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Azerbaijan (English [?æz?rba?'d???n]&_160;(help·info); Azerbaijani Az?rbaycan), officially the Republic of Azerbaijan (Azerbaijani Az?rbaycan Respublikasi), is the largest and most populous country in the South Caucasus, partially in Eastern Europe and partially in Western Asia. It is bounded by the Caspian Sea to the east, Russia to the north, Georgia to the west and northwest, Armenia to the southwest, and Iran to the south. The Azerbaijani exclave of Nakhchivan is bordered by Armenia to the north and east, Iran to the south and southwest, and Turkey to the west. The country's territory also encompasses several islands in the Caspian Sea. Azerbaijan, a nation with an ethnic Azeri and Shi‘ite Muslim majority population,[1][2] is a secular and unitary republic. The country has been a co-founder of GUAM and the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons, and has been a member of the Commonwealth of Independent States since September 1993.[3] A Special Envoy of the European Commission is present in the country, and it is also a member of the United Nations, OSCE, Council of Europe, and the NATO Partnership for Peace (PfP) program. The name of Azerbaijan derives from Atropates,[4][5] a satrap of Persia under the Achaemenid empire, who was later reinstated as the satrap of Media under Alexander of Macedonia.[6][7] The original etymology of this name is thought to have its roots in the ancient Zoroastrianism, namely, in Avestan Frawardin Yasht ("Hymn to the Guardian Angels"), there is a mentioning of âterepâtahe ashaonô fravashîm ýazamaide, which literally translates from Old Persian as "we worship the Fravashi of the holy Atare-pata".[8] Atropates ruled over the region of present-day Iranian Azerbaijan. The name "Atropates" itself is the Greek transliteration of an Old-Iranian, probably Median, compounded name with the meaning "Protected by the (Holy) Fire". The Greek name is mentioned by Diodorus Siculus and Strabo, and is continued as adurbadagan in the Pahlavi geographical text Shahrestaniha i Eranshahr.[9] The earliest evidence of human settlement in the territory of Azerbaijan dates to the late Stone Age and is related to the Quruçay culture of Azykh Cave. The Upper Paleolithic and late Bronze Age cultures are attested in the caves of Taglar, Damcili, Zar, Yataq-yeriand in the necropolises of Leylatepe and Sarytepe. The area was conquered by the Achaemenids around 550 B.C., leading to the spread of Zoroastrianism, while later become part of the Alexander the Great's empire, and its successor Seleucid Kingdom. Caucasian Albanians, the original inhabitants of the area established an independent kingdom around 4th century B.C but circa 95-67 B.C. parts of it were subjugated by Tigranes the Great.
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