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ដោយ: AFP
Baku, Azerbaijan | Azerbaijan, which holds a snap presidential election on Wednesday expected to extend the autocratic rule of President Ilham Aliyev, is an energy rich former Soviet republic.
- Former Soviet republic -
Wedged between Russia and Iran in the eastern portion of the Caucasus Mountains range, Azerbaijan has long been fought over by regional powers keen to exploit its strategic location bridging east and west.
At 86,600 square kilometres (33,200 square miles) it has a population of has some 9.7 million, of which around a third live in the capital Baku.
Control of Azerbaijan was long disputed between Turkey and Persia.
The territory that is now Azerbaijan was conquered by Russia at the beginning of the 19th century and Azerbaijan became a Soviet republic when a Red Army invasion ended its short-lived 1918-1920 independence.
It became independent again on October 18, 1991 after the fall of the Soviet Union.
- Conflict with Armenia -
Azerbaijan is locked in a long-simmering conflict with neighbouring Armenia over the Nagorny Karabakh region.
Ethnic Armenians backed by Yerevan seized control of Nagorny Karabakh from Baku in a war in the early 1990s that left an estimated 30,000 dead.
The two sides never signed a definitive peace deal and attempts to negotiate a final settlement have long been stalled.
In April 2016 at least 110 people were killed in Karabakh from all sides as the simmering violence flared into the worst clashes in decades.
- Authoritarian regime -
Heydar Aliyev, the Soviet-era chief of Azerbaijan and a top KGB official, returned to power in 1993 following a period of turmoil after Azerbaijan gained its independence with the 1991 collapse of the USSR. He quickly restored stability and promoted a cult of personality that remains strong.
After Heydar's death in 2003, his son and prime minister Ilham was elected president. Ilham Aliyev was re-elected in 2008 and 2013 at elections denounced as rigged by the opposition.
In 2009 Azerbaijan voted to scrap a two-term limit on the presidency, a move critics said was aimed at extending his hold on power for life.
In 2016 several other constitutional changes strengthened the Aliyev family's grip on power, with the new post of vice president going to his wife Mehriban Aliyeva.
Azerbaijan is one of the most secular countries in the Muslim world, but the authorities are increasingly worried about the rise of radical Islam.
Critics accuse Azerbaijan's authorities of persecuting political opponents and stifling free speech, including by jailing critical journalists.
- Energy power -
Azerbaijan is home to significant oil and gas reserves, in particular offshore in its portion of the Caspian Sea.
The country has been courted by the West as a provider and transit hub for Caspian Sea reserves to be exported to Europe, bypassing Russia.
Heavily dependent on its oil and gas exports, which account for up to three quarters of its income, Azerbaijan has suffered from the drop in oil prices.
Its currency, the manat, in 2015 lost half of its value against the dollar.
Growth dipped by 3.1 percent in 2016, according to the World Bank.
Azerbaijan joined the Council of Europe rights watchdog in 1991 and has been a member of NATO's Partnership for Peace since 1994.
kd-fm/jmy/pg/jta
© Agence France-Presse
- Former Soviet republic -
Wedged between Russia and Iran in the eastern portion of the Caucasus Mountains range, Azerbaijan has long been fought over by regional powers keen to exploit its strategic location bridging east and west.
At 86,600 square kilometres (33,200 square miles) it has a population of has some 9.7 million, of which around a third live in the capital Baku.
Control of Azerbaijan was long disputed between Turkey and Persia.
The territory that is now Azerbaijan was conquered by Russia at the beginning of the 19th century and Azerbaijan became a Soviet republic when a Red Army invasion ended its short-lived 1918-1920 independence.
It became independent again on October 18, 1991 after the fall of the Soviet Union.
- Conflict with Armenia -
Azerbaijan is locked in a long-simmering conflict with neighbouring Armenia over the Nagorny Karabakh region.
Ethnic Armenians backed by Yerevan seized control of Nagorny Karabakh from Baku in a war in the early 1990s that left an estimated 30,000 dead.
The two sides never signed a definitive peace deal and attempts to negotiate a final settlement have long been stalled.
In April 2016 at least 110 people were killed in Karabakh from all sides as the simmering violence flared into the worst clashes in decades.
- Authoritarian regime -
Heydar Aliyev, the Soviet-era chief of Azerbaijan and a top KGB official, returned to power in 1993 following a period of turmoil after Azerbaijan gained its independence with the 1991 collapse of the USSR. He quickly restored stability and promoted a cult of personality that remains strong.
After Heydar's death in 2003, his son and prime minister Ilham was elected president. Ilham Aliyev was re-elected in 2008 and 2013 at elections denounced as rigged by the opposition.
In 2009 Azerbaijan voted to scrap a two-term limit on the presidency, a move critics said was aimed at extending his hold on power for life.
In 2016 several other constitutional changes strengthened the Aliyev family's grip on power, with the new post of vice president going to his wife Mehriban Aliyeva.
Azerbaijan is one of the most secular countries in the Muslim world, but the authorities are increasingly worried about the rise of radical Islam.
Critics accuse Azerbaijan's authorities of persecuting political opponents and stifling free speech, including by jailing critical journalists.
- Energy power -
Azerbaijan is home to significant oil and gas reserves, in particular offshore in its portion of the Caspian Sea.
The country has been courted by the West as a provider and transit hub for Caspian Sea reserves to be exported to Europe, bypassing Russia.
Heavily dependent on its oil and gas exports, which account for up to three quarters of its income, Azerbaijan has suffered from the drop in oil prices.
Its currency, the manat, in 2015 lost half of its value against the dollar.
Growth dipped by 3.1 percent in 2016, according to the World Bank.
Azerbaijan joined the Council of Europe rights watchdog in 1991 and has been a member of NATO's Partnership for Peace since 1994.
kd-fm/jmy/pg/jta
© Agence France-Presse
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