Azerbaijan's Unique Location: Strategic Significance And Opportunities

Azerbaijan is a country with a rich history and culture, located in Eastern Europe and West Asia. It has a long history of being ruled by various empires, including the Persians, Arabs, and Russians.

The country gained independence from the Soviet Union in 1991, but has faced ongoing conflict with neighbouring Armenia over the Nagorno-Karabakh region.

Azerbaijan has a diverse landscape, with lowlands covering more than two-fifths of its territory and mountains, including the Caucasus Mountains, making up the rest. Its climate varies from dry subtropical in central and eastern regions to humid subtropical in the southeast, with mild winters and hot summers.

The country has a population of over 10 million people and is led by President Ilham Aliyev, who succeeded his father, Heydar Aliyev, in 2003.

Azerbaijan is known for its oil industry, which has played a significant role in its economic development. The country has also made efforts to diversify its economy, with agriculture, tourism, and other industries contributing to its growth.

The country has a rich cultural heritage, with influences from various civilisations that have ruled the region over the centuries. Azerbaijani is the official language, and the country has a high literacy rate.

Overall, Azerbaijan is a country with a complex history and a diverse cultural and natural landscape, striving to balance its traditional values with modernisation and economic development.

The country's location and topography

Azerbaijan is a transcontinental country located at the boundary of Eastern Europe and West Asia. It is part of the South Caucasus region and is bounded by the Caspian Sea to the east, Russia's republic of Dagestan to the north, Georgia to the northwest, Armenia and Turkey to the west, and Iran to the south. The exclave of Nakhchivan is located southwest of Azerbaijan proper, bounded by Armenia, Iran, and Turkey.

Azerbaijan's landscape is varied and often beautiful. The country is contained by the southern slopes of the Caucasus Mountains in the north, the Caspian Sea in the east, and the Armenian Highlands in the west. In the south, its natural boundaries are less distinct, and here the country merges with the Iranian Plateau. The Greater Caucasus mountain range and the Caspian Sea are the country's most prominent physical features. The Greater Caucasus protects the country from direct influences of cold air masses coming from the north, leading to the formation of a subtropical climate on most of the country's foothills and plains.

Azerbaijan's landscape is dominated by three mountain ranges: the Greater and Lesser Caucasus, and the Talysh Mountains, together covering approximately 40% of the country. The highest peak is Mount Bazarduzu at 4,466 m (14,652 ft). Nearly half of all the mud volcanoes on Earth are concentrated in Azerbaijan. The Kura and Aras are the major rivers in Azerbaijan, and the country also has several islands in the Caspian Sea.

Azerbaijan is home to a wide variety of landscapes. Over half of the land consists of mountain ridges, crests, highlands, and plateaus, while the rest consists of plains and lowlands. Elevations within the Caucasus region vary from about −28 m at the Caspian Sea shoreline up to 4,466 m at Mount Bazarduzu's peak.

Azerbaijan has a diverse climate, with nine out of eleven existing climate zones present in the country. The dry subtropical climate of central and eastern Azerbaijan is characterised by a mild winter and a long, very hot summer, with temperatures averaging about 27 °C and maximum temperatures reaching 43 °C. Southeastern Azerbaijan has a humid subtropical climate with the highest precipitation in the country, while a dry continental climate prevails in Nakhchivan.

Azerbaijan's varied landscapes and climate support a diverse range of plant and animal life. Natural vegetation zones vary according to altitude, with steppe and semidesert conditions prevailing in the lowlands and the foothills of the mountain regions. The slopes of the mountains are covered with beech, oak, and pine forests, and higher up there is a zone of alpine meadows. The Lankaran region of southern Azerbaijan has evergreen vegetation and thick beech and oak forests.

The animal life in the lowlands includes gazelles, jackals, and hyenas, as well as reptiles and rodents. The mountain regions are inhabited by Caucasian deer, roe deer, wild boar, brown bear, lynx, European bison, chamois, and leopards. The mild winters draw many birds to the Caspian coast, and nature reserves provide a resting home for flamingos, swans, pelicans, herons, egrets, sandpipers, and partridges.

