Timeline Azerbaijan
Return to home
Azerbaijani physicists: http://sunse.jinr.ru/~mehdiyev/azeri.html
Travel Docs: http://www.traveldocs.com/az/index.htm
USLC: http://www.loc.gov/item/94045459/
Azerbaijan is about the size of Maine.
(WSJ, 10/24/00, p.A12)
500-600 The monastic complex of David Gareja was founded in the 6th century by David (St. David Garejeli), one of the thirteen Assyrian monks who arrived in Georgia at the same time. His disciples Dodo and Luciane expanded the original lavra and founded two other monasteries known as Dodo's Rka (literally, "the horn of Dodo") and Natlismtsemeli ("the Baptist"). Part of the complex is also located in the Agstafa rayon of Azerbaijan and thus became subject to a border dispute between Georgian and Azerbaijani authorities.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Gareja_monastery_complex)
632-661 The Rashidun Caliphate, also known as the Rightly Guided Caliphate, comprising the first four caliphs in Islam's history, was founded after Muhammad's death. At its height, the Caliphate extended from the Arabian Peninsula, to the Levant, Caucasus and North Africa in the west, to the Iranian highlands and Central Asia in the east. It was the one of the largest empires in history up until that time.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rashidun_Caliphate)
730 Khazar commander Barjik led Khazar troops through the Darial Pass
to invade Azerbaijan. At the Battle of Ardabil, the Khazars defeated an entire Arab army. The Battle of Ardabil lasted three days, and resulted in the death of a major Arab general named Jarrah. The Khazars then conquered Azerbaijan and Armenia and northern Iraq for a brief time.
(TJOK, pages 160-161)
c1000 Turkic-speaking people wrote in Runic, the official script.
(WSJ, 10/24/00, p.A12)
1177 Lal Shahbaz Qalandar (d.1274) was born as Seyyed Shah Hussain Marandi in Marand (near the city of Tabriz) in Azerbaijan (at this time a part of Iran). He is also known as Shaikh Hussain Marandi. He migrated to Sindh and settled in Sehwan and was buried there. He was a Sufi in the regions that lie in the Sindh province of Pakistan.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shahbaz_Qalander)
1274 Lal Shahbaz Qalandar (b.1177), born as Seyyed Shah Hussain Marandi in Marand (near the city of Tabriz) in Azerbaijan (then part of Iran), died in Sindh (later part of Pakistan). He had migrated to Sindh and settled in Sehwan and was buried there. He is also known as Shaikh Hussain Marandi. He was a Shia Sufi in the regions that lie in the Sindh province of Pakistan.
{Azerbaijan, Pakistan, Sufi}
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shahbaz_Qalander)(Econ, 12/20/08, p.73)
1900 At the turn of the century 51% of the world’s oil came from Azerbaijan.
(SFC, 8/12/98, p.A10)
1918 May 28, Tatars declared Azerbaijan, in Russian Caucasus, independent.
(HN, 5/28/98)
1920 Apr 28, Azerbaijan joined the USSR. The Red Army invaded Azerbaijan and turned the country into a Soviet Republic.
(HN, 4/28/98)(CO, Grolier’s Amer. Acad. Enc./ Azerbaijan)
1921 The borders of Armenia were gerrymandered when the Caucasus territories were made part of the Soviet Union. This made the area of Nagorno-Karabakh, a mountainous enclave of mostly Armenians surrounded by Azerbaijan dependent on Moscow. The site of Ani, former capital of Armenia, was ceded to Turkey.
(SFC, 2/4/98, p.C2)(WSJ, 3/18/98, p.A18)(Econ, 6/17/06, p.59)
1923 May 10, Geidar Aliev (Heydar Aliyev, d.2003), later KGB general, Communist Party chief and Azerbaijan president, was born in Nakhichevan.
(AP, 12/12/03)(SFC, 12/13/03, p.A20)
1926 In Azerbaijan the region’s 1st Turkology Congress convened in Baku to discuss the alphabet issue. They chose the Latin alphabet for all Turkic-speaking peoples by a 101-7 vote.
(WSJ, 10/24/00, p.A12)
1927 Mar 27, Mstislav Leopold Rostropovich, cellist, conductor, was born in Baku, Azerbaijan, USSR.
(MC, 3/27/02)(Internet)
1936 Dec 5, Armenian SSR, Azerbaijan SSR, Georgian SSR, Kazakh SSR & Kirghiz SSR became constituent republics of Soviet Union.
(MC, 12/5/01)
1945 Nov, The Azerbaijan People's Government was established in northern Iran and continued to December 1946. The short-lived unrecognized secessionist state was established in Iranian Azerbaijan, with its capital in the city of Tabriz. Its establishment and demise were a part of the Iran crisis, which was a precursor to the Cold War.
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Azerbaijan_People%27s_Government)
1961 Dec 24, Ilham Geidar oglu Aliev, appointed PM in 2003, was born.
(AP, 8/16/03)
1975 The Bakkonditzioner air-conditioning manufacturer opened in Baku, Azerbaijan, USSR.
(WSJ, 8/30/96, p.A4)
1985 Nov 9, Gary Kasparov became the world chess champion. He was born in 1963 in Azerbaijan to an Armenian mother and a Jewish father.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Garry_Kasparov#Early_career)
1987 Aliyev resigned from the Soviet Politburo government.
(WSJ, 12/18/96, p.A21)
1988 Feb 28, Ethnic unrest broke out between Armenians and Azerbaijanis in the city of Sumgait. There was an anti-Armenian pogrom in the town of Sumgait. A national awakening occurred in Azerbaijan when conflict erupted over the Armenian enclave of Nagorno-Karabakh, included by the Soviets in the Republic of Azerbaijan. The Armenian population in Nagorno-Karabakh began fighting for independence.
(WSJ, 8/7/96, p.A15)(AP, 2/28/98)(SFC, 11/27/96, p.A13)(WSJ, 5/14/97, p.A22)
1988 May 21, The Soviet news agency Tass reported that the Communist Party leaders of Armenia and Azerbaijan had been dismissed after fresh outbreaks of ethnic tensions in the two southern Soviet republics.
(AP, 5/21/98)
1988 Jul 7, The European Parliament adopted a resolution condemning brutalities against Armenians in Nagorno-Karabakh.
(www.armeniaforeignministry.com/pr_04/040227sumgait.html)
1988 Jul 14, The Soviet press agency Tass reported that Azerbaijan has rejected an attempt by Nagorno-Karabakh, a predominantly Armenian enclave, to secede and join Armenia. Some 200,000 demonstrated in Soviet Armenia for the incorporation of Nagorno-Karabakh.
(http://tinyurl.com/n6dfc)
1988 Nov 24, A state of emergency was declared in the cities of Kirovabad and Nakhichevan.
(WSJ, 8/7/96, p.A15)
1990 Jan 15, Soviet leader Gorbachev and the Soviet Presidium declared a state of emergency in parts of Azerbaijan and Armenia in the wake of escalating ethnic violence.
(AP, 1/15/00)
1990 Jan 16, The Soviet Union sent more than 11,000 reinforcements to the Caucasus to halt a civil war between Armenians and Azerbaijanis.
(AP, 1/16/00)
1990 Jan 20, The Soviets attacked Baku, leaving dozens dead and wounded. Gen’l. Lebed led Russian forces in Baku to crush the nationalist Azeri Popular Front. 62 civilians were killed and more than 200 wounded when the Soviet army stormed into the city of Baku to end what Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev called fratricidal killing between Muslim Azerbaijanis and Christian Armenians.
(WSJ, 12/18/96, p.A21)(CO, Grolier’s Amer. Acad. Enc./ Azerbaijan)(WSJ, 8/7/96, p.A15)(AP, 1/20/00)
1990 Jan 21, Azerbaijan Pres. Aliyev made his first public appearance since his 1987 resignation from the Soviet Politburo. He broke the information blackout and urged int’l. condemnation of the Soviet attack. Mutinous military cadets fired on troops patrolling the capital during a crackdown on a nationalist uprising.
(WSJ, 12/18/96, p.A21)(AP, 1/21/00)
1990 Jan 22, Up to 2 million Azerbaijanis marched through the republic's capital to mourn those killed when Soviet troops put down a nationalist revolt.
(AP, 1/22/00)
1991 Aug 30, Azerbaijan declared its independence, joining the stampede of republics seeking to secede from the Soviet Union.
(AP, 8/29/01)
1991 Sep 21, Armenia gained independence and was immediately involved in a territorial dispute with Azerbaijan over the Nagorny Karabakh region.
(WSJ, 5/2/97, p.A15)(http://aua.am/history-of-the-university/)
1991 Dec, in Azerbaijan Ayaz Mutallibov was elected Communist Party boss and led the Caspian Sea nation as it gained independence in the Soviet collapse. He was ousted from office a few months later and fled to Russia.
(AP, 8/9/11)
1991 Sex selective abortions began increasing in the Caucasus region as ultrasound equipment became available from the West. By 2013 over 115 boys were born in Armenia and Azerbaijan for every 100 girls. In Georgia the ration was 120 to 100.
(Econ, 9/21/13, p.54)
1992 Feb 11, US Secretary of State James A. Baker III, on a tour of six former Soviet republics, visited Armenia, where he heard an appeal from the republic's president for U.S. help in resolving a bloody feud with neighboring Azerbaijan.
(AP, 2/11/02)
1992 Feb 14, The former Soviet republics of Ukraine, Moldova and Azerbaijan rejected a proposal for a unified army, sharply rebuffing Russian President Boris N. Yeltsin.
(AP, 2/14/02)
1992 Feb 26, According to Azerbaijani authorities 613 Azerbaijanis were killed when Armenian troops rushed into the village of Khodzhaly (Khojali).
(AP, 2/26/12)(Econ., 10/31/20, p.48)
1992 In Azerbaijan Abulfez Elchibey, a pro-Turkish nationalist, came to power. Ayaz Mutalibov was deposed amid economic turmoil and losses in a war with Armenia.
(WSJ, 7/21/98, p.A12)(SFC, 9/6/02, p.A16)
1992 The Azerbaijanis under a new nationalist government tried to reconquer Nagorno-Karabakh, but were soon repulsed.
(WSJ, 3/18/98, p.A18)
1992 Azerbaijan adopted a 34-character Latin alphabet based on Turkey’s script to replace the Russian style Cyrillic.
(WSJ, 10/24/00, p.A12)
1993 Jun 15, In Azerbaijan former Communist party chief Geidar Aliyev (1923-2003) became head of parliament. A fifth of Azerbaijan was controlled by Armenian insurgents when Abulfaz Elchibey was ousted from the presidency and replaced by former Communist party chief Geidar Aliyev. Under Aliyev Azerbaijan joined the Commonwealth of Independent States in Sept.
(CO, Grolier’s Amer. Acad. Enc./ Azerbaijan)
1993 Sep, Azerbaijan joined the Commonwealth of Independent States.
(CO, Grolier’s Amer. Acad. Enc./ Azerbaijan)
1993 Oct, Geidar Aliyev was elected president of Azerbaijan with 98.9% of the official vote. The main opposition Popular Front party boycotted the vote.
(SFC, 12/13/03, p.A20)
1994 May, A cease-fire was declared between Armenia and Azerbaijan. Azerbaijan Pres. Geidar Aliyev negotiated a cease-fire with Armenian forces in the conflict over Nagorno-Karabakh. More than 35,000 people had died in 6 years of fighting.
(WSJ, 5/14/97, p.A22)(WSJ, 3/18/98, p.A18)(SFC, 12/13/03, p.A20)
1994 British Petroleum (BP) acquired a 34% stake in the “Azeri, Chirag and Deepwater Gunashli" (ACG) oil project, a deal that became known as the contract of the century. This relaunched Baku, Azerbaijan, as a major oil town.
(Econ, 6/11/05, p.62)
1995 Oct, A subway train fire killed 300 and injured 270 in the capital, Baku.
(WSJ, 10/30/95, p.A-1)
1995 Ayaz Mutalibov allegedly orchestrated a failed coup attempt.
(SFC, 9/6/02, p.A16)
1996 Nov 26, Separatists in Nagorno-Karabakh elected their first president, Robert Kocharian, despite opposition from Azerbaijan.
(SFC, 11/27/96, p.A13)
1996 Dec, The Lisbon Summit of Organization of Security and Cooperation in Europe chose Azerbaijan’s argument for territorial integrity over Armenia’s argument for self-determination in Nagorno-Karabakh.
(WSJ, 3/18/98, p.A18)
1996 Elmar Huseinov founded the Monitor Magazine to expose the abuses of the regime of Pres. Heydar Aliyev.
(SFC, 4/26/99, p.A12)
1997 Sep 2, Ethnic Armenians in Nagorno-Karabakh elected Arkady Gukasian as president with an 89% vote. Azerbaijan called the vote invalid.
(SFC, 9/3/97, p.C3)
1997 Oct 2, A helicopter with 20 passengers crashed near an offshore oil platform and no survivors were found.
(SFC, 10/4/97, p.A10)
1997 Ayaz Mutalibov allegedly orchestrated another failed coup attempt.
(SFC, 9/6/02, p.A16)
1997 Former Soviet republics (Georgia, Ukraine, Uzbekistan, Azerbaijan and Moldova) formed Guuam to seek cooperation outside Russian influence.
(WSJ, 3/4/05, p.A13)
1997 Viktor Kozeny, a Czech businessman, purchased vouchers from Azeri citizens that were exchangeable for state-owned companies. He planned to exchange them for control of Socar, a state-owned oil company. The 40 cent vouchers were sold to investors in the US for $25 each. Kozeny was sued for fraud in 2000, but he asserted that the money went to Pres. Heydar Aliyev and his son Ilham Aliyev to make the deal work.
(WSJ, 9/7/00, p.A18)
1997 The Central Asia Regional Economic Cooperation (CAREC) Program was initiated. The 8-member group included Azerbaijan, Afghanistan, China, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Mongolia, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan.
(www.adb.org/CAREC/default.asp)
1998 Feb 26, Azerbaijan accused Armenia of launching fresh attacks over the disputed Nagorno-Karabakh.
(WSJ, 2/27/98, p.A1)
1998 Mar, The Azerbaijan prosecutor-general informed Eldar Zeynalov, director of the human rights center, that there were no political prisoners in Azerbaijan, in contradiction of Zeynalov’s published article that there were 750 political prisoners. Zeynalov was warned that if wrote otherwise, he would be thrown into jail.
(SFC, 3/20/98, p.A12)
1998 Jul 13, In Azerbaijan Suret Huseinov, a former prime minister, went on trial for treason.
(SFC, 8/13/98, p.A11)
1998 Sep 10, US wrestler Sam Henson took first place in the World Wrestling Championships in Iran. He defeated Namik Abdullavev of Azerbaijan. Iranians stood for the US anthem for the first time in 19 years.
(SFC, 9/11/98, p.D4)
1998 Oct 11, In Azerbaijan Pres. Heydar Aliyev (75) was re-elected for another 5 year term with 76% of the vote. His nearest rival, Etibar Mamedov, won 12%.
(SFC, 10/12/98, p.A12)(WSJ, 10/16/98, p.A1)
1998 Oct 29, Five nations endorsed the oil pipeline from the Caspian to the Mediterranean Sea. Turkey, Azerbaijan, Georgia, Kazakstan and Uzbekistan committed to the 1,080 mile conduit with a push from the US.
(SFC, 10/30/98, p.A14)
1998 Thomas Golz published “Azerbaijan Diary: A Rogue Reporter’s Adventures in an Oil-Rich, War-Torn, Post-Soviet Republic." It was about his experiences there during the 1991-1992 political changes.
(WSJ, 7/21/98, p.A12)
1998 Leaders of Nagorno-Karabakh, a territory in Azerbaijan populated mainly by ethnic Armenians, demanded a transfer from Soviet Azerbaijan to Soviet Armenia. The Kremlin refused and a war soon followed.
(Econ, 6/25/11, p.66)
1999 Jan 8, In Azerbaijan the first part of an oil pipeline across Georgia to the Black Sea was opened.
(SFC, 1/9/99, p.A14)
1999 Jan 31, It was reported that Vafa Gulkuzade, chief foreign affairs advisor, had asserted that the country needed a military protector. He said Turkish or American military bases would be welcomed.
(SFEC, 1/31/99, p.A20)
1999 Apr 1, An oil pipeline from Baku to the Georgian Black Sea port of Supsa was to begin operating.
(SFC, 10/27/98, p.B5)
1999 Jun 22, Azerbaijan planned to become a major exporter of gas following the discovery at the Shah Deniz offshore field that could contain as much as 700 billion cubic meters of natural gas.
(WSJ, 6/23/99, p.A23)
1999 Nov 17, Azerbaijan, Georgia, Turkey agreed to a US-backed plan for a Caspian oil pipeline from Baku to Ceyhan to be completed in 2004. The 1st shipment was made in 2006.
(SFC, 11/18/99, p.C6)(AFP, 6/4/06)
2000 Nov 5, Parliamentary elections were noted to be rife with fraud. Pres. Aliyev’s son was proposed as parliament speaker.
(WSJ, 11/6/00, p.A1)
2000 Nov 25, In Azerbaijan an earthquake hit Baku and at least 3 people were killed. 20 people died of heart attacks.
(SSFC, 11/26/00, p.D6)(WSJ, 11/27/00, p.A1)
2001 cApr 5, Presidents Robert Kocharian of Armenia and Heydar Aliyev of Azerbaijan met in Key West, Fla., for negotiations on Nagorno-Karabakh. A new $2.7 billion oil pipeline from Baku to Ceyhan, Turkey, was expected to pass just north of the area. Halliburton Co., was a finalist in engineering bids for the line and Vice President Chaney was the former chief executive of Halliburton. National Security Advisor Condoleeza Rice formerly served on the Board of Directors for Chevron, a player in the pipeline bid.
(SFC, 4/4/01, p.A10)
2001 Five men, supporters of Ayaz Mutalibov, were arrested for plotting to overthrow the government. In 2002 they were sentenced to prison terms of 5-10 years.
(SFC, 9/6/02, p.A16)
2002 May 22, Pope John Paul (82) arrived in Azerbaijan for a 2-day visit before continuing on to Bulgaria. He hope to improve relations with the Muslim and Christian Orthodox believers.
(WSJ, 5/22/02, p.A1)(SFC, 5/23/02, p.A1)
2002 Jun 9, Azerbaijan and Russia signed a bilateral accord on the oil-rich Caspian Sea.
(WSJ, 6/7/02, p.A8)
2002 Jun, Ahmed al-Darbi (26), an alleged Al-Qaida terrorist, was captured at the airport in Baku, Azerbaijan. In 2009 an affidavid was relased describing what followed. Several weeks after his capture he was taken blindfolded to the US base in Bagram, Afghanistan, through which many if not most of the Guantanamo detainees have passed. Al-Darbi was held for eight months at Bagram. For the first two weeks, he was kept in isolation when not being interrogated. Later he went through a litany of harsh tactics, including being kicked and dragged around a room by US troops while music blared in the background. At times, he was forced to kneel with his hands cuffed above his head through the night and repeatedly interrogated, often while hooded. He also describes a process in which he was hooded, shaken violently and subjected to water poured over his head.
(AP, 8/9/09)
2002 Aug 24, Azerbaijani voters overwhelmingly approved changes to the constitution in a referendum the opposition charged was marred by fraud.
(AP, 8/25/02)
2002 Nov 23, Azerbaijan Pres. Geidar Aliev said that he and Armenian Pres. Robert Kocharian have agreed to seek a peaceful settlement of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict.
(AP, 11/23/02)
2003 Aug 4, Azerbaijan's parliament named ailing President Geidar Aliev's son, Ilham Geidar oglu Aliev (b.1961), as PM.
(AP, 8/4/03)
2003 Oct 12, In Baku, Azerbaijan, some 50,000 people protested Pres. Aliev's attempt to transfer power to his son in upcoming elections.
(SFC, 10/13/03, p.A11)
2003 Oct 15, Azerbaijan held presidential elections.
(WSJ, 10/15/03, p.A1)
2003 Oct 16, In Azerbaijan rioting protesters clashed with police in the capital, Baku, after Ilham Aliev was elected to succeed his father as president. At least 2 people were reported killed. The vote was marred by fraud. Closest rival Isa Gambar had 11% of the vote.
(AP, 10/16/03)(SFC, 10/16/03, p.A3)(ST, 10/17/03, p.A14)
2003 Oct 31, Ilham Aliev was inaugurated as Azerbaijan's new president, succeeding his ailing father as leader of the oil-rich former Soviet republic.
(AP, 10/31/03)
2003 Dec 12, Former Azerbaijani Pres. Geidar Aliev (Heydar Aliyev, b.1923), a former KGB general and Communist Party chief who brought stability to a nation plagued by insurgencies, died at the Cleveland Clinic.
(AP, 12/12/03)(SFC, 12/13/03, p.A20)
2004 May 18, An Azerbaijani cargo plane crashed in a forest after taking off from an airport in China's northwest, killing its seven-member crew.
(AP, 5/18/04)
2004 Jun 2, The Azerbaijani Fuel and Energy Minister said that $3.4 billion would be invested by 2006 in the first phase of development of the Azeri-Chirag-Guneshli oil field.
(AP, 6/2/04)
2004 Jun 14, Azerbaijan Fatulla Huseynov (67), an opposition party leader known for his bold military exploits in the war over the Nagorno-Karabakh enclave, was shot and killed in Baku.
(AP, 6/14/04)
2004 Nov 6, In Baku, Azerbaijan, a gas explosion tore through a two-story apartment building, trapping residents under the debris. At least 4 people were killed.
(AP, 11/6/04)
2004 Transparency Int’l. ranked Azerbaijan 140th out of 146 countries in terms of corruption.
(Econ, 11/20/04, p.54)
2004 In Hungary Ramil Safarov of Azerbaijan killed fellow-student Gurgen Margarjan of Armenia while both men studied at a NATO English language course for military officers of non-member countries. Safarov was sentenced to life in prison, but was released to Azerbaijan on Aug 31, 2012.
(Economist, 9/8/12, p.51)
2005 Mar 2, In Azerbaijan Elmar Huseinov, founder and editor of the opposition magazine Monitor, was shot to death in the entryway of his Baku apartment building.
(AP, 3/3/05)
2005 May 21, Azerbaijani protesters demanding free elections were beaten back by police, who arrested dozens as they broke up a banned rally.
(AP, 5/21/05)
2005 May 25, In Azerbaijan officials opened the first section of a $3.6 billion, 1,100-mile pipeline that will carry Caspian Sea oil to Western markets. The presidents of Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Georgia and Turkey were on hand for the ceremony at the Sangachal oil terminal.
(AP, 5/25/05)(WSJ, 5/25/05, p.B2)
2005 Jun 4, Thousands of opposition protesters chanted "Freedom!" and carried pictures of President Bush as they marched across Azerbaijan's capital, urging the government of this U.S. ally to step down and allow free parliamentary elections this year.
