Azerbaijan
From Kaiserreich
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| + | [[Image:Azerbaijan.JPG|thumb|250px|Azerbaijan, surrounded by its Caucasian neighbors]] | ||
'''Azerbaijan''' is a country in East Europe / West Asia. | '''Azerbaijan''' is a country in East Europe / West Asia. | ||
Revision as of 19:51, 1 October 2007
Azerbaijan is a country in East Europe / West Asia.
History
Azerbaijan is generally regarded as 'just another' of the small Caucasian states to rise out of the ruins of the Russian Empire. Since then the small nation has only managed to maintain her independence by carefully balancing its political and economic links with both Russia and the Ottomans - ensuring that neither can gain hegemony over them. With neither Great Power able to secure dominance Azerbaijan has seen a stable, but precarious, regime in the form of a secular and technocratic dictatorship (which by regional standards, is fairly 'mild' and tolerant), and as a result, economic prosperity has followed. Thanks to foreign investment in the exploitation of the vast Baku oilfields, Azerbaijan has become the largest oil producer in the region - and rival even to Ploesti. However, this very prosperity may in fact be the country's undoing. In an age in which the consumption of oil is becoming the dominant need of both industrial society and modern warfare, Azerbaijan is increasingly finding herself the battleground of both foreign corporate, and national interests. Will she be able to maintain her precarious status quo? Or will she, and her precious oil, fall into the hands of the Ottomans, the Russians, or even Georgia?
