 Azerbaijan - national flag
The flag was in use 1918-20 and was reintroduced in 1991. Blue alludes to the
kinship with the Turkmen people. Red symbolizes cultural development. Islam is
expressed by the color green as well as by the crescent and the star, whose
eight branches represent eight ethnic groupings.
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see the image in PNG format and flag meaning description about this country.
Azerbaijan - history
According to a2zgov, Azerbaijan's borders have been fluid, and the country's cultural heritage
includes features from Persian, Arab, Turkish and European civilizations.
The human presence can be traced back to Paleolithic times. From
600-tfKr. Azerbaijan was part of the Media and came from 500 BC. under the rule
of the Achaemenids. I 300-tfKr. Persia and thus the present Iranian part of the
territory (Azarbaidjan) was conquered by Alexander the Great. Around this time,
Greek sources mention the name Atropathene, an actual state formation
in the area south of the border river Araks.
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the world, such as AZE which represents the official name of Azerbaijan.
Around the birth of Christ, a new state formation appeared in present-day
Azerbaijan called Albania with the capital Kabala. In the early 300-t. the
traditional cult of fire was replaced by Christianity, which was made the state
religion (the Armenian Church). Albania, however, was constantly threatened by
its neighbor to the south - from the 200-t. The Sasanid dynasty in Persia - and
of Turkish-speaking nomadic tribes from the north. The area was also involved in
the constant wars between Rome and Byzantium. The Albania period, which extends
to the 700's, represents a significant economic development with strong Armenian
cultural influence; in the early 600-t. developed its own alphabet. From the
beginning of the 700-t. Azerbaijan was conquered and Islamized by the Arabs and
placed under the caliphate, but already from the middle of the 800-t. a number
of feudal small states emerged. From the middle of 1000-t. the eastern Caucasus
was invaded by Turkishrare. From the 1100's. significant developments can be
observed in economics (especially in the urban professions), science and
literature; the country had a significant export of silk, wool, oil and
ceramics.
Gradually, Turkish became the everyday language, while Arabic and Persian (Farsi)
continued to be the language of literature. From the 1230's to the 1360's, the
eastern Caucasus and northern Iran were under the Mongols, which meant an
economic and cultural setback. The Mongols were replaced in the late
1300's. of Timur Lenk's reign.
From the 1400's. the city of Shirvan became the center of a significant silk
production and had extensive international connections, to
Moscow. Politically, Azerbaijan and the entire East Caucasus were in the 1500's
and 1600's. during the Persian Safavid dynasty, founded by the pious Ismail 1.
(1502-24). Under him, the Shiite direction of Islam was turned into a state
religion, but large sections of the population maintained Sunni Islam. During
the 1600's. the whole Caucasus became a throwing ball in the wars between Iran
and Turkey; from the beginning of the 1700's. Russia intervened. In 1723, it
conquered Baku, but the Russian presence became short-lived this time around. In
the second half of the 1700's. was registered in the area north of the
Araksfloden approximately 15 small state formations characterized by feudal relations
between clerical and secular landowners on the one hand and peasants on the
other. In the first decades of the 1800's. Iran ceded the territory north of
Araks to Russia - first at the Peace of Gulistan in 1813 (including Baku) and
later at the Peace of Turkmenistan in 1828 (including Nakhichevan). Thus, the
boundaries of today's division of Azerbaijan between Russia and Iran were laid.
In the late 1800's. the Russian part experienced a significant capitalist
development, primarily around the oil city of Baku and not least after the city
was connected to Tbilisi by rail in 1883.. Baku also became the center of the
Social Democratic movement in Russia and generally gained a very cosmopolitan
feel. Around 1890, a national revival among the intellectuals led to the
establishment of an Azeri-Turkish written language. Thus, the others (such as
Armenians and Kurds) were defined as foreigners. Azerbaijan's labor movement was
active in all the Russian revolutions. On October 31, 1917, the Soviet power was
proclaimed in Baku, but it was soon challenged, partly by other internal
political forces, partly due to foreign interference. From September 1918 to
April 1920, Azerbaijan was thus ruled by a coalition led by the nationally
oriented party Musavat ('equality'), supported in part by Turkish and
English invading forces. In April 1920, the Red Army withdrewinto Baku and
re-established Soviet power. Azerbaijan became part of the Soviet Union in 1922,
until 1936 indirectly, ie. as part of the Transcaucasian Socialist Soviet
Federation (along with Georgia and Armenia). In 1936-91, Azerbaijan was a union
republic within the Soviet Union.
