Azerbaijan

The Republic of Azerbaijan celebrates Republic Day on 28 May. Azerbaijan? That would be an amazing Scrabble score if it were allowed on the board. Also, it’s the largest country of the south Caucusus. There’s a small enclave belonging to Azerbaijan to the west of the main part of the country that is bordered by Armenia, Iran and Turkey. And several islands in the Caspian sea are also part of Azerbaijan—I’d never even thought of the Caspian sea having islands. It’s always good to have my ignorance exposed, especially when its offered an instant remedy. Azerbaijan declared independence from the then Soviet Union on 30 August 1991, the process of which was completed on 18 October that year. Republic Day celebrates the 1918 declaration of independence from the Transcaucasian Democratic Federative Republic—this marked the first sovereign state for Azerbaijan. Not up on your transcontinental facts? Capital: Baku. Language: Azerbaijani (also known as Azeri).

Though Azerbaijan only became a sovereign state (for the first time) in 1918, the region has been settled at least since the stone age, and South Caucasus has a long history. Alexander the Great anyone? In the 4th century CE the king of Caucasian Albania, as the region was then known, adopted Christianity as the official state religion, and it remained predominantly Christian until the Islamic conquest of the 8th century. The history following the Islamic conquest is a little confusing when put in a nutshell—shifting rulers, switches between Sunni and Shia Islam, wars, empire collapses, atabegs, dynasties, khanates. The frequent shifts of power, as well as the fact that the country was never a defined state until the twentieth century create a kaleidoscopic, somewhat dizzying tour of a history I don’t know well. (More ignorance to fill in.) Let’s say: after centuries of rule by southern powerhouses, the Persian Empire recognised Russian sovereignty over the region with the Treaty of Turkmenchay in 1828, following its defeat in the Russo-Persian War of 1826-1828.

Statehood in the early twentieth century was shortlived—in 1922 Azerbaijan, with Armenia and Georgia, became part of the Transcaucasian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic, and then in 1936, with the dissolution of the TSFSR, Azerbaijan became an Azerbaijan SSR, a constitutive member of the USSR. During World War II, Azerbaijan supplied the bulk of the Soviet Union’s oil—and the Germans launched Operation Edelweiss in an attempt to occupy the Caucasian oilfields. All attempts to capture Baku failed.

The current president, Ilham Aliyev, took over the family business of government from his father Heydar Aliyev who died in 2003—the 1990s saw a number of attempted coups. On the upside, Heydar Aliyev reduced the country’s unemployment, curbed the activities of criminal groups, established important institutions of independent statehood and brought in major foreign investment. On the downside—there was a great deal of corruption among the government. The same complaint has been levelled about Ilham Aliyev, who was previously his father’s Prime Minister.

Azerbaijan has some amazing wildlife. I like the long-eared hedgehogs and Eurasian lynx in particular.

Oh, and this year—look out. Azerbaijan is making its first appearance in Eurovision. Who doesn’t love Eurovision?

This Azeri poem is from the wonderful Language for a New Century. It’s by the poet Firuza Mammadli.



Leaning My Shoulder to the Sun

Leaning my shoulder to the sun,
my face to the shadow.
You are between me and my shadow.
We are talking about you.

Is that how you spare me my shadow?
You are standing between us.
You have forgotten though, my shadow
is on your face.

I am sewing a shirt for you
from the rays of the sun.
I am sewing a shirt for you.
You are standing between me and the sun,
your shadow is on the shirt I am sewing.
I am sewing a shirt for you,
on your shirt your shadow.
I am sewing the shadow to your shirt.

—Firuza Mammadli
translated from the Azeri by Shouleh Vatanabadi
from Language for a New Century