The history of Azerbaijan

Ancient Times to the 19th Century

The territory of present-day Azerbaijan was first ruled by Caucasian Albania, followed by various Persian empires, including the Medes and the Achaemenid Empire. Zoroastrianism, a dominant religion in the region, spread under the Achaemenids. Later, the area came under the rule of the Sasanian Empire, and Caucasian Albania became a vassal state with a Christian state religion in the 4th century. From the time of the Russo-Persian wars in the 19th century until the coming of the Russians, Azerbaijan and Iran shared a similar history, with Azerbaijan retaining its Iranian character even after the Arab conquest of Iran.

The Russian and Soviet Period

The Russo-Persian wars of 1804-1813 and 1826-1828 forced the cession of Caucasian territories, including what is now Azerbaijan, to the Russian Empire. This marked a significant shift, with the region north of the Aras River falling under Russian control. During the late 19th century, an Azerbaijani national identity began to emerge, and the Azerbaijan Democratic Republic proclaimed its independence from the Transcaucasian Democratic Federative Republic in 1918, becoming the first secular democratic Muslim-majority state. However, this independence was short-lived, as the country was conquered and incorporated into the Soviet Union as the Azerbaijan SSR in 1920.

Independence and Recent History

Azerbaijan regained its independence on August 30, 1991, shortly before the dissolution of the Soviet Union. The early years of independence were marked by the First Nagorno-Karabakh War with the ethnic Armenian majority of the region, resulting in significant territorial losses. Heydar Aliyev rose to power in 1993, establishing a ruling dynasty that continues to this day with his son, Ilham Aliyev. Despite economic growth, particularly in the energy sector, Azerbaijan has faced criticism for authoritarianism, human rights abuses, and election fraud under the Aliyev family rule. The recent Second Nagorno-Karabakh War in 2020 resulted in the return of some territories to Azerbaijani control, and an Azerbaijani offensive in 2023 led to the dissolution of the breakaway Republic of Artsakh.

The country's political system

Azerbaijan is a semi-presidential republic with a separation of powers among the legislative, executive, and judicial branches. The legislative power is held by the unicameral National Assembly, which consists of 125 members elected in single-member constituencies. The executive power is vested in the President, who is directly elected for a five-year term. The President is the head of state and chief of the executive branch, with the power to appoint the Prime Minister and form the Cabinet. The judicial power is administered by the Constitutional Court, the Supreme Court, and the Economic Court. The President nominates the judges in these courts.

While Azerbaijan has the formal institutions of democracy, its political system is authoritarian in nature. The country has been dominated by the Aliyev family since 1969. Ilham Aliyev has served as President since 2003, succeeding his father, Heydar Aliyev. The ruling New Azerbaijan Party, headed by Ilham Aliyev, controls all electoral commissions and maintains an iron grip on power through fraudulent votes. Elections are not free and fair, with opposition parties repressed and civil rights limited. The judiciary is firmly controlled by the executive, and corruption is rampant.

Azerbaijan has been criticized by international organizations for its restrictions on freedom of expression, assembly, and association. The government has been known to target and imprison government critics, including leading activists, opposition politicians, and journalists. There have also been reports of torture and ill-treatment in police custody and detention centers. Additionally, the government has been accused of manipulating the online information landscape, blocking access to independent and opposition websites, and restricting civil liberties.

The Nagorno-Karabakh conflict

In 1923, the Soviet Union established the Nagorno-Karabakh Autonomous Oblast, home to a 95% ethnically Armenian population, within the Azerbaijan Soviet Socialist Republic. During the Soviet period, Armenians in the Nagorno-Karabakh Autonomous Oblast faced heavy discrimination as the Soviet Azerbaijani authorities worked to suppress Armenian culture and identity, pressured Armenians to leave, and encouraged Azerbaijanis to settle in the region.