During the Soviet era, the capital Baku lost its importance as an
international oil center. On the other hand, during this period a significant
economic and cultural development was experienced. Azerbaijan, for example,
became a pioneer in the language structure of the 1920's in the Soviet Union, not
least in the process in which the Arabic alphabet was replaced by the Latin and
later by the Cyrillic. Under Stalin and Khrushchev, the Azerbaijani Communists
pursued a harsh policy of nationality against the non-Turkish minorities, whose
language was consistently suppressed in education and in cultural life in
general.
The 1990 parliamentary elections, which were part of the perestroika process,
yielded a communist majority. Azerbaijan declared itself an independent state on
30.8.1991. In the direct parliamentary elections in September 1991, the former
party leader Ayaz Mutalibov was elected Speaker of Parliament. However, he was
overthrown as early as March 1992, after which the opposition (National People's
Front) elected its candidate Abulfez Eltjibej in June 1992. In an uprising among
the armed forces based in the provincial town of Gyandzha, he was ousted in the
early summer of 1993. then taken over by Gejdar Aliyev, former member of the
Communist Party's Politburo in Moscow and first party secretary in
Azerbaijan. Later that year, Aliyev was elected president by an overwhelming
majority of the population. In the period 1988-94, Azerbaijan was involved in a
bloody conflict with Armenia over the Nagorno-Karabakh enclave; the conflict
had the character of actual war 1992-94.
A new constitution was introduced in 1995 following a referendum which, like
the parliamentary elections the same year, did not live up to democratic
standards. The election was won by the President's New Azerbaijani Party. The
Constitution gives wide powers to the presidency and has in practice resulted in
presidential domination. In the 1998 presidential election, Gideon Aliyev was
re-elected, but his reign did not create greater political stability. The
opposition was in dire straits, and the state apparatus was the subject of three
failed coup attempts in resp. 1994, 1995 and 1996. Armenian offensives 1993-94
in the war over Nagorno-Karabakh forced Aliyev to enter into a ceasefire still
being monitored by the OSCE. Peace talks, however, is stagnant, and about 1/5 of
Azerbaijan's territory is still occupied by Armenia, just as Azerbaijan's
economic blockade of Armenia is maintained.
In the 2000 parliamentary elections, the president's party won, but the
circumstances surrounding the election provoked strong criticism from the
opposition and the OSCE. In 2003, a disease-stricken Gejdar Aliyev appointed his
son Ilhám Aliyev prime minister and nominated him as the presidential candidate
of the ruling New Azerbaijani Party. Ilham Aliyev was elected in October and in
December, Gejdar Aliyev died. Ilham Aliyev has since consolidated his power, and
the opposition is having a hard time speaking out. The New Azerbaijani Party,
chaired by Aliyev in 2005, won the same year the parliamentary elections, which
were heavily criticized by the OSCE and the Council of Europe.and provoked
protest demonstrations. Since the Russian-backed ceasefire with Armenia,
Azerbaijan's relations with its northern neighbor have gradually improved, not
least with Vladimir Putin.accession as President in 2000 and the launch of the
fight against terrorism after 11 September 2001. Azerbaijan also has good
relations with Turkey, which is participating in the economic blockade of
Armenia. The construction of the oil pipeline from Baku to Ceyhan has further
linked the two countries. On the other hand, relations with Iran have become
somewhat tense, due to the disagreement over the division of the Caspian
Sea between the coastal states. For the United States, Azerbaijan is a
springboard for anti-terrorism operations in Iraq and Afghanistan. In 2004,
Azerbaijan became part of the EU's neighborhood policy, and in 2008 the EU
opened a permanent mission in Baku.
Following the conflict between Georgia and Russia in August 2008, it has
become more difficult for Azerbaijan to balance between Russia and the West. So
far, the country has sought to strengthen its relations with the West in the
area of security and energy policy without weakening military and economic
relations with Russia. However, the West is strongly interested in new oil and
gas projects with Azerbaijan participation, while Russia would like to see an
expansion of energy relations with Azerbaijan. In October 2008, President Ilham
Aliyev won the presidential election with 87% of the vote. Seven candidates
participated in the election, and the turnout was 75%. OSCE election observers
stated that the election did not live up to international standards. The same
was true of the referendum in March 2009.
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