Introduction to Azerbaijan VALIDATION COPY 1.0 JUNE 2007
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Introduction to Azerbaijan VALIDATION COPY 1.0 JUNE 2007 GEOGRAPHY Azerbaijan occupies the southeastern part of the Caucasus, descending to the Caspian Sea, between Iran and the Russian Federation (Dagestan). The country is located between Europe and Asia, as the Caucasus Mountains are the conventional border between the two continents. So, the northeast half is in Europe and the southwest half is in Asia. Bear this in mind when looking for Azerbaijan on a map or in a reference book since it may be classified under Europe or Asia. Azerbaijan is a member of the Council of Europe. Azeris like to describe the country as “shaped like an eagle”, with its “wings” spread on the Caucasus and its “head”, the Absheron Peninsula, over the Caspian Sea. Geographic co-ordinates: 40 30 N, 47 30 E (380 25"-410 55" of n.l. and 440 50"-500 52" e.l.) The time zone in Azerbaijan is GMT +4 Elevation extremes: -lowest point: Caspian Sea -28 m -highest point: Bazarduzu Dagi 4,466 m 1 CLIMATE Azerbaijan has a varied climate. It is subtropical and dry in central and eastern Azerbaijan, subtropical and humid in the southeast (Lenkoran lowlands), temperate along the shores of the Caspian Sea, and cold at the higher mountain elevations. In Baku the climate is cool in the winter, averaging 4°C (40 F) in January. Summers are hot (up to 40°C /112° F) and humid because of the sea. There are often strong winds, especially in winter. Snow rarely settles in the city. Spring and autumn are pleasant and there is a great deal of sunshine from April to October Because most of Azerbaijan receives scant rainfall - on average 152 (6”) to 254 (10”) millimeters annually - agricultural areas require irrigation. The heaviest precipitation occurs in the highest elevations of the Caucasus and in the Lenkoran' Lowlands in the far southeast. The yearly average in these areas exceeds 1,000 millimeters (40”). POPULATION Population of the Republic of Azerbaijan: 7,798,497 (July 2002 est.) The average population density of Azerbaijan is 86 persons/km2. The Absheron Peninsula is more densely populated (800 pers/km2). The country is still largely rural, with only 53 percent of the population residing in urban areas, and 47 percent in rural areas. Eighty percent of the population is concentrated in valleys and low lands ideal for agriculture and large industrial centers. This area includes Kur-Araz, Samur- Devechi and Lankaran lowlands, as well as the Ganja-Gazakh and PriAraz valleys, and Absheron Peninsula. Azerbaijan is the most populous country in the Caucasus. The Azeri people constitute 90% of the population of the Republic of Azerbaijan. Although it contains people of many different nationalities, the republic has become more ethnically homogeneous in recent years. The proportion of Azeris, who have traditionally comprised about four-fifths of the population, has increased since the conflict with Armenia over Nagorno-Karabakh began in 1988. Large numbers of Azeri refugees have flowed over the border from Armenia, and large numbers of Russians, Armenians, and other nationalities have left Azerbaijan. Most of these ethnic groups have resided in the area of present- day Azerbaijan for centuries, although Slavs only recently arrived in large numbers with the industrialization boom of the twentieth century. The population growth rate was estimated at 0.38% in 2002. 2 HISTORY The oldest petroglyphs found in Gobustan, Azerbaijan date from the 12th century BC. Later, European invaders also left their marks: inscriptions left by Alexander the Great's cohorts in the 4th century BC and 2,000-year-old graffiti left by Trajan's Roman legionnaires. In Gobustan you can still find inscriptions left by the Romans and the Greeks. Several tribes thrived in ancient Azerbaijan and left their names on the regions they inhabited: Caspian, Mannai, Media and Caucasian Albania. The Mannai and the Medes were two powerful, advanced states that emerged from this area in the 3rd millennium BC. The region was first integrated into the Persian Empire in 550 BC when the king of the Medes, Astyages, was defeated and imprisoned by his grandson Cyrus II the Great. The empire stretched from the Caspian to the Indian Ocean. Christianity arrived early in the 1st century, but by 115 AD, Rome withdrew when Trajan's armies were infected by the plague. By the 3rd century the Apostolic Autocephalous church was fully established and religious and cultural life thrived. Christianity was widely accepted in the 5th century (north of the Araz River) after St. Grigor the Illuminator converted and baptized its king, Urnayr. During the first four decades of the 7th century Christian Azerbaijan fiercely resisted Arab invaders, (under the last Albanian king, Javanshir), but by 642 the Muslim Arabs completed their conquest of Azerbaijan. The Arabs never exerted direct rule, but