Azerbaijan 1999

In 1999, Azerbaijan had an estimated population of around 7 million people. The majority of the population were ethnic Azeris, with smaller numbers of Russians and other ethnic minorities. The economy was largely based on oil and gas production, though there was also a thriving agricultural industry. Foreign relations were primarily with other countries in the Caucasus region due to Azerbaijan’s geographic proximity to them. In terms of politics, Azerbaijan was ruled by the New Azerbaijan Party led by President Heydar Aliyev who held office from 1993 to 2003. This government implemented a number of reforms that aimed to strengthen the country’s ties with Russia while maintaining its autonomy. See ethnicityology for Azerbaijan in the year of 2018.

Yearbook 1999

Azerbaijan 1999

Azerbaijan. Visit Countryaah official website to get information about the capital city of Azerbaijan. President Gejdar Alijev’s single government continued to subdue the opposition. In February, former Prime Minister Surat Guseinov was sentenced to life imprisonment for a number of crimes, including attempt to overthrow Alijev in 1994. Guseinov denied the charges.

  • Also see Abbreviationfinder.org to see the acronym of AZE which stands for Azerbaijan and other definitions of this 3-letter abbreviation.

Map of Azerbaijan Baku in English

Land area 86,600 km²
Total population 10.205.810
Residents per km² 117.9
Capital Baku
Official language Azerbaijani (Azeri)
Income per capita $ 17,500
Currency Azerbaijan manat
ISO 3166 code AZ
Internet TLD .az
License plate AZ
Telephone code +994
Time zone UTC +4
Geographic coordinates 40 30 N, 47 30 O

In June, unrest erupted in the Armenian enclave Nagorno-Karabach in A. Two Azerbaijani soldiers were killed and several injured in firefighting with the Armenian military. Nagorno-Karabakh’s leadership, supported by Armenia, demands independence, while Azerbaijan can imagine autonomy for the enclave within Azerbaijan.

Despite the clashes during the year, apparently successful negotiations were held on Nagorno-Karabach’s future status. Under the influence of mediation from the United States, President Gejdar Alijev and his Armenian colleague Robert Kotjarjan met on several occasions. But the peace process slowed dramatically in October when Armenia’s Prime Minister and seven other leading politicians were assassinated in the Armenian Parliament. It was speculated that the assailants wanted to prevent a compromise on the Armenian enclave. In Azerbaijan, the opposition criticized the negotiations with Armenia.

In November, Azerbaijan, together with Armenia, proposed a security pact in the southern Caucasus comprising Azerbaijan, Armenia, Georgia, Turkey, the Russian Federation and the United States. The proposal involved a historic rethink, since Azerbaijan and Turkey have traditionally been at enmity with Armenia.

During the year, the Azerbaijan state oil and gas company Socar signed new contracts with three US companies for the development of potential oil fields in the Caspian Sea. In July it was announced that a new large deposit of natural gas was found in the Caspian Sea in a field owned by a consortium with, among other things, Norwegian Statoil and Socar.

After years of discussions, an international agreement was reached in November on new oil and gas pipelines from the Caspian Sea via Azerbaijan, Georgia and Turkey to the port city of Ceyhan on the Mediterranean. It is hoped that the oil pipeline will be completed in 2004, but economic analysts questioned whether the oil in the Caspian Sea is sufficient for the project to be profitable.

In December, local elections were held, which were criticized by both the Council of Europe and the domestic opposition observers. These reported on irregularities that could affect the outcome of the election.

The Trans Adriatic Pipeline (Tap)

The Trans Adriatic Pipeline (Tap) is an 870 km gas pipeline that will allow the passage of natural gas from the Azerbaijani shores of the Caspian Sea to European markets through the so-called ‘southern corridor’. The project stems from an agreement in 2003 between the Swiss company Axpo and the Norwegian company Statoil – which was joined in 2009 by the German E.On – but which also involves Azerbaijani Socar, the British BP, among others. the French Total and the Belgian Fluxis. The TAP will transport 10 Gmc / y of natural gas (scalable over time up to 20) from the Azerbaijani Shah Deniz II field via Georgia and Turkey, thanks to the Baku-Tbilisi-Erzurum pipeline and the Tanap (Trans Anatolian Natural Gas Pipeline Project) and from here to the Greek and Albanian transmission network up to the Apulian coasts, where the gas will be injected into the Italian network and will potentially be able to reach markets beyond the Alps. The costs of the work should be around 5 billion euros and the pipeline will be fully operational from 2019. The TAP, which was preferred by the consortium operating in Azerbaijan to Nabucco West directed to Austria, takes on a particular significance in light of the attempt to ‘European Union to diversify the continental supply channels, considered excessively dependent on Russia.

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