The silk-road trading center, this used to describe Baku's Harbor, of the capital city of Azerbaijan and the finest harbor in the Caspian Sea. Gone now is silk trading and petroleum has driven its economy for the past 100years and had replaced the once prized commodity.
Azerbaijan is located just south of Russia and is on the west coast of the Caspian Sea and the Caucasus Mountains dominate the northwestern part of the country. There are extensive lowlands, particularly at the south and west of Baku, the oil-rich capital. The autonomous region of Naxcivan (population-300, 000) is to the west and is separated as a chunk of the country by Armenia.
Turkic tribes were the main migrants into the area from the 10th to the 12th century and by 1400, the Shiite sect of Islam had cohesively molded their religious inclinations. The 19th century saw the Russians lording it over, but later witnessed the emergence of a national consciousness and development of an oil industry. At the collapse of the USSR in 1991, Azerbaijan was the first to declare independence.
Thus, the present symbol, the
National Flag of Azerbaijan is actually the first borne out of the call for independence. It consists of three horizontal bands, reckoned from the top of blue, red, and green with a white crescent and an eight pointed star (Rub El Hizb) at the center of the red band. The eight points of the star represents the various divisions of the Turkic people, the blue band is the color of the Turks, while green is for Islam and red is for progress.
Independence of the country also brought conflicts with neighboring Armenia, as war was waged over the Nagorno-Karabakh region.
by:
The Flagman