(AP, 6/4/05)
2005 Jun 15, Armenia said Azerbaijan was stockpiling more arms than permitted by treaty.
(WSJ, 6/16/05, p.A1)
2005 Jun 18, In Azerbaijan thousands of demonstrators chanting "Freedom" and carrying portraits of President Bush marched across Baku, demanding the resignation of the government and free parliamentary elections.
(AP, 6/18/05)
2005 Sep 10, In Azerbaijan more than 2,000 orange-clad opposition members rallied in Baku, demanding that President Ilhan Aliev resign and that authorities ensure that parliamentary elections in November are free and fair.
(AP, 9/11/05)
2005 Sep 23, A US embassy official said the US is to help its Caspian Sea ally Azerbaijan build a radar station on its border with Iran and another near Russia.
(AP, 9/23/05)
2005 Oct 9, Riot police in Azerbaijan scattered hundreds of opposition supporters protesting in Baku in defiance of a ban, beating some with truncheons and dragging several away as tensions mounted ahead of parliamentary elections next month.
(AP, 10/9/05)
2005 Oct 17, An Azerbaijani opposition leader was arrested in Ukraine and scores of his supporters were detained by police. Tensions rose in Azerbaijan in the run-up to next month's parliamentary election.
(AP, 10/17/05)
2005 Oct 21, Authorities in Azerbaijan said a 2nd former government minister was arrested on charges of involvement in a coup plot against President Ilham Aliev, deepening political tensions ahead of next month's key parliamentary elections.
(AP, 10/21/05)
2005 Oct 25, Azerbaijan's President Ilham Aliyev ordered steps to ensure a November 6 parliamentary vote is fair after Washington voiced concern over a police crackdown in the oil-producing ex-Soviet state.
(AP, 10/25/05)
2005 Nov 4, In Azerbaijan thousands of government supporters rallied in Baku on the last day of campaigning for this weekend's parliamentary elections, while opponents kept out of sight to avoid confrontations with police.
(AP, 11/4/05)
2005 Nov 6, The head of Azerbaijan's ruling party declared victory in a parliamentary election, with 63 seats. Azerbaijan's president pledged parliamentary elections would be followed by further democratic reform, but his political opponents alleged there were voting violations that could taint the results.
(AP, 11/6/05)(Reuters, 11/6/05)(Econ, 11/12/05, p.55)
2005 Nov 7, Azerbaijan's opposition rejected the results of weekend parliamentary elections, calling them rigged and vowing to overturn the outcome of voting that foreign observers said fell short of international standards.
(AP, 11/7/05)
2005 Nov 8, Azerbaijan's election commission annulled the results of the weekend parliamentary vote in two districts and ordered a recount in another, while the ruling party claimed victory.
(AP, 11/8/05)
2005 Nov 9, Thousands of people rallied in Baku, Azerbaijan, to demand free elections, answering a call by the opposition movement following weekend parliamentary balloting that international observers said was flawed.
(AP, 11/9/05)
2005 Nov 9, In Azerbaijan Pres. Ilham Aliev fired two regional governors for interfering with the count from last weekend's parliamentary elections.
(AP, 11/10/05)
2005 Nov 13, Around 20,000 opposition supporters demonstrated on the outskirts of the Azeri capital Baku to demand that the government resign if it refuses to re-run parliamentary elections held a week ago.
(AP, 11/13/05)
2005 Nov 14, President Ilham Aliev fired a third regional governor for alleged interference in Azerbaijan's parliamentary elections, reacting sternly to Western charges of voting irregularities.
(AP, 11/14/05)
2005 Nov 19, Thousands of people gathered in a Baku square as Azerbaijan's opposition parties protested against disputed parliamentary elections, the latest rally in a campaign that has made little headway.
(AP, 11/19/05)
2005 Nov 26, In Azerbaijan truncheon-wielding police in riot gear beat opposition protesters who gathered in Baku shouting "Freedom!" and demanding a revote of disputed parliamentary elections.
(AP, 11/26/05)
2005 Dec 23, An Azerbaijani Airlines An-140 twin-engine turboprop crashed on the Caspian Sea coast and all 18 passengers and five crew were killed. Equipment failure was suspected.
(AP, 12/24/05)
2006 Jan 22, Georgia began receiving natural gas late in the day from Azerbaijan following explosions on pipelines in southern Russia that cut off delivery of gas to Georgia and its neighbor Armenia during a cold snap.
(AP, 1/23/06)
2006 Feb 10, The presidents of Armenia and Azerbaijan negotiated one-on-one on ways to end the 18-year conflict over the enclave of Nagorno-Karabakh, but reached no conclusion and planned more talks.
(AP, 2/10/06)
2006 Feb 10, Azerbaijan’s Health Ministry said a British laboratory had confirmed the H5N1 strain of bird flu in wild ducks and swans on its Absheron Peninsula. WHO said 88 people have died from bird flu since 2003.
(SFC, 2/11/06, p.A8)
2006 Feb 11, The presidents of Armenia and Azerbaijan failed to reach agreement after two days of talks on how to end the bloody conflict over the enclave of Nagorno-Karabakh.
(AP, 2/11/06)
2006 Mar 6-2006 Mar 7, Armenian and Azerbaijani forces exchanged heavy gunfire and mortars at several points along their border in the most serious fighting in months.
(AP, 3/7/06)
2006 Mar 14, The WHO said it believed test results showing three young women in Azerbaijan had died of bird flu were reliable, but it awaited final confirmation from a British laboratory.
(AP, 3/14/06)
2006 Mar 15, Officials in Azerbaijan said a dog had died of bird flu in Baku on Mar 9. 3 human victims, who died over the past few weeks, were thought to have been infected through contact with birds.
(AP, 3/15/06)
2006 Mar 21, The WHO said 5 people had died of bird flu in Azerbaijan, raising the worldwide death toll from the H5N1 strain to 103.
(SFC, 3/22/06, p.A4)
2006 May 23, Iran’s government closed one of the country's top three newspapers, detaining its editor and cartoonist for publishing a caricature that caused members of Iran's Azeri minority to riot in protest.
(AP, 5/23/06)
2006 May 28, A new $4 billion pipeline from Baku, via Georgia to Ceyhan, Turkey, began pumping oil.
(Econ, 6/3/06, p.48)
2006 Jun 3, The long-awaited first shipment of Caspian oil from the new Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan (BTC) pipeline got on its way from a Turkish port.
(AFP, 6/4/06)
2006 Jun 8, In Azerbaijan the Presidents Ilham Aliyev of Azerbaijan and Valdas Adamkus of Lithuania met in the presence of the two countries’ delegations following a one-on-one meeting.
(http://tinyurl.com/ffjol)
2006 Jun 14, Azerbaijan and Armenia promised to continue talks over Nagorno-Karabakh despite two failed efforts this year by the Caucasus nations' presidents to resolve the status of the disputed enclave.
(AP, 6/14/06)
2006 Jul 13, The presidents of Turkey, Azerbaijan and Georgia formally opened a pipeline designed to bypass Russia and bring Caspian oil to Europe, a route that President Bush said would bolster global energy security.
(AP, 7/13/06)
2006 Oct 25, Azerbaijan’s broadcasting chief said government authorities will bar Azerbaijan broadcasters from airing programs of the Voice of America, the BBC and Radio Liberty starting next year.
(AP, 10/25/06)
2006 Nov 10, Asian nations reached their first international agreement to implement what has been dubbed the "Iron Silk Road." Armenia, Azerbaijan, Cambodia, China, Indonesia, Iran, Kazakhstan, Laos, Russia, South Korea, Turkey and seven other nations agreed to meet at least every two years to identify vital rail routes, coordinate standards and financing and plan upgrades and expansions, among other measures. The UN first conceived the Trans-Asian Railway Network in 1960.
(AP, 11/10/06)
2006 Nov 24, Authorities cut off broadcasts from Azerbaijan's first independent TV station and ordered the eviction of opposition newspapers and organizations from their offices in the capital, moves government opponents called part of a campaign to silence dissent.
(AP, 11/24/06)
2006 Dec 11, In Azerbaijan authorities said they would allow a top independent TV station back on the air, but warned that it would have to bid for a broadcasting license next year.
(AP, 12/11/06)
2007 Feb 10, Azerbaijan’s population, at about 8 million, was mostly Shia Muslim.
(Econ, 2/10/07, p.49)
2007 Mar 19, In Azerbaijan 2 journalists accused of inciting religious hatred with an article that criticized Islam went on trial, both accusing authorities of waging a politically motivated prosecution.
(AP, 3/19/07)
2007 Apr, in Azerbaijan journalist Eynulla Fatullayev was imprisoned. He was soon sentenced to 8-1/2 years in jail on charges of terrorism, incitement of ethnic hatred and tax evasion. In December 2009 new charges of illegal possession of drugs were brought against him.
(Reuters, 6/3/10)
2007 May 4, Two Azerbaijani journalists were convicted and sentenced to prison for inciting hatred with an article criticizing Islam.
(AP, 5/4/07)
2007 Jun 7, Russian President Vladimir Putin, bitterly opposed to a US missile shield in Europe, told President Bush that Moscow would drop its objections if the radar-based system were installed in Azerbaijan.
(AP, 6/7/07)
2007 Jun 8, Foreign Minister Elmar Mammadyarov said that Azerbaijan is ready to consider proposed joint US-Russian use of a radar facility in the country as part of a missile defense system.
(AP, 6/8/07)
2007 Jun 17, Iran said it had received indications from Russia's president that he would not follow through with an offer to allow the US to use a radar station in neighboring Azerbaijan for missile defense against Tehran.
(AP, 6/17/07)
2007 Jun 19, Georgia border agents blocked a car trying to smuggle radioactive plutonium and beryllium from Azerbaijan.
(WSJ, 6/20/07, p.A1)
2007 Jul 19, The Armenian-controlled breakaway region of Nagorno-Karabakh held a presidential election amid a rumbling dispute with Azerbaijan over the mountainous enclave's unrecognized independence.
(AP, 7/19/07)
2007 Jul 20, An election committee said Bako Saakian, Nagorno-Karabakh's former security chief, won the presidency of the Armenian-controlled breakaway region with 85% of the vote.
(AP, 7/20/07)
2007 Aug 28, In Azerbaijan a 16-story high-rise under construction in Baku collapsed killing at least 12 people and leaving others trapped in the rubble. The head of the construction company and another company executive were arrested. They began construction of the building in 2002 without authorization.
(SFC, 8/29/07, p.A3)(AP, 8/31/07)
2007 Sep 4, A skirmish near the disputed territory of Nagorno-Karabakh killed two Azerbaijani soldiers and three Armenian troops.
(AP, 9/5/07)
2007 Sep 7, Bako Saakian, the former security chief of Nagorno-Karabakh, was sworn as the new president of the Armenian-controlled breakaway region.
(AP, 9/7/07)
2007 Oct 10, Ministers from Azerbaijan, Georgia, Lithuania, Poland and Ukraine signed a deal to build an oil pipeline linking the Black and Baltic seas.
(WSJ, 10/11/07, p.A18)
2007 Oct 29, In Azerbaijan the US and British embassies suspended operations in Baku, where the government said it thwarted a radical Islamic group's plot to conduct a "large-scale horrifying terror attack" against diplomatic missions and government buildings. One suspect was killed and several others were detained in a weekend sweep in village outside the capital.
(AP, 10/29/07)
2007 Oct 30, An Azerbaijani newspaper editor was sentenced to 8 1/2 years in prison over an article alleging that the former Soviet republic could support a US attack on neighboring Iran. The Court for Grave Crimes convicted Eynulla Fatullayev, the founder and editor of two independent newspapers that stopped publication this spring amid government pressure, on charges of making a terrorist threat and inciting interethnic conflict.
(AP, 10/30/07)
2007 Nov 21, The presidents of Azerbaijan, Georgia and Turkey launched the construction of a railroad that will link ex-Soviet republics in the Caucasus and Central Asia with Europe, bypassing Russia.
(AP, 11/21/07)
2007 Dec 28, Azerbaijan's president issued a decree granting amnesty to 119 prison inmates, including several journalists whose convictions drew protests from international rights groups.
(AP, 12/28/07)
2008 Mar 4, Ethnic Armenian and Azerbaijani forces exchanged fire for hours near the disputed territory of Nagorno-Karabakh. Azerbaijan warned it could try to reclaim the disputed region. Soldiers were killed and wounded on both sides. Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty said in a statement that its two Armenian affiliates halted the broadcasts to comply with an emergency decree that allows media to only report news that is sanctioned by the government.
(AP, 3/5/08)(WSJ, 3/5/08, p.A1)
2008 Mar 14, The UN General Assembly adopted a resolution demanding the "immediate, complete and unconditional" withdrawal of all Armenian forces from Azerbaijan's territory in a vote in which more than 100 countries abstained.
(AFP, 3/15/08)
2008 Mar 15, Azerbaijan warned it would review relations with France, Russia and the US after they voted against a UN resolution calling on Armenia to pull out of Azerbaijani territory.
(AFP, 3/15/08)
2008 March 29, Azerbaijan customs halted a shipment of Russian equipment for Iran’s first nuclear power plant. The equipment was released May 1.
(WSJ, 5/2/08, p.A8)
2008 Sep 3, US Vice President Dick Cheney assured Azerbaijan of America's "abiding interest" in the region's stability. It was the first stop on a tour of three ex-Soviet republics that are wary of Russia's intentions after its war with Georgia last month.
(AP, 9/4/08)
2008 Oct 15, Authorities in Azerbaijan said turnout was high in a presidential election boycotted by the opposition and almost certain to return Ilham Aliyev for a second term in the oil-producing state. President Ilham Aliyev had 89% of the vote with 70% of precincts reporting.
(AP, 10/15/08)(AP, 10/16/08)
2008 Oct 25, Muslim Magomayev (66), an Azeri-born Soviet-era opera and pop singer, died in Moscow. His fame was at its peak in the 1960s and 70s.
(AP, 10/25/08)
2008 Nov 2, The leaders of Armenia and Azerbaijan agreed to intensify talks to end a 20-year conflict over the disputed territory of Nagorno-Karabakh.
(AP, 11/2/08)
2008 Nov 14, Azerbaijan lawmakers voted 86-1 to back President Ilham Aliev's request to withdraw the 150 troops serving as part of the US-led coalition in Iraq.
(AP, 11/14/08)
2008 Dec 26, Azerbaijan's parliament voted to hold a referendum next year on constitutional changes that could allow incumbent President Ilham Aliyev to stay in power when his current mandate runs out.
(AFP, 12/26/08)
2009 Jan 20, The head of US Central Command said the US has struck deals with Russia and neighboring countries allowing it to transport supplies to American troops in Afghanistan through their territory. US officials have said that one likely route is overland from Russia through Kazakhstan and on through Uzbekistan using trucks and trains. Another possible route is via Azerbaijan across the Caspian Sea to the Kazakh port of Aktau and then through Uzbekistan.
(AP, 1/20/09)
2009 Feb 11, In Azerbaijan a gunman fatally shot air force chief Lt. Gen. Rail Rzayev (63) outside his home. He had represented Azerbaijan in talks with Russia and the US on Moscow's 2007 proposal to make a Soviet-built radar station in Azerbaijan.
(AP, 2/11/09)
2009 Mar 18, Azerbaijan citizens overwhelmingly voted to scrap presidential term limits in the oil-rich country courted by Russia and the West. Opposition leaders claimed the constitutional referendum was rigged and vowed to dispute the outcome in court. A small European observer mission said, however, that the vote was transparent and it had seen no violations.
(AP, 3/19/09)
2009 Apr 30, In Azerbaijan Georgian citizen Farda Gadyrov (20) opened fire at the prestigious oil industry academy in Baku, killing 12 people and wounding 13 before turning the gun on himself.
(Reuters, 4/30/09)(AP, 5/1/09)
2009 May 7, The European Union extended its hand to former Soviet republics, holding a summit to draw them closer into the EU orbit despite Russia's deep misgivings. Presidents, premiers and their deputies from 33 nations signed an agreement meant to extend the EU's political and economic ties. The six ex-Soviet republics to whom the “eastern partnership" would apply are Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Georgia, Moldova and Ukraine.
(AP, 5/7/09)(Econ, 1/10/15, p.49)
2009 Jul 8, Azerbaijan police arrested Adnan Hadzhizade, a video blogger and member of the "OL!" opposition movement, and Emin Milli, a youth activist who also runs an Internet TV program, after a fight in a Baku cafe with two unknown men. Both were charged with hooliganism. A Baku court decision soon ordered two months of pretrial detention for Milli and Hadzhizade, which prompted criticism from international journalism advocates.
(AP, 7/14/09)
2009 Jul 31, UN human rights experts asked Azerbaijan to stop curbing free speech and to protect journalists from harassment, violence and even murder.
(Reuters, 7/31/09)
2010 Feb 12 In Azerbaijan lawmakers revised the country’s media laws to forbid journalists from filming, recording or photographing subjects without their permission.
(SSFC, 2/14/10, p.A4)
2010 Mar 27, Iran used an ancient new year celebration to reach out to Afghanistan, Azerbaijan, Iraq, Turkmenistan, Tajikistan, and Turkey at a summit meeting that projected Iranian leadership in the strategic region straddling the Middle East and Central Asia.
(AP, 3/27/10)
2010 Jun 3, In Azerbaijan journalist Eynulla Fatullayev, jailed since 2007, went on a hunger strike demanding his release after Europe's top human rights court in April ruled that his imprisonment was illegal.
(Reuters, 6/3/10)
2010 Jun 6, US Defense Secretary Robert Gates hand delivered a letter from Pres. Obama to Azerbaijan’s President Ilham Aliyev during a meeting to improve relations with the former Soviet republic that helps move supplies and soldiers to the US-led war in landlocked Afghanistan.
(AP, 6/7/10)
2010 Jun 7, Turkey and Azerbaijan signed a long-awaited deal on the transit of gas to Europe seen as crucial to plans to reduce the continent's dependence on Russian gas.
(AFP, 6/7/10)
2010 Jun 18-2010 Jun 19, A firefight between Armenia and Azerbaijan left 5 people dead in northern Karabakh.
(Econ, 7/10/10, p.54)(www.eurasianet.org/node/61373)
2010 Nov 7, Azerbaijan voted in parliamentary elections set to cement President Ilham Aliyev's grip on power but condemned by the opposition as a charade whose results have already been decided. Nearly 700 candidates competed for the 125 seats in the single chamber of the parliament. Azerbaijan's ruling party won a landslide victory. The next day international vote monitors said that ballot box stuffing and an uneven playing field for candidates marred Azerbaijan's parliamentary elections.
(AFP, 11/7/10)(AP, 11/8/10)
2010 Nov 16, The UN Education, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) recognized everything from the growing of corn, beans and chilies to Mexican dishes prepared with grinding stones and mortars as an ancient process worth safeguarding in the face of encroaching global influences. France's multi-course gastronomic meal, Flamenco in Spain and carpet-weaving in Azerbaijan also made the list.
(AP, 11/17/10)
2010 Thomas de Waal authored “The Caucasus: An Introduction."
(Econ, 10/23/10, p.102)
2011 Feb 20, In Azerbaijan 7 teenage soldiers were killed at a military base in the west of the country. Local media saying a soldier went on a rampage before turning the gun on himself.
(AP, 2/21/11)
2011 Apr 2, Azerbaijan police arrested dozens of protesters who rallied for democratic reforms in the authoritarian republic. Human rights activist Vivadi Iskenderov was among those arrested in Baku. In August he was sentenced to three years in prison for interfering in parliamentary elections. He told the court that he is being persecuted for reporting vote rigging in Azerbaijan's 2010 parliamentary election.
(AP, 4/2/11)(AP, 8/27/11)
2011 Jun 24, The presidents of Armenia and Azerbaijan failed to approve a set of basic principles for a peaceful settlement to their long-standing dispute over the breakaway territory of Nagorno-Karabakh, despite US and Russian efforts to mediate the conflict in the strategic Caucasus region.
(AP, 6/24/11)
2011 Jul 6, In Afghanistan an Azerbaijani cargo plane carrying supplies for the Afghan NATO mission crashed into treacherous mountains killing all nine crew on board outside Kabul. The nine crew were from Azerbaijan and Uzbekistan. The plane was operated by private Azerbaijani airline Silk Way.
(AFP, 7/6/11)
2011 Sep 3, In Tajikistan leaders from eight former Soviet states (Armenia, Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Russia, Tajikistan, Ukraine and Uzbekistan) gathered to celebrate enduring cooperation over the two decades since their nations collectively gained independence, but mutual acrimony and recriminations cast a shadow over the event.
(AP, 9/3/11)
2011 Sep 23, The tarnished image of Olympic boxing faced fresh scrutiny over allegations that multi-million dollar bribes were paid to ensure fighters from Azerbaijan won gold medals at the 2012 Games in London. The championships were moved to the Azeri capital after being originally awarded to the South Korean port city of Busan.
(AP, 9/23/11)
2011 Nov 19, Azeri snipers fired into the disputed breakaway enclave of Nagorno-Karabakh killing one Armenian soldier. A 2nd soldier was killed the next day.
(AP, 11/21/11)
2011 Nov 21, Armenia said it will retaliate for the weekend killings of two ethnic Armenian soldiers by Azeri snipers who fired into a disputed breakaway enclave.
(AP, 11/21/11)
2011 Nov 23, Rafiq Tagi, a prominent Azeri journalist, died in Baku four days after he was stabbed six times by an unknown assailant. Tagi claimed the attack was retaliation for his opinion piece published earlier this month that criticized the government of neighboring Iran.
(AP, 11/23/11)
2012 Jan 25, Azerbaijan officials said 2 men have been arrested in a plot to assassinate Israeli targets in Baku. Local mercenaries, suspected of being recruited by a well-known gangster with ties to Iran, were arrested. Azerbaijani media later said that two Iranian Quds Force members were arrested. In addition, around 20 people, mostly from the same family, were arrested in connection with the planned attacks, in a village on the outskirts of Baku.
(http://tinyurl.com/6rqkkdc)(www.alarabiya.net/articles/2012/01/26/190617.html)(SFC, 2/22/12, p.A5)
2012 Mar 14, The Azerbaijan national security ministry said it has arrested 22 Azeri citizens on suspicion of plotting attacks on the US and Israeli embassies in Baku on behalf of neighboring Iran.
(AP, 3/14/12)
2012 Apr 6, Azerbaijan said members of a suspected terrorist group have been arrested. One security officer was shot and killed and three others were wounded in a skirmish during the arrests, and one suspect was also killed. Officials later said the group had links to al-Qaida and some trained in neighboring Iran.
(AP, 4/19/12)
2012 May 26, In Azerbaijan Loreen of Sweden piled up 372 points with her uplifting dance track "Euphoria" at the Eurovision Song Contest in Baku. An audience of some 20,000 were inside the venue viewed by 100 million on television.
