Amazing, Affluent Azerbaijan: Flaming Mountains, Mosques, Synagogues, Vineyards, Tea and A Carpet Museum

Here's an update on my earlier article. (If you want the short version go back to my previous post.)

Azerbaijan? Where is it? The Eastern edge of Europe and the Western side of Asia.

Let's look at the map. It was politically connected to Russia, to the north. Russia, famed for its onion domed orthodox churches and later communist atheism. Brush up on the Russian language because more people speak Russian than English. Not surprising. If you lived next door to Russia, had been allied to Russia, and you were miles from England, which language would you speak?

The west is landlocked Armenia, whose Christians were massacred at the start of the 20th century, as well as more recently. The Islamic Republic of Iran is to the south. To the east is the Caspian Sea and the big city of Baku, the capital, a walled city


Baku. Palace of Shirvanshahs.
Unesco site.

LANDMARKS

Religious Buildings
In Baku, you might want to see a mosque, a church, and a synagogue.
The city of Baku has many mosques and churches, including Russian Orthodox churches.

The Muslims are the majority (represented by the green band on the national flag) and Jews are fewer than one percent. However the country is officially secular and has interesting buildings of all faiths.

Surprisingly, a three-storey modern cubed synagogue with separate halls for Ashkenazi Jews (European/Yiddish/German speaking) who came here a century after the Georgian Jews. The building has a food hall. Lots of pictures on Tripadvisor.

RED ROOFS of RED TOWN

Even more surprising, the country has an entirely Jewish Town, called Red Roofs or Red Town, Guba or Quba.






The only entirely Jewish town outside Israel and the USA

The name sounds like Pakistan and Afghanistan, which I wrote about in previous posts on the stan countries. But it's an ...an country but not a ...stan country. Time for a look at it.

I see four more places whose names end with an,: the two cities of Shirvan and Lankaran to the south of Baku. Nakhichivan, an enclave to the west, separated from the main country of Azerbaijan by Armenia. And Iran.

The first thing you will do on arrival is have something to drink or eat.

FOOD AND DRINK
Which do you prefer, rice pilau/pilaf or pancakes?

Pancakes
Savoury pancakes are stuffed with pumpkin or other vegetables, herbs, or meat. The name to look for is Kutabi. Kut-a-bi. I think of cut a bite of a brilliant pancake. Only one bite because I am on a diet.

FAVOURITE FOODS - Rice, meat and green vegetables
The rice dish is called plov, better known to us in the west as pilaf.

Armenian cabbage roll stuffed with chickpeas and bulgur pilaf

Armenians use a lot of bulgur (cracked wheat) in their pilaf dishes. Armenian recipes may combine vermicelli or orzo with rice cooked in stock seasoned with mint, parsley and allspice. One traditional Armenian pilaf is made with the same noodle rice mixture cooked in stock with raisins, almonds and allspice.

Armenian kinds of rice are discussed by Rose Baboian in her cookbook from 1964 which includes recipes for different pilafs, most rooted in her birthplace of Antep in Turkey. Baboian recommends that the noodles be stir-fried first in chicken fat before being added to the pilaf. Another Armenian cookbook written by Vağinag Pürad recommends to render poultry fat in the oven with red pepper until the fat mixture turns a red color before using the strained fat to prepare pilaf.

Lapa is an Armenian word with several meanings one of which is a "watery boiled rice, thick rice soup, mush" and lepe which refers to various rice dishes differing by region.Antranig Azhderian describes Armenian pilaf as "dish resembling porridge".

Azerbaijan

Azerbaijani cuisine includes more than 40 different plov recipes. One of the most reputed dishes is plov from saffron-covered rice, served with various herbs and greens, a combination distinctive from Uzbek plovs. Traditional Azerbaijani plov consists of three distinct components, served simultaneously but on separate platters: rice (warm, never hot), gara (fried beef or chicken pieces with onion, chestnut and dried fruits prepared as an accompaniment to rice), and aromatic herbs. Gara is put on the rice when eating plov, but it is never mixed with rice and the other components. Pilaf is usually called aş in Azerbaijani cuisine.

• Rice pilaf examples from Azerbaijan
• 

  Azerbaijani plov with qazmaq (the same as Persian tahdig), served with choban salad
   
• 

  Azer

FAVOURITE LOCAL DRINK - black tea in a pear-shape glass
The national drink is black tea, drunk in a pear-shape or waisted glass, which is credited with allowing the top of your tea to cool whilst keeping the lower part of the glass contents warm.

Do you like lemon tea, Russian style, or mint tea, Moroccan style? Then you will like Azerbaijani tea. Tea can be flavoured lemon, not with honey but with jam, as well as herbs such as mint and thyme.

How do you order your food and drink?

