AZERBAIJAN AT A GLANCE
Agence France Presse
October 13, 2008 Monday 7:50 PM GMT
Azerbaijan, which stages presidential elections on Wednesday, is one
of three Caucasus republics that became independent after the 1991
collapse of the Soviet Union.
Here are some key facts about Azerbaijan:
LOCATION: Azerbaijan is located in the eastern portion of the Caucasus
mountains range and is bordered by Russia to the north, Georgia to
the northwest, Armenia to the west, Iran to the south and the Caspian
Sea to the east. The country covers 86,000 square kilometres (33,200
square miles).
Nagorny Karabakh, a mountainous region in Azerbaijan populated
mainly by Armenians, declared its independence in 1991, supported by
Armenia. A war with Azerbaijan from 1988 to 1994 cost the lives of
at least 20,000 people and created hundreds of thousands of refugees.
The autonomous Azerbaijani republic of Nakhichevan is an enclave
located southwest of Armenia and is separated from Azerbaijan by
Armenian territory.
CAPITAL: Baku
POPULATION: 8.1 million
RELIGION: More than 90 percent Shiite Muslim
LANGUAGE: Azeri is the official language. Russian is also widely used
in the Baku region.
HISTORY: Control of Azerbaijan was long disputed between Turkey
and Persia.
The northern portion of this region (including Azerbaijan) was
conquered by Russia at the beginning of the 19th century and Azerbaijan
became a Soviet republic in 1920.
It gained national independence on October 18, 1991, two months after
the 1991 failed coup against then Soviet president Mikhail Gorbachev.
President Ayaz Mutalibov was overthrown in May 1992 and replaced
by Abulfaz Elchibey, the pro-Turkish leader of the Popular Front
party. Elchibey was himself overthrown the following year by Heydar
Aliyev, the Soviet-era chief of Azerbaijan under Soviet leader Leonid
Brezhnev.
Aliyev was elected president of independent Azerbaijan in 1993 and
reelected for a second term in 1998.
INSTITUTIONS: The president and the parliament are elected through
universal suffrage for five years. Ilham Aliyev, the son of the late
Heydar Aliyev, was elected president on the first round on October 15,
2003. This vote was followed by riots and hundreds of arrests.
The president’s party won by a landslide in parliamentary elections of
2000 and 2005 which, according to observers, were marred by numerous
irregularities.
ECONOMY: With its booming oil sector, Azerbaijan has been courted by
the West since the collapse of the Soviet Union.
The Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan (BTC) pipeline, a mammoth US-backed project
to transport oil from the Caspian region to the West without passing
through Russia, was inaugurated in 2005.
The Azerbaijani economy is now experiencing the fastest growth in
the world, according to the European Bank for Reconstruction and
Development (EBRD).
GROWTH: 26.4 percent in 2007
GDP: 3,500 dollars per capita in 2007
DEFENCE: The state armed forces consist of 66,740 people, with another
15,000 paramilitary forces, according to the International Institute
of Strategic Studies.
Azerbaijan joined the Council of Europe in 1991.
The country has been a member of NATO’s Partnership for Peace program
since its launch in 1994 and has since set itself the goal of joining
the military alliance.