used local chieftains instead. However they managed to convert the region to Islam. Under the early became the main seat of power, and the area became the province of "ar-Ran", later Arran. By the 11th century new masters replaced the Arabs: the Seljuk Turks. Seljuk tribes migrated west in the 10th and 11th centuries, and by 1018 the warlord Chagri Bey reached Azerbaijan. The Seljuk Turks moved further west and defeated the Byzantines in 1071 at the battle of Malazgirt. This opened the door to Anatolia, and initiated the beginning of the end of European presence in what is modern day Turkey. There followed a steady influx of immigrants and by the 14th century Azerbaijan was inhabited by people of mixed Persian-Turkish origin. There was also a gradual replacement of the Persian language by a Turkic dialect that evolved into modern Azeri. However, not even the Turks could resist the overwhelming power of the Mongol hordes led by Temudjin, otherwise known as Genghis Khan. (Muslims baptized him as the "Scourge of God".) Gengis Khan's soldiers devastated Azerbaijan with legendary cruelty in the 13th century. Nevertheless, Mongol power was usurped by the Tartar warlord Timur Lenk (also known as Tamerlane). Timur became king of Transoxiana and built a new Persian empire. Timur's descendants ruled the empire from 1405 till 1499, when a native Azeri dynasty emerged: the Sefavids. Shah Ismail made Shia Islam the official religion of this kingdom, and imposed it with great cruelty on the Sunni population, creating a divide between the Azeris and the Sunni Ottoman Turks. The Sefavid dynasty came to an end in 1722, undermined by the rivalry with the Ottoman Empire, internal strife, and an Afghan invasion. 3 With a mostly Shia Muslim population, Azerbaijan remained within Persia's political and religious sphere of influence until the nineteenth century. During the first years of the 19th century Russia re-awoke its expansionist dreams in the Caucasus. The Tsar's army first occupied Georgia and then conquered most of Azerbaijan in1806 and 1807. By 1807 Nakhchivan was the only khanate to remain independent. Persia was in decline in 1813 (under Shah Fath Ali) when the Russians attacked. The Azeri khanate was ceded to the Russian Tzar Alexander I, thus bringing the northern part of Azerbaijan within the European sphere of influence. In the treaty of Gulistan, Persia and Russia agreed that Azerbaijan would be divided along the Araz River, with Russian Azerbaijan north of the river, and Iranian Azerbaijan to the South. In 1826 Persia again challenged the Russian hold over the region, but was defeated in the decisive battle of Ganja. Russian troops then seized Tabriz. Azerbaijan’s modern borders were defined in 1828 under the treaty of Turkmanchay, between Russia and Persia. The Azeri land south of the Araz River remained part of Persia and is now part of the Islamic Republic of Iran. In the nineteenth century, Russian influence over daily life in Azerbaijan was less prominent than the influence of indigenous religious and political elites, and the cultural and intellectual influences of Persia and Turkey. During most of the nineteenth century, the Russian Empire extracted commodities from Azerbaijan and invested little in the economy. However, the exploitation of oil in Azerbaijan at the end of the nineteenth century brought an influx of Russians into Baku, increasing Russian influence and expanding the local economy. Although ethnic Russians came to dominate the oil business and government administration in the late 1800s, many Azeris became prominent in particular sectors of oil production, such as oil transport on the Caspian Sea. The oil boom transformed the capital of the northern part of Azerbaijan, Baku, into a cosmopolitan, industrial center. After the Bolshevik Revolution, and facing imminent subjugation by the Red Army, Azerbaijan attempted to negotiate a union with Persia, but this effort was mooted when the Red Army invaded Azerbaijan in April 1920. Russian leader Vladimir I. Lenin justified the invasion with the importance of Baku region's oil to the Bolsheviks, who were still embroiled in a civil war. In September 1920, Azerbaijan signed a treaty with Russia. The treaty unified Russian and Azeri military forces, economies, and foreign trade. It allowed Azeri to maintain political independence, though this was superficial. 4 The Soviet invasion of Azerbaijan in 1922 initiated a seventy-one-year period of total political and economic control under the Soviet Union. The borders and formal status of Azerbaijan underwent a period of change and uncertainty in the 1920s and 1930s, but then remained stable through the end of Soviet control in 1991. The first communist president of Azerbaijan was the activist and writer Nariman Narimanov. In the 'honey moon' period of the Soviet state, Narimanov became a popular leader, despite his being responsible for numerous killings and deportations.