(AFP, 5/27/12)
2012 Jun 4, Three Armenian soldiers were killed in clashes along its border with Azerbaijan.
(SFC, 6/6/12, p.A4)
2012 Jun 5, Five Azerbaijan soldiers were killed near Gazakh in clashes along its border with Armenia. Each nation blamed the other for the violence.
(SFC, 6/6/12, p.A4)
2012 Jun 22, The president of Azerbaijan pardoned 66 convicts, including nine youth activists arrested during a wave of anti-government protests last year inspired by the Arab Spring.
(AP, 6/22/12)
2012 Aug 31, Armenia broke off diplomatic ties with Hungary after an Azerbaijani military officer sentenced to life in prison here for killing an Armenian officer was sent back to his homeland and, despite assurances, immediately pardoned and freed. Lt. Ramil Safarov (35) was given a life sentence in 2006 by the Budapest City Court after he confessed to killing Lt. Gurgen Markarian of Armenia while both were in Hungary for a 2004 NATO language course.
(AP, 9/1/12)
2012 Oct 2, Azerbaijan's ambassador defended a multimillion-dollar renovation of Mexican parks and a monument to late president Geidar Aliyev (d.2003). Azerbaijan had contributed much of the 65 million pesos ($5 million) it cost to renovate not one, but two Mexico City parks, allowing it to put monuments in both. Critics said that Aliyev, who stifled dissent, shouldn't be on a boulevard decorated with statues to Mexican and foreign heroes. In 2013 Mexico City Mayor Miguel Angel Mancera said the statue of Aliyev will be removed from the capital’s main avenue.
(AP, 10/2/12)(SFC, 1/23/13, p.A2)
2012 Oct 15, Azerbaijan's top energy official urged further scrutiny of the international consortium developing the Caspian Sea nation's main oil field amid mounting irritation at a slump in output.
(AP, 10/15/12)
2013 Jan 19, In Azerbaijan market traders blocked a highway 50 km (30 miles) outside Baku and clashed with riot police in a spontaneous protest over increased rent for their stalls.
(AP, 1/24/13)
2013 Jan 24, In Azerbaijan hundreds of angry demonstrators in Ismayilli, some 175 km (110 miles) from the capital, Baku, surrounded a regional government building demanding the governor's resignation after a night of rioting in which a hotel and several cars were torched.
(AP, 1/24/13)
2013 Jan 26, Mexico City authorities removed a much-disputed statue of Geidar Aliyev, the late leader of Azerbaijan.
(SSFC, 1/27/13, p.A4)
2013 Mar 12, In Azerbaijan a court Baku found Avaz Zeynalli, editor of the Khural newspaper, guilty of bribery, extortion, contempt of court and tax evasion. Supporters and rights group dismissed the trial as politically motivated. Charges against the editor were brought following complaints by a deputy in the ruling New Azerbaijan Party. That deputy is now under arrest and suspected of extorting $1 million from a university rector.
(AP, 3/12/13)
2013 Jun 28, BP, at an official ceremony in Baku, Azerbaijan, confirmed that a new pipeline to bring gas to Europe from the Caspian Sea will go through Greece and then under the sea to Italy, a defeat for a rival project to bring gas through Bulgaria and into Austria.
(AP, 6/28/13)
2013 Oct 9, Azerbaijan held elections. An exit poll showed President Ilham Aliyev (51) was on track to easily win a third term with 84% of the vote in the oil-exporting ex-Soviet republic. His main opponent said the election was marred by violations. Official results the next day showed Aliyev winning nearly 85% of the vote.
(Reuters, 10/9/13)(AP, 10/10/13)
2013 Oct 12, In Azerbaijan thousands gathered in Baku to protest the re-election of President Ilham Aliyev in a vote widely criticized by international election monitors.
(AP, 10/12/13)
2013 In Azerbaijan Ilgar Mammadov, the leader of a rights group called Republican Alternative (ReAl), was convicted and sentenced to seven years in jail for organizing and taking part in demonstrations in the northern town of Ismailli against a provincial leader. He was released in 2018.
(Reuters, 8/13/18)
2014 Jan 22, Azerbaijan said it had repelled a cross-border raid by Armenian forces in the latest outbreak of violence over the disputed Nagorny Karabakh region.
(AFP, 1/22/14)
2014 Apr 9, Iran and Azerbaijan signed deals to build a hydroelectric plant and boost environmental and athletic cooperation as Azerbaijan's President Ilham Aliyev visited Iran.
(AP, 4/9/14)
2014 Apr 28, Azerbaijan police detained Leyla Yunus, a prominent rights defender, as well as her husband Arif Yunus.
(Econ, 8/22/15, p.44)
2014 May 14, Azerbaijan took over as chairman of the Committee of Ministers, the Council of Europe’s decision-making body which brings together the member states' foreign ministers.
(AP, 5/23/14)
2014 May 15, An Azerbaijan opposition journalist Parviz Gashimly was sentenced on to eight years in prison in a case critics say highlights a government-led crackdown on dissent in the oil-rich former Soviet republic. He was arrested last September after police raided his apartment and reported finding firearms.
(Reuters, 5/15/14)
2014 May 23, Europe's main human rights and democracy forum accused Azerbaijan of intimidating and repressing its critics.
(Reuters, 5/23/14)
2014 Aug 1, In Azerbaijan at least 10 people were killed in skirmishes between Azeri government forces and ethnic Armenian separatists controlling the breakaway Nagorno-Karabakh enclave of Azerbaijan.
(Reuters, 8/1/14)
2014 Aug 2, In Azerbaijan 5 more soldiers were killed in overnight skirmishes between Azeri government forces and ethnic Armenian separatists controlling the breakaway Nagorno-Karabakh enclave.
(AP, 8/2/14)
2014 Aug 4, Azerbaijan and Armenia both reported more losses in a sharp escalation of fighting over the South Caucasus region Nagorno-Karabakh, with 18 soldiers now confirmed dead.
(AP, 8/4/14)
2014 Aug 9, Russian President Vladimir Putin began talks with the leaders of arch-foes Armenia and Azerbaijan after recent clashes that have left 22 soldiers dead and fuelled fears that one of the bloodiest post-Soviet wars is restarting.
(AFP, 8/9/14)
2014 Sep 17, A UN human rights team looking into complaints of torture in Azerbaijan said it had cut short its investigations because it had been stopped from visiting some government detention centers.
(Reuters, 9/17/14)
2014 Nov 11, The armed forces of Azerbaijan shot down and destroyed an Armenian military helicopter in the Nagorno-Karabakh region. Azerbaijan said its forces shot down the Russian-made Mi-24 helicopter gunship after it tried to attack its positions.
(AP, 11/12/14)
2014 Nov 22, The Armenian enclave of Nagorno-Karabakh said its forces killed two Azerbaijani soldiers in an overnight operation to recover the bodies of three helicopter crew members whose craft was shot down by Azerbaijan on Nov 11.
(AP, 11/22/14)
2014 Dec 26, Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty quoted the director of its Azerbaijani service saying that the office has been locked down since early today by prosecutors and armed police.
(AP, 12/26/14)
2014 Dec 29, Azerbaijan President Ilham Aliev signed an amnesty that will free 87 inmates in the ex-Soviet nation.
(AP, 12/29/14)
2014 Dec, Azerbaijan jailed investigative journalist Khadiya Ismayilova. She worked for Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty and investigated corruption allegedly involving President Ilham Aliyev.
(SFC, 8/8/15, p.A2)
2015 Jan 3, In Azerbaijan the Armenian defense ministry of the separatist Nagorno-Karabakh region said two of its soldiers were killed while repelling Azerbaijani infiltrators.
(AP, 1/3/15)
2015 Jan 20, The Armenian defense ministry of the separatist Nagorno-Karabakh region said one of its soldiers has been killed while repelling an Azerbaijani incursion over the last 24 hours.
(AP, 1/20/15)
2015 Jan 29, Azerbaijan sentenced opposition journalist Seymur Hazi to five years in prison. He was originally jailed last August after being convicted on charges of hooliganism.
(Reuters, 1/29/15)
2015 Jan, At least 12 people were reported killed and 18 wounded this month in border clashes between Armenia and Azerbaijan.
(AFP, 3/4/15)
2015 May 19, In Azerbaijan a massive fire quickly engulfed 16-story apartment building in Baku killing 16 people.
(AP, 5/19/15)
2015 Jun 10, Amnesty Int’l. said Azerbaijan has blocked a visit at which it planned to highlight human rights abuses in the south Caucasian republic. Azerbaijan prepared to open the inaugural European Games on June 12. The OSCE said Azerbaijan has ordered it to close its Baku office ahead of the European Games.
(Reuters, 6/10/15)(AFP, 6/10/15)
2015 Jun 12, The European Games opened in Azerbaijan.
(AFP, 6/13/15)
2015 Jun 12, Journalist Emin Huseynov flew out of Azerbaijan on the plane of Swiss diplomat Didier Burkhalter (35). The opposition journalist had been sheltering for 10 months at the Swiss embassy in Baku.
(AFP, 6/13/15)
2015 Jun 13, In Azerbaijan Russian President Vladimir Putin met Turkish counterpart Recep Tayyip Erdogan for talks expected to touch on energy issues and the Syria crisis. They met a day after attending the opening ceremony of the inaugural European Games, hosted by Azerbaijan.
(AFP, 6/13/15)
2015 Jun 26, Azerbaijani troops killed an Armenian soldier in the latest border clash between the arch-foes who are locked in a longstanding conflict over the disputed Nagorny Karabakh region.
(AFP, 6/27/15)
2015 Jun 28, In Azerbaijan the European Games came to a close. Russia sent its top athletes to the games as a warm-up for next year's Olympics and was rewarded by winning almost four times as many gold medals as its closest rival.
(AP, 6/28/15)
2015 Jul 3, The Trans-Adriatic Pipeline project, or TAP, said it has started investing in Albania's infrastructure to prepare for starting construction of the pipeline next year. The 870 km (540 miles) pipeline from the Shah Deniz II field in Azerbaijan will cross Turkey, Greece and Albania and undersea to Italy, and deliver Caspian gas to Europe in early 2020.
(AP, 7/3/15)
2015 Jul 24, Khadija Ismayilova (39), a top Azerbaijani investigative journalist and anti-graft campaigner, went on trial on charges she denounced as politically motivated. She has accused the country's president of corruption and was charged with inciting a former colleague to commit suicide, tax evasion and embezzlement.
(AFP, 7/24/15)
2015 Jul 24, Armenian army units reportedly shelled Azerbaijani positions at the Karabakh frontline and the Azerbaijani-Armenian state border. One Azeri serviceman was killed in the crossfire. Armenia denied that it had sustained any casualties and accused Azerbaijan of violating a 1994 ceasefire.
(AFP, 7/25/15)
2015 Aug 13, In Azerbaijan a court in Baku sentenced Leyla Yunus, a prominent rights defender, to 8½ years in prison on charges of fraud, tax evasion and illegal business activities. Her husband Arif Yunus was given a 7-year sentence on fraud charges, and the court also confiscated the couple's assets.
(AP, 8/13/15)
2015 Aug 22, Azerbaijan police detained 21 people after they held a protest to demand justice for a man who died in police custody in the western town of Mingachevir. The Interior Ministry said Bahruz Hajiyev (27) had "unexpectedly jumped out of a third-floor window during questioning" on Aug 20 and died of his injuries.
(AP, 8/22/15)
2015 Aug 22, Clashes erupted between troops from Azerbaijan and the breakaway Nagorno-Karabakh region. 5 Armenian soldiers were killed and eight wounded.
(Reuters, 8/24/15)
2015 Sep 1, Azerbaijan sentenced award-winning investigative journalist and anti-graft campaigner Khadija Ismayilova (39) to seven and a half years in jail on corruption charges. Ismayilova has denounced her prosecution as politically motivated and an attempt to stop her critical reporting. Freedom House says there are now more than 80 political prisoners in Azerbaijan.
(AFP, 9/1/15)
2015 Sep 26, Azerbaijan said one soldier was killed over the past day by Armenian artillery, and the Nagorno-Karabakh defense ministry said four of its fighters died from an Azerbaijan barrage.
(AP, 9/26/15)
2015 Oct 20, Azerbaijan police arrested seven former national security officials on suspicion of exceeding their authority and illegal interference in businesses, days after Azeri President Ilham Aliyev fired his national security minister.
(Reuters, 10/20/15)
2015 Nov 1, Azerbaijan voted in parliamentary polls expected to cement President Ilham Aliyev's grip on power and boycotted by the mainstream opposition as a sham. Aliyev's Yeni (New) Azerbaijan party took 71 seats in the country's 125-seat parliament. Not a single election held in Azerbaijan since Aliyev came to power in 2003 has been recognized as free and fair by international observers.
(AFP, 11/1/15)(AFP, 11/2/15)
2015 Nov 26, Azerbaijan said 2 policemen and 4 alleged members of the Movement for Muslim Unity have been killed in a shootout during a raid in the village of Nardaran.
(AFP, 11/26/15)
2015 Dec 3, Turkey said it has agreed with Azerbaijan to accelerate the Trans-Anatolian Pipeline (TANAP), with an aim to have the gas projected completed before the planned 2018.
(Reuters, 12/3/15)
2015 Dec 4, In Azerbaijan 29 workers were missing after a platform in Azerbaijan’s Guneshli oil field, operated by state energy company SOCAR, caught fire in the Caspian Sea. 33 people were rescued. 6 bodies were soon recovered and 23 remained missing.
(AFP, 12/5/15)(AP, 12/6/15)(AP, 12/7/15)
2015 Dec 9, Azerbaijani tanks shelled positions in the breakaway Nagorny Karabakh region for the first time in more than 20 years killing one rebel soldier.
(AFP, 12/9/15)
2015 Dec 9, Azerbaijan released Leyla Yunus, head of the Baku-based Institute for Peace and Democracy. She had been held in detention since July 2014.
(Reuters, 12/9/15)
2015 Dec 9, Armenia said it has arrested Garik Marutyan (38), a former senior army officer, on suspicion of spying for Azerbaijan and selling state secrets.
(AFP, 12/9/15)
2015 Dec 10, Azerbaijan said 3 of its troops have been killed in the past ten days as the conflict in its separatist region of Nagorno-Karabakh escalates.
(AP, 12/10/15)
2015 Dec 19, The leaders of Armenia and Azerbaijan met in Switzerland to discuss their long-running dispute over Nagorno-Karabakh.
(AP, 12/19/15)
2015 Azerbaijan devalued its currency two times this year after its central bank burned through some $10 billion of foreign currency reserves in an effort to defend the manat.
(Econ, 5/21/16, p.45)
2016 Jan 13, In Azerbaijan protesters blocked streets and clashed with police over soaring consumer prices. 55 people were detained.
(SFC, 1/15/16, p.A2)
2016 Jan 19, Azerbaijan’s parliament endorsed the central bank's initiative to introduce a 20-percent tax on foreign exchange taken out of the country for investment, securities, and real estate purchases. Violent clashes broke out this week between riot police and thousands of demonstrators who took to the streets in cities across the energy-rich Caspian nation to express their discontent against price hikes and unemployment.
(AFP, 1/24/16)
2016 Mar 28, Azeri human rights activist and lawyer Intigam Aliyev was freed from jail. Aliyev was detained in Baku in August 2014 and charged with tax evasion, abuse of office and illegal entrepreneurship. Azerbaijan pardoned 148 prisoners including journalists, rights activists and political opponents this month in an apparent move to deflect Western criticism of the ex-Soviet republic's human rights record.
(Reuters, 3/28/16)
2016 Apr 2, Heavy fighting erupted between Armenian and Azerbaijani forces over the separatist region of Nagorno-Karabakh. Azerbaijan said 12 of its soldiers were killed and claimed to have inflicted heavy casualties on the Armenian forces.
(AP, 34/2/16)
2016 Apr 3, Azerbaijan's Defense Ministry announced a unilateral cease-fire against the separatist region of Nagorno-Karabakh, but rebel forces in the area said that they continued to come under fire from Azerbaijani forces.
(AP, 4/3/16)
2016 Apr 4, Fighting raged around the separatist region of Nagorno-Karabakh, with Azerbaijan saying three of its troops have been killed in the past 24 hours and the Armenian president warning that the hostilities could slide into a full-scale war.
(AP, 4/4/16)
2016 Apr 5, Azerbaijan and Armenian separatists in Nagorny Karabakh said they had halted fighting after four days of bloodshed, as international powers scramble to resolve the worst violence in decades over the disputed region. The ceasefire was brokered in Moscow. The 4-day war left an estimated 200 people dead.
(AFP, 4/5/16)(Econ, 4/9/16, p.53)(Econ, 5/21/16, p.46)
2016 Apr 8, Two ethnic Armenian troops died in fighting with Azerbaijani forces as the archfoes accused each other of breaching a ceasefire that halted the worst outbreak of violence in decades over a disputed breakaway region.
(AFP, 4/8/16)
2016 Apr 14, Azerbaijan said one of its soldiers had been killed in fighting over the breakaway region of Nagorno-Karabakh.
(Reuters, 4/14/16)
2016 Apr 19, A soldier from the Armenian-backed Nagorno-Karabakh region was reportedly killed by gunfire from Azerbaijan.
(Reuters, 4/19/16)
2016 May 5, Armenia's government gave the go-ahead to legislation that calls for recognizing the independence of Nagorno-Karabakh, a separatist region which is officially part of neighboring Azerbaijan. The step appeared intended mainly as a warning to Azerbaijan following a sudden increase in fighting.
(AP, 5/5/16)
2016 May 17, An Azerbaijani soldier and an ethnic Armenian fighter for the breakaway Nagorny Karabakh region's army died in fresh clashes, hours after Baku and Yerevan agreed to respect a ceasefire in the disputed territory.
(AFP, 5/17/16)
2016 May 17, In Greece a ceremony marked the beginning of construction on a new pipeline project bringing Azeri gas through northern Greece and Albania to Italy, reducing Europe's energy dependency on Russia. The Trans Adriatic Pipeline will run for 878 km (550 miles), from Greece's border with Turkey to southern Italy, and includes a 105-kilometer (65-mile) stretch under the Adriatic Sea.
(AP, 5/17/16)
2016 May 25, Prominent Azerbaijani journalist Khadija Ismayilova was released on probation following a storm of international protests about her imprisonment, which has been widely seen as an attempt to silence a critical voice.
(AP, 5/25/16)
2016 Jul 18, In Azerbaijan the ANS TV station was ordered to provisionally stop broadcasting for a month because authorities said its reporting ran counter to "a strategic partnership between Azerbaijan and Turkey." On July 29 the Court of Appeals in Baku ordered the local private television station to close because of its coverage of the attempted coup in Turkey.
(AP, 7/29/16)
2016 Jul 25, Azerbaijan's highest court approved an initiative by President Ilham Aliyev to extend the head of state's term of office to seven years from five, a step his critics see as illegal and undemocratic.
(Reuters, 7/25/16)
2016 Dec 3, Azerbaijan's domestic security agency agents killed Emin Jami, a man linked to "international terrorist organizations and illegal armed groups involved in military conflicts abroad." He was allegedly wearing a suicide bomb belt in Baku.
(AP, 12/3/16)
2016 Dec 8, In Azerbaijan a court in Baku sentenced youth activist Bayram Mammadov to ten years in prison on charges of heroin possession. Mammadov had pleaded not guilty Amnesty Int’l. condemned the sentence as an attempt by authorities to crush dissent.
(SFC, 12/9/16, p.A2)
2016 Dec 15, In Azerbaijan a 490-foot section of a walkway fell into the Caspian Sea under heavy winds sweeping away 10 offshore oil workers.
(SFC, 12/16/16, p.A2)
2016 Dec 29, At least three soldiers were reported killed in a border skirmish between Armenian and Azerbaijani troops.
(AP, 12/29/16)
2016 Jahangir Hajiyev, chairman of state-owned International Bank of Azerbaijan (IBA) from 2001 to 2015, was convicted by an Azeri court of fraud and embezzlement and sentenced to 15 years in jail. In 2018 his wife, Zamira Hajiyeva, lost an appeal against an attempt by British authorities to seize two properties worth about 22 million pounds using an Unexplained Wealth Order (UWO).
(Reuters, 10/10/18)
2017 Feb 21, Azerbaijan's Pres. Ilham Aliyev (55) appointed his wife Mehriban (52) as the first vice president of the, the person next in line in the nation's power hierarchy.
(AP, 2/21/17)
2017 Feb 25, Five Azerbaijani soldiers were killed during fighting in the disputed Nagorno-Karabakh region. Azerbaijan and neighboring Armenia traded blame for the outbreak of violence.
(AP, 2/25/17)(Reuters, 2/27/17)
2017 Mar 5, Azerbaijan and Iran agreed to work towards completing their portion of a planned freight railway route from Europe to South Asia.
(Reuters, 3/5/17)
2017 May 1, A court in Azerbaijan began considering a government demand to block access to the websites of several independent and opposition news organizations, including the local service of the US-funded Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty.
(AP, 5/1/17)
2017 May 12, In Azerbaijan the local court in the Baku upheld action by the country's communications ministry to block the access to the Azeri-language website of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty as well as several key independent news websites. The websites have been unavailable since late March when the ministry shut down the access following a prosecutor's petition decrying "threats to legitimate interests of the government and society."
(AP, 5/12/17)
2017 May 30, Afgan Mukhtarli, an Azeri investigative journalist and a human rights activist, who had been living in ex-Soviet Georgia since 2015, went missing. He was abducted in Tbilisi by a group of unknown men, beaten up and taken to the Azeri-Georgian border, where he was detained by Azeri police.
(Reuters, 5/31/17)
2017 Jun 17, Four Armenian soldiers in Nagorno-Karabakh were reported killed in fighting with Azerbaijan over the last 24 hours.
(AP, 6/17/17)
2017 Jul 4, An Azeri woman and a child were reportedly killed and another civilian wounded from shelling by Armenian-backed rebels near the boundary with the breakaway Nagorno-Karabakh region.
(Reuters, 7/5/17)
2017 Aug 18, The Turan agency, Azerbaijan’s only independent news agency, said the government has frozen its bank accounts, in a step that could shutter the outlet. Director Mehman Aliyev said the move was part of a criminal probe into an alleged $22,000 (19,000 euros) in unpaid taxes, a charge he said was false.
(AFP, 8/18/17)
2017 Aug 24, Azeri police in Baku detained Mehman Aliyev, the head of independent Turan news agency, on suspicion of tax evasion and illegal business activities. Turan suspended its operations from Sept. 1. Mehman Aliyev was released on Sept. 11, but an investigation of the allegations continued.
(AP, 9/11/17)
2017 Sep 18, In Azerbaijan police began arresting dozens of gay and transgender people in Baku. At least 46 people were soon sentenced to between 10 to 30 days in jail for resisting police. Homosexuality was decriminalized in the country in 2000, but animosity toward LGBT people remains strong.
(AP, 9/29/17)
2017 Oct 13, The UN human rights office said Azerbaijan, Egypt and Indonesia have all unjustly arrested dozens of people during anti-gay crackdowns in recent weeks, subjecting many to mistreatment in custody.
