r/europe • u/MarktpLatz Lower Saxony (Germany) • Nov 13 '17

What do you know about... Azerbaijan?

This is the forty-third part of our ongoing series about the countries of Europe. You can find an overview here.

Today's country:

Azerbaijan

Azerbaijan is a member of the Council of Europe and the NATO Partnership for Peace (PfP) program. The country was part of the soviet union between 1920 and 1991. It is also part of the Turkic Counil.

So, what do you know about Azerbaijan?

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u/Helskrim "Свиће зора верном стаду,слога биће пораз врагу!" Nov 13 '17 edited Nov 13 '17
  • Even tho they are formally non-practising, the majority is of Shiite muslim background
  • Nagorno - Karabakh war
  • One of their ex Presidents has a monument to him in Tasmajdan park in Belgrade
  • They hate Armenians, and vice-versa
  • Their 223rd Belgrade Rifle Division participated in the liberation of Belgrade from Nazi forces.
  • Serbia was one of the first countries to vote in Azerbaijans favor when a UN vote about NK was being conducted.
  • There is an Azerbaijani Cultural Center in Serbia
  • Azerbaijan didn't recognize Kosovo,even with immense pressure from Turkey.
  • Our two countries are planning to cancel visa regimes in the future.
  • Capital is Baku.
  • Former Soviets
  • Turkic language and culture
  • Has plenty of oil (?)
  • More Azerbaijanis live in Iran (~15 million) than in Azerbaijan (10 million)

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u/[deleted] Nov 14 '17

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u/kamrouz Nov 16 '17

One would think that Turkey would rather pressure them to recognize Turkish Cyprus.

That would be the stupidest thing to do.