365 Days of Climate Awareness 297 – Introduction to Azerbaijan

Azerbaijan is a small country just south, on the Asian side, of the Caucasus Mountain range border with Europe. It covers 86,600 sq km/33,400 sq mi, about the size of Minnesota, and has a population of 10.1 million, a little more than Michigan. It is bordered to the northwest by Georgia, to the west by Armenia, and to the south by Iran. To its east is the Caspian Sea. Together Azerbaijan and Georgia, its neighbor to the west, span the land bridge between the Caspian and Black Seas. Azerbaijan, in particular its capital city Baku, was one of the earliest centers of the oil industry on earth. Like Houston and Aberdeen, Baku is a major hub for offshore oil production.

Political map of the Caucasus region.

There are limited traces of Neolithic settlement, but the first major society attested in the archeological record is that of the Medes coming north from Iran and forming their empire in the 9^th c. BCE. It passed into the control of the Achaemenids (first Persian Empire) around 550 BCE. The region passed into the control of the Sassanians (also from Iran), moving from the Zoroastrian religion to Christianity. Over the next thousand-plus years this region south of the Caucasus was mostly ruled from Iran until the 19^th century, when the Russians wrested it away and kept control until the 1990’s and the collapse of the Soviet Union.

Physical map of the Caucasus.

Following a murderous Soviet crackdown on Azerbaijani revolutionaries in January 1990 known as Black January, the nation, for the first time, declared its independence as the Azerbaijani Republic. But the young democracy was ended in 1993 by a military coup. Since then, presidents have run governments known mostly for fraudulent elections and graft. Azerbaijan has been intermittently at war with its neighbor Armenia for close to 30 years, though there is some hope that the current president, Ilham Alieyv, and Armenia’s Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan might be able to broker a more lasting peace.

Köppen-Geiger climate zones, 1980-2016.

Azerbaijan is dominated in its north by the Greater and to the west and south by the Lesser Caucasus, together covering about 40% of its territory, with intervening plains. Its climate ranges from temperate in the southeast along the Caspian shore to cold steppe and alpine climates farther north. Perhaps its most famous native species is the Karabakh horse, one of the oldest breeds, known for its good temper, intelligence, and speed.

The oil industry accounts for nearly 90% of the nation’s economy, and is the subject of tomorrow’s post.

The Karabakh horse.

The Azerbaijani Caucasus.

Tomorrow: Azerbaijan and the oil industry.

Be brave, and be well.