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Situated fatefully between the peaks of the Caucasus Mountains and the waters of the Caspian Sea, the republic of Azerbaijan's journey to modern statehood has been an eventful one, influenced by the great empires and cultures of world history. Originally published in 2000, this book was the first English-language work to provide an overview of the history of Azerbaijan from the first evidence of inhabitation in prehistoric times, through the khanates of the Middle Ages, to the post-Soviet republic. Emerging from the ruins of the ex-Soviet Union, Azerbaijan, as one of the world's centres of oil production, has seen increased strategic and cultural significance. Drawing on a wide range of sources, the author pays particular attention to the way in which the Soviet Union and oil industry have shaped the nation, while devoting a special section the factors that created the conflict in Nagorno-Karabakh.
List of contents
1.From Antiquity to the Early Middle Ages 2. The Medieval Struggle of World Religions 3. Seljuk, Atabek & Mongol Rule 4. New Conflict Among the Turks and the Re-Emergence of Persia 5. The Russian Grip on Azerbaijan 6. The Rise and Fall of the First Republic 7. Time of the Soviets 8. Historical Dimensions of the Karabakh Conflict 9. 20th Century Forebodings of War 10. Karabakh Under Soviet Rule and the Outbreak of War 11. Independence & Escalation 12. Stalemate under Aliyev.
About the author
Charles van der Leeuw is a Dutch writer and journalist. Wroking as a media correspondent in war-torn Lebanon in the late 1980s he was kinapped. After his release his book Lebanon: The Injured Innocence was published. In early 1991 he wrote one of the first books on the Kuwait crisis,
Kuwait Burns. He was a war correspondent in Baku during the early 1990s, covering the armed conflicts in the southern Caucasus region.
