I made a visit to Azerbaijan with my family in the 3rd week of November 2022.
It was a group tour and 12 other people joined. We were there for 6 nights and all in all it was a wonderful trip and most of all everyone jelled and boned well throughout the trip.
Republic of Azerbaijan, is a transcontinental country located at
the boundary of Eastern Europe and Western Asia It is a part of the South Caucasus region,
and is bounded by the Caspian Sea to the east, Russia (Republic of
Dagestan) to the north, Georgia to
the northwest, Armenia and Turkey to
the west, and Iran to
the south. Baku is
the capital and largest city.
The Azerbaijan Democratic Republic proclaimed
its independence from the Transcaucasian Democratic Federative
Republic in 1918 and became the first secular democratic Muslim-majority state.
In 1920, the country was incorporated into the Soviet Union as
the Azerbaijan SSR The
modern Republic of Azerbaijan proclaimed its independence on 30 August 1991shortly
before the dissolution of the Soviet Union in
the same year. In September 1991, the ethnic Armenian majority
of the Nagorno-Karabakh region
formed the self-proclaimed Republic of Artsakh The region and seven
surrounding districts are internationally recognized as part of
Azerbaijan pending a solution to the status of the Nagorno-Karabakh through
negotiations facilitated by the OSCE, although
became de facto independent with the end of the First Nagorno-Karabakh War in 1994. Following
the Second Nagorno-Karabakh War in 2020,
the seven districts and parts of Nagorno-Karabakh were
returned to Azerbaijani control
Azerbaijan is a unitary semi-presidential republic It
is one of six independent Turkic states and an
active member of the Organization of Turkic States and
the TÜRKSOY community.
Azerbaijan has diplomatic relations with 182 countries and holds membership in
38 international organizations, including the United
Nations, the Council of
Europe, the Non-Aligned Movement,
The vast majority of the country's population (97%)
is nominally] Muslimbut the constitution does not declare an
official religion and all major political forces in the country are secularist.
Azerbaijan is a developing country and ranks 88th on
the Human Development Index. It has a high
rate of economic development literacy and
a low rate of unemployment However, the
ruling New Azerbaijan Party, in power since 1993,
has been accused of authoritarian leadership and the deterioration of the
country's human rights record, including increasing
restrictions on civil liberties, particularly on press freedom and political
repression
on the way from Dubai and closer to Azarbijan with the snow capped Caucasian mountains on view.