LANGUAGE
The language is similar to Turkish with bits of Arabic recognizable to me, such as Allah for God, and madrassah for school.

So, how would I say, or recognize somebody else saying: hello (that's easy, salam) one, no, ten, yes, be quick, goodness gracious (that's easy, allahalla,) and thanks?

From Wiki on Afghanistan language

Interjections

Some samples include:

Secular:

• Of ("Ugh!")
• Tez Ol ("Be quick!")
• Tez olun qızlar mədrəsəyə ("Be quick girls, to school!", a slogan for an education campaign in Azerbaijan)

Invoking deity:

• implicitly:
  • Aman ("Mercy")
  • Çox şükür ("Much thanks")
• explicitly:
  • Allah Allah (pronounced as Allahallah) ("Goodness gracious") (a bit like the English expression, 'Good God!'
  • Hay Allah; Vallah "By God [I swear it]".
  • Çox şükür allahım ("Much thanks my god")

Category	English	North Azerbaijani (in Latin script)
Basic expressions	yes	hə /hæ/ (informal), bəli (formal)
	no	yox /jox/ (informal), xeyr (formal)
	hello	salam /sɑlɑm/
	goodbye	sağ ol /ˈsɑɣ ol/
		sağ olun /ˈsɑɣ olun/ (formal)
	good morning	sabahınız xeyır /sɑbɑhɯ(nɯ)z xejiɾ/
	good afternoon	günortanız xeyır /ɟynoɾt(ɯn)ɯz xejiɾ/
	good evening	axşamın xeyır /ɑxʃɑmɯn xejiɾ/
		axşamınız xeyır /ɑxʃɑmɯ(nɯ)z xejiɾ/
Colours	black	qara /ɡɑɾɑ/
	blue	mavi /mâvi/
	brown	qəhvəyi / qonur
	grey	boz /boz/
	green	yaşıl /jaʃɯl/
	orange	narıncı /nɑɾɯnd͡ʒɯ/
	pink	çəhrayı
	purple	bənövşəyi
	red	qırmızı /ɡɯɾmɯzɯ/
	white	ağ /ɑɣ/
	yellow	sarı /sɑɾɯ/

Numbers[edit]

Number	Word
0	sıfır /ˈsɯfɯɾ/
1	bir /biɾ/
2	iki /ici/
3	üç /yt͡ʃ/
4	dörd /døɾd/
5	beş /beʃ/
6	altı /ɑltɯ/
7	yeddi /jed:i/
8	səkkiz /sækciz/
9	doqquz /doɡ:uz/
10	on /on/

For numbers 11–19, the numbers literally mean "10 one, 10 two" and so on.

Number	Word
20	iyirmi /ijiɾmi/ [a]
30	otuz /otuz/
40	qırx /ɡɯɾx/
50	əlli /ælli/

SIGHTS, STATUES SCULPTURES & MUSEUMS
Now let's set off to see the sights. Azerbaijan is affluent. Way back one of the first tourists was Marco Polo who was amazed by the fire mountain. You can still see the flames. The country is alive with oil and gas. That's what makes it so affluent. It has amazing buildings. Some call it the Dubai of the area.

My first stop would be the carpet museum. (Something non-controversial and cheerful.) The building itself has what looks like a rolled up carpet on top.

Sculptures
The shoe polisher.
The lovers and cats (inset in miches in tower)

The girl on the bench
The girl with the umbrella

Useful websites
https://travelwithangelalansbury.blogspot.com/2020/04/which-stan-is-which-pakistan.html
http://www.bbc.com/travel/story/20200721-nakhchivan-the-worlds-most-sustainable-nation
The glass:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Armudu


About the Author
Travel writer and photographer Angela Lansbury, now forced into armchair travelling because of Covid19, but just as keen as ever to research countries and plan trips.

Post being written - more will be added throughout the day so please come back.

Warning from Wikipedia.

This article is about North Azerbaijan, an independent country. For South Azerbaijan, see Iranian Azerbaijan

Azerbaijan (Azerbaijani: Azərbaycan) is a former Soviet republic in the Caucasus and variously considered part of Europe or Asia. It is nicknamed the Land of Fire.

	WARNING: Armed conflicts occur at and near the border between the Nagorno-Karabakh region and the surrounding military-occupied area in Azerbaijan. Western governments advise against travelling to these areas and near the border with Armenia because of regular ceasefire violations, and diplomatic difficulties in case of incidents in that region. In the rest of Azerbaijan, there is some risk of civil unrest and terrorist attacks.
	Government travel advisories Canada   Germany   New Zealand   United Kingdom   United States
	(Information last updated Aug 2020)

Thanks heavens for the internet. We can now all enjoy armchair travelling. See other posts in this blog on the country.