After approval by referendum, the first Constitution of an independent Azerbaijan was adopted on November 12, 1995, and Azerbaijan held its first parliamentary elections on the same day. Constitution has been celebrated on this day every year since then, and it is a great holiday for all Azerbaijani citizens. Join in on the celebrations by learning something new about this Caucasian Republic! Here are ten facts you may not know:
1 – For almost 1000 years, the territory of present-day Republic of Azerbaijan was known as Albania – with absolutely no relation to the country in the Balkans.
2 – Azerbaijani newborns are traditionally bathed in salt water, as doing this is thought to make them grow strong, truthful and bold. Additionally, children’s fingernails and hair are only cut after their first birthday.
3 – Although for most Azerbaijanis the ways of life under Soviet rule are best forgotten, there is still one village which will bring you back to Soviet times. İvanovka is the last village in Azerbaijan with a significant population belonging to the Russian ethnic religious community of Molokans. This is the last place in the world where Kolkhoz, collective farms, from Soviet times are preserved and function to this day.
4 – Azerbaijan holds a dubious distinction of having almost double the number of political prisoners than those held in Belarus and Russia combined.
5 –The city of Naflatan is home to crude oil spas, once popular vacation spots of the Soviet Union that are making a return in popularity. Oil from these spas is claimed to be an effective treatment against psoriasis, arthritis and rheumatism. At the height of their Soviet-era popularity, the spas in the city had 75,000 visitors a year.
6 – Bread is considered sacred in Azerbaijan. Because of that, wasted bread isn’t thrown away, as it’s considered too important to be discarded. Instead, it’s usually hung up in bags from a tree. If you drop bread on the floor, it’s custom to kiss it, as an apology, and place it higher up away from the ground and the dirt.
7 – The country is known as the “Land of Fire”. The phrase is thought to be a reference to the natural burning of surface oil deposits which can be observed in the territory. In particular, you can find a sempiternal fire blazing continuously on a hillside on the Absheron Peninsula, not far away from Baku. It is known as the Burning Mountain, Yanar Dağ, and it has entranced travelers and conquerors for millennia. In the 13th century, explorer Marco Polo wrote of the mysterious fires that burned all over on the peninsula
8 – Azerbaijan’s capital, Baku, is located 28 metres below sea level, which makes it the lowest lying national capital in the world and also the largest city in the world located below sea level.
9 – It claims to be the landing place for Noah’s Ark. Over in the town of Nakhchivan, an Azerbaijan exclave, there is a oddly-shaped mountain bulging randomly out of the ground, with a dent at the top. The legend goes that this was the site where Noah first landed after the flood. The city and region even derive their names from the legend, as Nakhchivan means “Noah’s town.”
10 – In Qırmızı Qəsəbə, a town in Azerbaijan, Jews make up the entire population. It is considered to be the last surviving Jewish shtetl (pre-modern insular Jewish community) in the world.
