History

The name of Azerbaijan derives from Atropates, a Achaemenid satrap of Media under the Achaemenid empire, who was later reinstated as the satrap of Media under Alexander of Macedonia". The original etymology of this name is thought to have its roots in the ancient Zoroastrianism, namely, in Avestan Frawardin Yasht ("Hymn to the Guardian Angels"), there is a mentioning of: âterepâtahe ashaonô fravashîm ýazamaide, which literally translates from Old Persian as "we worship the Fravashi of the holy Atare-pata" . Atropates ruled over the region of present-day Iranian Azerbaijan. The name "Atropates" itself is derived from Old Persian roots meaning "protected by fire."

Ancient History
The earliest evidence of human settlement in the territory of Azerbaijan dates to the late Stone Age and is related to the Quruçay culture of Azykh Cave. The Upper Paleolithic and particularly Mousterian cultures are attested to in the caves of Tağlar, Damcili, Zar, Yataq-yeri, etc. Jugs with the remnants of dry wine, revealed in the necropolises of Leylatepe and Sarytepe, testify to wine-making activity during the Late Bronze Age.


The entire South Caucasus was conquered by the Achaemenids around 550 B.C., which led to the spread of Zoroastrianism in this part of the Median Empire. After its overthrow by Alexander the Great, the Seleucid Greeks, who inherited the Caucasus, were ultimately beset by pressures from Rome, secessionist Greeks in Bactria and most adversely the Parthians. Caucasian Albanians, the original inhabitants of the area established a kingdom in the 4th century B.C. In 95-67 B.C. parts of Caucasian Albania may have been under the subjugation of neighboring Armenia, as a part of Tigranes the Great's empire. According to Strabo, as the Romans and Parthians began to expand their domains, Albania, unlike Iberia and Armenia, remained independent of Roman domination, signing a peace treaty (Strabo XI, 4, 5). The Roman inscription found in Gobustan testifies to the presence of Legio XII Fulminata in the time of Domitian.
Caucasian Albania remained largely independent until the Sassanids turned it into a vassal state in 252 A.D. King Urnayr of Caucasian Albania officially adopted Christianity as the state religion in the 4th century A.D., and Albania remained a predominantly Christian state until the Islamic conquest of the 8th century A.D. Despite numerous conquests by the Sassanids and Byzantines, Caucasian Albania remained an entity in the region until the 9th century A.D. The territory of modern Azerbaijan roughly corresponds to the ancient state of Caucasian Albania.

Medieval History
The Islamic Umayyad Caliphate defeated both the Sassanids and the Byzantines, making Caucasian Albania a vassal state after the Christian resistance, led by Prince Javanshir, was suppressed in 667 A.D. After the decline of Abbasid Caliphate, the territory of present-day Azerbaijan was under the sway of numerous dynasties such as the Salarids, Sajids, Shaddadids, Rawadids and Buyids. At the beginning of the 11th century, the territory was gradually seized by waves of Turkic Oghuz tribes from Central Asia. The first of these dynasties were the Ghaznavids, who took over part of the area now known as Azerbaijan by 1030.
Locally, the possessions of the subsequent Seljuk Empire were ruled by atabegs, who were technically vassals of the Seljuk sultans, being sometimes de facto rulers themselves. Under the Seljuk Turks, local poets such as Nizami Ganjavi and Khagani Shirvani gave rise to a blossoming of Persian literature on the territory of present-day Azerbaijan. The next ruling state of the Jalayirids was short-lived and fell under the conquests of Tamerlan. The local dynasty of Shirvanshahs became a vassal state of Tamerlan's empire and assisted Tamerlan in his war with the ruler of the Golden Horde Tokhtamysh. Following Tamerlan's death two independent and rival states emerged: Kara Koyunlu and Ak Koyunlu. Until his death the Ak Koyunlu sultan Uzun Hasan ruled the whole territory now known as Azerbaijan. Thereafter the Shirvanshahs maintained a high degree of autonomy as local rulers and vassals from 861 until 1539. As the Shirvanshahs were persecuted by the Safavids, the last dynasty imposed Shia Islam upon the formerly Sunni population, battling against the Sunni Ottoman Empire.
The area was ruled under Iranian dynasties of Afshar and Zand following the collapse of the Safavids and briefly under Qajars. In the meanwhile, however, several independent khanates emerged in the area, especially following collapse of Zand dynasty and in early Qajar era. Engaged in constant warfare, these khanates were eventually incorporated to the Russian Empire, following two Russo-Persian Wars. Under the Treaty of Turkmenchay the Persian Empire recognized Russian sovereignty over the Erivan khanate, the Nakhchivan khanate and the remainder of the Talysh khanate.

