), 1,235,400 (city
proper), a port on the Caspian Sea
Other large cities (2004 est.):
Ganja, 303,000; Sumgait, 280,500
Monetary unit: Manat
Languages:
Azerbaijani Turkic 89%, Russian 3%, Armenian
2%, other 6% (1995 est.)
Ethnicity/race:
Azeri 90.6%, Dagestani 2.2%, Russian 1.8%,
Armenian 1.5%, other 3.9% (1999). Note: almost all Armenians live in
the separatist Nagorno-Karabakh region
Religions:
Islam 93%, Russian Orthodox 3%, Armenian
Orthodox 2%, other 2% (1995 est.)
National Holiday:
Founding of the Democratic Republic of
Azerbaijan, May 28
Literacy rate: 98.8% (1999 est.)
Economic summary: GDP/PPP (2007
est.): $72.2 billion; per capita $9,000. Real growth rate:
31%. Inflation: 16%. Unemployment: 8.5% official rate
(2005 est.). Arable land: 20.62%. Agriculture: cotton,
grain, rice, grapes, fruit, vegetables, tea, tobacco; cattle, pigs,
sheep, goats. Labor force: 5.243 million (2007 est.);
agriculture and forestry 41%, industry 7%, services 52% (2001).
Industries: petroleum and natural gas, petroleum products,
oilfield equipment; steel, iron ore; cement; chemicals and
petrochemicals; textiles. Natural resources: petroleum,
natural gas, iron ore, nonferrous metals, alumina. Exports:
$19.53 billion f.o.b. (2007 est.): oil and gas 90%, machinery,
cotton, foodstuffs. Imports: $6.376 billion f.o.b. (2007
est.): machinery and equipment, oil products, foodstuffs, metals,
chemicals. Major trading partners: Italy, Israel, Turkey,
France, Russia, Iran, Georgia (2006).
Communications: Telephones: main lines
in use: 1.189 million (2006); mobile cellular: 3.324 million (2006).
Radio broadcast stations: AM 10, FM 17, shortwave 1 (1998).
Television broadcast stations: 2 (1997). Internet
hosts: 3,067 (2007). Internet users: 829,100 (2006).
Transportation: Railways: total: 2,122
km (2006). Highways: total: 59,141 km ; paved: 29,210 km;
unpaved: 29,931 km (2004). Ports and harbors: Baku (Baki).
Airports: 35 (2007).
International disputes: Armenia supports
ethnic Armenian secessionists in Nagorno-Karabakh and since the
early 1990s has militarily occupied 16% of Azerbaijan; over 800,000
mostly ethnic Azerbaijanis were driven from the occupied lands and
Armenia; about 230,000 ethnic Armenians were driven from their homes
in Azerbaijan into Armenia; Azerbaijan seeks transit route through
Armenia to connect to Naxcivan exclave; Organization for Security
and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) continues to mediate dispute;
Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, and Russia have ratified Caspian seabed
delimitation treaties based on equidistance, while Iran continues to
insist on an even one-fifth allocation and challenges Azerbaijan's
hydrocarbon exploration in disputed waters; bilateral talks continue
with Turkmenistan on dividing the seabed and contested oilfields in
the middle of the Caspian; Azerbaijan and Georgia continue to
discuss the alignment of their boundary at certain crossing
areas.
Major sources and definitions
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Geography
Azerbaijan is located on the western shore of
the Caspian Sea at the southeast extremity of the Caucasus. The region is
a mountainous country, and only about 7% of it is arable land. The Kura
River Valley is the area's major agricultural zone.
Government
Constitutional republic.
History
Northern Azerbaijan was known as Caucasian
Albania in ancient times. The area was the site of many conflicts
involving Arabs, Kazars, and Turks. After the 11th century, the territory
became dominated by Turks and eventually was a stronghold of the Shiite
Muslim religion and Islamic culture. The territory of Soviet Azerbaijan
was acquired by Russia from Persia through the Treaty of Gulistan in 1813
and the Treaty of Turkamanchai in 1828.
After the Bolshevik Revolution, Azerbaijan
declared its independence from Russia in May 1918. The republic was
reconquered by the Red Army in 1920 and was annexed into the
Transcaucasian Soviet Socialist Republic in 1922. It was later
reestablished as a separate Soviet Republic on Dec. 5, 1936. Azerbaijan
declared independence from the collapsing Soviet Union on Aug. 30,
1991.
Since 1988, Azerbaijan and Armenia
have been feuding over the enclave of Nagorno-Karabakh. The majority of
the enclave's inhabitants are Armenian Christians agitating to secede from
the predominantly Muslim Azerbaijan and join with Armenia. War broke out
in 1988 when Nagorno-Karabakh tried to break away and annex itself to
Armenia, and 30,000 died before a cease-fire agreement was reached in
1994, with Armenia regaining its hold over the disputed enclave. Final
plans on the status of Nagorno-Karabakh have yet to be determined.
Economic Future Looks Promising
The country's economic troubles are expected to
be transformed through Western investment in Azerbaijan's oil resources,
an untapped reserve whose estimated worth is trillions of dollars. Since
1994, the Azerbaijan state oil company (SOCAR) has signed several
billion-dollar agreements with international oil companies. Azerbaijan's
pro-Western stance and its careful economic management have made it the
most attractive of the oil-rich Caspian countries for foreign investment.
In the years since its independence, the country has undergone rapid
privatization, and the IMF gave it high marks as one of the most
successful economic overhauls ever. In Sept. 2002, construction of the
1,100-mile Baku-Tblisi-Ceyhan pipeline (a route through Georgia and
Turkey) began. Major investors are Britain's BP (33%), Azerbaijan's SOCAR
(25%), the U.S.'s Unocal (8.9%), and Norway's Statoil (8.7%). In July
2006, the pipeline opened.
In 2003, President Heydar Aliyev, who was
seriously ill, chose his son as the new prime minister, paving the way for
his eventual succession. The opposition protested strenuously. In October
elections, the president's son, Ilham Aliyev, was elected president.
Heydar Aliyev died in December.
In Nov. 2005 parliamentary elections, Aliyev's
New Azerbaijan Party won the largest number of seats. International
election monitors declared the election fraudulent, and opposition
candidates staged protests.
On Oct. 15, 2008, in presidential elections,
Ilham Aliyev won a second term with 89% of the vote. Turnout was about 75%
of the population.
See also Encyclopedia: Azerbaijan.
U.S. State Dept. Country Notes:
Azerbaijan
State Statistical Committee www.azeri.com/goscomstat/
Information Please® Database,
© 2008 Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved.
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