Introduction: Azerbaijan - a nation with a majority-Turkic and majority-Muslim population - was briefly independent from 1918 to 1920; it regained its independence after the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991. Despite a 1994 cease-fire, Azerbaijan has yet to resolve its conflict with Armenia over Nagorno-Karabakh, a primarily Armenian-populated region that Moscow recognized as part of Soviet Azerbaijan in the 1920s after Armenia and Azerbaijan disputed the status of the territory. Armenia and Azerbaijan began fighting over the area in 1988; the struggle escalated after both countries attained independence from the Soviet Union in 1991. By May 1994, when...

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Economic Overview: Once one of the fastest growing economies in the world due to its vast reserves of Caspian Sea oil, Azerbaijan's real GDP growth is projected to slow to 2.7 per cent in 2010.

Oil exports to Europe through the newly constructed Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan (BTC) pipeline (a project worth around A$5 billion) began in June 2006. The pipeline extends over 1,770 kilometres from Baku via Georgia and into the Mediterranean Turkish port of Ceyhan where the oil is loaded onto super tankers for European markets. However, despite the opening of the BTC pipeline, Russia remains the primary route for Azerbaijan's oil exports to ...

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