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. Baku's urban population was estimated at two million people as of 2009. Baku is the primate city of Azerbaijan—it is the sole metropolis in the country, and about 25% of all inhabitants of the country live in Baku's metropolitan area.
Since the beginning of the 1990s, social and demographic changes in the Russian Federation, stemming from under the Soviet Union, led the country towards an aging population, often described as in media as a "demographic crisis".
The Maiden Tower is a 12th-century monument in the Old City, Baku, Azerbaijan. Along with the Shirvanshahs' Palace, dated to the 15th century, it forms a group of historic monuments listed in 2001 under the UNESCO World Heritage List of Historical Monuments as cultural property, Category III. It is one of Azerbaijan's most distinctive national emblems, and is thus featured on Azerbaijani currency notes and official letterheads.
The Ateshgah of Baku, often called the "Fire Temple of Baku", is a castle-like religious temple in Surakhany town, a suburb in Baku, Azerbaijan.
The Ministry of Defence Industry of Azerbaijan is a governmental agency within the Cabinet of Azerbaijan in charge of design, manufacturing, regulation and maintenance of products in the fields of defense, radio electronics, instrument engineering.
The Shusha or Shushi massacre, also known as the Shusha pogrom, was the mass killing of the Armenian population of Shusha from 22–26 March 1920 and the destruction and process of "cultural de-Armenianization" of Nagorno-Karabakh. The number of deaths vary across sources, with the most conservative estimate being 500, and the highest estimates reaching 20,000.
Ahmadiyya Mikayil oghlu Jabrayilov is said to have been a French Resistance member of Azerbaijani ethnicity. The factual existence of Jabrailov is in dispute, with allegations that his official wartime biography was entirely fabricated Soviet propaganda.
The architecture of Baku is not characterized by any particular architectural style, having accumulated its buildings over a long period of time.
The Khinalugs are an indigenous people of Azerbaijan and speak the Khinalug language, a Northeast Caucasian language. The Khinalugs are indigenous to the Quba District and have been named after their main village, Khinalug. It is one of the peoples that have traditionally been called Shahdagh.
Iranian Azerbaijanis, also known as Iranian Azeris, Iranian Turks, Persian Turks, or Persian Azerbaijanis, are Iranians of Azerbaijani ethnicity who may speak the Azerbaijani language as their first language. Iranian Azerbaijanis are a Turkic-speaking people of Iranian origin.
Gulustan Palace, formerly known as Gulustan Wedding Palace Complex during the Soviet era is the main state convention center of the Azerbaijani government. It is located on Baku's highland, on Istiglaliyyat Street overlooking the whole city of Baku and Baku Bay. The palace serves as an official facility for governmental and non-governmental organizations holding various types of formal events. It is notable for having hosted important events such as significant oil and gas contracts, international and state conferences.
Foreign relations exist between Azerbaijan and Poland. The embassy of Poland opened in Azerbaijan on August 23, 2001, and the Azerbaijani Embassy in Poland on August 30, 2004. Both countries are full members of the Council of Europe and the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE).
Armenians once formed a sizable community in Baku, the current capital of the Republic of Azerbaijan. Though the date of their original settlement is unclear, Baku's Armenian population swelled during the 19th century, when it became a major center for oil production and offered other economic opportunities to enterprising investors and businessmen. Their numbers remained strong into the 20th century, despite the turbulence of the Russian Revolutions of 1917, but almost all the Armenians fled the city between 1988 and January 1990. By the beginning of January 1990, only 50,000 Armenians remained in Baku compared to a quarter million in 1988; most of these left after being targeted in a pogrom that occurred prior to the dissolution of the Soviet Union and the early stages of the first Nagorno-Karabakh War.
The Azerbaijan Soviet Socialist Republic entered World War II with the Soviet Union after the German declaration of war on June 22, 1941. Azerbaijan's oilfields were enticing to the Germans due to the USSR's heavy dependency on Caucasus oil – setting the scene for German campaigns attempting to capture and seize the oilfields in Baku during the Battle of the Caucasus. Azerbaijan’s oil was very decisive for Soviet victory. More than 600,000 people from Azerbaijan were conscripted to the Workers’ and Peasants’ Red Army during World War II from 1941 to 1945.
Batyrkhan Kamaluly Shukenov was a Soviet Kazakhstan and Russian singer, musician, composer, and poet. Shukenov was co-founder and lead singer of the Kazakh-Russian pop music group A-Studio from 1987 until 2000. After leaving the group in 2000, he began his solo career.
UNESCO's list of intangible cultural heritage from Azerbaijan includes 15 examples. 13 of them were included in the "Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humatiy", and 2 were included in the "Intangible Cultural Heritage in Need of Urgent Protection". No examples from Azerbaijan were included in the "Register of Good Safeguarding Practices". The Azerbaijani mugham, the first sample from Azerbaijan to be added to the list of intangible cultural heritage of UNESCO, was included in the list in 2008.
Jalil Mammadali oghlu Javadov was a Soviet Azerbaijani commander, counter admiral (1968), first admiral of Azerbaijan and Turkic-muslim world of the USSR, chairman of Republic Committee of Army, Aviation, Volunteer Assistance Society of Azerbaijan SSR (1954-1971), member of the 5th convocation (1959-1963) of the Supreme Soviet of the Azerbaijan SSR.
With the outbreak of hostilities in the Caucasus as part of World war I, Azerbaijan was also involved in the war, being part of the Russian Empire. Baku oil was of particular importance.
Armenian-Azerbaijani cultural relations are relations between two ethnic groups in terms of their language and culture.
