My country

Journey to Azerbaijan Ethimology-Azerbaijan is a geographical name. On

the one hand this name is linked with the population, which lived in this region for thousand of years before our era, and who were mostly fire-worshippers. "Azer" means fire. "Azer" means "a brave man", "a brave boy", "the fire keeper".

Neighbours- It borders with Iran and Turkey on the south, Russia on the north, Georgia on the north-west and Armenia on the west. 

The world's biggest lake- Caspian Sea is the east part of Azerbaijan.

Territory-86,6 thousand square km. The country extends between longitude 44° and 52° east andlatitude 38° and 42° north, Baku situated at the parallel of 40°.  

Map of the Azerbaijan

Journey to Azerbaijan

To January 15, 2010, population of the Republic of Azerbaijan was estimated at 9 million.

Men constitute 49% of population, while women 51%. The constitution established Azerbaijan as a democratic,

constitutional, secular and unitary republic. The three-color national flag of Azerbaijan was accepted by the

government of the Democratic Republic of Azerbaijan on November 9, 1918.

The national flag of the Azerbaijan Republic consists of three equal strips:

Blue color-designates the Turkish origin of the Azerbaijan Republic

Red color-its intention to create a modern state and develop the democracy

Green color-it’s relation to the Islam civilization.

In the middle of the flag there are

white-color crescent and an eight-point star. Currency in Azerbaijan is Manat

Journey to Azerbaijan After the collapse of the Democratic Republic in April

28, 1920 and the establishment of the Soviet regime this flag was relinquished in Azerbaijan.

The National Emblem of the Azerbaijan Republic -is the image of an oriental shield and a semicircle formed by the branches of an oak-tree and ears resting on it. The shield contains the image of a fire in the center of an eight-point star against a background of the colors of the National flag of Azerbaijan.

Last year there were created the biggest flag of Azerbaijan in Baku. It was included to the Guinness records book:

Weight-350 kilogram Height- 162 meter Total weight-220 ton

Journey to Azerbaijan National and official language is Azerbaijani. There

are over 30 million speakers of Azerbaijani at present. Azerbaijani language belongs to the Turkic group of

languages and, together with closely associated Turkish.

During the Soviet period the second language was Russian Still people can speak in Russian. Now English is getting much more popular especially among the young generation.

About religion-there lots of people with different religions in Azerbaijan. It is very tolerant country concerning religion. There are churches, synagogues, mosques. 95 % of population is Muslim.

Religion in Azerbaijan

Azerbaijan during Soviet period 1921-a seventy-year period under total political and

economic control of the state that became the Soviet Union. The political party was the Communist Party

That time people atheism was forcedly spread among the country. Muslims had to hide their religion as well as, other religion people.

Education was improved especially in regions. 1991, October 18-after Soviet Union collapse, there

was established Azerbaijan Republic. Before Russian invasion it was established in 1918, May 28 by Mammad Amin Rasulzade, it lasted only 23 month.

You can still see Soviet buildings in this country

Soviet buildings

Journey to AzerbaijanSome of the Soviet buildings now have been

destroyed and the face of the capital Baku now is much more modern.

Journey to AzerbaijanThe capital Baku is situated on the shore of

the Caspian Sea in the south of the Absheron peninsula.

Baku has 11 administrative districts and 5 settlements.

The first Metro came into operation in 1967, during the Soviet time.

Photos of the Old Baku

Sightseeing places of Baku

Oil in Azerbaijan Azerbaijanjan is one of the birthplaces of the oil industry. The petroleum industry in Azerbaijan produces about

914,000 barrels of oil per day. The main oil-producing regions were

located near Baku at Sabunchy,

Surakhany and Bibi-Heybat September 20, 1994-there was

signed "Contract of the Century“

with international companies. The

projected investment for this project

is $13 billion.

Azerbaijan Republic’s profit from the oil and gas is $16 billion for

each year. The Oil Fund of Azerbaijan mentioned that during the

last 11 years the profit has been measured with $46.4 billion,

from this amount $23.1 billion was spent.

Nagorno Karabagh conflict Nagorno Karabagh and adjoining districts, 1 village of

the Autonomous Republic of Nakhchyvan, 80 of Agdam district, 54 of Fuzuli district, 13 of Terter district and 7 of Gazakh district are under occupation of Armenia still. At the moment, there are about a million refugees, IDPs and people looking for asylum in Azerbaijan.

Ceasefire agreement was signed in May 1994, respective decisions were adopted at the OSCE summits held in Budapest in 1994.

In 1993, UN Security Council adopted resolutions 822, 853, 874, 884 on settlement of the conflict soon and peacefully, release of the occupied territories of Armenian armed forces, return of refugees and IDPs to native lands.

Map of the occupied territory

Sources:www.azerbaijan.azwww.vikipedia.azSome of the photos are from

www.sharg.az, www.news.az, www.deyerler.az

Teshekkur!

Thanks!

Sabina Jafarova (Vagifgizi),

co-founder and co-editor-in chief of

the Baku Post website

Email: [email protected]

Mob: +1253 38119667 (U.S.A)

+99455 8195187 (Azerbaijan)

Blog:http://sainavaqif.wordpress.com

Website: www.bakupost.org

Twitter:@sabinuss

Facebook: Sabina Vagifgizi