Here is short travel to my country Azerbaijan!

1. Journey to Azerbaijan Ethimology-Azerbaijan is a geographical name. On the one hand this name is linked with the population, which lived in this region for thousand of years before our era, and who were mostly fire-worshippers."Azer" means fire. "Azer" means "a brave man", "a brave boy", "the fire keeper". Neighbours- It borders with Iran and Turkey on the south, Russia on the north, Georgia on the north-west and Armenia on the west. The world's biggest lake- Caspian Sea is the east part of Azerbaijan. Territory-86,6 thousand square km. The country extends between longitude 44° and 52° east andlatitude 38° and 42° north,Baku situated at the parallel of 40°.

2. Map of the Azerbaijan

3. Journey to Azerbaijan To January 15, 2010, population of the Republic of Azerbaijan was estimated at 9 million. Men constitute 49% of population, while women 51%. The constitution established Azerbaijan as a democratic, constitutional, secular and unitary republic. The three-color national flag of Azerbaijan was accepted by the government of the Democratic Republic of Azerbaijan on November 9, 1918. The national flag of the Azerbaijan Republic consists of three equal strips: Bluecolor-designates the Turkish origin of the Azerbaijan Republic Red color-its intention to create a modern state and develop the democracy Greencolor-it’s relation to the Islam civilization. In the middle of the flag there are white-color crescent and an eight-point star. Currency in Azerbaijan is Manat

5. Height- 162 meter

7. Religion in Azerbaijan

8. Azerbaijan during Soviet period 1921-a seventy-year period under total political and economic control of the state that became the Soviet Union. The political party was the Communist Party That time people atheism was forcedly spread among the country. Muslims had to hide their religion as well as, other religion people. Education was improved especially in regions. 1991, October 18-after Soviet Union collapse, there was established Azerbaijan Republic. Before Russian invasion it was established in 1918, May 28 by MammadAmin Rasulzade, it lasted only 23 month. You can still see Soviet buildings in this country

9. Soviet buildings

10. Journey to Azerbaijan Some of the Soviet buildings now have been destroyed and the face of the capital Baku now is much more modern.

11. Journey to Azerbaijan The capital Baku is situated on the shore of the Caspian Sea in the south of the Absheron peninsula. Baku has 11 administrative districts and 5 settlements. The first Metro came into operation in 1967, during the Soviet time.

12. Photos of the Old Baku

13. Sightseeingplaces of Baku

14. Oil in Azerbaijan Azerbaijanjan is one of the birthplaces of the oil industry. The petroleum industry in Azerbaijan produces about 914,000 barrels of oil per day. The main oil-producing regions were located near Baku at Sabunchy, Surakhany and Bibi-Heybat September 20, 1994-there was signed "Contract of the Century“ with international companies. The projected investment for this project is $13 billion. Azerbaijan Republic’s profit from the oil and gas is $16 billion for each year. The Oil Fund of Azerbaijan mentioned that during the last 11 years the profit has been measured with $46.4 billion, from this amount $23.1 billion was spent.

15. Nagorno Karabagh conflict Nagorno Karabagh and adjoining districts, 1 village of the Autonomous Republic of Nakhchyvan, 80 of Agdam district, 54 of Fuzuli district, 13 of Terter district and 7 of Gazakh district are under occupation of Armenia still. At the moment, there are about a million refugees, IDPs and people looking for asylum in Azerbaijan. Ceasefire agreement was signed in May 1994, respective decisions were adopted at the OSCE summits held in Budapest in 1994. In 1993, UN Security Council adopted resolutions 822, 853, 874, 884 on settlement of the conflict soon and peacefully, release of the occupied territories of Armenian armed forces, return of refugees and IDPs to native lands.

16. Map of the occupied territory

17. Sources: www.azerbaijan.az www.vikipedia.az Some of the photos are from www.sharg.az, www.news.az, www.deyerler.az

18. Teshekkur! Thanks! Sabina Jafarova (Vagifgizi), co-founder and co-editor-in chief of the Baku Post website Email: reporter.sabina@gmail.com Mob: +1253 38119667 (U.S.A) +99455 8195187 (Azerbaijan) Blog:http://sainavaqif.wordpress.com Website: www.bakupost.org Twitter:@sabinuss Facebook: Sabina Vagifgizi