Simple directory > Regional > Azerbaijan

Country : Azerbaijan Official name: Azarbaijchan Respublikasy (Republic of Azerbaijan) Head of State: President Kurmanbek Bakiyev (YAP) (sworn in 6 Aug 2005) Head of government: Prime Minister Feliks Kulov (proposed by the President, endorsed by parliament Aug 2005) Ruling party: Yeni Azerbaycan Partiyasi (YAP) (New Azerbaijan Party) (re-elected Nov 2000) Area: 86,600 square km Population: 8.32 million (2004) Capital: Baku Official language: Azeri (Turkic) Currency: Manat (M) = 100 gopik Exchange rate: M4,908.00 per US$ (Nov 2004) GDP per capita: US$750 (2003) GDP real growth: 9.50% (2003) Labour force: 3.70 million (2003) Unemployment: 10.00% (2003) Inflation: 3.00% (2003) Oil production: 313,000 bpd (2003) Balance of trade: -US$98.00 million (2003) Foreign debt: US$1.40 billion (2003) Annual FDI: US$1.70 billion (2003)

Historical profile

Azerbaijan has at various times been part of the Persian, Muslim Arab, Turkish Selijuk, Mongol, Ottoman and Russian empires. The modern Republic was formed from territory ceded to Russia by Iran following the second of the two Russian-Persian wars.

1918–20 Azerbaijan existed as an independent republic until April 1920, when it became part of the Soviet Union.

1936 Assumed the status of a full Soviet member as the Azerbaijan Soviet Socialist Republic.

1988–94 War broke out with Nagorno- Karabakh, an ethnic Armenian enclave that lies wholly inside Azerbaijan territory, when Armenians in Nagorno-Karabakh voted to break away from Azerbaijan and join neighbouring Armenia. The six-year war threw Azerbaijan into political turmoil.

1989 Azerbaijan became the first Soviet Republic outside the Baltics to declare its national sovereignty.

1991 Formal independence was declared.

1992 Violent demonstrations over repeated failures in the Nagorno-Karabakh war forced the Communist regime, under the leadership of Ayaz Mutalibov, to flee. After presidential elections the Popular Front came to power, under the leadership of Abulfaz Elchibey.

1993 Suret Huseinov, a military commander, took advantage of Elchibey's military failures to organise a military insurrection, forcing Elchibey to abandon the presidency. Heidar Aliyev, a veteran politician, came out of retirement and won 70 per cent of the vote in the presidential referendum.

1994 A cease-fire agreement came into force. The conflict between Azerbaijan and Armenia over the predominantly Armenian region in western Azerbaijan resulted in an estimated 35,000 deaths and created 850,000 internally displaced persons between 1988 and 1994.

1995 A new constitution was adopted.

1996 The National Assembly election produced large majorities for the Aliyev-backed Yeni Azerbaycan Partiyasi (YAP) (New Azerbaijan Party). Artur Rasizade became prime minister.

1998 Aliyev returned to power.

2000 The ruling YAP won the general election, which was denounced as unfair by foreign observers, and leaders of five major opposition parties initiated a mass protest, calling for new elections.

2001 The government ordered that the local Azeri language should be written with a Latin, rather than Cyrillic, alphabet. Azerbaijan became a full member of the Council of Europe. There was no result in the US-brokered talks on Nagorno- Karabakh between the the presidents of Azerbaijan and Armenia.

2002 US sanctions, imposed in 1992 following the outbreak of war with Armenia over the Nagorno-Karabakh enclave, were lifted after Azerbaijan agreed to participate in the US-led war on terrorism. President Aliyev announced he would run for a third five-year term. Arkady Gukasyan was re-elected president of Nagorno-Karabakh. A referendum on amendments to the constitution was said to have received strong support from voters, but critics cited voting irregularities. In Baku, thousands of people held a protest against poor living conditions; they also demanded the resignation of Aliyev and the annulment of the referendum on constitutional change.

2003 France's TotalFinaElf planned to invest about US$150 million in oil projects in Azerbaijan. Aliyev collapsed during a televised speech and was taken to Turkey for hospital treatment. The President's son, Ilham Aliyev, was elected prime minister by parliament so that he could stand in the presidential elections, in which he won a landslide victory. After President Ilham Aliyev's resignation as prime minister, Artur Rasizade's candidacy for the post was endorsed by parliament. On 12 December, former president (1993–2003) Heidar Aliyev died.

2004 In June, the government said that US$3.4 billion would be invested by 2006 in the first phase of development of the Azeri-Chirag-Guneshli oil field.

2005 The Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan (BTC) oil pipeline, which will carry one million barrels per day of Caspian oil to Western markets, opened on 25 May.

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