Welcome from Ambassador

 Dear Ladies and Gentlemen,

Welcome to the website of the Embassy of the Republic of Azerbaijan in Italy. In our site we tried to give short information about our motherland, the development of the Azerbaijani-Italian relations and the activity of our Embassy.

Azerbaijan is one of the ancient centers of the world civilization. Archeological excavations carried out in the territory of the Republic confirm the existence of one of the most ancient human habitats on Earth (Cave Azikh, Fizuli district, drowned pictures on stones in Gobustan etc). The first state formations in Azerbaijan have been established in the IX century BC. One of the ancient alphabets of the world consisting of 52 letters was created in the Azerbaijani state of Caucasian Albania. Caucasian Albania was one of the few states which had its independence during the dominium of the Roman Empire in the region. Azerbaijan has been described in the works of ancient Greek and Roman historians, geographers and travelers, as well as of other nationalities.

Azerbaijan is one of the few countries of the world where up till now the monuments of the Zoroastrian, Christian and Islam culture have been conserved. In the Middle Ages, Azerbaijan had an important role in the transit trade between the East and the West. The Renaissance of the East was introduced to Azerbaijan through the works of poets and philosophers such as Nasimi, Khagani, Nizami, and Fizuli, whose works are the compound part of the masterpiece of the world culture.

Azerbaijan is the richest country of the Caucasian region with its natural resources. One of the first oil fields in the world was drilled in Azerbaijan. At the end of the XIX and the beginning of the XX centuries Azerbaijan was in the first place in the world for oil production. At the beginning of the XX century in Azerbaijan the first theatre in the East was created. The first opera in the East was written by Uzeir Hacibeyov, a great Azerbaijani composer. For the first time in the East the establishment of the democratic republic and the transfer to the Latin alphabet were realized in Azerbaijan in 1918.

During the Soviet Union period, Azerbaijan was one of the richest soviet republics for its resources; 80% of the soviet oil was produced in Azerbaijan. Our country was also one of the republics which had great potential in the agricultural sector.

The prosperity of Azerbaijan in the soviet period or even after the reestablishment of independence is connected with the name of the national leader of Azerbaijan, Heydar Aliyev. Heydar Aliyev's return to power in 1993 saved our country from chaos and from crushing. One of the first steps undertaken by President Heydar Aliyev was obtaining the cease fire with Armenia that occupied 20% of our country’s territory. Continuous occupation of Nagorno-Karabakh and the territories around it, as well as the expulsion of the whole population from their motherland, have provoked 1 million refugees and IDPs in Azerbaijan.

Thanks to the policy conducted by President Heydar Aliyev on September 20, 1994 the Azerbaijani Government signed a 30-year Production Sharing Agreement (PSA), called "contract of the century", with an international consortium of oil companies for development of offshore oil fields in the Azerbaijani sector of the Caspian Sea. Since 1995 more than 15 billion US dollars of foreign direct investments have been invested into the Azerbaijani economy. Projects such as the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan oil export pipeline, Baku-Tbilisi-Erzurum gas export pipeline, and inclusion of Azerbaijan into the TRACECA are all strictly connected with the name of Heydar Aliyev.

Azerbaijan is a member of the European institutions, actively collaborates with Euro Atlantic structures and keeps friendly relations with all peaceful countries of the world. Political and statehood ideas elaborated by Heydar Aliyev are currently continued by his son, the President of the Republic of Azerbaijan, Ilham Aliyev.

At present Azerbaijan possesses big potential and opportunities not only in the oil and gas sector, but as well as in non oil sectors: agriculture, light industry, tourism, chemical industry, metallurgy, aluminum industry, and mechanism are just a few of the many sectors, which attracts the interest of a lot of countries and are the favorable sectors for investment. That's why we created our website with the aim that visitors can know many things about our motherland, our people, traditions, economy, culture and so on.

We pin hopes that the information elaborated by us could be useful to you in order to know our country, and we are convinced that you will visit Azerbaijan in the nearest future.

Emil Karimov
Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary
of the Republic of Azerbaijan in Italy