Tour of Azerbaijan 2009 is the 24th round of Tour of Iran (Azerbaijan), which took between 15 May and 21 May 2009 in Iranian Azerbaijan and in the Autonomous Republic of Nakhichivan. The tour had 6 stages in which Ahad Kazemi from Iran won in first place in over all classification of the tour. [1]
| Stage | Date | start | finish | length | winner | country |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 15 May | Tabriz | Meshginshahr | 146 km | Rasoul Barati |  IRN |
| 2 | 16 May | Urmia | Shabestar | 175 km | Ahad Kazemi | IRN |
| 3 | 17 May | Tabriz | Jolfa | 129 km | Hossein Nateghi | IRN |
| 4 | 18 May | Nakhichivan | Nakhichivan | Mehdi Sohrabi | IRN | |
| 5 | 20 May | Jolfa | Kaleybar | 145 km | Ghader Mizbani | IRN |
| 6 | 21 May | Kaleybar | Tabriz | 173 km | Ramin Mehrabani | IRN |
| Rank | Rider | Country | Time |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Ahad Kazemi | IRN | 21h 09' 13" |
| 2 | Hossein Askari | IRN | +20' |
| 3 | Ghader Mizbani | IRN | +56' |
Azerbaijan, officially the Republic of Azerbaijan, is a 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 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.
Baku is the capital and largest city of Azerbaijan, as well as the largest city on the Caspian Sea and of the Caucasus region. Baku is located 28 metres (92 ft) below sea level, which makes it the lowest lying national capital in the world and also the largest city in the world located below sea level. Baku lies on the southern shore of the Absheron Peninsula, alongside the Bay of Baku. At the beginning of 2009, Baku's urban population was estimated at just over two million people. Officially, about 25% of all inhabitants of the country live in Baku's metropolitan area. Baku is the sole metropolis in Azerbaijan.
Azerbaijanis or Azeris (آذریلر), also known as Azerbaijani Turks, are a Turkic people living mainly in northwestern Iran as well as a smaller population in the sovereign Republic of Azerbaijan, with a mixed cultural heritage, including Caucasian, Iranian and Turkic elements. They are the second-most numerous ethnic group among the Turkic-speaking peoples after Turkish people and are predominantly Shia Muslims. They comprise the largest ethnic group in the Republic of Azerbaijan and the second-largest ethnic group in neighboring Iran and Georgia. They speak the Azerbaijani language, belonging to the Oghuz branch of the Turkic languages.
Azerbaijan or Azarbaijan, also known as Iranian Azerbaijan, is a historical region in northwestern Iran that borders Iraq, Turkey, the Nakhchivan Autonomous Republic, Armenia, and the Republic of Azerbaijan.
Azerbaijani is the only official language in Azerbaijan and is spoken by the majority of its population, however, a number of minority languages also exist in the country. The largest minority languages are Lezgian, Talysh, Avar, Russian and Tat. There are also other languages which are spoken by a very small percentage of the population such as Tsakhur and Khinalug.
Official diplomatic relations between the Republic of Azerbaijan and the Islamic Republic of Iran were established following the dissolution of the Soviet Union (1991). Iran and Azerbaijan share, to a large extent, the same history, religion, ethnicity, and culture. The territory of what is now called the Republic of Azerbaijan was only separated from Iran in the first half of the 19th century, through the Russo-Persian Wars. In the area to the North of the river Aras, the territory of the contemporary Republic of Azerbaijan was Iranian territory until it was occupied by Russia. Iran and Azerbaijan are furthermore the only official Shia Muslim nations in the world where the vast majority of the people are Shia Muslims. They have respectively the highest and second highest Shia population percentage in the world, as well as the history of Shi'ism which is rooted in both nations from exactly the same moment in history, whereas the majority of the population of both their neighboring nations are either predominantly Christians or Sunni Muslims. However, there are some tensions between the two countries.
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Tour of Azerbaijan (Iran), also known as the Tour of Iranian Azerbaijan or Azerbaijan Tour is an annual multiple stage road bicycle racing held in Iran since 1986, named after Iranian Azerbaijan. It is a UCI 2.1 category race and is part of the UCI Asia Tour. Tour of Iran (Azerbaijan) is the most prestigious cycling tour in Iran and it is the oldest standing cycling tour in Asia and Middle East.
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The Tehran Communiqué, also known as the Joint statement of the heads of state in Tehran is the joint communiqué mediated by Iranian President, Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani and signed by the acting President of Azerbaijan, Yagub Mammadov and President of Armenia, Levon Ter-Petrossian on May 7, 1992 with an intention to end the four-year-long hostilities between Armenia and Azerbaijan over the Nagorno-Karabakh region, a former autonomous oblast of the Azerbaijan SSR.
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