• the first co-ed school in Azerbaijan was founded by Hamida Javanshir in 1908?
• the Saviour's Lutheran Church in Baku, Azerbaijan (pictured) survived Joseph Stalin's rule by promising to pray for him?
• the Battle of Kelbajar was the first time Armenian military forces crossed and captured a region of Azerbaijan during the Nagorno-Karabakh War?
• the Azerbaijani singer Muslim Magomayev, who sang with great success at La Scala and the Paris Olympia, was not allowed to pursue an international career by the Soviet Ministry of Culture?
• the historical Bibi-Heybat Mosque near Baku, Azerbaijan, (pictured), destroyed in 1934 as a result of the Soviet anti-religious campaign, was reopened in 1997 at the same location after the country gained independence?
• the modern states of Armenia and Azerbaijan occupy those territories that were conquered by Ivan Paskevich from Persia during the Russo-Persian War, 1826-1828?
• while time, war, and hazardous emissions continually wrecked the tomb of Nizami, a 12th-century epic poet, the tomb was finally rebuilt in solid granite in 1991 in Ganja, Azerbaijan?
• the works of Azerbaijan-born artist Semyon Bilmes have been featured in Reader's Digest, The New York Times and in advertisements for AT&T and Citibank?
• the remains of the Azerbaijani poet Huseyn Javid, who became a victim of the Stalin purges, were moved from Magadan to his homeland of Nakhichevan in 1982 and reburied in a mausoleum built in his honor?
• the name of the Azeri settlement Ramana, with natural gas vents where Zoroastrians still hold fire rites, might, according to conjecture, be derived from Roma, the Latin word for Rome?
• the Azerbaijani geologist Farman Salmanov, who discovered huge oil fields of Western Siberia in 1961, was awarded the title of Hero of Socialist Labor at the unusually young age of 37?
• tens of thousands of Armenian Khachkars have allegedly been destroyed in a systematic manner by the government of Azerbaijan?
• Qabala treasures, monetary treasure troves discovered in Azerbaijan, contain drachmas of Alexander the Great and denarii of four Roman Emperors?
• Martyrs' Lane in Baku, Azerbaijan, is dedicated to those killed by the Red Army during Black January and later to those killed in Nagorno-Karabakh War?
• Dushanbe riots in 1990 were sparked by the rumour that a couple of thousand Armenian refugees from Azerbaijan had been resettled to Dushanbe?
• Azerbaijanis live in Iran, Georgia, Turkey, Iraq and the United States, as well as Azerbaijan?
• after being imprisoned for allegedly leading Islamic militants in Azerbaijan, Ahmad Salama Mabruk began leading a new militant group within prison?
• as Azerbaijan Commissar of Public Roads, Chingiz Ildyrym oversaw the construction of the first electrified railway in the Soviet Union?
• in the early 1990s, Surət Hüseynov successfully led a military coup d'état in Azerbaijan to become the Prime Minister?
• during the G-8 Summit in Germany on June 7-8, Russian president Vladimir Putin offered to deploy elements of an American anti-misssile shield in Qabala Radiolocation Station in Azerbaijan instead of Poland and the Czech Republic?
• during one of the Caspian expeditions of the Rus, the city of Barda in Azerbaijan was saved from complete destruction only by an outbreak of dysentery among the Rus?
• Welshman Sir Gore Ouseley arranged for Azerbaijan to become part of the Russian Empire in 1814?

Facts on topics related to Azerbaijan

Kazakhstan

• fossil remains of the dinosaur species Aralosaurus were found in Kazakhstan after the Aral Sea started shrinking significantly?
• Kazakh dissident Rashid Nugmanov's directorial debut, Igla, was one of the first films to break the taboo against talking about drug addiction in the former Soviet Union and initiated the "Kazakh New Wave" cinema movement?
• Kazakhstan and Turkey have sought to promote closer bilateral relations and foster close ties between Turkic nations of Central Asia?
• Kazakhstan-South Korea relations are strengthened by the presence of 100,000 Koryo-sarams in Kazakhstan?
• although presidents of Russia, Ukraine and Kazakhstan have been requested to give technical advice about software patches in open-source computer operating systems, only the Ukrainian president did so?
• growing relations between Kazakhstan and People's Republic of China help China avert the establishment of U.S. military bases in Kazakhstan and harness its oil resources?
• the extinct snakefly genus Proraphidia is known from fossils found in Spain, England, and Kazakhstan?
• the Kapchagay Reservoir in Almaty Province, Kazakhstan, was responsible for reducing the water level of Lake Balkash by roughly 7 feet (2.2 metres) in depth?
• the town of Sayram in Kazakhstan has earned the nickname "Little Uzbekistan" because of its large Uzbek population?