(Reuters, 10/13/17)
2017 Nov 1, Russian President Vladimir Putin arrived in Iran for trilateral talks with Tehran and Azerbaijan.
(AP, 11/1/17)
2017 Nov 24, The organization behind the "Alternative Nobel" said that a 2017 prize winner from Azerbaijan would not be able to attend the Dec. 1 award ceremony in Stockholm because of a travel ban linked to a suspended sentence she is serving. Azeri investigative journalist Khadija Ismayilova claimed in a statement issued by the Right Livelihood Award that she is under the travel ban "because I criticize the government when it steals the people's money."
(AP, 11/24/17)
2017 Nov 24, The EU pledged to deepen ties with six former Soviet states (Ukraine, Georgia, Moldova, Armenia, Azerbaijan and Belarus), as part of efforts to counter Russian influence, but warned them they had no chance of joining the bloc any time soon.
(AP, 11/24/17)
2018 Jan 12, In Azerbaijan investigative journalist Afgan Mukhtarli was sentenced to six years in prison on charges of smuggling, illegal border crossing and violently resisting arrest. Human rights advocates called the charges trumped-up and demanded his immediate release.
(AP, 1/12/18)
2018 Mar 2, In Azerbaijan at least 25 people were killed in a fire at a residential drug treatment center in Baku.
(AP, 3/2/18)
2018 Mar 29, In Azerbaijan at least three people working for the HALO Trust landmine clearing charity were killed and two more wounded when an anti-tank mine hit their vehicle in the breakaway Nagorno-Karabakh region.
(Reuters, 3/28/18)
2018 Mar 30, In southern France a gunman shot and gravely wounded exiled Azeri journalist Rahim Namazov and killed his wife near Toulouse. Namazov was an outspoken critic of the Azeri political leadership and served time in prison before seeking exile in France in 2010.
(Reuters, 3/30/18)
2018 Apr 11, Azerbaijanis voted in a snap presidential election boycotted by the main opposition parties and set to extend the autocratic rule of President Ilham Aliyev. Pres. Aliyev (56) won with more than 86 percent of the vote. The next day International monitors for the OSCE said the presidential election lacked genuine competition and was held in an environment of curtailed rights and freedoms.
(AFP, 4/11/18)(Reuters, 4/12/18)
2018 Apr 21, The Azeri parliament appointed Novruz Mamedov as the country's new prime minister. He has been a foreign policy assistant to Pres. Ilham Aliyev since last year.
(Reuters, 4/21/18)
2018 Apr 29, Iraq sentenced 19 Russian women to life in prison for joining the Islamic State group. Six women from Azerbaijan and four from Tajikistan were also condemned to life in prison on the same charge.
(AFP, 4/29/18)
2018 May 21, In Azerbaijan two people were killed and two were wounded in a blast in a cafe in Baku.
(Reuters, 5/21/18)
2018 Jun 21, Health officials in Azerbaijan said that about 200 farm workers have been poisoned with chemicals while working in cotton fields.
(AP, 6/21/18)
2018 Jul 3, In Tunisia Souad Abederrahim (54) was elected by the Tunis municipal council to serve as the city's first female mayor.
(SFC, 7/4/18, p.A2)
2018 Jul 10, In Azerbaijan two high-ranking police officers were stabbed to death while confronting about 200 demonstrators gathered outside the local administration headquarters in the western city of Ganja. One suspect was arrested the next day. Azerbaijani media said the protest was over the arrest of a man accused of attacking Ganja's mayor, Elmar Veliyev.
(AP, 7/11/18)
2018 Jul 13, Azerbaijan police located a second suspect in this week's fatal stabbing of two senior police officials . He resisted arrest and was shot and killed.
(AP, 7/13/18)
2018 Aug 12, Azerbaijan, Iran, Kazakhstan, Russia and Turkmenistan agreed in principle how to divide up the potentially huge oil and gas resources of the Caspian Sea.
(Reuters, 8/12/18)
2018 Aug 13, A court in Azerbaijan freed human rights activist Ilgar Mammadov after he had served five years of a seven-year jail sentence. The European Court of Human Rights has described his sentence "an unjustified restriction of freedom".
(Reuters, 8/13/18)
2018 Oct 10, A British court lifted an order granting anonymity to Zamira Hajiyeva (55), the wife of former International Bank of Azerbaijan chairman Jahangir Hajiyev, who was sentenced to 15 years in jail in his home country in 2016 for fraud and embezzlement. A court has ordered her to explain where she got the money to also buy an 11.5 million pound ($15 million) London home close to Harrods and a golf course outside the city worth 10.5 million pounds ($14 million).
(AP, 10/10/18)
2018 Nov 8, Zamira Hajiyeva (55) was freed on bail by a British judge while she fights extradition to Azerbaijan over embezzlement allegations. She is also the subject of a separate investigation in her home country of Azerbaijan, where her husband, former International Bank of Azerbaijan Chairman Jahangir Hajiyev, was sentenced to 15 years in jail in 2016 for fraud and embezzlement.
(AP, 11/8/18)
2018 Nov 17, In Azerbaijan Ali Karimli, head of the Azeri opposition party Popular Front, was detained for leading an unsanctioned procession through Baku's Alley of Martyrs. 52 participants were detained by the police. 41 were soon released and 11 remained in detention.
(AP, 11/18/18)
2019 Feb 5, Baku renewed its contract to host the Azerbaijan Grand Prix through 2023, prolonging the stay of a circuit which initially struggled for acceptance in Formula One but has since become a fan favorite.
(AP, 2/5/19)
2019 Mar 2, Azeri opposition blogger Mehman Huseynov was released after serving two years in prison in a case condemned by human rights activists.
(AP, 3/2/19)
2019 May 22, Bulgaria and Greece launched the construction of a pipeline to transport Azeri gas to Bulgaria to ease its almost total dependence on Russian gas supplies. Prime Ministers Boyko Borissov and Alexis Tsipras, oversaw the formal start to construction of the 182-km (114 miles) link.
(AP, 5/22/19)
2019 Oct 19, Azerbaijan police detained scores of protesters, including the leader of the main opposition Popular Front, at the start of a planned rally against low salaries, corruption and a lack of democracy in the energy-rich ex-Soviet state. some 50 people, mostly organizers of today's unauthorized rally, had already been detained earlier in the week.
(Reuters, 10/19/19)
2019 Dec 6, Oil-rich Azerbaijan planted more than half a million trees to celebrate 14th century poet Seyid Imadeddin Nesimi, an initiative the government said would help tackle climate change but some environmental activists called "a waste of money." Elsewhere in the country, thousands of hectares of bushlands and forests were being cleared to make way for hazelnut plantations and farms.
(Reuters, 12/6/19)
2020 Feb 9, Azerbaijan voters chose a new parliament in an early election after a short and low-key campaign.
(AP, 2/9/20)
2020 Feb 16, Police in Azerbaijan detained three opposition party leaders and more than 100 activists before they were due to take part in a protest against the results of last week's national election, which have been questioned by international observers.
(Reuters, 2/16/20)
2020 Feb 28, The list of countries hit by the COVID-19 illness edged toward 60 as Azerbaijan, Belarus, Lithuania, Mexico, the Netherlands, New Zealand and Nigeria reported their first cases.
(AP, 2/28/20)
2020 Feb 29, Azerbaijan said it had closed its border with Iran for two weeks to prevent the spread of coronavirus, after the death toll in Iran rose to 43, the highest number outside of China.
(Reuters, 2/29/20)
2020 Mar 6, The US State Department raised its alert level for travel to Azerbaijan and Turkmenistan. Neither country has reported many cases but both border Iran, which has been hard hit by the coronavirus.
(Reuters, 3/6/20)
2020 Mar 12, Azerbaijan reported its first death from the coronavirus outbreak, an Azeri woman who was quarantined after returning from Iran.
(Reuters, 3/12/20)
2020 Apr 7, Azerbaijan's breakaway region of Nagorno-Karabakh confirmed its first case of the coronavirus.
(Reuters, 4/7/20)
2020 Apr 24, Azerbaijan has reported a total of 1,592 coronavirus cases and 21 deaths. It announced plans to lift virus-related restrictions from April 27.
(Reuters, 4/24/20)
2020 Jul 12, Armenia and Azerbaijan engaged in skirmishes on their volatile border that left four Azerbaijani soldiers dead and several troops wounded on both sides.
(AP, 7/13/20)
2020 Jul 14, Armenia and Azerbaijan forces fought with heavy artillery and drones, leaving at least 16 people killed on both sides, including an Azerbaijani general, in the worst outbreak of hostilities in years.
(AP, 7/14/20)
2020 Jul 16, Clashes resumed between Armenian and Azerbaijani forces on their shared border, with both sides blaming each other for attacks that continue the worst outbreak of hostilities in years. Azerbaijan said it has lost 11 servicemen and one civilian in three days of fighting. Armenia said four of its troops were killed on July 14.
(AP, 7/16/20)
2020 Jul 24, In Russia groups of Azerbaijanis beat up Armenians in Moscow early today and later assailed Armenian-owned stores. Azerbaijanis and Armenians have engaged in a series of fights and violent rampages in Moscow, venting their anger over recent cross-border clashes between the two ex-Soviet nations.
(AP, 7/25/20)
2020 Sep 27, Fighting erupted anew between Armenian and Azerbaijani forces over the disputed separatist region of Nagorno-Karabakh, within Azerbaijan, and a top territorial official said 16 people were killed and more than 100 wounded.
(AP, 9/27/20)
2020 Sep 28, Armenia and Azerbaijani forces continued fighting over the disputed separatist region of Nagorno-Karabakh after hostilities broke out the day before. According to Nagorno-Karabakh officials, 59 servicemen on their side have been killed so far.
(AP, 9/28/20)
2020 Sep 29, Armenia said one of its warplanes was shot down by a fighter jet from Azerbaijan’s ally Turkey, killing the pilot, in fighting over the separatist territory of Nagorno-Karabakh. Both Turkey and Azerbaijan denied it. The Nagorno-Karabakh Defense Ministry reported 84 servicemen killed, while Azerbaijan President Ilham Aliyev said 10 civilians were killed on its side.
(AP, 9/29/20)
2020 Oct 1, Armenia and Azerbaijan rejected calls for a ceasefire and accused each other of targeting civilians in Nagorno-Karabakh, as Russia and France repeated calls for peace talks amid the worst fighting in the breakaway region since the 1990s. Azerbaijan said 16 people killed following Armenian shelling of densely populated areas. Armenia has reported the deaths of 104 soldiers, alongside seven civilians killed and 31 wounded.
(The Telegraph, 10/1/20)
2020 Oct 2, Officials in Armenia said the country is ready to discuss a cease-fire in the separatist region of Nagorno-Karabakh, where heavy fighting between Armenian and Azerbaijani forces has continued for six straight days, killing dozens and leaving scores wounded.
(AP, 10/2/20)
2020 Oct 3, Heavy fighting between Armenia and Azerbaijan continued in their conflict over the separatist territory of Nagorno-Karabakh. Azerbaijan’s President Ilham Aliyev criticized the international mediators who have tried for decades to resolve the dispute.
(AP, 10/3/20)
2020 Oct 5, Armenia accused Azerbaijan of firing missiles into the capital of the separatist territory of Nagorno-Karabakh, while Azerbaijan said several of its towns and its second-largest city were attacked. Armenia and Azerbaijan fired large-caliber rockets, bombarding Stepanakert, the capital of Nagorno-Karabakh, an ethnic Armenian enclave. At least 250 people have died in the recent fighting, including dozens of civilians on both sides.
(AP, 10/5/20)(NY Times, 10/6/20)
2020 Oct 7, Armenian Defense Ministry spokesman Artsrun Ovannisian said that Stepanakert was being targeted once again by Azerbaijan along with other settlements. Nagorno-Karabakh officials said that non-military facilities in Stepanakert have been hit with missiles and drones.
(AP, 10/7/20)
2020 Oct 8, Armenia accused Azerbaijan of shelling a historic cathedral in the separatist territory of Nagorno-Karabakh, where nearly two weeks of heavy fighting has killed hundreds of people. According to the Nagorno-Karabakh military, 350 of its servicemen have been killed since Sept. 27. Azerbaijan hasn't provided details on its military losses.
(AP, 10/8/20)
2020 Oct 8, Russian President Vladimir Putin issued a statement calling for a break in the fighting between the Armenian and Azerbaijani forces that have raged for nearly two weeks over the region. Putin invited their foreign ministers to visit Moscow for peace talks.
(AFP, 10/8/20)(AP, 10/9/20)
2020 Oct 10, Armenia and Azerbaijan agreed early today to a Russia-brokered cease-fire in Nagorno-Karabakh starting at noon, after two weeks of heavy fighting that marked the worst outbreak of hostilities in the separatist region in more than a quarter-century. Shortly after the truce took force, the Armenian military accused Azerbaijan of shelling the area near the town of Kapan in southeastern Armenia, killing one civilian.
(AP, 10/10/20)(SFC, 10/10/20, p.A2)
2020 Oct 11, Azerbaijan accused Armenia of attacking large cities overnight in violation of the cease-fire deal brokered by Russia that seeks to end the worst outbreak of hostilities in the separatist Nagorno-Karabakh region. Nine civilians were reported killed and over 30 wounded after Armenian forces fired missiles overnight on Ganja.
(AP, 10/11/20)
2020 Oct 12, Armenia and Azerbaijan accused each other of attacks over the separatist territory of Nagorno-Karabakh despite a cease-fire deal brokered by Russia in an effort to end the worst outbreak of hostilities in the region in decades.
(AP, 10/12/20)
2020 Oct 13, Fighting between Armenian and Azerbaijani forces raged for a third week over the separatist territory of Nagorno-Karabakh, and the United States urged both sides to adhere to a cease-fire reached over the weekend. Nagorno-Karabakh military officials said 16 servicemen were killed, bringing the total number of dead among troops to 532 since Sept. 27, when the fighting flared up. Azerbaijani authorities said 42 civilians have been killed on their side since the start of the fighting.
(AP, 10/13/20)
2020 Oct 16, Azerbaijani authorities accused Armenia of expanding the conflict over Nagorno-Karabakh by shelling a different region in Azerbaijan, a claim rejected by Armenian officials. Armenia, in turn, charged that the Azerbaijani troops executed two Armenian war prisoners.
(AP, 10/16/20)
2020 Oct 17, Azerbaijan accused Armenia of striking its second-largest city with a ballistic missile that killed at least 13 civilians and wounded 50 others in a new escalation of their conflict over Nagorno-Karabakh. Azerbaijani officials said the Soviet-made Scud missile destroyed or damaged about 20 residential buildings in Ganja overnight. Pres. Ilham Aliyev announced that Azerbaijani forces have taken the town of Fizuli and seven villages around it.
(AP, 10/17/20)
2020 Oct 17, A new cease-fire agreement was announced between Armenia and Azerbaijan, effective at midnight, following Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov’s calls with his counterparts, in which he strongly urged them to abide by the Moscow deal.
(AP, 10/18/20)
2020 Oct 18, Armenia and Azerbaijan traded accusations of violating the new truce in their destructive conflict over the separatist region of Nagorno-Karabakh.
(AP, 10/18/20)
2020 Oct 20, Armenia and Azerbaijan reported more fighting over the separatist territory of Nagorno-Karabakh, where clashes have continued for over three weeks despite two attempts at establishing a cease-fire.
(AP, 10/20/20)
2020 Oct 21, Armenia's PM Nikol Pashinian said that Azerbaijan's aggressive stance in the 25-day fighting over Nagorno-Karabakh leaves no room for diplomacy, and urged citizens to sign up as military volunteers to protect their country. According to Nagorno-Karabakh officials, 834 of their troops have been killed, and more than 30 civilians. Azerbaijan hasn’t disclosed its military losses, but says 63 civilians have died and 292 have been wounded.
(AP, 10/21/20)
2020 Oct 21, It was reported that fighting between Armenia and Azerbaijan has diverted the scarce resources in the Nagorno-Karabakh region from containing the virus, which spread unchecked amid artillery fire and drone attacks that have people spending many hours in overcrowded bunkers, whether they are sick or healthy. Contact tracing has ground to a halt.
(AP, 10/21/20)
2020 Oct 22, Heavy fighting over Nagorno-Karabakh continued with Armenia and Azerbaijan trading blame for new attacks, hostilities that raised the threat of Turkey and Russia being drawn into the conflict.
(AP, 10/22/20)
2020 Oct 22, Russian President Vladimir Putin said that weeks of fighting over the mountainous Nagorno-Karabakh province had left close to 5,000 people dead as world leaders scrambled to broker a truce.
(AFP, 10/22/20)
2020 Oct 23, Heavy fighting raged over Nagorno-Karabakh even as top diplomats from Armenia and Azerbaijan visited Washington for negotiations on settling the neighboring countries' decades-long conflict.
(AP, 10/23/20)
2020 Oct 24, Rocket and artillery barrage hit residential areas in Nagorno-Karabakh on hours after the United States hosted top diplomats from Armenia and Azerbaijan for talks on settling their decades-long conflict over the region.
(AP, 10/24/20)
2020 Oct 26, Armenia and Azerbaijan accused each other of violating a third cease-fire announced the day before in a bid to halt the fighting over the separatist region of Nagorno-Karabakh that has killed hundreds, and possibly thousands, in just four weeks.
(AP, 10/26/20)
2020 Oct 27, Armenia and Azerbaijan exchanged more accusations of shelling, with fighting over the separatist territory of Nagorno-Karabakh in its fifth week and largely unhindered by a US-brokered cease-fire that was announced over the weekend.
(AP, 10/27/20)
2020 Oct 28, Deadly fighting between Armenian and Azerbaijani forces over the separatist region of Nagorno-Karabakh showed no signs of abating. According to Nagorno-Karabakh officials, 1,068 of their troops and 39 civilians have been killed in the clashes so far, while 122 civilians have been wounded. Azerbaijani authorities haven’t disclosed their military losses, but say the fighting has killed 69 civilians and wounded 322.
(AP, 10/28/20)
2020 Oct 29, Fighting over the separatist territory of Nagorno-Karabakh ground on for a fifth week as top diplomats from Armenia and Azerbaijan prepared for more talks on a peaceful settlement of the conflict.
(AP, 10/29/20)
2020 Oct 30, Azerbaijani forces pushed deeper into Nagorno-Karabakh as top diplomats from Armenia and Azerbaijan attended talks in Geneva intended to help broker an end to more than a month of heavy fighting over the separatist territory.
(AP, 10/30/20)
2020 Oct 31, Armenia’s PM Nikol Pashinian urged Russia to consider providing security assistance to end the fighting over Nagorno-Karabakh, the biggest escalation in the decades-long conflict between his country and Azerbaijan. The request came as Azerbaijani troops forged deeper into Nagorno-Karabakh and both sides accused each of breaking a mutual pledge not to target residential areas hours after it was made.
(AP, 10/31/20)
2020 Nov 1, Fighting over the separatist territory of Nagorno-Karabakh entered sixth week, with Armenian and Azerbaijani forces blaming each other for new attacks.
(AP, 11/1/20)
2020 Nov 3, Russia's top diplomat said that about 2,000 fighters from the Middle East have joined the fighting over Nagorno-Karabakh.
(AP, 11/3/20)
2020 Nov 6, At least three civilians were killed in the latest shelling of Nagorno-Karabakh cities as Azerbaijan pushed its offensive to reclaim control over the separatist territory for a sixth straight week.
(AP, 11/6/20)
2020 Nov 8, President Ilham Aliyev said Azerbaijani forces have taken control of the strategically key city of Shushi in Nagorno-Karabakh where fighting with Armenia has raged for more than a month.
(AP, 11/8/20)
2020 Nov 9, The spokesman for the president of the separatist government in Nagorno-Karabakh confirmed that Azerbaijani forces have taken control of Shushi, a strategically key city, and said they were nearing Stepanakert, the region’s capital. Armenia and Azerbaijan signed a Russian-brokered deal to end the war in the border region of Nagorno-Karabakh. The agreement calls for Armenia’s army to withdraw from the region and to be replaced by Russian peacekeepers, and gives Azerbaijan what it has sought for years in negotiations.
(AP, 11/9/20)(NY Times, 11/10/20)
2020 Nov 11, In Armenia thousands of people gathered in Yerevan to protest the country's agreement with Azerbaijan to halt weeks of fighting over Nagorno-Karabakh. The deal calls for the deployment of nearly 2,000 Russian peacekeepers and territorial concessions.
(AP, 11/11/20)
2020 Nov 14, In Azerbaijan kilometers-long (miles-long) columns of cars and trucks jammed the road to Armenia as residents fled Nagorno-Karabakh.
(AP, 11/14/20)
2020 Nov 15, Azerbaijan postponed taking control of a territory ceded by Armenian forces in a cease-fire agreement, but denounced civilians leaving the area for burning houses and committing what it called "ecological terror." Azerbaijan agreed to delay the takeover until Nov 25 after a request from Armenia.
(The Telegraph, 11/15/20)
2020 Nov 17, Turkey’s parliament granted President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s government permission to deploy peacekeepers to Azerbaijan to monitor a cease-fire deal between Azerbaijan and Armenia that aims to end the conflict in the region.
(AP, 11/17/20)
2020 Nov 20, Azerbaijani forces entered the war-ravaged ghost town of Aghdam, regaining a once-beloved city over a quarter of a century after being driven out by Armenian forces.
(AP, 11/20/20)
2020 Nov 20, Russia said it has sent troops to reinforce its border guards in Armenia and secure a peace settlement with Azerbaijan over Nagorno-Karabakh.
(Reuters, 11/20/20)
2020 Nov 25, Azerbaijan's President Ilham Aliyev vowed to rebuild and revive the Kalbajar region, the latest territory that Armenian forces have ceded in a truce that ended six weeks of intense fighting over Nagorno-Karabakh.
(AP, 11/25/20)
2020 Nov 28, In Azerbaijan four people were killed and one injured when their car triggered an anti-tank mine in a region that was reclaimed during recent fighting with Armenian forces.
(SSFC, 11/29/20, p.A4)
2020 Dec 3, Azerbaijan said it lost 2,783 soldiers in 44 days of fighting with Armenian forces over Nagorno-Karabakh. More than 100 were still missing. A day earlier Armenia's health ministry said that at least 2,718 Armenian servicemen were killed.
(SFC, 12/4/20, p.A4)
2020 Dec 10, In Azerbaijan More than 3,000 troops took part in a military parade to celebrate reclaiming control over broad swathes of Nagorno-Karabakh and surrounding lands in a conflict with Armenia.
(AP, 12/10/20)
2020 Dec 11, The Azerbaijani military reportedly launched an attack late today that left three local ethnic Armenian servicemen wounded in Nagorno-Karabakh.
(AP, 12/12/20)
Go to http://www.timelinesdb.com
Subject = Azerbaijan
End of file.
