Portal:Azerbaijan

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The Azerbaijan Portal

A view of Baku, Azerbaijan

Azerbaijan, officially the Republic of Azerbaijan, is a transcontinental country located at the boundary of Eastern Europe and West Asia. It is a part of the South Caucasus region and is bounded by the Caspian Sea to the east, Russia's republic of Dagestan to the north, Georgia to the northwest, Armenia and Turkey to the west, and Iran to the south. Baku is the capital and largest city.

The territory of what is now Azerbaijan was first ruled by Caucasian Albania and later various Persian empires. Until the 19th century, it remained part of Qajar Iran, but the Russo-Persian wars of 1804–1813 and 1826–1828 forced the Qajar Empire to cede its Caucasian territories to the Russian Empire; the treaties of Gulistan in 1813 and Turkmenchay in 1828 defined the border between Russia and Iran. The region north of the Aras was part of Iran until it was conquered by Russia in the 19th century, where it was administered as part of the Caucasus Viceroyalty.

Azerbaijan is a unitary semi-presidential republic. It is one of six independent Turkic states and an active member of the Organization of Turkic States and the TÜRKSOY community. Azerbaijan has diplomatic relations with 182 countries and holds membership in 38 international organizations, including the United Nations, the Council of Europe, the Non-Aligned Movement, the OSCE, and the NATO PfP program. It is one of the founding members of GUAM, the CIS, and the OPCW. Azerbaijan is also an observer state of the WTO. (Full article...)

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The 26 Baku Commissars were Bolshevik and Left Socialist Revolutionary (SR) members of the Baku Commune. The commune was established in the city of Baku, which was then the capital of the briefly independent Azerbaijan Democratic Republic, and is now the capital of the Republic of Azerbaijan. The commune, led by Stepan Shahumyan, existed until 26 July 1918 when the Bolsheviks were forced out of power by a coalition of Dashnaks, Right SRs and Mensheviks.

After their overthrow, the Baku commissars attempted to leave Baku but were captured by the Centrocaspian Dictatorship and imprisoned. On 14 September 1918, during the fall of Baku to Ottoman forces, Red Army soldiers broke into their prison and freed the commissars; they then boarded a ship to Krasnovodsk, where they were promptly arrested by local authorities and, on the night of 20 September, executed by a firing squad between the stations of Pereval and Akhcha-Kuyma on the Transcaspian Railway by soldiers of the Ashkhabad Committee. They were executed for essentially letting the Islamic Army of the Caucasus seize Baku. (Full article...)

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Did you know (auto-generated)

... that Ashiq Peri was the first prominent female folk poet in Azerbaijan?
... that scholarly study of the poetry of Kishvari, one of the most important Azerbaijani poets of the 15th and 16th centuries, only started in 1928?
... that the adoption of the Declaration of Independence of Azerbaijan made the Azerbaijan Democratic Republic the first successful republic in the Muslim world?
... that the blue stripe in the Azerbaijani flag reflects the country's Turkic heritage?
... that with the help of Turkish and Azerbaijani agents, Muslims in Armenia revolted in 1919–1920 and massacred over 10,000 Armenians?
... that in 2017 the British travel magazine Wanderlust rated Azerbaijan's electronic visa as the easiest visa to obtain in the world?

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More Did you know

...that the origins of the Church of Caucasian Albania date to St. Eliseus' efforts in the first century AD to spread Christianity to the area?

...that in the early 1990s, Surat Huseynov successfully led a military coup d'état in Azerbaijan to become the Prime Minister?

...that the first co-ed school in Azerbaijan was founded by Hamida Javanshir in 1908?

More did you know facts

General images

The following are images from various Azerbaijan-related articles on Wikipedia.

Image 1Transcaucasia in the early 19th century (from History of Azerbaijan)
Image 2Roman inscription in Qobustan (from History of Azerbaijan)
Image 3Salt bag circa 1880, Karabakh (from Culture of Azerbaijan)
Image 41748 maps of Shirvan, the Caucasus and Persia (from History of Azerbaijan)
Image 5Iran around 1900 (from History of Azerbaijan)
Image 6Soviet postage stamp commemorating Azerbaijani musical instruments (from Culture of Azerbaijan)
Image 7Carpet based on Nizami Ganjavi's 12th-century Layla and Majnun (from Culture of Azerbaijan)
Image 8Shah Abbas I at a banquet (from Culture of Azerbaijan)
Image 9Mammad Amin Rasulzade, a founder and spokesperson of the Azerbaijan Democratic Republic in 1918, was widely regarded as Azerbaijan's national leader. (from History of Azerbaijan)
Image 10Momine Khatun Mausoleum in Nakhchivan (from History of Azerbaijan)
Image 11Early caliphates:
  Muhammad, 622–632

  Rashidun Caliphate, 632–661

  Umayyad Caliphate, 661–750
(from History of Azerbaijan)
Image 12Azerbaijani deputies to the 1907 Second Russian State Duma. Seated left is Fatali Khan Khoyski; seated right is Khalil Khasmammadov. (from History of Azerbaijan)
Image 13The Achaemenid empire at its greatest extent (from History of Azerbaijan)
Image 14Oil derricks in Balaxanı around 1890 (from History of Azerbaijan)
Image 15Arabic inscriptions on the surviving Gate of Ganja (from Culture of Azerbaijan)
Image 1619th-century Gasimushaghi carpet from Şəlvə, Lachin (from Culture of Azerbaijan)
Image 17Late-19th-century rug market in Ganja (from Culture of Azerbaijan)
Image 181996 Azerbaijani postage stamp commemorating Novruz (from Culture of Azerbaijan)
Image 19Heydar Aliyev during a 1997 Pentagon visit (from History of Azerbaijan)
Image 2015th-century Shirvanshah mausoleum in Baku (from History of Azerbaijan)
Image 21Azerbaijan map of Köppen climate classification zones (from Geography of Azerbaijan)
Image 22Gobustan rock art (from History of Azerbaijan)
Image 23Petroglyphs in Gobustan National Park date back to 10000 BC. (from Culture of Azerbaijan)
Image 24Ismail I's empire (from History of Azerbaijan)
Image 25Topographic map of Azerbaijan (from Geography of Azerbaijan)
Image 26Qajar-style painting of mullahs with the shah (from History of Azerbaijan)
Image 27The Maiden Tower, in Baku's Old City (from Culture of Azerbaijan)
Image 28Goytepe site (from History of Azerbaijan)
Image 29Battle-scene miniature in the Palace of Shaki Khans (from History of Azerbaijan)
Image 30Ateshgah of Baku, a Hindu and Zoroastrian temple (from Culture of Azerbaijan)
Image 31Baku's first film studio during the early 1920s (from Culture of Azerbaijan)
Image 32Ilham Aliyev in Munich in 2010 (from History of Azerbaijan)
Image 33The Caucasus after the Treaty of Gulistan, in which Persia ceded most of its northern khanates to Russia after the first Russo-Persian war (from History of Azerbaijan)
Image 34Shah Abbas I of Safavid at a banquet. Detail from a ceiling fresco, Chehel Sotoun palace, Isfahan. (from History of Azerbaijan)
Image 35"Hounds and Jackals" game (from History of Azerbaijan)
Image 36Cut pomegranate (from Culture of Azerbaijan)
Image 37Sasanid silver plate from Shamakhi District (Azerbaijan State Museum of History) (from History of Azerbaijan)
Image 38Pottery from Kul-Tepe I (from History of Azerbaijan)
Image 39Side view of the Church of Kish (from Culture of Azerbaijan)