Amid the dissolution of the Soviet Union in the late 1980s, tensions escalated. In 1988, the regional legislature in Nagorno-Karabakh passed a resolution declaring its intention to join the Republic of Armenia, citing self-determination laws in the Soviet constitution. This sparked a series of pogroms against Armenians across Azerbaijan, followed by violence committed against both Armenians and Azerbaijanis.

The conflict escalated into the First Nagorno-Karabakh War (1988-1994), resulting in roughly 30,000 casualties and hundreds of thousands of refugees. The war ended with a Russian-brokered ceasefire, the Bishkek Protocol, which left Nagorno-Karabakh de facto independent but heavily reliant on Armenia. Intermittent clashes and violations of the ceasefire continued, with the most intense fighting since 1994 occurring in April 2016, resulting in hundreds of casualties.

In September 2020, heavy fighting broke out again along the Azerbaijan-Nagorno-Karabakh border, with both sides rejecting calls for talks and pledging to continue fighting. The Second Nagorno-Karabakh War lasted six weeks and resulted in thousands of casualties. A ceasefire was eventually brokered by Russia, ending the conflict and leading to a peace agreement between Armenia and Azerbaijan. Azerbaijan reclaimed most of the territory it had lost, including a substantial part of Nagorno-Karabakh, while the rest of the region came under the patrol of Russian peacekeepers.

Despite the ceasefire, tensions and border clashes continued, with Azerbaijan tightening its blockade of Nagorno-Karabakh and launching a large-scale military offensive in September 2023, resulting in another ceasefire agreement. Most ethnic Armenians fled, and the region of Artsakh, which encompassed Nagorno-Karabakh, was officially dissolved on 1 January 2024.

The conflict has deep-rooted causes, including ethnic tensions, territorial disputes, and the legacy of the Soviet Union's policies in the region. The failure to reach a permanent solution has resulted in recurring violence and a fragile peace that is easily disrupted.

The country's independence

Azerbaijan's independence has been a long and tumultuous process. The territory of what is now Azerbaijan was first ruled by Caucasian Albania and later various Persian empires. Until the 19th century, it remained part of Qajar Iran, but the Russo-Persian wars of 1804–1813 and 1826–1828 forced the Qajar Empire to cede its Caucasian territories to the Russian Empire; the treaties of Gulistan in 1813 and Turkmenchay in 1828 defined the border between Czarist Russia and Qajar Iran.

In the late 19th century, an Azerbaijani national identity emerged when the Azerbaijan Democratic Republic proclaimed its independence from the Transcaucasian Democratic Federative Republic in 1918, a year after the Russian Empire collapsed, and became the first secular democratic Muslim-majority state. However, this independence was short-lived, as the country was conquered and incorporated into the Soviet Union as the Azerbaijan SSR in 1920.

Azerbaijan finally regained its independence on 30 August 1991, shortly before the dissolution of the Soviet Union. However, the country's independence was soon overshadowed by the First Nagorno-Karabakh War with the ethnic Armenian majority of the Nagorno-Karabakh region, which resulted in Armenians controlling 14–16% of Azerbaijani territory, including Nagorno-Karabakh, by the end of the hostilities in 1994.

Azerbaijan's independence was further threatened by internal instability. In 1993, democratically elected President Abulfaz Elchibey was overthrown by a military insurrection led by Colonel Surat Huseynov, which resulted in the rise to power of the former leader of Soviet Azerbaijan, Heydar Aliyev. Aliyev ruled Azerbaijan until his death in 2003, when his son, Ilham Aliyev, became president.

Under Ilham Aliyev's rule, Azerbaijan has experienced economic growth, particularly due to the exploitation of the country's oil resources. However, Aliyev's government has been criticised for authoritarianism, worsening the country's human rights record, and increasing restrictions on civil liberties and press freedom.

In recent years, Azerbaijan has regained control over the Nagorno-Karabakh region. Following the Second Nagorno-Karabakh War in 2020, the seven districts and parts of Nagorno-Karabakh that were under Armenian control were returned to Azerbaijani control. An Azerbaijani offensive in 2023 ended the Republic of Artsakh and resulted in the flight of Nagorno-Karabakh Armenians.

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