Return to home
Azerbaijani physicists: http://sunse.jinr.ru/~mehdiyev/azeri.html
Travel Docs: http://www.traveldocs.com/az/index.htm
USLC: http://www.loc.gov/item/94045459/
Azerbaijan is about the size of Maine.
(WSJ, 10/24/00, p.A12)
500-600 The monastic complex of David Gareja was founded in the 6th century by David (St. David Garejeli), one of the thirteen Assyrian monks who arrived in Georgia at the same time. His disciples Dodo and Luciane expanded the original lavra and founded two other monasteries known as Dodo's Rka (literally, "the horn of Dodo") and Natlismtsemeli ("the Baptist"). Part of the complex is also located in the Agstafa rayon of Azerbaijan and thus became subject to a border dispute between Georgian and Azerbaijani authorities.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Gareja_monastery_complex)
632-661 The Rashidun Caliphate, also known as the Rightly Guided Caliphate, comprising the first four caliphs in Islam's history, was founded after Muhammad's death. At its height, the Caliphate extended from the Arabian Peninsula, to the Levant, Caucasus and North Africa in the west, to the Iranian highlands and Central Asia in the east. It was the one of the largest empires in history up until that time.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rashidun_Caliphate)
730 Khazar commander Barjik led Khazar troops through the Darial Pass
to invade Azerbaijan. At the Battle of Ardabil, the Khazars defeated an entire Arab army. The Battle of Ardabil lasted three days, and resulted in the death of a major Arab general named Jarrah. The Khazars then conquered Azerbaijan and Armenia and northern Iraq for a brief time.
(TJOK, pages 160-161)
c1000 Turkic-speaking people wrote in Runic, the official script.
(WSJ, 10/24/00, p.A12)
1177 Lal Shahbaz Qalandar (d.1274) was born as Seyyed Shah Hussain Marandi in Marand (near the city of Tabriz) in Azerbaijan (at this time a part of Iran). He is also known as Shaikh Hussain Marandi. He migrated to Sindh and settled in Sehwan and was buried there. He was a Sufi in the regions that lie in the Sindh province of Pakistan.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shahbaz_Qalander)
1274 Lal Shahbaz Qalandar (b.1177), born as Seyyed Shah Hussain Marandi in Marand (near the city of Tabriz) in Azerbaijan (then part of Iran), died in Sindh (later part of Pakistan). He had migrated to Sindh and settled in Sehwan and was buried there. He is also known as Shaikh Hussain Marandi. He was a Shia Sufi in the regions that lie in the Sindh province of Pakistan.
{Azerbaijan, Pakistan, Sufi}
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shahbaz_Qalander)(Econ, 12/20/08, p.73)
1900 At the turn of the century 51% of the world’s oil came from Azerbaijan.
(SFC, 8/12/98, p.A10)
1918 May 28, Tatars declared Azerbaijan, in Russian Caucasus, independent.
(HN, 5/28/98)
1920 Apr 28, Azerbaijan joined the USSR. The Red Army invaded Azerbaijan and turned the country into a Soviet Republic.
(HN, 4/28/98)(CO, Grolier’s Amer. Acad. Enc./ Azerbaijan)
1921 The borders of Armenia were gerrymandered when the Caucasus territories were made part of the Soviet Union. This made the area of Nagorno-Karabakh, a mountainous enclave of mostly Armenians surrounded by Azerbaijan dependent on Moscow. The site of Ani, former capital of Armenia, was ceded to Turkey.
(SFC, 2/4/98, p.C2)(WSJ, 3/18/98, p.A18)(Econ, 6/17/06, p.59)
1923 May 10, Geidar Aliev (Heydar Aliyev, d.2003), later KGB general, Communist Party chief and Azerbaijan president, was born in Nakhichevan.
(AP, 12/12/03)(SFC, 12/13/03, p.A20)
1926 In Azerbaijan the region’s 1st Turkology Congress convened in Baku to discuss the alphabet issue. They chose the Latin alphabet for all Turkic-speaking peoples by a 101-7 vote.
(WSJ, 10/24/00, p.A12)
1927 Mar 27, Mstislav Leopold Rostropovich, cellist, conductor, was born in Baku, Azerbaijan, USSR.
(MC, 3/27/02)(Internet)
1936 Dec 5, Armenian SSR, Azerbaijan SSR, Georgian SSR, Kazakh SSR & Kirghiz SSR became constituent republics of Soviet Union.
(MC, 12/5/01)
1945 Nov, The Azerbaijan People's Government was established in northern Iran and continued to December 1946. The short-lived unrecognized secessionist state was established in Iranian Azerbaijan, with its capital in the city of Tabriz. Its establishment and demise were a part of the Iran crisis, which was a precursor to the Cold War.
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Azerbaijan_People%27s_Government)
1961 Dec 24, Ilham Geidar oglu Aliev, appointed PM in 2003, was born.
(AP, 8/16/03)
1975 The Bakkonditzioner air-conditioning manufacturer opened in Baku, Azerbaijan, USSR.
(WSJ, 8/30/96, p.A4)
1985 Nov 9, Gary Kasparov became the world chess champion. He was born in 1963 in Azerbaijan to an Armenian mother and a Jewish father.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Garry_Kasparov#Early_career)
1987 Aliyev resigned from the Soviet Politburo government.
(WSJ, 12/18/96, p.A21)
1988 Feb 28, Ethnic unrest broke out between Armenians and Azerbaijanis in the city of Sumgait. There was an anti-Armenian pogrom in the town of Sumgait. A national awakening occurred in Azerbaijan when conflict erupted over the Armenian enclave of Nagorno-Karabakh, included by the Soviets in the Republic of Azerbaijan. The Armenian population in Nagorno-Karabakh began fighting for independence.
(WSJ, 8/7/96, p.A15)(AP, 2/28/98)(SFC, 11/27/96, p.A13)(WSJ, 5/14/97, p.A22)
1988 May 21, The Soviet news agency Tass reported that the Communist Party leaders of Armenia and Azerbaijan had been dismissed after fresh outbreaks of ethnic tensions in the two southern Soviet republics.
(AP, 5/21/98)
1988 Jul 7, The European Parliament adopted a resolution condemning brutalities against Armenians in Nagorno-Karabakh.
(www.armeniaforeignministry.com/pr_04/040227sumgait.html)
1988 Jul 14, The Soviet press agency Tass reported that Azerbaijan has rejected an attempt by Nagorno-Karabakh, a predominantly Armenian enclave, to secede and join Armenia. Some 200,000 demonstrated in Soviet Armenia for the incorporation of Nagorno-Karabakh.
(http://tinyurl.com/n6dfc)
1988 Nov 24, A state of emergency was declared in the cities of Kirovabad and Nakhichevan.
(WSJ, 8/7/96, p.A15)
1990 Jan 15, Soviet leader Gorbachev and the Soviet Presidium declared a state of emergency in parts of Azerbaijan and Armenia in the wake of escalating ethnic violence.
(AP, 1/15/00)
1990 Jan 16, The Soviet Union sent more than 11,000 reinforcements to the Caucasus to halt a civil war between Armenians and Azerbaijanis.
(AP, 1/16/00)
1990 Jan 20, The Soviets attacked Baku, leaving dozens dead and wounded. Gen’l. Lebed led Russian forces in Baku to crush the nationalist Azeri Popular Front. 62 civilians were killed and more than 200 wounded when the Soviet army stormed into the city of Baku to end what Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev called fratricidal killing between Muslim Azerbaijanis and Christian Armenians.
(WSJ, 12/18/96, p.A21)(CO, Grolier’s Amer. Acad. Enc./ Azerbaijan)(WSJ, 8/7/96, p.A15)(AP, 1/20/00)
1990 Jan 21, Azerbaijan Pres. Aliyev made his first public appearance since his 1987 resignation from the Soviet Politburo. He broke the information blackout and urged int’l. condemnation of the Soviet attack. Mutinous military cadets fired on troops patrolling the capital during a crackdown on a nationalist uprising.
(WSJ, 12/18/96, p.A21)(AP, 1/21/00)
1990 Jan 22, Up to 2 million Azerbaijanis marched through the republic's capital to mourn those killed when Soviet troops put down a nationalist revolt.
(AP, 1/22/00)
1991 Aug 30, Azerbaijan declared its independence, joining the stampede of republics seeking to secede from the Soviet Union.
(AP, 8/29/01)
1991 Sep 21, Armenia gained independence and was immediately involved in a territorial dispute with Azerbaijan over the Nagorny Karabakh region.
(WSJ, 5/2/97, p.A15)(http://aua.am/history-of-the-university/)
1991 Dec, in Azerbaijan Ayaz Mutallibov was elected Communist Party boss and led the Caspian Sea nation as it gained independence in the Soviet collapse. He was ousted from office a few months later and fled to Russia.
(AP, 8/9/11)
1991 Sex selective abortions began increasing in the Caucasus region as ultrasound equipment became available from the West. By 2013 over 115 boys were born in Armenia and Azerbaijan for every 100 girls. In Georgia the ration was 120 to 100.
(Econ, 9/21/13, p.54)
1992 Feb 11, US Secretary of State James A. Baker III, on a tour of six former Soviet republics, visited Armenia, where he heard an appeal from the republic's president for U.S. help in resolving a bloody feud with neighboring Azerbaijan.
(AP, 2/11/02)
1992 Feb 14, The former Soviet republics of Ukraine, Moldova and Azerbaijan rejected a proposal for a unified army, sharply rebuffing Russian President Boris N. Yeltsin.
(AP, 2/14/02)
1992 Feb 26, According to Azerbaijani authorities 613 Azerbaijanis were killed when Armenian troops rushed into the village of Khodzhaly (Khojali).
(AP, 2/26/12)(Econ., 10/31/20, p.48)
1992 In Azerbaijan Abulfez Elchibey, a pro-Turkish nationalist, came to power. Ayaz Mutalibov was deposed amid economic turmoil and losses in a war with Armenia.
(WSJ, 7/21/98, p.A12)(SFC, 9/6/02, p.A16)
1992 The Azerbaijanis under a new nationalist government tried to reconquer Nagorno-Karabakh, but were soon repulsed.
(WSJ, 3/18/98, p.A18)
1992 Azerbaijan adopted a 34-character Latin alphabet based on Turkey’s script to replace the Russian style Cyrillic.
(WSJ, 10/24/00, p.A12)
1993 Jun 15, In Azerbaijan former Communist party chief Geidar Aliyev (1923-2003) became head of parliament. A fifth of Azerbaijan was controlled by Armenian insurgents when Abulfaz Elchibey was ousted from the presidency and replaced by former Communist party chief Geidar Aliyev. Under Aliyev Azerbaijan joined the Commonwealth of Independent States in Sept.
(CO, Grolier’s Amer. Acad. Enc./ Azerbaijan)
1993 Sep, Azerbaijan joined the Commonwealth of Independent States.
(CO, Grolier’s Amer. Acad. Enc./ Azerbaijan)
1993 Oct, Geidar Aliyev was elected president of Azerbaijan with 98.9% of the official vote. The main opposition Popular Front party boycotted the vote.
(SFC, 12/13/03, p.A20)
1994 May, A cease-fire was declared between Armenia and Azerbaijan. Azerbaijan Pres. Geidar Aliyev negotiated a cease-fire with Armenian forces in the conflict over Nagorno-Karabakh. More than 35,000 people had died in 6 years of fighting.
(WSJ, 5/14/97, p.A22)(WSJ, 3/18/98, p.A18)(SFC, 12/13/03, p.A20)
1994 British Petroleum (BP) acquired a 34% stake in the “Azeri, Chirag and Deepwater Gunashli" (ACG) oil project, a deal that became known as the contract of the century. This relaunched Baku, Azerbaijan, as a major oil town.
(Econ, 6/11/05, p.62)
1995 Oct, A subway train fire killed 300 and injured 270 in the capital, Baku.
(WSJ, 10/30/95, p.A-1)
1995 Ayaz Mutalibov allegedly orchestrated a failed coup attempt.
(SFC, 9/6/02, p.A16)
1996 Nov 26, Separatists in Nagorno-Karabakh elected their first president, Robert Kocharian, despite opposition from Azerbaijan.
(SFC, 11/27/96, p.A13)
1996 Dec, The Lisbon Summit of Organization of Security and Cooperation in Europe chose Azerbaijan’s argument for territorial integrity over Armenia’s argument for self-determination in Nagorno-Karabakh.
(WSJ, 3/18/98, p.A18)
1996 Elmar Huseinov founded the Monitor Magazine to expose the abuses of the regime of Pres. Heydar Aliyev.
(SFC, 4/26/99, p.A12)
1997 Sep 2, Ethnic Armenians in Nagorno-Karabakh elected Arkady Gukasian as president with an 89% vote. Azerbaijan called the vote invalid.
(SFC, 9/3/97, p.C3)
1997 Oct 2, A helicopter with 20 passengers crashed near an offshore oil platform and no survivors were found.
(SFC, 10/4/97, p.A10)
1997 Ayaz Mutalibov allegedly orchestrated another failed coup attempt.
(SFC, 9/6/02, p.A16)
1997 Former Soviet republics (Georgia, Ukraine, Uzbekistan, Azerbaijan and Moldova) formed Guuam to seek cooperation outside Russian influence.
(WSJ, 3/4/05, p.A13)
1997 Viktor Kozeny, a Czech businessman, purchased vouchers from Azeri citizens that were exchangeable for state-owned companies. He planned to exchange them for control of Socar, a state-owned oil company. The 40 cent vouchers were sold to investors in the US for $25 each. Kozeny was sued for fraud in 2000, but he asserted that the money went to Pres. Heydar Aliyev and his son Ilham Aliyev to make the deal work.
(WSJ, 9/7/00, p.A18)
1997 The Central Asia Regional Economic Cooperation (CAREC) Program was initiated. The 8-member group included Azerbaijan, Afghanistan, China, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Mongolia, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan.
(www.adb.org/CAREC/default.asp)
1998 Feb 26, Azerbaijan accused Armenia of launching fresh attacks over the disputed Nagorno-Karabakh.
(WSJ, 2/27/98, p.A1)
1998 Mar, The Azerbaijan prosecutor-general informed Eldar Zeynalov, director of the human rights center, that there were no political prisoners in Azerbaijan, in contradiction of Zeynalov’s published article that there were 750 political prisoners. Zeynalov was warned that if wrote otherwise, he would be thrown into jail.
(SFC, 3/20/98, p.A12)
1998 Jul 13, In Azerbaijan Suret Huseinov, a former prime minister, went on trial for treason.
(SFC, 8/13/98, p.A11)
1998 Sep 10, US wrestler Sam Henson took first place in the World Wrestling Championships in Iran. He defeated Namik Abdullavev of Azerbaijan. Iranians stood for the US anthem for the first time in 19 years.
(SFC, 9/11/98, p.D4)
1998 Oct 11, In Azerbaijan Pres. Heydar Aliyev (75) was re-elected for another 5 year term with 76% of the vote. His nearest rival, Etibar Mamedov, won 12%.
(SFC, 10/12/98, p.A12)(WSJ, 10/16/98, p.A1)
1998 Oct 29, Five nations endorsed the oil pipeline from the Caspian to the Mediterranean Sea. Turkey, Azerbaijan, Georgia, Kazakstan and Uzbekistan committed to the 1,080 mile conduit with a push from the US.
(SFC, 10/30/98, p.A14)
1998 Thomas Golz published “Azerbaijan Diary: A Rogue Reporter’s Adventures in an Oil-Rich, War-Torn, Post-Soviet Republic." It was about his experiences there during the 1991-1992 political changes.
(WSJ, 7/21/98, p.A12)
1998 Leaders of Nagorno-Karabakh, a territory in Azerbaijan populated mainly by ethnic Armenians, demanded a transfer from Soviet Azerbaijan to Soviet Armenia. The Kremlin refused and a war soon followed.
(Econ, 6/25/11, p.66)
1999 Jan 8, In Azerbaijan the first part of an oil pipeline across Georgia to the Black Sea was opened.
(SFC, 1/9/99, p.A14)
1999 Jan 31, It was reported that Vafa Gulkuzade, chief foreign affairs advisor, had asserted that the country needed a military protector. He said Turkish or American military bases would be welcomed.
(SFEC, 1/31/99, p.A20)
1999 Apr 1, An oil pipeline from Baku to the Georgian Black Sea port of Supsa was to begin operating.
(SFC, 10/27/98, p.B5)
1999 Jun 22, Azerbaijan planned to become a major exporter of gas following the discovery at the Shah Deniz offshore field that could contain as much as 700 billion cubic meters of natural gas.
(WSJ, 6/23/99, p.A23)
1999 Nov 17, Azerbaijan, Georgia, Turkey agreed to a US-backed plan for a Caspian oil pipeline from Baku to Ceyhan to be completed in 2004. The 1st shipment was made in 2006.
(SFC, 11/18/99, p.C6)(AFP, 6/4/06)
2000 Nov 5, Parliamentary elections were noted to be rife with fraud. Pres. Aliyev’s son was proposed as parliament speaker.
(WSJ, 11/6/00, p.A1)
2000 Nov 25, In Azerbaijan an earthquake hit Baku and at least 3 people were killed. 20 people died of heart attacks.
(SSFC, 11/26/00, p.D6)(WSJ, 11/27/00, p.A1)
2001 cApr 5, Presidents Robert Kocharian of Armenia and Heydar Aliyev of Azerbaijan met in Key West, Fla., for negotiations on Nagorno-Karabakh. A new $2.7 billion oil pipeline from Baku to Ceyhan, Turkey, was expected to pass just north of the area. Halliburton Co., was a finalist in engineering bids for the line and Vice President Chaney was the former chief executive of Halliburton. National Security Advisor Condoleeza Rice formerly served on the Board of Directors for Chevron, a player in the pipeline bid.
(SFC, 4/4/01, p.A10)
2001 Five men, supporters of Ayaz Mutalibov, were arrested for plotting to overthrow the government. In 2002 they were sentenced to prison terms of 5-10 years.
(SFC, 9/6/02, p.A16)
2002 May 22, Pope John Paul (82) arrived in Azerbaijan for a 2-day visit before continuing on to Bulgaria. He hope to improve relations with the Muslim and Christian Orthodox believers.
(WSJ, 5/22/02, p.A1)(SFC, 5/23/02, p.A1)
2002 Jun 9, Azerbaijan and Russia signed a bilateral accord on the oil-rich Caspian Sea.
(WSJ, 6/7/02, p.A8)
2002 Jun, Ahmed al-Darbi (26), an alleged Al-Qaida terrorist, was captured at the airport in Baku, Azerbaijan. In 2009 an affidavid was relased describing what followed. Several weeks after his capture he was taken blindfolded to the US base in Bagram, Afghanistan, through which many if not most of the Guantanamo detainees have passed. Al-Darbi was held for eight months at Bagram. For the first two weeks, he was kept in isolation when not being interrogated. Later he went through a litany of harsh tactics, including being kicked and dragged around a room by US troops while music blared in the background. At times, he was forced to kneel with his hands cuffed above his head through the night and repeatedly interrogated, often while hooded. He also describes a process in which he was hooded, shaken violently and subjected to water poured over his head.
(AP, 8/9/09)
2002 Aug 24, Azerbaijani voters overwhelmingly approved changes to the constitution in a referendum the opposition charged was marred by fraud.
(AP, 8/25/02)
2002 Nov 23, Azerbaijan Pres. Geidar Aliev said that he and Armenian Pres. Robert Kocharian have agreed to seek a peaceful settlement of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict.
(AP, 11/23/02)
2003 Aug 4, Azerbaijan's parliament named ailing President Geidar Aliev's son, Ilham Geidar oglu Aliev (b.1961), as PM.
(AP, 8/4/03)
2003 Oct 12, In Baku, Azerbaijan, some 50,000 people protested Pres. Aliev's attempt to transfer power to his son in upcoming elections.
(SFC, 10/13/03, p.A11)
2003 Oct 15, Azerbaijan held presidential elections.
(WSJ, 10/15/03, p.A1)
2003 Oct 16, In Azerbaijan rioting protesters clashed with police in the capital, Baku, after Ilham Aliev was elected to succeed his father as president. At least 2 people were reported killed. The vote was marred by fraud. Closest rival Isa Gambar had 11% of the vote.
(AP, 10/16/03)(SFC, 10/16/03, p.A3)(ST, 10/17/03, p.A14)
2003 Oct 31, Ilham Aliev was inaugurated as Azerbaijan's new president, succeeding his ailing father as leader of the oil-rich former Soviet republic.
(AP, 10/31/03)
2003 Dec 12, Former Azerbaijani Pres. Geidar Aliev (Heydar Aliyev, b.1923), a former KGB general and Communist Party chief who brought stability to a nation plagued by insurgencies, died at the Cleveland Clinic.
(AP, 12/12/03)(SFC, 12/13/03, p.A20)
2004 May 18, An Azerbaijani cargo plane crashed in a forest after taking off from an airport in China's northwest, killing its seven-member crew.
(AP, 5/18/04)
2004 Jun 2, The Azerbaijani Fuel and Energy Minister said that $3.4 billion would be invested by 2006 in the first phase of development of the Azeri-Chirag-Guneshli oil field.
(AP, 6/2/04)
2004 Jun 14, Azerbaijan Fatulla Huseynov (67), an opposition party leader known for his bold military exploits in the war over the Nagorno-Karabakh enclave, was shot and killed in Baku.
(AP, 6/14/04)
2004 Nov 6, In Baku, Azerbaijan, a gas explosion tore through a two-story apartment building, trapping residents under the debris. At least 4 people were killed.
(AP, 11/6/04)
2004 Transparency Int’l. ranked Azerbaijan 140th out of 146 countries in terms of corruption.
(Econ, 11/20/04, p.54)
2004 In Hungary Ramil Safarov of Azerbaijan killed fellow-student Gurgen Margarjan of Armenia while both men studied at a NATO English language course for military officers of non-member countries. Safarov was sentenced to life in prison, but was released to Azerbaijan on Aug 31, 2012.
(Economist, 9/8/12, p.51)
2005 Mar 2, In Azerbaijan Elmar Huseinov, founder and editor of the opposition magazine Monitor, was shot to death in the entryway of his Baku apartment building.
(AP, 3/3/05)
2005 May 21, Azerbaijani protesters demanding free elections were beaten back by police, who arrested dozens as they broke up a banned rally.
(AP, 5/21/05)
2005 May 25, In Azerbaijan officials opened the first section of a $3.6 billion, 1,100-mile pipeline that will carry Caspian Sea oil to Western markets. The presidents of Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Georgia and Turkey were on hand for the ceremony at the Sangachal oil terminal.
(AP, 5/25/05)(WSJ, 5/25/05, p.B2)
2005 Jun 4, Thousands of opposition protesters chanted "Freedom!" and carried pictures of President Bush as they marched across Azerbaijan's capital, urging the government of this U.S. ally to step down and allow free parliamentary elections this year.
