Azerbaijan

The information that can be useful for your travel.

Cities Azerbaijan  
Country information country code: AZ
continent: Asia
capital: Baku (Baki)
languages: Azerbaijani

EU membership: no
NATO membership: no

GSM: 900
GPS: 40 30 N, 47 30 E
electricity: 220V/50Hz

currency:
Azerbaijani Manat: AZN
1AZN = 1,2503 USD
1AZN = 0,8899 EUR

phone code: +994-1

Travel advices and warnings Azerbaijan
Tourism Tourism is an important part of the economy of Azerbaijan. The country's large abundance of natural and cultural attractions make it an attractive destination of visitors. The country was a well-known tourist spot in the 1980s, yet, the Nagorno-Karabakh War during the 1990s crippled the tourist industry and negatively impacted the image of Azerbaijan as a tourist destination.
It was not until 2000s that the tourism industry began to recover, and the country has since experienced a high rate of growth in the number of tourist visits and overnight stays. In the recent years, Azerbaijan has also becoming a popular destination for religious, spa, and health care tourism.
Traditons The Nevruz is the name given to New Year's Day by the Turks living in Central Asia, the Anatolian Turks, and the Iranians. The Nevruz occurs on the 22 March of our era and 9 March of the Gregorian calendar.
Nevruz lasts for three days in Azerbaijan and it is celebrated every year with big ceremonies between 21 and 23 March. The most important day after Nevruz is the 'ahir çerþenbe', or the last Wednesday - this day is called 'ýlin ahir tek tek'. The Wednesdays in the four weeks of the month of the celebration are also of great importance, and it is on the Tuesday before the 'ahir çerþenbe', that men go to the cemetery to recite the fatiha, a sura from the Koran, while women go to the cemetery with halva, pilaf rice and other dishes that they have prepared.
The most important day after the Nervruz is the "ahir çerçenhe". One of the customs of this feast is to throw rings in the water. A container filled with water is put in the middle of the living room; the girls sit around it, and throw their ring into it. The container is covered with a cloth, one of the girls takes a ring out, pronouncing the improvised quatrain, and dedicates it to the person to whom the ring belongs.
Climate Generally very warm, but low temperatures can occur, particularly in the mountains and valleys. Most of the rainfall is in the west.

Required clothing:
Warm clothing should be brought year-round to anywhere in the mountains.
Cuisine Azerbaijani cuisine is the cuisine of Azerbaijan. Azerbaijani cuisine throughout the centuries has been influenced by the foods of different cultures due to political and economic processes in Azerbaijan. Still, today's Azerbaijani cuisine has distinctive and unique features. Many foods that are indigenous to the country can now be seen in the cuisines of other cultures. For the Azerbaijanis, food is an important part of the country's culture and is deeply rooted in the history, traditions and values of the nation.
Out of 11 climate zones known in the world, the Azerbaijani climate has nine. This contributes to the fertility of the land, which in its turn results in the richness of the country’s cuisine. It is famous for an abundance of vegetables and greens used seasonally in the dishes. Fresh herbs, including mint, coriander, dill, basil, parsley, tarragon, leek, chive, thyme, marjoram, green onion and watercress, are very popular and often accompany main dishes. The Caspian Sea is home to many edible species of fish, including the sturgeon, Caspian salmon, kutum, sardines, grey mullet, and others. Black caviar from the Caspian Sea is one of Azerbaijan’s best known delicacies well sought after in other parts of the world, including former Soviet countries.
Language Azerbaijani or Azeri or Torki (Azərbaycanca, Azərbaycan türkcəsi, Azərbaycan dili) is a language belonging to the Turkic language family, spoken in southwestern Asia by the Azerbaijani people, primarily in Azerbaijan and northwestern Iran. Azerbaijani is member of the Oghuz branch of the Turkic languages and is closely related to Turkish, Qashqai and Turkmen.
Currency The Manat (code: AZN) is the currency of Azerbaijan. It is subdivided into 100 qəpik. The word manat is borrowed from "moneta" (coin) which is pronounced as "maneta". Manat was also the designation of the Soviet ruble in both the Azerbaijani and Turkmen languages.
The Azerbaijani manat symbol, , is currently not encoded in Unicode, and m, man. , can be used as a substitute for the manat symbol.

Baku (Baki), Azerbaijan

Friday 29, March

From wikipedia about Azerbaijan

Azerbaijan is the largest country in the Caucasus region of Eurasia. Located at the crossroads of Western Asia and Eastern Europe, Azerbaijan may be considered to be in Asia and/or Europe. The UN to the northwest.

The Azerbaijan Democratic Republic, the first democratic and secular republic in the Muslim world, was established in 1918, but was incorporated into the Soviet Union in 1920. Azerbaijan regained independence in 1991. Shortly thereafter, during the Nagorno-Karabakh War, neighboring Armenia occupied Nagorno-Karabakh, its surrounding territories and the enclaves of Karki, Yukhary Askipara, Barkhudarly and Sofulu. The Nagorno-Karabakh Republic, which emerged in Nagorno-Karabakh, continues to be not diplomatically recognized by any nation and the region is still considered a de jure part of Azerbaijan, despite being de facto independent since the end of the war.

Azerbaijan, a nation with a majority Turkic and Shia population, is a secular and a unitary republic with an ancient and historic cultural heritage. Azerbaijan is one of the six independent Turkic states as well as the active members of the Turkic Council and the TÜRKSOY community. Azerbaijan has diplomatic relations with 158 countries and holds membership in 38 international organizations. It is one of the founding members of Guam and the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons, and in December 1991 the country became a founding member of the Commonwealth of Independent States. On May 9, 2006 Azerbaijan was elected to membership in the newly established Human Rights Council by the United Nations General Assembly. The term of office began on June 19, 2006. A Special Envoy of the European Commission is present in the country, which is also a member of the United Nations, the OSCE, the Council of Europe, and the NATO Partnership for Peace (PfP) program. Azerbaijan is a correspondent at the International Telecommunication Union and member of the Non-Aligned Movement and holds observer status in World Trade Organization.
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