1994 Edition

Administrative divisions

1 autonomous republic (avtomnaya respublika); Nakhichevan (administrative center at Nakhichevan) note: all rayons except for the exclave of Nakhichevan are under direct republic jurisdiction

Airports

total: 65 usable: 33 with permanent-surface runways: 26 with runways over 3,659 m: with runways 2,440-3,659 m: 8 with runways 1,220-2,439 m: 23

Area

total area: 86,600 sq km land area: 86,100 sq km comparative area: slightly larger than Maine note: includes the Nakhichevan Autonomous Republic and the Nagorno-Karabakh regions; regions' autonomy was abolished by Azerbaijani Supreme Soviet on 26 November 1991

Birth rate

23.04 births/1,000 population (1994 est.)

Branches

Army, Air Force, Navy, Maritime Border Guard, National Guard, Security Forces (internal and border troops)

Budget

revenues: $NA expenditures: $NA, including capital expenditures of $NA

Capital

Baku (Baky)

Climate

dry, semiarid steppe

Coastline

0 km (landlocked) note: Azerbaijan borders the Caspian Sea (800 km, est.)

Constitution

adopted NA April 1978; writing a new constitution mid-1993

Currency

1 manat = 100 gopik

Death rate

6.58 deaths/1,000 population (1994 est.)

Defense expenditures

2,848 million rubles, NA% of GDP (1992 est.); note - conversion of the military budget into US dollars using the current exchange rate could produce misleading results

Digraph

AJ

Diplomatic representation in US

chief of mission: Ambassador Hafiz Mir Jalal Ogly PASHAYEV chancery: Suite 700, 927 15th Street NW, Washington, DC 20005 telephone: (202) 842-0001

Economic aid

recipient: wheat from Turkey

Electricity

capacity: 6,025,000 kW production: 22,300 kWh consumption per capita: 2,990 kWh (1992)

Environment

current issues: local scientists consider the Abseron (Apsheron) Peninsula (including Baku and Sumqayit) and the Caspian Sea to be the ecologically most devastated area in the world because of severe air, water, and soil pollution; soil pollution results from the use of DDT as a pesticide and also from toxic defoliants used in the production of cotton natural hazards: subject to drought; some coastal areas threatened by rising levels of the Caspian Sea international agreements: signed, but not ratified - Biodiversity, Climate Change

Ethnic divisions

Azeri 82.7%, Russian 5.6%, Armenian 5.6%, Dagestani 3.2%, other 2.9% (1989) note: Armenian share is now approximately 0.3% because most Armenians have fled the ethnic violence since 1989 census; Russian percentage is probably half what it was for the same reason

Exchange rates

NA

Executive branch

chief of state: President Heydar ALIYEV (since 18 June 1993 after President ELCIBEY left Baku for Nakhichevan); election last held 3 October 1993 (next to be held NA); results - Heydar ALIYEV won 97% of vote head of government: Prime Minister Surat HUSEYNOV (since 30 June 1993) cabinet: Council of Ministers; appointed by the president and confirmed by the Mejlas

Exports

$355 million to outside the FSU countries (f.o.b., 1993) commodities: oil and gas, chemicals, oilfield equipment, textiles, cotton (1991) partners: mostly CIS and European countries

External debt

$NA

FAX

(202) 842-0004

Telex 142110 AMEMB SU

Fiscal year

calendar year

Flag

three equal horizontal bands of blue (top), red, and green; a crescent and eight-pointed star in white are centered in red band

Highways

total: 36,700 km paved or graveled: 31,800 km unpaved: earth 4,900 km (1990)

Illicit drugs

illicit cultivator of cannabis and opium poppy; mostly for CIS consumption; limited government eradication program; transshipment point for illicit drugs to Western Europe

Imports

$240 million from outside the FSU countries (c.i.f., 1993) commodities: machinery and parts, consumer durables, foodstuffs, textiles (1991) partners: European countries

Independence

30 August 1991 (from Soviet Union)

Industrial production

growth rate -7% (1993)

Industries

petroleum and natural gas, petroleum products, oilfield equipment; steel, iron ore, cement; chemicals and petrochemicals; textiles iculture: cotton, grain, rice, grapes, fruit, vegetables, tea, tobacco; cattle, pigs, sheep and goats

Infant mortality rate

34.8 deaths/1,000 live births (1994 est.)

Inflation rate (consumer prices)

20% per month (average 1993); above 50% per month (February 1994)

International disputes

violent and longstanding dispute with ethnic Armenians of Nagorno-Karabakh over its status, lesser dispute concerns Nakhichevan; some Azerbaijanis desire absorption of and/or unification with the ethnic Azeri portion of Iran

Irrigated land

14,010 sq km (1990)

Judicial branch

Supreme Court

Labor force

2.789 million by occupation: agriculture and forestry 32%, industry and construction 26%, other 42% (1990)

Land boundaries

total 2,013 km, Armenia (west) 566 km, Armenia (southwest) 221 km, Georgia 322 km, Iran (south) 432 km, Iran (southwest) 179 km, Russia 284 km, Turkey 9 km

Land use

arable land: 18% permanent crops: 4% meadows and pastures: 25% forest and woodland: 0% other: 53%

Languages

Azeri 82%, Russian 7%, Armenian 5%, other 6%

Legal system

based on civil law system

Legislative branch

unicameral

Life expectancy at birth

total population: 70.85 years male: 67.08 years female: 74.8 years (1994 est.)

Literacy

age 9-49 can read and write (1970) total population: 100% male: 100% female: 100%

Location

Southwestern Asia, between Armenia and Turkmenistan, bordering the Caspian Sea

Manpower availability

males age 15-49 1,884,458; fit for military service 1,525,123; reach military age (18) annually 68,192 (1994 est.)