(AP, 6/4/05)
2005 Jun 15, Armenia said Azerbaijan was stockpiling more arms than permitted by treaty.
(WSJ, 6/16/05, p.A1)
2005 Jun 18, In Azerbaijan thousands of demonstrators chanting "Freedom" and carrying portraits of President Bush marched across Baku, demanding the resignation of the government and free parliamentary elections.
(AP, 6/18/05)
2005 Sep 10, In Azerbaijan more than 2,000 orange-clad opposition members rallied in Baku, demanding that President Ilhan Aliev resign and that authorities ensure that parliamentary elections in November are free and fair.
(AP, 9/11/05)
2005 Sep 23, A US embassy official said the US is to help its Caspian Sea ally Azerbaijan build a radar station on its border with Iran and another near Russia.
(AP, 9/23/05)
2005 Oct 9, Riot police in Azerbaijan scattered hundreds of opposition supporters protesting in Baku in defiance of a ban, beating some with truncheons and dragging several away as tensions mounted ahead of parliamentary elections next month.
(AP, 10/9/05)
2005 Oct 17, An Azerbaijani opposition leader was arrested in Ukraine and scores of his supporters were detained by police. Tensions rose in Azerbaijan in the run-up to next month's parliamentary election.
(AP, 10/17/05)
2005 Oct 21, Authorities in Azerbaijan said a 2nd former government minister was arrested on charges of involvement in a coup plot against President Ilham Aliev, deepening political tensions ahead of next month's key parliamentary elections.
(AP, 10/21/05)
2005 Oct 25, Azerbaijan's President Ilham Aliyev ordered steps to ensure a November 6 parliamentary vote is fair after Washington voiced concern over a police crackdown in the oil-producing ex-Soviet state.
(AP, 10/25/05)
2005 Nov 4, In Azerbaijan thousands of government supporters rallied in Baku on the last day of campaigning for this weekend's parliamentary elections, while opponents kept out of sight to avoid confrontations with police.
(AP, 11/4/05)
2005 Nov 6, The head of Azerbaijan's ruling party declared victory in a parliamentary election, with 63 seats. Azerbaijan's president pledged parliamentary elections would be followed by further democratic reform, but his political opponents alleged there were voting violations that could taint the results.
(AP, 11/6/05)(Reuters, 11/6/05)(Econ, 11/12/05, p.55)
2005 Nov 7, Azerbaijan's opposition rejected the results of weekend parliamentary elections, calling them rigged and vowing to overturn the outcome of voting that foreign observers said fell short of international standards.
(AP, 11/7/05)
2005 Nov 8, Azerbaijan's election commission annulled the results of the weekend parliamentary vote in two districts and ordered a recount in another, while the ruling party claimed victory.
(AP, 11/8/05)
2005 Nov 9, Thousands of people rallied in Baku, Azerbaijan, to demand free elections, answering a call by the opposition movement following weekend parliamentary balloting that international observers said was flawed.
(AP, 11/9/05)
2005 Nov 9, In Azerbaijan Pres. Ilham Aliev fired two regional governors for interfering with the count from last weekend's parliamentary elections.
(AP, 11/10/05)
2005 Nov 13, Around 20,000 opposition supporters demonstrated on the outskirts of the Azeri capital Baku to demand that the government resign if it refuses to re-run parliamentary elections held a week ago.
(AP, 11/13/05)
2005 Nov 14, President Ilham Aliev fired a third regional governor for alleged interference in Azerbaijan's parliamentary elections, reacting sternly to Western charges of voting irregularities.
(AP, 11/14/05)
2005 Nov 19, Thousands of people gathered in a Baku square as Azerbaijan's opposition parties protested against disputed parliamentary elections, the latest rally in a campaign that has made little headway.
(AP, 11/19/05)
2005 Nov 26, In Azerbaijan truncheon-wielding police in riot gear beat opposition protesters who gathered in Baku shouting "Freedom!" and demanding a revote of disputed parliamentary elections.
(AP, 11/26/05)
2005 Dec 23, An Azerbaijani Airlines An-140 twin-engine turboprop crashed on the Caspian Sea coast and all 18 passengers and five crew were killed. Equipment failure was suspected.
(AP, 12/24/05)
2006 Jan 22, Georgia began receiving natural gas late in the day from Azerbaijan following explosions on pipelines in southern Russia that cut off delivery of gas to Georgia and its neighbor Armenia during a cold snap.
(AP, 1/23/06)
2006 Feb 10, The presidents of Armenia and Azerbaijan negotiated one-on-one on ways to end the 18-year conflict over the enclave of Nagorno-Karabakh, but reached no conclusion and planned more talks.
(AP, 2/10/06)
2006 Feb 10, Azerbaijan’s Health Ministry said a British laboratory had confirmed the H5N1 strain of bird flu in wild ducks and swans on its Absheron Peninsula. WHO said 88 people have died from bird flu since 2003.
(SFC, 2/11/06, p.A8)
2006 Feb 11, The presidents of Armenia and Azerbaijan failed to reach agreement after two days of talks on how to end the bloody conflict over the enclave of Nagorno-Karabakh.
(AP, 2/11/06)
2006 Mar 6-2006 Mar 7, Armenian and Azerbaijani forces exchanged heavy gunfire and mortars at several points along their border in the most serious fighting in months.
(AP, 3/7/06)
2006 Mar 14, The WHO said it believed test results showing three young women in Azerbaijan had died of bird flu were reliable, but it awaited final confirmation from a British laboratory.
(AP, 3/14/06)
2006 Mar 15, Officials in Azerbaijan said a dog had died of bird flu in Baku on Mar 9. 3 human victims, who died over the past few weeks, were thought to have been infected through contact with birds.
(AP, 3/15/06)
2006 Mar 21, The WHO said 5 people had died of bird flu in Azerbaijan, raising the worldwide death toll from the H5N1 strain to 103.
(SFC, 3/22/06, p.A4)
2006 May 23, Iran’s government closed one of the country's top three newspapers, detaining its editor and cartoonist for publishing a caricature that caused members of Iran's Azeri minority to riot in protest.
(AP, 5/23/06)
2006 May 28, A new $4 billion pipeline from Baku, via Georgia to Ceyhan, Turkey, began pumping oil.
(Econ, 6/3/06, p.48)
2006 Jun 3, The long-awaited first shipment of Caspian oil from the new Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan (BTC) pipeline got on its way from a Turkish port.
(AFP, 6/4/06)
2006 Jun 8, In Azerbaijan the Presidents Ilham Aliyev of Azerbaijan and Valdas Adamkus of Lithuania met in the presence of the two countries’ delegations following a one-on-one meeting.
(http://tinyurl.com/ffjol)
2006 Jun 14, Azerbaijan and Armenia promised to continue talks over Nagorno-Karabakh despite two failed efforts this year by the Caucasus nations' presidents to resolve the status of the disputed enclave.
(AP, 6/14/06)
2006 Jul 13, The presidents of Turkey, Azerbaijan and Georgia formally opened a pipeline designed to bypass Russia and bring Caspian oil to Europe, a route that President Bush said would bolster global energy security.
(AP, 7/13/06)
2006 Oct 25, Azerbaijan’s broadcasting chief said government authorities will bar Azerbaijan broadcasters from airing programs of the Voice of America, the BBC and Radio Liberty starting next year.
(AP, 10/25/06)
2006 Nov 10, Asian nations reached their first international agreement to implement what has been dubbed the "Iron Silk Road." Armenia, Azerbaijan, Cambodia, China, Indonesia, Iran, Kazakhstan, Laos, Russia, South Korea, Turkey and seven other nations agreed to meet at least every two years to identify vital rail routes, coordinate standards and financing and plan upgrades and expansions, among other measures. The UN first conceived the Trans-Asian Railway Network in 1960.
(AP, 11/10/06)
2006 Nov 24, Authorities cut off broadcasts from Azerbaijan's first independent TV station and ordered the eviction of opposition newspapers and organizations from their offices in the capital, moves government opponents called part of a campaign to silence dissent.
(AP, 11/24/06)
2006 Dec 11, In Azerbaijan authorities said they would allow a top independent TV station back on the air, but warned that it would have to bid for a broadcasting license next year.
(AP, 12/11/06)
2007 Feb 10, Azerbaijan’s population, at about 8 million, was mostly Shia Muslim.
(Econ, 2/10/07, p.49)
2007 Mar 19, In Azerbaijan 2 journalists accused of inciting religious hatred with an article that criticized Islam went on trial, both accusing authorities of waging a politically motivated prosecution.
(AP, 3/19/07)
2007 Apr, in Azerbaijan journalist Eynulla Fatullayev was imprisoned. He was soon sentenced to 8-1/2 years in jail on charges of terrorism, incitement of ethnic hatred and tax evasion. In December 2009 new charges of illegal possession of drugs were brought against him.
(Reuters, 6/3/10)
2007 May 4, Two Azerbaijani journalists were convicted and sentenced to prison for inciting hatred with an article criticizing Islam.
(AP, 5/4/07)
2007 Jun 7, Russian President Vladimir Putin, bitterly opposed to a US missile shield in Europe, told President Bush that Moscow would drop its objections if the radar-based system were installed in Azerbaijan.
(AP, 6/7/07)
2007 Jun 8, Foreign Minister Elmar Mammadyarov said that Azerbaijan is ready to consider proposed joint US-Russian use of a radar facility in the country as part of a missile defense system.
(AP, 6/8/07)
2007 Jun 17, Iran said it had received indications from Russia's president that he would not follow through with an offer to allow the US to use a radar station in neighboring Azerbaijan for missile defense against Tehran.
(AP, 6/17/07)
2007 Jun 19, Georgia border agents blocked a car trying to smuggle radioactive plutonium and beryllium from Azerbaijan.
(WSJ, 6/20/07, p.A1)
2007 Jul 19, The Armenian-controlled breakaway region of Nagorno-Karabakh held a presidential election amid a rumbling dispute with Azerbaijan over the mountainous enclave's unrecognized independence.
(AP, 7/19/07)
2007 Jul 20, An election committee said Bako Saakian, Nagorno-Karabakh's former security chief, won the presidency of the Armenian-controlled breakaway region with 85% of the vote.
(AP, 7/20/07)
2007 Aug 28, In Azerbaijan a 16-story high-rise under construction in Baku collapsed killing at least 12 people and leaving others trapped in the rubble. The head of the construction company and another company executive were arrested. They began construction of the building in 2002 without authorization.
(SFC, 8/29/07, p.A3)(AP, 8/31/07)
2007 Sep 4, A skirmish near the disputed territory of Nagorno-Karabakh killed two Azerbaijani soldiers and three Armenian troops.
(AP, 9/5/07)
2007 Sep 7, Bako Saakian, the former security chief of Nagorno-Karabakh, was sworn as the new president of the Armenian-controlled breakaway region.
(AP, 9/7/07)
2007 Oct 10, Ministers from Azerbaijan, Georgia, Lithuania, Poland and Ukraine signed a deal to build an oil pipeline linking the Black and Baltic seas.
(WSJ, 10/11/07, p.A18)
2007 Oct 29, In Azerbaijan the US and British embassies suspended operations in Baku, where the government said it thwarted a radical Islamic group's plot to conduct a "large-scale horrifying terror attack" against diplomatic missions and government buildings. One suspect was killed and several others were detained in a weekend sweep in village outside the capital.
(AP, 10/29/07)
2007 Oct 30, An Azerbaijani newspaper editor was sentenced to 8 1/2 years in prison over an article alleging that the former Soviet republic could support a US attack on neighboring Iran. The Court for Grave Crimes convicted Eynulla Fatullayev, the founder and editor of two independent newspapers that stopped publication this spring amid government pressure, on charges of making a terrorist threat and inciting interethnic conflict.
(AP, 10/30/07)
2007 Nov 21, The presidents of Azerbaijan, Georgia and Turkey launched the construction of a railroad that will link ex-Soviet republics in the Caucasus and Central Asia with Europe, bypassing Russia.
(AP, 11/21/07)
2007 Dec 28, Azerbaijan's president issued a decree granting amnesty to 119 prison inmates, including several journalists whose convictions drew protests from international rights groups.
(AP, 12/28/07)
2008 Mar 4, Ethnic Armenian and Azerbaijani forces exchanged fire for hours near the disputed territory of Nagorno-Karabakh. Azerbaijan warned it could try to reclaim the disputed region. Soldiers were killed and wounded on both sides. Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty said in a statement that its two Armenian affiliates halted the broadcasts to comply with an emergency decree that allows media to only report news that is sanctioned by the government.
(AP, 3/5/08)(WSJ, 3/5/08, p.A1)
2008 Mar 14, The UN General Assembly adopted a resolution demanding the "immediate, complete and unconditional" withdrawal of all Armenian forces from Azerbaijan's territory in a vote in which more than 100 countries abstained.
(AFP, 3/15/08)
2008 Mar 15, Azerbaijan warned it would review relations with France, Russia and the US after they voted against a UN resolution calling on Armenia to pull out of Azerbaijani territory.
(AFP, 3/15/08)
2008 March 29, Azerbaijan customs halted a shipment of Russian equipment for Iran’s first nuclear power plant. The equipment was released May 1.
(WSJ, 5/2/08, p.A8)
2008 Sep 3, US Vice President Dick Cheney assured Azerbaijan of America's "abiding interest" in the region's stability. It was the first stop on a tour of three ex-Soviet republics that are wary of Russia's intentions after its war with Georgia last month.
(AP, 9/4/08)
2008 Oct 15, Authorities in Azerbaijan said turnout was high in a presidential election boycotted by the opposition and almost certain to return Ilham Aliyev for a second term in the oil-producing state. President Ilham Aliyev had 89% of the vote with 70% of precincts reporting.
(AP, 10/15/08)(AP, 10/16/08)
2008 Oct 25, Muslim Magomayev (66), an Azeri-born Soviet-era opera and pop singer, died in Moscow. His fame was at its peak in the 1960s and 70s.
(AP, 10/25/08)
2008 Nov 2, The leaders of Armenia and Azerbaijan agreed to intensify talks to end a 20-year conflict over the disputed territory of Nagorno-Karabakh.
(AP, 11/2/08)
2008 Nov 14, Azerbaijan lawmakers voted 86-1 to back President Ilham Aliev's request to withdraw the 150 troops serving as part of the US-led coalition in Iraq.
(AP, 11/14/08)
2008 Dec 26, Azerbaijan's parliament voted to hold a referendum next year on constitutional changes that could allow incumbent President Ilham Aliyev to stay in power when his current mandate runs out.
(AFP, 12/26/08)
2009 Jan 20, The head of US Central Command said the US has struck deals with Russia and neighboring countries allowing it to transport supplies to American troops in Afghanistan through their territory. US officials have said that one likely route is overland from Russia through Kazakhstan and on through Uzbekistan using trucks and trains. Another possible route is via Azerbaijan across the Caspian Sea to the Kazakh port of Aktau and then through Uzbekistan.
(AP, 1/20/09)
2009 Feb 11, In Azerbaijan a gunman fatally shot air force chief Lt. Gen. Rail Rzayev (63) outside his home. He had represented Azerbaijan in talks with Russia and the US on Moscow's 2007 proposal to make a Soviet-built radar station in Azerbaijan.
(AP, 2/11/09)
2009 Mar 18, Azerbaijan citizens overwhelmingly voted to scrap presidential term limits in the oil-rich country courted by Russia and the West. Opposition leaders claimed the constitutional referendum was rigged and vowed to dispute the outcome in court. A small European observer mission said, however, that the vote was transparent and it had seen no violations.
(AP, 3/19/09)
2009 Apr 30, In Azerbaijan Georgian citizen Farda Gadyrov (20) opened fire at the prestigious oil industry academy in Baku, killing 12 people and wounding 13 before turning the gun on himself.
(Reuters, 4/30/09)(AP, 5/1/09)
2009 May 7, The European Union extended its hand to former Soviet republics, holding a summit to draw them closer into the EU orbit despite Russia's deep misgivings. Presidents, premiers and their deputies from 33 nations signed an agreement meant to extend the EU's political and economic ties. The six ex-Soviet republics to whom the “eastern partnership" would apply are Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Georgia, Moldova and Ukraine.
(AP, 5/7/09)(Econ, 1/10/15, p.49)
2009 Jul 8, Azerbaijan police arrested Adnan Hadzhizade, a video blogger and member of the "OL!" opposition movement, and Emin Milli, a youth activist who also runs an Internet TV program, after a fight in a Baku cafe with two unknown men. Both were charged with hooliganism. A Baku court decision soon ordered two months of pretrial detention for Milli and Hadzhizade, which prompted criticism from international journalism advocates.
(AP, 7/14/09)
2009 Jul 31, UN human rights experts asked Azerbaijan to stop curbing free speech and to protect journalists from harassment, violence and even murder.
(Reuters, 7/31/09)
2010 Feb 12 In Azerbaijan lawmakers revised the country’s media laws to forbid journalists from filming, recording or photographing subjects without their permission.
(SSFC, 2/14/10, p.A4)
2010 Mar 27, Iran used an ancient new year celebration to reach out to Afghanistan, Azerbaijan, Iraq, Turkmenistan, Tajikistan, and Turkey at a summit meeting that projected Iranian leadership in the strategic region straddling the Middle East and Central Asia.
(AP, 3/27/10)
2010 Jun 3, In Azerbaijan journalist Eynulla Fatullayev, jailed since 2007, went on a hunger strike demanding his release after Europe's top human rights court in April ruled that his imprisonment was illegal.
(Reuters, 6/3/10)
2010 Jun 6, US Defense Secretary Robert Gates hand delivered a letter from Pres. Obama to Azerbaijan’s President Ilham Aliyev during a meeting to improve relations with the former Soviet republic that helps move supplies and soldiers to the US-led war in landlocked Afghanistan.
(AP, 6/7/10)
2010 Jun 7, Turkey and Azerbaijan signed a long-awaited deal on the transit of gas to Europe seen as crucial to plans to reduce the continent's dependence on Russian gas.
(AFP, 6/7/10)
2010 Jun 18-2010 Jun 19, A firefight between Armenia and Azerbaijan left 5 people dead in northern Karabakh.
(Econ, 7/10/10, p.54)(www.eurasianet.org/node/61373)
2010 Nov 7, Azerbaijan voted in parliamentary elections set to cement President Ilham Aliyev's grip on power but condemned by the opposition as a charade whose results have already been decided. Nearly 700 candidates competed for the 125 seats in the single chamber of the parliament. Azerbaijan's ruling party won a landslide victory. The next day international vote monitors said that ballot box stuffing and an uneven playing field for candidates marred Azerbaijan's parliamentary elections.
(AFP, 11/7/10)(AP, 11/8/10)
2010 Nov 16, The UN Education, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) recognized everything from the growing of corn, beans and chilies to Mexican dishes prepared with grinding stones and mortars as an ancient process worth safeguarding in the face of encroaching global influences. France's multi-course gastronomic meal, Flamenco in Spain and carpet-weaving in Azerbaijan also made the list.
(AP, 11/17/10)
2010 Thomas de Waal authored “The Caucasus: An Introduction."
(Econ, 10/23/10, p.102)
2011 Feb 20, In Azerbaijan 7 teenage soldiers were killed at a military base in the west of the country. Local media saying a soldier went on a rampage before turning the gun on himself.
(AP, 2/21/11)
2011 Apr 2, Azerbaijan police arrested dozens of protesters who rallied for democratic reforms in the authoritarian republic. Human rights activist Vivadi Iskenderov was among those arrested in Baku. In August he was sentenced to three years in prison for interfering in parliamentary elections. He told the court that he is being persecuted for reporting vote rigging in Azerbaijan's 2010 parliamentary election.
(AP, 4/2/11)(AP, 8/27/11)
2011 Jun 24, The presidents of Armenia and Azerbaijan failed to approve a set of basic principles for a peaceful settlement to their long-standing dispute over the breakaway territory of Nagorno-Karabakh, despite US and Russian efforts to mediate the conflict in the strategic Caucasus region.
(AP, 6/24/11)
2011 Jul 6, In Afghanistan an Azerbaijani cargo plane carrying supplies for the Afghan NATO mission crashed into treacherous mountains killing all nine crew on board outside Kabul. The nine crew were from Azerbaijan and Uzbekistan. The plane was operated by private Azerbaijani airline Silk Way.
(AFP, 7/6/11)
2011 Sep 3, In Tajikistan leaders from eight former Soviet states (Armenia, Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Russia, Tajikistan, Ukraine and Uzbekistan) gathered to celebrate enduring cooperation over the two decades since their nations collectively gained independence, but mutual acrimony and recriminations cast a shadow over the event.
(AP, 9/3/11)
2011 Sep 23, The tarnished image of Olympic boxing faced fresh scrutiny over allegations that multi-million dollar bribes were paid to ensure fighters from Azerbaijan won gold medals at the 2012 Games in London. The championships were moved to the Azeri capital after being originally awarded to the South Korean port city of Busan.
(AP, 9/23/11)
2011 Nov 19, Azeri snipers fired into the disputed breakaway enclave of Nagorno-Karabakh killing one Armenian soldier. A 2nd soldier was killed the next day.
(AP, 11/21/11)
2011 Nov 21, Armenia said it will retaliate for the weekend killings of two ethnic Armenian soldiers by Azeri snipers who fired into a disputed breakaway enclave.
(AP, 11/21/11)
2011 Nov 23, Rafiq Tagi, a prominent Azeri journalist, died in Baku four days after he was stabbed six times by an unknown assailant. Tagi claimed the attack was retaliation for his opinion piece published earlier this month that criticized the government of neighboring Iran.
(AP, 11/23/11)
2012 Jan 25, Azerbaijan officials said 2 men have been arrested in a plot to assassinate Israeli targets in Baku. Local mercenaries, suspected of being recruited by a well-known gangster with ties to Iran, were arrested. Azerbaijani media later said that two Iranian Quds Force members were arrested. In addition, around 20 people, mostly from the same family, were arrested in connection with the planned attacks, in a village on the outskirts of Baku.
(http://tinyurl.com/6rqkkdc)(www.alarabiya.net/articles/2012/01/26/190617.html)(SFC, 2/22/12, p.A5)
2012 Mar 14, The Azerbaijan national security ministry said it has arrested 22 Azeri citizens on suspicion of plotting attacks on the US and Israeli embassies in Baku on behalf of neighboring Iran.
(AP, 3/14/12)
2012 Apr 6, Azerbaijan said members of a suspected terrorist group have been arrested. One security officer was shot and killed and three others were wounded in a skirmish during the arrests, and one suspect was also killed. Officials later said the group had links to al-Qaida and some trained in neighboring Iran.
(AP, 4/19/12)
2012 May 26, In Azerbaijan Loreen of Sweden piled up 372 points with her uplifting dance track "Euphoria" at the Eurovision Song Contest in Baku. An audience of some 20,000 were inside the venue viewed by 100 million on television.