First Independence and Soviet Azerbaijan
After the collapse of the Russian Empire during World War I, Azerbaijan together with Armenia and Georgia became part of the short-lived Transcaucasian Democratic Federative Republic. When the republic dissolved in May 1918, Azerbaijan declared independence as the Azerbaijan Democratic Republic (ADR). The ADR was the first democratic parliamentary republic in the Muslim world, but lasted only 23 months until the Bolshevik XIth Red Army invaded in April 1920. Overthrowing the ADR government, Bolsheviks established Azerbaijan SSR in Baku on April 28, 1920.
In 1922, Azerbaijan, along with Armenia and Georgia, became part of the Transcaucasian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic {TSFSR), which itself became a constituent member of the newly-established Soviet Union. In 1936, TSFSR was dissolved and Azerbaijan SSR became one of the 12 (by 1940 - 15) constituent member states of the Soviet Union.
During the 1940s, the Azerbaijan SSR supplied much of the Soviet Union's oil on the Eastern Front of World War II. Close to 600,000 Azerbaijanis fought on this front against Nazi Germany. Operation Edelweiss was launched by Adolf Hitler to occupy the Caucasian oilfields and capture Baku, but all the offensives were pushed back. The Germans made largely fruitless efforts to enlist the cooperation of emigre political figures, such as Mammed Amin Rasulzade, who came to Berlin and found opportunities to meet captured Soviet Azerbaijani POWs.



Newly Independent Azerbaijan
Following the politics of glasnost, initiated by the last General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, Mikhail Gorbachev, civil unrest and ethnic strife grew in various regions of the Soviet Union, including Nagorno-Karabakh, a region of the Azerbaijan SSR. The disturbances in Azerbaijan, in response to Moscow's indifference to already heated conflict, resulted in calls for independence and secession from the USSR, which subsequently culminated in the events of Black January in Baku. At this time, Ayaz Mutallibov was appointed as the First Secretary of the Azerbaijan Communist Party.
Later in 1990, the Supreme Council of the Azerbaijan SSR dropped the words "Soviet Socialist" from the title; adopted the Declaration of Sovereignty of the Azerbaijan Republic, a constituent member of Soviet Union; and restored the modified flag of the Azerbaijan Democratic Republic as a state flag. In early 1991, the Supreme Council of Azerbaijan established the office of the presidency. Ayaz Mutallibov was subsequently elected as the first president by the Council. On September 8, 1991, Ayaz Mutallibov was elected as president in nationwide elections in which he was the only candidate running.
On October 18, 1991, Supreme Council of Azerbaijan adopted a Declaration of Independence which was affirmed by a nationwide referendum in December, 1991, when the Soviet Union was officially dissolved. The early years of independence were overshadowed by the Nagorno-Karabakh War with neighboring Armenia. By the end of hostilities in 1994, Azerbaijan lost control of up to 16% of its internationally recognized territory, including Nagorno-Karabakh itself. In 1993, democratically elected president Abulfaz Elchibey was overthrown by a military insurrection led by Colonel Suret Huseynov, which resulted in the rise to power of the former leader of Soviet Azerbaijan, Heydar Aliyev. In 1994, Suret Huseynov, by that time a prime minister, attempted another military coup against Heydar Aliyev but failed, was arrested and was charged with treason. In 1995, another coup attempt against Aliyev, by the commander of the military police, Rovshan Javadov, was averted, resulting in the killing of the latter and disbanding of Azerbaijan's military police.
Although during his presidency, Aliyev managed to reduce the country's unemployment, reined in criminal groups, established the fundamental institutions of independent statehood, and brought stability, peace and major foreign investment, the country was tainted by rampant corruption in the governing bureaucracy. In October 1998, Aliyev was reelected for a second term. Despite the much improved economy, particularly with the exploitations of Azeri-Chirag-Guneshli oil field and Shah Deniz gas field, Aliyev's presidency became unpopular due to vote fraud, wide-spread corruption and objection to his autocratic regime. The same harsh criticism followed the elections of former Prime Minister Ilham Aliyev, the second leader of New Azerbaijan Party after the death of his father Heydar.