Republic of Azerbaijan

Land area: 33,243 sq mi (86,100 sq km); total area: 33,436 sq mi (86,600 sq km)

Population (2006 est.): 7,961,619 (growth rate: 0.7%); birth rate: 20.7/1000; infant mortality rate: 79.0/1000; life expectancy: 63.9; density per sq mi: 238

Capital and largest city (2003 est.): Baku, 2,118,600 (metro area), 1,235,400 (city proper), a port on the Caspian Sea

Other large cities (2004 est.): Ganja, 303,000; Sumgait, 280,500

Monetary unit: Manat

Languages: Azerbaijani Turkic 89%, Russian 3%, Armenian 2%, other 6% (1995 est.)

Ethnicity/race: Azeri 90.6%, Dagestani 2.2%, Russian 1.8%, Armenian 1.5%, other 3.9% (1999). Note: almost all Armenians live in the separatist Nagorno-Karabakh region

Religions: Islam 93%, Russian Orthodox 3%, Armenian Orthodox 2%, other 2% (1995 est.)

Literacy rate: 97% (1989 est.)

Economic summary: GDP/PPP (2005 est.): $37.03 billion; per capita $4,700. Real growth rate: 19.7%. Inflation: 12%. Unemployment: 1.2% (official rate). Arable land: 20.62%. Agriculture: cotton, grain, rice, grapes, fruit, vegetables, tea, tobacco; cattle, pigs, sheep, goats. Labor force: 5.45 million; agriculture and forestry 41%, industry 7%, services 52% (2001). Industries: petroleum and natural gas, petroleum products, oilfield equipment; steel, iron ore; cement; chemicals and petrochemicals; textiles. Natural resources: petroleum, natural gas, iron ore, nonferrous metals, alumina. Exports: $6.117 billion f.o.b. (2005 est.): oil and gas 90%, machinery, cotton, foodstuffs. Imports: $4.656 billion f.o.b. (2005 est.): machinery and equipment, oil products, foodstuffs, metals, chemicals. Major trading partners: Italy, Czech Republic, Germany, Indonesia, Romania, Georgia, Russia, Turkey, France, UK, Ukraine, Netherlands, U.S. (2004).

Communications: Telephones: main lines in use: 1,025,400 (2004); mobile cellular: ,456,500 (2004). Radio broadcast stations: AM 10, FM 17, shortwave 1 (1998). Television broadcast stations: 2 (1997). Internet hosts: 460 (2005). Internet users: 408,000 (2005).

Transportation: Railways: total: 2,957 km (2004). Highways: total: 27,016 km; paved: 12,698 km (including 128 km of expressways); unpaved: 14,318 km (2003). Ports and harbors: Baku (Baki). Airports: 45 (2005).

International disputes: Armenia supports ethnic Armenian secessionists in Nagorno-Karabakh and since the early 1990s has militarily occupied 16% of Azerbaijan; over 800,000 mostly ethnic Azerbaijanis were driven from the occupied lands and Armenia; about 230,000 ethnic Armenians were driven from their homes in Azerbaijan into Armenia; Azerbaijan seeks transit route through Armenia to connect to Naxcivan exclave; Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) continues to mediate dispute; Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, and Russia ratify Caspian seabed delimitation treaties based on equidistance, while Iran continues to insist on an even one-fifth allocation and challenges Azerbaijan's hydrocarbon exploration in disputed waters; bilateral talks continue with Turkmenistan on dividing the seabed and contested oilfields in the middle of the Caspian; Azerbaijan and Georgia continue to discuss the alignment of their boundary at certain crossing areas

Geography

Azerbaijan is located on the western shore of the Caspian Sea at the southeast extremity of the Caucasus. The region is a mountainous country, and only about 7% of it is arable land. The Kura River Valley is the area's major agricultural zone.

Government

Constitutional republic.

History

Northern Azerbaijan was known as Caucasian Albania in ancient times. The area was the site of many conflicts involving Arabs, Kazars, and Turks. After the 11th century, the territory became dominated by Turks and eventually was a stronghold of the Shiite Muslim religion and Islamic culture. The territory of Soviet Azerbaijan was acquired by Russia from Persia through the Treaty of Gulistan in 1813 and the Treaty of Turkamanchai in 1828.

After the Bolshevik Revolution, Azerbaijan declared its independence from Russia in May 1918. The republic was reconquered by the Red Army in 1920 and was annexed into the Transcaucasian Soviet Socialist Republic in 1922. It was later reestablished as a separate Soviet Republic on Dec. 5, 1936. Azerbaijan declared independence from the collapsing Soviet Union on Aug. 30, 1991.

Since 1988, Azerbaijan and Armenia have been feuding over the enclave of Nagorno-Karabakh. The majority of the enclave's inhabitants are Armenian Christians agitating to secede from the predominantly Muslim Azerbaijan and join with Armenia. War broke out in 1988 when Nagorno-Karabakh tried to break away and annex itself to Armenia, and 30,000 died before a cease-fire agreement was reached in 1994, with Armenia regaining its hold over the disputed enclave. Final plans on the status of Nagorno-Karabakh have yet to be determined.

The country's economic troubles are expected to be transformed through Western investment in Azerbaijan's oil resources, an untapped reserve whose estimated worth is trillions of dollars. Since 1994, the Azerbaijan state oil company (SOCAR) has signed several billion-dollar agreements with international oil companies. Azerbaijan's pro-Western stance and its careful economic management have made it the most attractive of the oil-rich Caspian countries for foreign investment. In the years since its independence, the country has undergone rapid privatization, and the IMF gave it high marks as one of the most successful economic overhauls ever. In Sept. 2002, construction of the 1,100-mile Baku-Tblisi-Ceyhan pipeline (a route through Georgia and Turkey) began. Major investors are Britain's BP (33%), Azerbaijan's SOCAR (25%), the U.S.'s Unocal (8.9%), and Norway's Statoil (8.7%). In July 2006, the pipeline opened.

In 2003, President Heydar Aliyev, who was seriously ill, chose his son as the new prime minister, paving the way for his eventual succession. The opposition protested strenuously. In October elections, the president's son, Ilham Aliyev, was elected president. Heydar Aliyev died in December.

In Nov. 2005 parliamentary elections, Aliyev's New Azerbaijan Party won the largest number of seats. International election monitors declared the election fraudulent, and opposition candidates staged protests.

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