Georgia (country)

• Georgia was the home of prehistoric humans more than one and a half million years ago?
• Georgia’s capital Tbilisi functioned as the center of an Islamic emirate under the Arab rule from 736 to 1122?
• Georgian footballer Georgi Kiknadze won five consecutive league championships with Dinamo Tbilisi?
• Georgian theatre director Kote Marjanishvili's use of puppetry in his adaptation of Oedipus Rex was inspired by a similar set-up in Edward Gordon Craig's 1911 adaptation of Hamlet?
• Ossetian jurist and politician Alan Parastaev has been a member of the governments of both South Ossetia and Georgia?
• Azerbaijanis live in Iran, Georgia, Turkey, Iraq and the United States, as well as Azerbaijan?
• George the Hagiorite from Georgia who became Saint George to the Georgian Orthodox Church had his biography written in 1084 by a disciple who was called George?
• Grigol Peradze was a Georgian ecclesiastic figure who was gassed in Auschwitz?
• Tytus Filipowicz, nominally the first Polish ambassador to Georgia, was captured during the Soviet invasion and ultimately organized the first Polish embassy to the Soviet Union?
• Turkic-speaking Greeks of Georgia and Ukraine refer to themselves as Urums, a term which derives from the Arabic word for Roman?

Kyrgyzstan

• Olympic Greco-Roman wrestler Raatbek Sanatbayev was running for President of the National Olympic Committee of Kyrgyzstan, when he was assassinated, as the previous head of the Committee had been?
• Toktogul Satilganov was the most famous of the Kyrgyz Akyn storytellers?
• German high jumper Meike Kröger spent almost a year working in an orphanage in Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan?
• the Kyrgyzstan White House was at the center of the 2010 Kyrgyzstani riots?

Armenia

• Armenian composer and musician Ara Gevorgyan composed the music for Russian prima ballerina Anastasia Volochkova's "Golden cage" ballet dedicated to the Bolshoi Theater?
• Polish-Armenian Roman Catholic priest, Tadeusz Isakowicz-Zaleski was ordered to be silent by the Krakow Curia because of his clergy lustration activities?
• chee kufta is an Armenian raw meat dish similar to steak tartare?
• Haghpat Monastery (pictured) in Armenia was placed on the World Heritage List over 1,000 years after it was founded?
• khash is a traditional Armenian dish from the Shirak region which has cow's feet as its main ingredient?
• Rhipsime and her companions are venerated as the first Christian martyrs in Armenian history?
• tetraconch churches, with four apses spreading from a central dome, are a speciality of medieval Armenian and Georgian architecture?
• a swinging column at Haghartsin Monastery in Armenia was used to hide riches?
• one of the finest khachkar memorial stones is located at Goshavank Monastery in Armenia, the place where the law of Armenia was first codified by Mkhitar Gosh in the late 12th and early 13th century?
• opinion polls in Armenia suggest that 64% of its population favors eventual Armenian membership in the European Union?

Cyprus

• "Comme Ci, Comme Ça" was performed in French at the Eurovision Song Contest 2007, despite being the Cypriot entry?
• Scorpions were transported to Cyprus in 1974 to protect the British Sovereign Base Areas during the Turkish Invasion?
• Section 171 of the Criminal Code of Cyprus, which prohibited homosexual acts between men, was repealed just eight days before a May 29, 1998 deadline set by the Council of Europe?
• among all European Union member states, Cyprus is the only presidential republic? (pictured: EU flag)
• despite being born in Harlow, England, Alex Stavrinou qualified to play for the Cyprus youth football team through his father's Cypriot heritage?
• during the Ottoman–Venetian War of 1570–1573, the 8,500-strong Venetian garrison of Famagusta in Cyprus held out for eleven months against an Ottoman army of 200,000 men?
• in 1902, 23-year-old British archaeozoologist Dorothea Bate discovered a new species of dwarf elephant in a cave on the island of Cyprus?
• the Cypriot women's basketball team was disqualified at the 2009 Jeux de la Francophonie for exceeding the permitted number of naturalized players?