Azerbaijan Historical Background
Figure 8. Azerbaijan, 1994
Icheri-Shekher Fortress, Baku
Courtesy Tatiana Zagorskaya
UNDER THE DOMINATION of the Soviet Union for most of the
twentieth century, Azerbaijan began a period of tentative
autonomy when the Soviet state collapsed at the end of 1991. A
culturally and linguistically Turkic people, the Azerbaijanis
have retained a rich cultural heritage despite long periods of
Persian and Russian domination. In the 1990s, the newly
independent nation still faced strong and contrary religious and
political influences from neighbors such as Iran to the south,
Turkey to the west, and Russia to the north
(see
fig. 8). Despite
the country's rich oil reserves, Azerbaijan's natural and
economic resources and social welfare system have been rated
below those of most of the other former Soviet republics.
Furthermore, in the early 1990s a long military and diplomatic
struggle with neighboring Armenia was sapping resources and
distracting the country from the task of devising post-Soviet
internal systems and establishing international relations.
The territory of modern Azerbaijan has been subject to myriad
invasions, migrations, and cultural and political influences.
During most of its history, Azerbaijan was under Persian
influence, but as the Persian Empire declined, Russia began a
200-year dominance, some aspects of which have persisted into the
1990s.
Data as of March 1994
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