Episode 11: Azerbaijan — The Land of Fire

Thirty kilometers outside Baku, a hillside has been on fire, continuously, for at least a few thousand years — natural gas seeping up and igniting on contact with air, ancient enough that Zoroastrian priests built shrines around it. It's part of why Azerbaijan's name translates to "Land of Fire," and it's a fitting image for a country that produced over half the world's oil supply by 1901. This episode covers the Azerbaijan Democratic Republic of 1918, the first secular democracy in the Muslim world and among the first anywhere to grant women the vote; the Sumgait and Baku pogroms of 1988-1990; Black January, the Soviet military crackdown Azerbaijan marks as a national tragedy every year; and the other side of the Nagorno-Karabakh story we covered from Armenia's perspective back in episode eight, including exactly where the 2025 peace treaty with Armenia stands today and what's still holding up a final signature. We also get into the Aliyev family's two decades in power, today's press-freedom record according to international monitors, Garry Kasparov's cosmopolitan Soviet-era Baku childhood, mud volcanoes, UNESCO-listed Mugham music and carpet weaving, and F1 racing through downtown streets. Presented factually throughout, without taking sides on the contested parts.