Azerbaijan, formally the Azerbaijan Republic or the Republic of Azerbaijan, is a transcontinental country situated at the border of Eastern Europe and Western Asia. It belongs of the South Caucasus region, as well as is bounded by the Caspian Sea to the east, Russia (Republic of Dagestan) to the north, Georgia to the northwest, Armenia and also Turkey to the west, as well as Iran to the south. Baku is the capital as well as largest city.

The Azerbaijan Democratic Republic proclaimed its freedom from the Transcaucasian Democratic Federative Republic in 1918 and came to be the initial secular democratic Muslim-majority state, taking its name from the nearby region of northwestern Iran for political reasons. In 1922, the nation was included right into the Soviet Union as part of the Transcaucasian SFSR.

The contemporary Republic of Azerbaijan declared its self-reliance on 30 August 1991, quickly before the dissolution of the Soviet Union in the same year. In September 1991, the ethnic Armenian bulk of the Nagorno-Karabakh area created self-proclaimed Republic of Artsakh. The area and 7 bordering areas are globally recognized as part of Azerbaijan, while arrangements on the resolution of Nagorno-Karabakh dispute are assisted in by the OSCE. Nagorno-Karabakh became de facto independent with the end of the First Nagorno-Karabakh War in 1994. Complying with the 2020 Nagorno-Karabakh war, the 7 districts and also parts of Nagorno-Karabakh were gone back to Azerbaijani control.

Azerbaijan is a unitary semi-presidential republic. It is just one of 6 independent Turkic states and an active participant of the Organization of Turkic States as well as the TÜRKSOY area. Azerbaijan has polite relationships with 182 nations and also holds subscription in 38 international organizations, including the United Nations, the Council of Europe, the Non-Aligned Activity, the OSCE, and also the NATO PfP program. It is among the charter member of GUAM, the CIS, as well as the OPCW. Azerbaijan is additionally a viewer state of the WTO.