Map references

Africa, Asia, Commonwealth of Independent States - Central Asian States, Commonwealth of Independent States - European States, Middle East, Standard Time Zones of the World

Maritime claims

NA note: Azerbaijani claims in Caspian Sea unknown; 10-nm fishing zone provided for in 1940 treaty regarding trade and navigation between Soviet Union and Iran

Member of

BSEC, CCC, CIS, CSCE, EBRD, ECE, ECO, ESCAP, IBRD, ICAO, IDB, ILO, IMF, INTELSAT, INTERPOL, IOC, ITU, NACC, OIC, UN, UNCTAD, UNESCO, UPU, WHO

Names

conventional long form: Azerbaijani Republic conventional short form: Azerbaijan local long form: Azarbaycan Respublikasi local short form: none former: Azerbaijan Soviet Socialist Republic

National Assembly (Milli Mejlis)

elections last held 30 September and 14 October 1990 for the Supreme Soviet (next expected to be held NA 1994 for the National Assembly); seats for Supreme Soviet - (360 total) Communists 280, Democratic Bloc 45 (grouping of opposition parties), other 15, vacant 20; note - on 19 May 1992 the Supreme Soviet was prorogued in favor of a Popular Front-dominated National Council; seats - (50 total) Popular Front 25, opposition elements 25

National holiday

Novruz Bayram, 21-22 March

National product

GDP - purchasing power equivalent - $15.5 billion (1993 estimate from the UN International Comparison Program, as extended to 1991 and published in the World Bank's World Development Report 1993; and as extrapolated to 1993 using official Azerbaijani statistics, which are very uncertain because of major economic changes since 1990)

National product per capita

$2,040 (1993 est.)

National product real growth rate

-13.3% (1993 est.)

Nationality

noun: Azerbaijani(s) adjective: Azerbaijani

Natural resources

petroleum, natural gas, iron ore, nonferrous metals, alumina

Net migration rate

-2.38 migrant(s)/1,000 population (1994 est.)

Note

landlocked

Other political or pressure groups

self-proclaimed Armenian Nagorno-Karabakh Republic; Talysh independence movement

Overview

Azerbaijan is less developed industrially than either Armenia or Georgia, the other Transcaucasian states. It resembles the Central Asian states in its majority Muslim population, high structural unemployment, and low standard of living. The economy's most prominent products are oil, cotton, and gas. Production from the Caspian oil and gas field has been in decline for several years. With foreign assistance, the oil industry might generate the funds needed to spur industrial development. However, civil unrest, marked by armed conflict in the Nagorno-Karabakh region between Muslim Azeris and Christian Armenians, makes foreign investors wary. Azerbaijan accounted for 1.5% to 2% of the capital stock and output of the former Soviet Union. Azerbaijan shares all the formidable problems of the ex-Soviet republics in making the transition from a command to a market economy, but its considerable energy resources brighten its prospects somewhat. Old economic ties and structures have yet to be replaced. A particularly galling constraint on economic revival is the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, said to consume 25% of Azerbaijan's economic resources.

Pipelines

crude oil 1,130 km; petroleum products 630 km; natural gas 1,240 km

Political parties and leaders

Azerbaijan Popular Front (APF), Ebulfez ELCIBEY, chairman; Musavat Party, Isa GAMBAR, chairman; National Independence Party, Etibar MAMEDOV, chairman; Social Democratic Party (SDP), Araz ALIZADE, chairman; Communist Party, Ramiz AKHMEDOV, chairman; People's Freedom Party, Yunus OGUZ, chairman; Independent Social Democratic Party, Arif YUNUSOV and Leila YUNOSOVA, cochairmen; New Azerbaijan Party, Heydar ALIYEV, chairman; Boz Gurd Party, Iskander HAMIDOV, chairman; Azerbaijan Democratic Party, Sardar MAMEDOV, chairman; Azerbaijan Democratic Independence Party, Qabil HUSELNLI, chairman; Islamic Party of Azerbaijan, Ali Akram, chairman

Population

7,684,456 (July 1994 est.)

Population growth rate

1.41% (1994 est.)

Ports

inland - Baku (Baky)

Railroads

2,090 km; does not include industrial lines (1990)

Religions

Muslim 87%, Russian Orthodox 5.6%, Armenian Orthodox 5.6%, other 1.8%

Suffrage

18 years of age; universal

Telecommunications

domestic telephone service is of poor quality and inadequate; 710,000 domestic telephone lines [density - 9 lines per 100 persons (1991)], 202,000 persons waiting for telephone installations (January 1991); connections to other former USSR republics by cable and microwave and to other countries via the Moscow international gateway switch; INTELSAT earth station installed in late 1992 in Baku with Turkish financial assistance with access to 200 countries through Turkey; since August 1993 an earth station near Baku has provided direct communications with New York through Russia's Stationar-11 satellite; a joint venture to establish a cellular telephone system (Bakcel) in the Baku area is supposed to become operational in 1994; domestic and Russian TV programs are received locally and Turkish and Iranian TV is received from an INTELSAT satellite through a receive-only earth station

Terrain

large, flat Kur-Araz Lowland (much of it below sea level) with Great Caucasus Mountains to the north, Qarabag (Karabakh) Upland in west; Baku lies on Abseron (Apsheron) Peninsula that juts into Caspian Sea

Total fertility rate

2.7 children born/woman (1994 est.)

Type

republic

Unemployment rate

0.7% includes officially registered unemployed; also large numbers of underemployed workers (December 1993)

US diplomatic representation

chief of mission: Ambassador Richard KAZLAURICH embassy: Hotel Intourist, Baku mailing address: use embassy street address telephone: 7-8922-92-63-06 through 09, extension 441, 442, 446, 447, 448, 450