(AFP, 5/27/12)
2012 Jun 4, Three Armenian soldiers were killed in clashes along its border with Azerbaijan.
(SFC, 6/6/12, p.A4)
2012 Jun 5, Five Azerbaijan soldiers were killed near Gazakh in clashes along its border with Armenia. Each nation blamed the other for the violence.
(SFC, 6/6/12, p.A4)
2012 Jun 22, The president of Azerbaijan pardoned 66 convicts, including nine youth activists arrested during a wave of anti-government protests last year inspired by the Arab Spring.
(AP, 6/22/12)
2012 Aug 31, Armenia broke off diplomatic ties with Hungary after an Azerbaijani military officer sentenced to life in prison here for killing an Armenian officer was sent back to his homeland and, despite assurances, immediately pardoned and freed. Lt. Ramil Safarov (35) was given a life sentence in 2006 by the Budapest City Court after he confessed to killing Lt. Gurgen Markarian of Armenia while both were in Hungary for a 2004 NATO language course.
(AP, 9/1/12)
2012 Oct 2, Azerbaijan's ambassador defended a multimillion-dollar renovation of Mexican parks and a monument to late president Geidar Aliyev (d.2003). Azerbaijan had contributed much of the 65 million pesos ($5 million) it cost to renovate not one, but two Mexico City parks, allowing it to put monuments in both. Critics said that Aliyev, who stifled dissent, shouldn't be on a boulevard decorated with statues to Mexican and foreign heroes. In 2013 Mexico City Mayor Miguel Angel Mancera said the statue of Aliyev will be removed from the capital’s main avenue.
(AP, 10/2/12)(SFC, 1/23/13, p.A2)
2012 Oct 15, Azerbaijan's top energy official urged further scrutiny of the international consortium developing the Caspian Sea nation's main oil field amid mounting irritation at a slump in output.
(AP, 10/15/12)
2013 Jan 19, In Azerbaijan market traders blocked a highway 50 km (30 miles) outside Baku and clashed with riot police in a spontaneous protest over increased rent for their stalls.
(AP, 1/24/13)
2013 Jan 24, In Azerbaijan hundreds of angry demonstrators in Ismayilli, some 175 km (110 miles) from the capital, Baku, surrounded a regional government building demanding the governor's resignation after a night of rioting in which a hotel and several cars were torched.
(AP, 1/24/13)
2013 Jan 26, Mexico City authorities removed a much-disputed statue of Geidar Aliyev, the late leader of Azerbaijan.
(SSFC, 1/27/13, p.A4)
2013 Mar 12, In Azerbaijan a court Baku found Avaz Zeynalli, editor of the Khural newspaper, guilty of bribery, extortion, contempt of court and tax evasion. Supporters and rights group dismissed the trial as politically motivated. Charges against the editor were brought following complaints by a deputy in the ruling New Azerbaijan Party. That deputy is now under arrest and suspected of extorting $1 million from a university rector.
(AP, 3/12/13)
2013 Jun 28, BP, at an official ceremony in Baku, Azerbaijan, confirmed that a new pipeline to bring gas to Europe from the Caspian Sea will go through Greece and then under the sea to Italy, a defeat for a rival project to bring gas through Bulgaria and into Austria.
(AP, 6/28/13)
2013 Oct 9, Azerbaijan held elections. An exit poll showed President Ilham Aliyev (51) was on track to easily win a third term with 84% of the vote in the oil-exporting ex-Soviet republic. His main opponent said the election was marred by violations. Official results the next day showed Aliyev winning nearly 85% of the vote.
(Reuters, 10/9/13)(AP, 10/10/13)
2013 Oct 12, In Azerbaijan thousands gathered in Baku to protest the re-election of President Ilham Aliyev in a vote widely criticized by international election monitors.
(AP, 10/12/13)
2013 In Azerbaijan Ilgar Mammadov, the leader of a rights group called Republican Alternative (ReAl), was convicted and sentenced to seven years in jail for organizing and taking part in demonstrations in the northern town of Ismailli against a provincial leader. He was released in 2018.
(Reuters, 8/13/18)
2014 Jan 22, Azerbaijan said it had repelled a cross-border raid by Armenian forces in the latest outbreak of violence over the disputed Nagorny Karabakh region.
(AFP, 1/22/14)
2014 Apr 9, Iran and Azerbaijan signed deals to build a hydroelectric plant and boost environmental and athletic cooperation as Azerbaijan's President Ilham Aliyev visited Iran.
(AP, 4/9/14)
2014 Apr 28, Azerbaijan police detained Leyla Yunus, a prominent rights defender, as well as her husband Arif Yunus.
(Econ, 8/22/15, p.44)
2014 May 14, Azerbaijan took over as chairman of the Committee of Ministers, the Council of Europe’s decision-making body which brings together the member states' foreign ministers.
(AP, 5/23/14)
2014 May 15, An Azerbaijan opposition journalist Parviz Gashimly was sentenced on to eight years in prison in a case critics say highlights a government-led crackdown on dissent in the oil-rich former Soviet republic. He was arrested last September after police raided his apartment and reported finding firearms.
(Reuters, 5/15/14)
2014 May 23, Europe's main human rights and democracy forum accused Azerbaijan of intimidating and repressing its critics.
(Reuters, 5/23/14)
2014 Aug 1, In Azerbaijan at least 10 people were killed in skirmishes between Azeri government forces and ethnic Armenian separatists controlling the breakaway Nagorno-Karabakh enclave of Azerbaijan.
(Reuters, 8/1/14)
2014 Aug 2, In Azerbaijan 5 more soldiers were killed in overnight skirmishes between Azeri government forces and ethnic Armenian separatists controlling the breakaway Nagorno-Karabakh enclave.
(AP, 8/2/14)
2014 Aug 4, Azerbaijan and Armenia both reported more losses in a sharp escalation of fighting over the South Caucasus region Nagorno-Karabakh, with 18 soldiers now confirmed dead.
(AP, 8/4/14)
2014 Aug 9, Russian President Vladimir Putin began talks with the leaders of arch-foes Armenia and Azerbaijan after recent clashes that have left 22 soldiers dead and fuelled fears that one of the bloodiest post-Soviet wars is restarting.
(AFP, 8/9/14)
2014 Sep 17, A UN human rights team looking into complaints of torture in Azerbaijan said it had cut short its investigations because it had been stopped from visiting some government detention centers.
(Reuters, 9/17/14)
2014 Nov 11, The armed forces of Azerbaijan shot down and destroyed an Armenian military helicopter in the Nagorno-Karabakh region. Azerbaijan said its forces shot down the Russian-made Mi-24 helicopter gunship after it tried to attack its positions.
(AP, 11/12/14)
2014 Nov 22, The Armenian enclave of Nagorno-Karabakh said its forces killed two Azerbaijani soldiers in an overnight operation to recover the bodies of three helicopter crew members whose craft was shot down by Azerbaijan on Nov 11.
(AP, 11/22/14)
2014 Dec 26, Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty quoted the director of its Azerbaijani service saying that the office has been locked down since early today by prosecutors and armed police.
(AP, 12/26/14)
2014 Dec 29, Azerbaijan President Ilham Aliev signed an amnesty that will free 87 inmates in the ex-Soviet nation.
(AP, 12/29/14)
2014 Dec, Azerbaijan jailed investigative journalist Khadiya Ismayilova. She worked for Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty and investigated corruption allegedly involving President Ilham Aliyev.
(SFC, 8/8/15, p.A2)
2015 Jan 3, In Azerbaijan the Armenian defense ministry of the separatist Nagorno-Karabakh region said two of its soldiers were killed while repelling Azerbaijani infiltrators.
(AP, 1/3/15)
2015 Jan 20, The Armenian defense ministry of the separatist Nagorno-Karabakh region said one of its soldiers has been killed while repelling an Azerbaijani incursion over the last 24 hours.
(AP, 1/20/15)
2015 Jan 29, Azerbaijan sentenced opposition journalist Seymur Hazi to five years in prison. He was originally jailed last August after being convicted on charges of hooliganism.
(Reuters, 1/29/15)
2015 Jan, At least 12 people were reported killed and 18 wounded this month in border clashes between Armenia and Azerbaijan.
(AFP, 3/4/15)
2015 May 19, In Azerbaijan a massive fire quickly engulfed 16-story apartment building in Baku killing 16 people.
(AP, 5/19/15)
2015 Jun 10, Amnesty Int’l. said Azerbaijan has blocked a visit at which it planned to highlight human rights abuses in the south Caucasian republic. Azerbaijan prepared to open the inaugural European Games on June 12. The OSCE said Azerbaijan has ordered it to close its Baku office ahead of the European Games.
(Reuters, 6/10/15)(AFP, 6/10/15)
2015 Jun 12, The European Games opened in Azerbaijan.
(AFP, 6/13/15)
2015 Jun 12, Journalist Emin Huseynov flew out of Azerbaijan on the plane of Swiss diplomat Didier Burkhalter (35). The opposition journalist had been sheltering for 10 months at the Swiss embassy in Baku.
(AFP, 6/13/15)
2015 Jun 13, In Azerbaijan Russian President Vladimir Putin met Turkish counterpart Recep Tayyip Erdogan for talks expected to touch on energy issues and the Syria crisis. They met a day after attending the opening ceremony of the inaugural European Games, hosted by Azerbaijan.
(AFP, 6/13/15)
2015 Jun 26, Azerbaijani troops killed an Armenian soldier in the latest border clash between the arch-foes who are locked in a longstanding conflict over the disputed Nagorny Karabakh region.
(AFP, 6/27/15)
2015 Jun 28, In Azerbaijan the European Games came to a close. Russia sent its top athletes to the games as a warm-up for next year's Olympics and was rewarded by winning almost four times as many gold medals as its closest rival.
(AP, 6/28/15)
2015 Jul 3, The Trans-Adriatic Pipeline project, or TAP, said it has started investing in Albania's infrastructure to prepare for starting construction of the pipeline next year. The 870 km (540 miles) pipeline from the Shah Deniz II field in Azerbaijan will cross Turkey, Greece and Albania and undersea to Italy, and deliver Caspian gas to Europe in early 2020.
(AP, 7/3/15)
2015 Jul 24, Khadija Ismayilova (39), a top Azerbaijani investigative journalist and anti-graft campaigner, went on trial on charges she denounced as politically motivated. She has accused the country's president of corruption and was charged with inciting a former colleague to commit suicide, tax evasion and embezzlement.
(AFP, 7/24/15)
2015 Jul 24, Armenian army units reportedly shelled Azerbaijani positions at the Karabakh frontline and the Azerbaijani-Armenian state border. One Azeri serviceman was killed in the crossfire. Armenia denied that it had sustained any casualties and accused Azerbaijan of violating a 1994 ceasefire.
(AFP, 7/25/15)
2015 Aug 13, In Azerbaijan a court in Baku sentenced Leyla Yunus, a prominent rights defender, to 8½ years in prison on charges of fraud, tax evasion and illegal business activities. Her husband Arif Yunus was given a 7-year sentence on fraud charges, and the court also confiscated the couple's assets.
(AP, 8/13/15)
2015 Aug 22, Azerbaijan police detained 21 people after they held a protest to demand justice for a man who died in police custody in the western town of Mingachevir. The Interior Ministry said Bahruz Hajiyev (27) had "unexpectedly jumped out of a third-floor window during questioning" on Aug 20 and died of his injuries.
(AP, 8/22/15)
2015 Aug 22, Clashes erupted between troops from Azerbaijan and the breakaway Nagorno-Karabakh region. 5 Armenian soldiers were killed and eight wounded.
(Reuters, 8/24/15)
2015 Sep 1, Azerbaijan sentenced award-winning investigative journalist and anti-graft campaigner Khadija Ismayilova (39) to seven and a half years in jail on corruption charges. Ismayilova has denounced her prosecution as politically motivated and an attempt to stop her critical reporting. Freedom House says there are now more than 80 political prisoners in Azerbaijan.
(AFP, 9/1/15)
2015 Sep 26, Azerbaijan said one soldier was killed over the past day by Armenian artillery, and the Nagorno-Karabakh defense ministry said four of its fighters died from an Azerbaijan barrage.
(AP, 9/26/15)
2015 Oct 20, Azerbaijan police arrested seven former national security officials on suspicion of exceeding their authority and illegal interference in businesses, days after Azeri President Ilham Aliyev fired his national security minister.
(Reuters, 10/20/15)
2015 Nov 1, Azerbaijan voted in parliamentary polls expected to cement President Ilham Aliyev's grip on power and boycotted by the mainstream opposition as a sham. Aliyev's Yeni (New) Azerbaijan party took 71 seats in the country's 125-seat parliament. Not a single election held in Azerbaijan since Aliyev came to power in 2003 has been recognized as free and fair by international observers.
(AFP, 11/1/15)(AFP, 11/2/15)
2015 Nov 26, Azerbaijan said 2 policemen and 4 alleged members of the Movement for Muslim Unity have been killed in a shootout during a raid in the village of Nardaran.
(AFP, 11/26/15)
2015 Dec 3, Turkey said it has agreed with Azerbaijan to accelerate the Trans-Anatolian Pipeline (TANAP), with an aim to have the gas projected completed before the planned 2018.
(Reuters, 12/3/15)
2015 Dec 4, In Azerbaijan 29 workers were missing after a platform in Azerbaijan’s Guneshli oil field, operated by state energy company SOCAR, caught fire in the Caspian Sea. 33 people were rescued. 6 bodies were soon recovered and 23 remained missing.
(AFP, 12/5/15)(AP, 12/6/15)(AP, 12/7/15)
2015 Dec 9, Azerbaijani tanks shelled positions in the breakaway Nagorny Karabakh region for the first time in more than 20 years killing one rebel soldier.
(AFP, 12/9/15)
2015 Dec 9, Azerbaijan released Leyla Yunus, head of the Baku-based Institute for Peace and Democracy. She had been held in detention since July 2014.
(Reuters, 12/9/15)
2015 Dec 9, Armenia said it has arrested Garik Marutyan (38), a former senior army officer, on suspicion of spying for Azerbaijan and selling state secrets.
(AFP, 12/9/15)
2015 Dec 10, Azerbaijan said 3 of its troops have been killed in the past ten days as the conflict in its separatist region of Nagorno-Karabakh escalates.
(AP, 12/10/15)
2015 Dec 19, The leaders of Armenia and Azerbaijan met in Switzerland to discuss their long-running dispute over Nagorno-Karabakh.
(AP, 12/19/15)
2015 Azerbaijan devalued its currency two times this year after its central bank burned through some $10 billion of foreign currency reserves in an effort to defend the manat.
(Econ, 5/21/16, p.45)
2016 Jan 13, In Azerbaijan protesters blocked streets and clashed with police over soaring consumer prices. 55 people were detained.
(SFC, 1/15/16, p.A2)
2016 Jan 19, Azerbaijan’s parliament endorsed the central bank's initiative to introduce a 20-percent tax on foreign exchange taken out of the country for investment, securities, and real estate purchases. Violent clashes broke out this week between riot police and thousands of demonstrators who took to the streets in cities across the energy-rich Caspian nation to express their discontent against price hikes and unemployment.
(AFP, 1/24/16)
2016 Mar 28, Azeri human rights activist and lawyer Intigam Aliyev was freed from jail. Aliyev was detained in Baku in August 2014 and charged with tax evasion, abuse of office and illegal entrepreneurship. Azerbaijan pardoned 148 prisoners including journalists, rights activists and political opponents this month in an apparent move to deflect Western criticism of the ex-Soviet republic's human rights record.
(Reuters, 3/28/16)
2016 Apr 2, Heavy fighting erupted between Armenian and Azerbaijani forces over the separatist region of Nagorno-Karabakh. Azerbaijan said 12 of its soldiers were killed and claimed to have inflicted heavy casualties on the Armenian forces.
(AP, 34/2/16)
2016 Apr 3, Azerbaijan's Defense Ministry announced a unilateral cease-fire against the separatist region of Nagorno-Karabakh, but rebel forces in the area said that they continued to come under fire from Azerbaijani forces.
(AP, 4/3/16)
2016 Apr 4, Fighting raged around the separatist region of Nagorno-Karabakh, with Azerbaijan saying three of its troops have been killed in the past 24 hours and the Armenian president warning that the hostilities could slide into a full-scale war.
(AP, 4/4/16)
2016 Apr 5, Azerbaijan and Armenian separatists in Nagorny Karabakh said they had halted fighting after four days of bloodshed, as international powers scramble to resolve the worst violence in decades over the disputed region. The ceasefire was brokered in Moscow. The 4-day war left an estimated 200 people dead.
(AFP, 4/5/16)(Econ, 4/9/16, p.53)(Econ, 5/21/16, p.46)
2016 Apr 8, Two ethnic Armenian troops died in fighting with Azerbaijani forces as the archfoes accused each other of breaching a ceasefire that halted the worst outbreak of violence in decades over a disputed breakaway region.
(AFP, 4/8/16)
2016 Apr 14, Azerbaijan said one of its soldiers had been killed in fighting over the breakaway region of Nagorno-Karabakh.
(Reuters, 4/14/16)
2016 Apr 19, A soldier from the Armenian-backed Nagorno-Karabakh region was reportedly killed by gunfire from Azerbaijan.
(Reuters, 4/19/16)
2016 May 5, Armenia's government gave the go-ahead to legislation that calls for recognizing the independence of Nagorno-Karabakh, a separatist region which is officially part of neighboring Azerbaijan. The step appeared intended mainly as a warning to Azerbaijan following a sudden increase in fighting.
(AP, 5/5/16)
2016 May 17, An Azerbaijani soldier and an ethnic Armenian fighter for the breakaway Nagorny Karabakh region's army died in fresh clashes, hours after Baku and Yerevan agreed to respect a ceasefire in the disputed territory.
(AFP, 5/17/16)
2016 May 17, In Greece a ceremony marked the beginning of construction on a new pipeline project bringing Azeri gas through northern Greece and Albania to Italy, reducing Europe's energy dependency on Russia. The Trans Adriatic Pipeline will run for 878 km (550 miles), from Greece's border with Turkey to southern Italy, and includes a 105-kilometer (65-mile) stretch under the Adriatic Sea.
(AP, 5/17/16)
2016 May 25, Prominent Azerbaijani journalist Khadija Ismayilova was released on probation following a storm of international protests about her imprisonment, which has been widely seen as an attempt to silence a critical voice.
(AP, 5/25/16)
2016 Jul 18, In Azerbaijan the ANS TV station was ordered to provisionally stop broadcasting for a month because authorities said its reporting ran counter to "a strategic partnership between Azerbaijan and Turkey." On July 29 the Court of Appeals in Baku ordered the local private television station to close because of its coverage of the attempted coup in Turkey.
(AP, 7/29/16)
2016 Jul 25, Azerbaijan's highest court approved an initiative by President Ilham Aliyev to extend the head of state's term of office to seven years from five, a step his critics see as illegal and undemocratic.
(Reuters, 7/25/16)
2016 Dec 3, Azerbaijan's domestic security agency agents killed Emin Jami, a man linked to "international terrorist organizations and illegal armed groups involved in military conflicts abroad." He was allegedly wearing a suicide bomb belt in Baku.
(AP, 12/3/16)
2016 Dec 8, In Azerbaijan a court in Baku sentenced youth activist Bayram Mammadov to ten years in prison on charges of heroin possession. Mammadov had pleaded not guilty Amnesty Int’l. condemned the sentence as an attempt by authorities to crush dissent.
(SFC, 12/9/16, p.A2)
2016 Dec 15, In Azerbaijan a 490-foot section of a walkway fell into the Caspian Sea under heavy winds sweeping away 10 offshore oil workers.
(SFC, 12/16/16, p.A2)
2016 Dec 29, At least three soldiers were reported killed in a border skirmish between Armenian and Azerbaijani troops.
(AP, 12/29/16)
2016 Jahangir Hajiyev, chairman of state-owned International Bank of Azerbaijan (IBA) from 2001 to 2015, was convicted by an Azeri court of fraud and embezzlement and sentenced to 15 years in jail. In 2018 his wife, Zamira Hajiyeva, lost an appeal against an attempt by British authorities to seize two properties worth about 22 million pounds using an Unexplained Wealth Order (UWO).
(Reuters, 10/10/18)
2017 Feb 21, Azerbaijan's Pres. Ilham Aliyev (55) appointed his wife Mehriban (52) as the first vice president of the, the person next in line in the nation's power hierarchy.
(AP, 2/21/17)
2017 Feb 25, Five Azerbaijani soldiers were killed during fighting in the disputed Nagorno-Karabakh region. Azerbaijan and neighboring Armenia traded blame for the outbreak of violence.
(AP, 2/25/17)(Reuters, 2/27/17)
2017 Mar 5, Azerbaijan and Iran agreed to work towards completing their portion of a planned freight railway route from Europe to South Asia.
(Reuters, 3/5/17)
2017 May 1, A court in Azerbaijan began considering a government demand to block access to the websites of several independent and opposition news organizations, including the local service of the US-funded Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty.
(AP, 5/1/17)
2017 May 12, In Azerbaijan the local court in the Baku upheld action by the country's communications ministry to block the access to the Azeri-language website of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty as well as several key independent news websites. The websites have been unavailable since late March when the ministry shut down the access following a prosecutor's petition decrying "threats to legitimate interests of the government and society."
(AP, 5/12/17)
2017 May 30, Afgan Mukhtarli, an Azeri investigative journalist and a human rights activist, who had been living in ex-Soviet Georgia since 2015, went missing. He was abducted in Tbilisi by a group of unknown men, beaten up and taken to the Azeri-Georgian border, where he was detained by Azeri police.
(Reuters, 5/31/17)
2017 Jun 17, Four Armenian soldiers in Nagorno-Karabakh were reported killed in fighting with Azerbaijan over the last 24 hours.
(AP, 6/17/17)
2017 Jul 4, An Azeri woman and a child were reportedly killed and another civilian wounded from shelling by Armenian-backed rebels near the boundary with the breakaway Nagorno-Karabakh region.
(Reuters, 7/5/17)
2017 Aug 18, The Turan agency, Azerbaijan’s only independent news agency, said the government has frozen its bank accounts, in a step that could shutter the outlet. Director Mehman Aliyev said the move was part of a criminal probe into an alleged $22,000 (19,000 euros) in unpaid taxes, a charge he said was false.
(AFP, 8/18/17)
2017 Aug 24, Azeri police in Baku detained Mehman Aliyev, the head of independent Turan news agency, on suspicion of tax evasion and illegal business activities. Turan suspended its operations from Sept. 1. Mehman Aliyev was released on Sept. 11, but an investigation of the allegations continued.
(AP, 9/11/17)
2017 Sep 18, In Azerbaijan police began arresting dozens of gay and transgender people in Baku. At least 46 people were soon sentenced to between 10 to 30 days in jail for resisting police. Homosexuality was decriminalized in the country in 2000, but animosity toward LGBT people remains strong.
(AP, 9/29/17)
2017 Oct 13, The UN human rights office said Azerbaijan, Egypt and Indonesia have all unjustly arrested dozens of people during anti-gay crackdowns in recent weeks, subjecting many to mistreatment in custody.
