Entry Requirements
for tourist visa to Azerbaijan:
Passport and Visa are required for tourist travel to
Azerbaijan.
Visa requirements for Azerbaijan:
Valid, signed US passport with blank pages for
visa and valid 6 months beyond trip. If your
passport does not meet these requirements, see our
passport
services.
Tourist voucher from hotel in Azerbaijan that list
the confirmation number
Entry Requirements for
business visa to Azerbaijan:
Passport and Visa are required for business travel to
Azerbaijan.
Visa requirements for Azerbaijan:
Valid, signed US passport with blank pages for
visa and valid 6 months beyond trip. If your
passport does not meet these requirements, see our
passport
services.
Land area:
33,243 sq mi (86,100 sq km);
total area: 33,436 sq mi
(86,600 sq km)
Population (2006 est.):
7,961,619 (growth rate: 0.7%);
birth rate: 20.7/1000; infant
mortality rate: 79.0/1000; life
expectancy: 63.9; density per sq
mi: 238
Capital
and largest city (2003 est.):
Baku, 2,118,600 (metro area),
1,235,400 (city proper), a port
on the Caspian Sea
Other large cities (2004 est.):
Ganja, 303,000; Sumgait, 280,500
Monetary unit: Manat
Languages: Azerbaijani
Turkic 89%, Russian 3%, Armenian
2%, other 6% (1995 est.)
Ethnicity/race: Azeri 90.6%,
Dagestani 2.2%, Russian 1.8%,
Armenian 1.5%, other 3.9%
(1999). Note: almost all
Armenians live in the separatist
Nagorno-Karabakh region
Religions: Islam 93%,
Russian Orthodox 3%, Armenian
Orthodox 2%, other 2% (1995
est.)
Literacy rate: 97% (1989
est.)
Economic
summary:GDP/PPP
(2005 est.): $37.03 billion; per
capita $4,700. Real growth
rate: 19.7%. Inflation:
12%. Unemployment: 1.2%
(official rate). Arable land:
20.62%. Agriculture:
cotton, grain, rice, grapes,
fruit, vegetables, tea, tobacco;
cattle, pigs, sheep, goats.
Labor force: 5.45 million;
agriculture and forestry 41%,
industry 7%, services 52%
(2001). Industries:
petroleum and natural gas,
petroleum products, oilfield
equipment; steel, iron ore;
cement; chemicals and
petrochemicals; textiles.
Natural resources:
petroleum, natural gas, iron
ore, nonferrous metals, alumina.
Exports: $6.117 billion
f.o.b. (2005 est.): oil and gas
90%, machinery, cotton,
foodstuffs. Imports:
$4.656 billion f.o.b. (2005
est.): machinery and equipment,
oil products, foodstuffs,
metals, chemicals. Major
trading partners: Italy,
Czech Republic, Germany,
Indonesia, Romania, Georgia,
Russia, Turkey, France, UK,
Ukraine, Netherlands, U.S.
(2004).
Communications: Telephones:
main lines in use: 1,025,400
(2004); mobile cellular:
,456,500 (2004). Radio
broadcast stations: AM 10,
FM 17, shortwave 1 (1998).
Television broadcast stations:
2 (1997). Internet hosts:
460 (2005). Internet users:
408,000 (2005).
Transportation: Railways:
total: 2,957 km (2004).
Highways: total: 27,016 km;
paved: 12,698 km (including 128
km of expressways); unpaved:
14,318 km (2003). Ports and
harbors: Baku (Baki).
Airports: 45 (2005).
International disputes:
Armenia supports ethnic Armenian
secessionists in
Nagorno-Karabakh and since the
early 1990s has militarily
occupied 16% of Azerbaijan; over
800,000 mostly ethnic
Azerbaijanis were driven from
the occupied lands and Armenia;
about 230,000 ethnic Armenians
were driven from their homes in
Azerbaijan into Armenia;
Azerbaijan seeks transit route
through Armenia to connect to
Naxcivan exclave; Organization
for Security and Cooperation in
Europe (OSCE) continues to
mediate dispute; Azerbaijan,
Kazakhstan, and Russia ratify
Caspian seabed delimitation
treaties based on equidistance,
while Iran continues to insist
on an even one-fifth allocation
and challenges Azerbaijan's
hydrocarbon exploration in
disputed waters; bilateral talks
continue with Turkmenistan on
dividing the seabed and
contested oilfields in the
middle of the Caspian;
Azerbaijan and Georgia continue
to discuss the alignment of
their boundary at certain
crossing areas
Azerbaijan is located on the western
shore of the Caspian Sea at the
southeast extremity of the Caucasus. The
region is a mountainous country, and
only about 7% of it is arable land. The
Kura River Valley is the area's major
agricultural zone.
Northern Azerbaijan was known as
Caucasian Albania in ancient times. The
area was the site of many conflicts
involving Arabs, Kazars, and Turks.
After the 11th century, the territory
became dominated by Turks and eventually
was a stronghold of the Shiite Muslim
religion and Islamic culture. The
territory of Soviet Azerbaijan was
acquired by Russia from Persia through
the Treaty of Gulistan in 1813 and the
Treaty of Turkamanchai in 1828.
After the Bolshevik Revolution,
Azerbaijan declared its independence
from Russia in May 1918. The republic
was re-conquered by the Red Army in 1920
and was annexed into the Trans-Caucasian
Soviet Socialist Republic in 1922. It
was later reestablished as a separate
Soviet Republic on Dec. 5, 1936.
Azerbaijan declared independence from
the collapsing Soviet Union on Aug. 30,
1991.
Since 1988, Azerbaijan and Armenia
have been feuding over the enclave of
Nagorno-Karabakh. The majority of the
enclave's inhabitants are Armenian
Christians agitating to secede from the
predominantly Muslim Azerbaijan and join
with Armenia. War broke out in 1988 when
Nagorno-Karabakh tried to break away and
annex itself to Armenia, and 30,000 died
before a cease-fire agreement was
reached in 1994, with Armenia regaining
its hold over the disputed enclave.
Final plans on the status of
Nagorno-Karabakh have yet to be
determined.
The country's economic troubles are
expected to be transformed through
Western investment in Azerbaijan's oil
resources, an untapped reserve whose
estimated worth is trillions of dollars.
Since 1994, the Azerbaijan state oil
company (SOCAR) has signed several
billion-dollar agreements with
international oil companies.
Azerbaijan's pro-Western stance and its
careful economic management have made it
the most attractive of the oil-rich
Caspian countries for foreign
investment. In the years since its
independence, the country has undergone
rapid privatization, and the IMF gave it
high marks as one of the most successful
economic overhauls ever. In Sept. 2002,
construction of the 1,100-mile Baku-Tblisi-Ceyhan
pipeline (a route through Georgia and
Turkey) began. Major investors are
Britain's BP (33%), Azerbaijan's SOCAR
(25%), the U.S.'s Unocal (8.9%), and
Norway's Statoil (8.7%). In July 2006,
the pipeline opened.
In 2003, President Heydar Aliyev, who
was seriously ill, chose his son as the
new prime minister, paving the way for
his eventual succession. The opposition
protested strenuously. In October
elections, the president's son, Ilham
Aliyev, was elected president. Heydar
Aliyev died in December.
In Nov. 2005 parliamentary elections,
Aliyev's New Azerbaijan Party won the
largest number of seats. International
election monitors declared the election
fraudulent, and opposition candidates
staged protests.
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