Azerbaijan
[ | Official Name: Republic of Azerbaijan |
Flag
The flag features three equal horizontal bands of blue, red, and green. A crescent and eight-pointed star, symbols of Islam, are centered in the red band. The country had a long alliance with Turkey, and the blue color has historically been associated with the Turkic peoples. Green is said to symbolize the strong European influences on local culture.
Azerbaijan
Located in the Caucasus, on the western coast of the Caspian Sea, the modern Republic of Azerbaijan occupies a crossroads between East and West. The largest country of the South Caucasus, it is home, along with ethnic Azeris, to more than 70 different ethnic groups, including Kurds, Jews, Russians, Armenians, Lezghis and many others. Located at the crossroads of ancient empires, what we now know as Azerbaijan has been invaded and fought over by many conquerors, including Alexander the Great, the Roman general Pompey, the Mongol conqueror Genghis Khan, and Russia’s Peter the Great.
The oil industry has flourished in Azerbaijan since the mid–19th century. The first industrial oil well in Azerbaijan was drilled in 1848. In the late 19th through early 20th centuries, Baku was producing 95% of the Russian Empire’s and about 50% of the world's oil. Westerners such as the Nobels and Rothschilds were among the first oil magnates of Baku. It was also at that time that the Azerbaijani composer Uzeyir Hajibayov wrote his “Leyli and Majnun,” the first opera in the Muslim world.
When the Czars’ rule ended in Russia at the end of the First World War, Azerbaijan seized the opportunity to declare its independence. On May 28, 1918 – a date still celebrated today as the Republic Day – the Azerbaijani people established their own independent state. Within two years of declaring independence, however, a northern state again asserted its rule over Azerbaijan. Azerbaijan was forcibly incorporated into the Soviet Union and governed under Communist rule for the next 70 years.
On August 30, 1991, Azerbaijan’s Parliament adopted the Declaration on the Restoration of the State Independence of the Republic of Azerbaijan, and on October 18, 1991, the Constitutional Act on the State Independence of the Republic of Azerbaijan was approved.
November 1991 marked the beginning of international recognition of Azerbaijan’s independence. In 1992, the country became a member of the United Nations and of the Conference for Security and Cooperation in Europe (CSCE), now known as the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE).
Information and maps above taken from Library of Congress Country Studies and the CIA World Fact Book. Unless otherwise specified, images sourced from Wikimedia Commons.
Azerbaijani Internet Sources
This section contains convenient starting points for exploring web sites related to Azerbaijan. To make this page easier to load and use, we generally have limited the list to those sites that contain substantial collections of links to information on these subjects. The views reflected on any web site linked below do not necessarily reflect the views of the Inner Asian and Uralic National Resource Center. We provide these links as a service to the public.
Amnesty International Report 2007: Azerbaijan documents human rights issues in 2005.
Azerbaijan International Magazine has magazine articles, list of companies, music, poetry and more. They also maintain azeri.org, a site devoted to the Azeri language, with articles in Azeri (in Latin and Arabic scripts) and English.
The Azerbaijan Society of America maintains a web site.
The Azerbaijan Internet Links page lists a variety of links on various topics related to Azerbaijan. However, it no longer appears to be updated regularly.
AZgallery is an Internet art gallery displaying more than 1,000 art works by nearly 100 Azerbaijani artists. The site also provides contact information for the artists so that prices (for those interested in purchasing) may negotiate directly with them.
Baku Pages provides information about the capital city of Baku and Azerbaijan news, weather, economics, politics and culture.
BBC Azeri Service provides links to information on the country and the BBC's daily programming in Azeri and Russian.
CIA World Factbook: Information about Azerbaijan.
Human Rights Watch World Report 2007: Overview of Human Rights Issues in Azerbaijan.
Law Library of Congress' Guide to Law Online: Azerbaijan, prepared by the U.S. Law Library of Congress for the Global Legal Information Network (GLIN), is an annotated hypertext guide to sources of information worldwide on government and law available online without charge.
The UCLA Language Materials Project has information and links about language resources.
The website of Ilham Heydar oglu Aliyev, President of Azerbaijan.
US State Department Human Rights Reports 2006: Azerbaijan analyzes the country's human rights situation.
A tribute page to the great Azeri composer Uzeyir Hajibeyov (1885-1948), this website includes biographical information and musical samples of Hajibeyov's work.