Azerbaijan

Azerbaijan borders the Caspian Sea on the east, Russia on the north, Georgia and Armenia on the west, and Iran on the south. Its total area is about 86,600 square kilometers (33,425 square miles), and the capital city is Baku. The total population of Azerbaijan was estimated at 7.8 million in 2003. Administratively, Azerbaijan is divided into fifty-nine regions and eleven cities. The majority of the people are Muslim.

Azerbaijan's per capita income in 2003 was estimated to be $3,400; 49 percent of the total population was below the national poverty line, the literacy rate was 96 percent, infant mortality was 82.7 per 1,000 live births, and the unemployment rate was 16 percent. Azerbaijan is rich in oil reserves.

A former member republic of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (Soviet Union), Azerbaijan became an independent presidential republic on August 30, 1991, due to the collapse of the Soviet Union.

The Constitution of the Azerbaijan Republic was adopted on November 12, 1995, and significantly amended in August 2002. According to the constitution, Azerbaijan is a democratic, secular, and unitary republic. Although the constitution requires executive, legislative, and judicial powers to jointly cooperate and be independent within the framework of their authority, Azerbaijan's presidency is quite strong, and the legislative and judicial branches have only limited independence. Indeed, the president has been described as a heavy-handed, near absolute ruler.

The executive power in Azerbaijan is vested in the president of the republic, the prime minister, and cabinet of ministers. The president is elected by popular vote to a five-year term. The prime minister and first deputy prime ministers are appointed by the president and confirmed by the National Assembly. The president of Azerbaijan in 2005 was Ilham Aliyev (b. 1961), who was first elected on October 15, 2003, after the death of his father, Heydar Aliyev (1923–2003), who had ruled nearly single-handedly since June 1993. Presidential elections in Azerbaijan have frequently been described as unfair and not free; election rigging has been alleged.

The legislative power is vested in the National Assembly, which consists of 125 deputies elected for five-year terms. National Assembly members were elected on November 4, 2000. Deputies are elected based on majority and proportional voting systems and general elections. The New Azerbaijan Party is the most popular political party in Azerbaijan, holding 108 out of 125 seats in the National Assembly. The remaining seventeen seats are divided among six other parties.

Judicial power is implemented through the Constitutional Court, Supreme Court, an economic court, and ordinary and specialized law courts. The constitution provides for an independent judiciary, but little evidence exists that the Azerbaijan judiciary is, in fact, independent.

Citizen rights do not appear to be respected or protected in Azerbaijan. Freedom House rated it in 2003 as a "partly free" nation, assigning it a score of 6 for political rights and 5 for civil rights and liberties on a descending scale from 1 to 7. Moreover, the situation appears to be getting worse.

The constitution provides for freedom of assembly, freedom of religion, freedom of speech, and freedom of the press, and it specifically outlaws press censorship. The government often restricts these rights in practice, however, and the government's human rights record is relatively poor. In addition, the constitution also gives citizens the right to change the government by peaceful means. The government often restricts this ability as well, by interfering in local and national elections.

Russia.

"Azerbaijan." In CIA World Factbook. Washington, DC: Central Intelligence Agency, 2005. <http://www.cia.gov/cia/publicat ions/factbook/geos/aj.html>.

Freedom House. Nations in Transit 2002: Civil Society, Democracy, and Markets in East Central Europe and the Newly Independent States. New Brunswick, NJ: Transaction Publishers, 2002.

Freedom House. "Azerbaijan." Freedom in the World 2003. New York: Freedom House, 2003. <http://www.freedomhouse.org/res earch/freeworld/2003/countryratings/aze rbaijan.htm>.

United Nations. Azerbaijan Country Information. <http://www.un-az.org/couinf.htm >.