(Reuters, 10/13/17)
2017 Nov 1, Russian President Vladimir Putin arrived in Iran for trilateral talks with Tehran and Azerbaijan.
(AP, 11/1/17)
2017 Nov 24, The organization behind the "Alternative Nobel" said that a 2017 prize winner from Azerbaijan would not be able to attend the Dec. 1 award ceremony in Stockholm because of a travel ban linked to a suspended sentence she is serving. Azeri investigative journalist Khadija Ismayilova claimed in a statement issued by the Right Livelihood Award that she is under the travel ban "because I criticize the government when it steals the people's money."
(AP, 11/24/17)
2017 Nov 24, The EU pledged to deepen ties with six former Soviet states (Ukraine, Georgia, Moldova, Armenia, Azerbaijan and Belarus), as part of efforts to counter Russian influence, but warned them they had no chance of joining the bloc any time soon.
(AP, 11/24/17)
2018 Jan 12, In Azerbaijan investigative journalist Afgan Mukhtarli was sentenced to six years in prison on charges of smuggling, illegal border crossing and violently resisting arrest. Human rights advocates called the charges trumped-up and demanded his immediate release.
(AP, 1/12/18)
2018 Mar 2, In Azerbaijan at least 25 people were killed in a fire at a residential drug treatment center in Baku.
(AP, 3/2/18)
2018 Mar 29, In Azerbaijan at least three people working for the HALO Trust landmine clearing charity were killed and two more wounded when an anti-tank mine hit their vehicle in the breakaway Nagorno-Karabakh region.
(Reuters, 3/28/18)
2018 Mar 30, In southern France a gunman shot and gravely wounded exiled Azeri journalist Rahim Namazov and killed his wife near Toulouse. Namazov was an outspoken critic of the Azeri political leadership and served time in prison before seeking exile in France in 2010.
(Reuters, 3/30/18)
2018 Apr 11, Azerbaijanis voted in a snap presidential election boycotted by the main opposition parties and set to extend the autocratic rule of President Ilham Aliyev. Pres. Aliyev (56) won with more than 86 percent of the vote. The next day International monitors for the OSCE said the presidential election lacked genuine competition and was held in an environment of curtailed rights and freedoms.
(AFP, 4/11/18)(Reuters, 4/12/18)
2018 Apr 21, The Azeri parliament appointed Novruz Mamedov as the country's new prime minister. He has been a foreign policy assistant to Pres. Ilham Aliyev since last year.
(Reuters, 4/21/18)
2018 Apr 29, Iraq sentenced 19 Russian women to life in prison for joining the Islamic State group. Six women from Azerbaijan and four from Tajikistan were also condemned to life in prison on the same charge.
(AFP, 4/29/18)
2018 May 21, In Azerbaijan two people were killed and two were wounded in a blast in a cafe in Baku.
(Reuters, 5/21/18)
2018 Jun 21, Health officials in Azerbaijan said that about 200 farm workers have been poisoned with chemicals while working in cotton fields.
(AP, 6/21/18)
2018 Jul 3, In Tunisia Souad Abederrahim (54) was elected by the Tunis municipal council to serve as the city's first female mayor.
(SFC, 7/4/18, p.A2)
2018 Jul 10, In Azerbaijan two high-ranking police officers were stabbed to death while confronting about 200 demonstrators gathered outside the local administration headquarters in the western city of Ganja. One suspect was arrested the next day. Azerbaijani media said the protest was over the arrest of a man accused of attacking Ganja's mayor, Elmar Veliyev.
(AP, 7/11/18)
2018 Jul 13, Azerbaijan police located a second suspect in this week's fatal stabbing of two senior police officials . He resisted arrest and was shot and killed.
(AP, 7/13/18)
2018 Aug 12, Azerbaijan, Iran, Kazakhstan, Russia and Turkmenistan agreed in principle how to divide up the potentially huge oil and gas resources of the Caspian Sea.
(Reuters, 8/12/18)
2018 Aug 13, A court in Azerbaijan freed human rights activist Ilgar Mammadov after he had served five years of a seven-year jail sentence. The European Court of Human Rights has described his sentence "an unjustified restriction of freedom".
(Reuters, 8/13/18)
2018 Oct 10, A British court lifted an order granting anonymity to Zamira Hajiyeva (55), the wife of former International Bank of Azerbaijan chairman Jahangir Hajiyev, who was sentenced to 15 years in jail in his home country in 2016 for fraud and embezzlement. A court has ordered her to explain where she got the money to also buy an 11.5 million pound ($15 million) London home close to Harrods and a golf course outside the city worth 10.5 million pounds ($14 million).
(AP, 10/10/18)
2018 Nov 8, Zamira Hajiyeva (55) was freed on bail by a British judge while she fights extradition to Azerbaijan over embezzlement allegations. She is also the subject of a separate investigation in her home country of Azerbaijan, where her husband, former International Bank of Azerbaijan Chairman Jahangir Hajiyev, was sentenced to 15 years in jail in 2016 for fraud and embezzlement.
(AP, 11/8/18)
2018 Nov 17, In Azerbaijan Ali Karimli, head of the Azeri opposition party Popular Front, was detained for leading an unsanctioned procession through Baku's Alley of Martyrs. 52 participants were detained by the police. 41 were soon released and 11 remained in detention.
(AP, 11/18/18)
2019 Feb 5, Baku renewed its contract to host the Azerbaijan Grand Prix through 2023, prolonging the stay of a circuit which initially struggled for acceptance in Formula One but has since become a fan favorite.
(AP, 2/5/19)
2019 Mar 2, Azeri opposition blogger Mehman Huseynov was released after serving two years in prison in a case condemned by human rights activists.
(AP, 3/2/19)
2019 May 22, Bulgaria and Greece launched the construction of a pipeline to transport Azeri gas to Bulgaria to ease its almost total dependence on Russian gas supplies. Prime Ministers Boyko Borissov and Alexis Tsipras, oversaw the formal start to construction of the 182-km (114 miles) link.
(AP, 5/22/19)
2019 Oct 19, Azerbaijan police detained scores of protesters, including the leader of the main opposition Popular Front, at the start of a planned rally against low salaries, corruption and a lack of democracy in the energy-rich ex-Soviet state. some 50 people, mostly organizers of today's unauthorized rally, had already been detained earlier in the week.
(Reuters, 10/19/19)
2019 Dec 6, Oil-rich Azerbaijan planted more than half a million trees to celebrate 14th century poet Seyid Imadeddin Nesimi, an initiative the government said would help tackle climate change but some environmental activists called "a waste of money." Elsewhere in the country, thousands of hectares of bushlands and forests were being cleared to make way for hazelnut plantations and farms.
(Reuters, 12/6/19)
2020 Feb 9, Azerbaijan voters chose a new parliament in an early election after a short and low-key campaign.
(AP, 2/9/20)
2020 Feb 16, Police in Azerbaijan detained three opposition party leaders and more than 100 activists before they were due to take part in a protest against the results of last week's national election, which have been questioned by international observers.
(Reuters, 2/16/20)
2020 Feb 28, The list of countries hit by the COVID-19 illness edged toward 60 as Azerbaijan, Belarus, Lithuania, Mexico, the Netherlands, New Zealand and Nigeria reported their first cases.
(AP, 2/28/20)
2020 Feb 29, Azerbaijan said it had closed its border with Iran for two weeks to prevent the spread of coronavirus, after the death toll in Iran rose to 43, the highest number outside of China.
(Reuters, 2/29/20)
2020 Mar 6, The US State Department raised its alert level for travel to Azerbaijan and Turkmenistan. Neither country has reported many cases but both border Iran, which has been hard hit by the coronavirus.
(Reuters, 3/6/20)
2020 Mar 12, Azerbaijan reported its first death from the coronavirus outbreak, an Azeri woman who was quarantined after returning from Iran.
(Reuters, 3/12/20)
2020 Apr 7, Azerbaijan's breakaway region of Nagorno-Karabakh confirmed its first case of the coronavirus.
(Reuters, 4/7/20)
2020 Apr 24, Azerbaijan has reported a total of 1,592 coronavirus cases and 21 deaths. It announced plans to lift virus-related restrictions from April 27.
(Reuters, 4/24/20)
2020 Jul 12, Armenia and Azerbaijan engaged in skirmishes on their volatile border that left four Azerbaijani soldiers dead and several troops wounded on both sides.
(AP, 7/13/20)
2020 Jul 14, Armenia and Azerbaijan forces fought with heavy artillery and drones, leaving at least 16 people killed on both sides, including an Azerbaijani general, in the worst outbreak of hostilities in years.
(AP, 7/14/20)
2020 Jul 16, Clashes resumed between Armenian and Azerbaijani forces on their shared border, with both sides blaming each other for attacks that continue the worst outbreak of hostilities in years. Azerbaijan said it has lost 11 servicemen and one civilian in three days of fighting. Armenia said four of its troops were killed on July 14.
(AP, 7/16/20)
2020 Jul 24, In Russia groups of Azerbaijanis beat up Armenians in Moscow early today and later assailed Armenian-owned stores. Azerbaijanis and Armenians have engaged in a series of fights and violent rampages in Moscow, venting their anger over recent cross-border clashes between the two ex-Soviet nations.
(AP, 7/25/20)
2020 Sep 27, Fighting erupted anew between Armenian and Azerbaijani forces over the disputed separatist region of Nagorno-Karabakh, within Azerbaijan, and a top territorial official said 16 people were killed and more than 100 wounded.
(AP, 9/27/20)
2020 Sep 28, Armenia and Azerbaijani forces continued fighting over the disputed separatist region of Nagorno-Karabakh after hostilities broke out the day before. According to Nagorno-Karabakh officials, 59 servicemen on their side have been killed so far.
(AP, 9/28/20)
2020 Sep 29, Armenia said one of its warplanes was shot down by a fighter jet from Azerbaijan’s ally Turkey, killing the pilot, in fighting over the separatist territory of Nagorno-Karabakh. Both Turkey and Azerbaijan denied it. The Nagorno-Karabakh Defense Ministry reported 84 servicemen killed, while Azerbaijan President Ilham Aliyev said 10 civilians were killed on its side.
(AP, 9/29/20)
2020 Oct 1, Armenia and Azerbaijan rejected calls for a ceasefire and accused each other of targeting civilians in Nagorno-Karabakh, as Russia and France repeated calls for peace talks amid the worst fighting in the breakaway region since the 1990s. Azerbaijan said 16 people killed following Armenian shelling of densely populated areas. Armenia has reported the deaths of 104 soldiers, alongside seven civilians killed and 31 wounded.
(The Telegraph, 10/1/20)
2020 Oct 2, Officials in Armenia said the country is ready to discuss a cease-fire in the separatist region of Nagorno-Karabakh, where heavy fighting between Armenian and Azerbaijani forces has continued for six straight days, killing dozens and leaving scores wounded.
(AP, 10/2/20)
2020 Oct 3, Heavy fighting between Armenia and Azerbaijan continued in their conflict over the separatist territory of Nagorno-Karabakh. Azerbaijan’s President Ilham Aliyev criticized the international mediators who have tried for decades to resolve the dispute.
(AP, 10/3/20)
2020 Oct 5, Armenia accused Azerbaijan of firing missiles into the capital of the separatist territory of Nagorno-Karabakh, while Azerbaijan said several of its towns and its second-largest city were attacked. Armenia and Azerbaijan fired large-caliber rockets, bombarding Stepanakert, the capital of Nagorno-Karabakh, an ethnic Armenian enclave. At least 250 people have died in the recent fighting, including dozens of civilians on both sides.
(AP, 10/5/20)(NY Times, 10/6/20)
2020 Oct 7, Armenian Defense Ministry spokesman Artsrun Ovannisian said that Stepanakert was being targeted once again by Azerbaijan along with other settlements. Nagorno-Karabakh officials said that non-military facilities in Stepanakert have been hit with missiles and drones.
(AP, 10/7/20)
2020 Oct 8, Armenia accused Azerbaijan of shelling a historic cathedral in the separatist territory of Nagorno-Karabakh, where nearly two weeks of heavy fighting has killed hundreds of people. According to the Nagorno-Karabakh military, 350 of its servicemen have been killed since Sept. 27. Azerbaijan hasn't provided details on its military losses.
(AP, 10/8/20)
2020 Oct 8, Russian President Vladimir Putin issued a statement calling for a break in the fighting between the Armenian and Azerbaijani forces that have raged for nearly two weeks over the region. Putin invited their foreign ministers to visit Moscow for peace talks.
(AFP, 10/8/20)(AP, 10/9/20)
2020 Oct 10, Armenia and Azerbaijan agreed early today to a Russia-brokered cease-fire in Nagorno-Karabakh starting at noon, after two weeks of heavy fighting that marked the worst outbreak of hostilities in the separatist region in more than a quarter-century. Shortly after the truce took force, the Armenian military accused Azerbaijan of shelling the area near the town of Kapan in southeastern Armenia, killing one civilian.
(AP, 10/10/20)(SFC, 10/10/20, p.A2)
2020 Oct 11, Azerbaijan accused Armenia of attacking large cities overnight in violation of the cease-fire deal brokered by Russia that seeks to end the worst outbreak of hostilities in the separatist Nagorno-Karabakh region. Nine civilians were reported killed and over 30 wounded after Armenian forces fired missiles overnight on Ganja.
(AP, 10/11/20)
2020 Oct 12, Armenia and Azerbaijan accused each other of attacks over the separatist territory of Nagorno-Karabakh despite a cease-fire deal brokered by Russia in an effort to end the worst outbreak of hostilities in the region in decades.
(AP, 10/12/20)
2020 Oct 13, Fighting between Armenian and Azerbaijani forces raged for a third week over the separatist territory of Nagorno-Karabakh, and the United States urged both sides to adhere to a cease-fire reached over the weekend. Nagorno-Karabakh military officials said 16 servicemen were killed, bringing the total number of dead among troops to 532 since Sept. 27, when the fighting flared up. Azerbaijani authorities said 42 civilians have been killed on their side since the start of the fighting.
(AP, 10/13/20)
2020 Oct 16, Azerbaijani authorities accused Armenia of expanding the conflict over Nagorno-Karabakh by shelling a different region in Azerbaijan, a claim rejected by Armenian officials. Armenia, in turn, charged that the Azerbaijani troops executed two Armenian war prisoners.
(AP, 10/16/20)
2020 Oct 17, Azerbaijan accused Armenia of striking its second-largest city with a ballistic missile that killed at least 13 civilians and wounded 50 others in a new escalation of their conflict over Nagorno-Karabakh. Azerbaijani officials said the Soviet-made Scud missile destroyed or damaged about 20 residential buildings in Ganja overnight. Pres. Ilham Aliyev announced that Azerbaijani forces have taken the town of Fizuli and seven villages around it.
(AP, 10/17/20)
2020 Oct 17, A new cease-fire agreement was announced between Armenia and Azerbaijan, effective at midnight, following Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov’s calls with his counterparts, in which he strongly urged them to abide by the Moscow deal.
(AP, 10/18/20)
2020 Oct 18, Armenia and Azerbaijan traded accusations of violating the new truce in their destructive conflict over the separatist region of Nagorno-Karabakh.
(AP, 10/18/20)
2020 Oct 20, Armenia and Azerbaijan reported more fighting over the separatist territory of Nagorno-Karabakh, where clashes have continued for over three weeks despite two attempts at establishing a cease-fire.
(AP, 10/20/20)
2020 Oct 21, Armenia's PM Nikol Pashinian said that Azerbaijan's aggressive stance in the 25-day fighting over Nagorno-Karabakh leaves no room for diplomacy, and urged citizens to sign up as military volunteers to protect their country. According to Nagorno-Karabakh officials, 834 of their troops have been killed, and more than 30 civilians. Azerbaijan hasn’t disclosed its military losses, but says 63 civilians have died and 292 have been wounded.
(AP, 10/21/20)
2020 Oct 21, It was reported that fighting between Armenia and Azerbaijan has diverted the scarce resources in the Nagorno-Karabakh region from containing the virus, which spread unchecked amid artillery fire and drone attacks that have people spending many hours in overcrowded bunkers, whether they are sick or healthy. Contact tracing has ground to a halt.
(AP, 10/21/20)
2020 Oct 22, Heavy fighting over Nagorno-Karabakh continued with Armenia and Azerbaijan trading blame for new attacks, hostilities that raised the threat of Turkey and Russia being drawn into the conflict.
(AP, 10/22/20)
2020 Oct 22, Russian President Vladimir Putin said that weeks of fighting over the mountainous Nagorno-Karabakh province had left close to 5,000 people dead as world leaders scrambled to broker a truce.
(AFP, 10/22/20)
2020 Oct 23, Heavy fighting raged over Nagorno-Karabakh even as top diplomats from Armenia and Azerbaijan visited Washington for negotiations on settling the neighboring countries' decades-long conflict.
(AP, 10/23/20)
2020 Oct 24, Rocket and artillery barrage hit residential areas in Nagorno-Karabakh on hours after the United States hosted top diplomats from Armenia and Azerbaijan for talks on settling their decades-long conflict over the region.
(AP, 10/24/20)
2020 Oct 26, Armenia and Azerbaijan accused each other of violating a third cease-fire announced the day before in a bid to halt the fighting over the separatist region of Nagorno-Karabakh that has killed hundreds, and possibly thousands, in just four weeks.
(AP, 10/26/20)
2020 Oct 27, Armenia and Azerbaijan exchanged more accusations of shelling, with fighting over the separatist territory of Nagorno-Karabakh in its fifth week and largely unhindered by a US-brokered cease-fire that was announced over the weekend.
(AP, 10/27/20)
2020 Oct 28, Deadly fighting between Armenian and Azerbaijani forces over the separatist region of Nagorno-Karabakh showed no signs of abating. According to Nagorno-Karabakh officials, 1,068 of their troops and 39 civilians have been killed in the clashes so far, while 122 civilians have been wounded. Azerbaijani authorities haven’t disclosed their military losses, but say the fighting has killed 69 civilians and wounded 322.
(AP, 10/28/20)
2020 Oct 29, Fighting over the separatist territory of Nagorno-Karabakh ground on for a fifth week as top diplomats from Armenia and Azerbaijan prepared for more talks on a peaceful settlement of the conflict.
(AP, 10/29/20)
2020 Oct 30, Azerbaijani forces pushed deeper into Nagorno-Karabakh as top diplomats from Armenia and Azerbaijan attended talks in Geneva intended to help broker an end to more than a month of heavy fighting over the separatist territory.
(AP, 10/30/20)
2020 Oct 31, Armenia’s PM Nikol Pashinian urged Russia to consider providing security assistance to end the fighting over Nagorno-Karabakh, the biggest escalation in the decades-long conflict between his country and Azerbaijan. The request came as Azerbaijani troops forged deeper into Nagorno-Karabakh and both sides accused each of breaking a mutual pledge not to target residential areas hours after it was made.
(AP, 10/31/20)
2020 Nov 1, Fighting over the separatist territory of Nagorno-Karabakh entered sixth week, with Armenian and Azerbaijani forces blaming each other for new attacks.
(AP, 11/1/20)
2020 Nov 3, Russia's top diplomat said that about 2,000 fighters from the Middle East have joined the fighting over Nagorno-Karabakh.
(AP, 11/3/20)
2020 Nov 6, At least three civilians were killed in the latest shelling of Nagorno-Karabakh cities as Azerbaijan pushed its offensive to reclaim control over the separatist territory for a sixth straight week.
(AP, 11/6/20)
2020 Nov 8, President Ilham Aliyev said Azerbaijani forces have taken control of the strategically key city of Shushi in Nagorno-Karabakh where fighting with Armenia has raged for more than a month.
(AP, 11/8/20)
2020 Nov 9, The spokesman for the president of the separatist government in Nagorno-Karabakh confirmed that Azerbaijani forces have taken control of Shushi, a strategically key city, and said they were nearing Stepanakert, the region’s capital. Armenia and Azerbaijan signed a Russian-brokered deal to end the war in the border region of Nagorno-Karabakh. The agreement calls for Armenia’s army to withdraw from the region and to be replaced by Russian peacekeepers, and gives Azerbaijan what it has sought for years in negotiations.
(AP, 11/9/20)(NY Times, 11/10/20)
2020 Nov 11, In Armenia thousands of people gathered in Yerevan to protest the country's agreement with Azerbaijan to halt weeks of fighting over Nagorno-Karabakh. The deal calls for the deployment of nearly 2,000 Russian peacekeepers and territorial concessions.
(AP, 11/11/20)
2020 Nov 14, In Azerbaijan kilometers-long (miles-long) columns of cars and trucks jammed the road to Armenia as residents fled Nagorno-Karabakh.
(AP, 11/14/20)
2020 Nov 15, Azerbaijan postponed taking control of a territory ceded by Armenian forces in a cease-fire agreement, but denounced civilians leaving the area for burning houses and committing what it called "ecological terror." Azerbaijan agreed to delay the takeover until Nov 25 after a request from Armenia.
(The Telegraph, 11/15/20)
2020 Nov 17, Turkey’s parliament granted President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s government permission to deploy peacekeepers to Azerbaijan to monitor a cease-fire deal between Azerbaijan and Armenia that aims to end the conflict in the region.
(AP, 11/17/20)
2020 Nov 20, Azerbaijani forces entered the war-ravaged ghost town of Aghdam, regaining a once-beloved city over a quarter of a century after being driven out by Armenian forces.
(AP, 11/20/20)
2020 Nov 20, Russia said it has sent troops to reinforce its border guards in Armenia and secure a peace settlement with Azerbaijan over Nagorno-Karabakh.
(Reuters, 11/20/20)
2020 Nov 25, Azerbaijan's President Ilham Aliyev vowed to rebuild and revive the Kalbajar region, the latest territory that Armenian forces have ceded in a truce that ended six weeks of intense fighting over Nagorno-Karabakh.
(AP, 11/25/20)
2020 Nov 28, In Azerbaijan four people were killed and one injured when their car triggered an anti-tank mine in a region that was reclaimed during recent fighting with Armenian forces.
(SSFC, 11/29/20, p.A4)
2020 Dec 3, Azerbaijan said it lost 2,783 soldiers in 44 days of fighting with Armenian forces over Nagorno-Karabakh. More than 100 were still missing. A day earlier Armenia's health ministry said that at least 2,718 Armenian servicemen were killed.
(SFC, 12/4/20, p.A4)
2020 Dec 10, In Azerbaijan More than 3,000 troops took part in a military parade to celebrate reclaiming control over broad swathes of Nagorno-Karabakh and surrounding lands in a conflict with Armenia.
(AP, 12/10/20)
2020 Dec 11, The Azerbaijani military reportedly launched an attack late today that left three local ethnic Armenian servicemen wounded in Nagorno-Karabakh.
(AP, 12/12/20)
Go to http://www.timelinesdb.com
Subject = Azerbaijan
End of file.
