Housing in Afghanistan

Houses in Afghanistan are traditionally made from mud and include a series of rooms located around a private rectangular courtyard where women and children play, cook and socialize. Married sons share the same house as their parents, although they have separate quarters. Some Afghan houses contain a special room where men socialize with each other. In the cities many Afghans live in apartments. There are many new modern designed houses available in all the major cities of the country.


http://afghanembassy.in/em/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=98:culture-of-afghanistan&catid=46:afghanistan-info&Itemid=88

Art Exhibition Opens In Kabul

http://bakhtarnews.com.af/en/index.php?news=5348

Armenia's foreign trade woes

In 1988, the territory of Nagorno-Karabakh, a predominantly ethnic Armenian enclave within Azerbaijan, voted to secede and join Armenia. This eventually developed into a full-scale armed conflict. Armenian support for the separatists led to an economic embargo by Azerbaijan, which has crippled Armenia's foreign trade and restricted its imports of food and fuel, three-quarters of which transited Azerbaijan under Soviet rule.

armenia most peaceful in region

ARMENIA IS THE MOST PEACEFUL COUNTRY FROM BOSPORUS TO THE CASPIAN SEA
Australia's Institute for Economics and Peace jointly with the British "The Economist" magazine published the rating list of the world peace coefficient.

To define peaceful countries, the experts use a number of factors, such as the number of armed forces, the national military budget, conflicts with neighbors, the number of deaths from internal conflicts, the number of police officers compared to the population, citizens' educational qualification and the attitude towards human rights.

Ancient City in Azerbaijan

Here is the link to an article I found about an ancient city that was discovered in Azerbaijan.

http://www.today.az/news/society/86453.html

Foreign Policy Priorities for Azerbaijan

Here are some of the foreign policy subjects that the country of Azerbaijan is focusing on:

-Promotion of the establishment of pluralistic democracy based on market economy and the rule of law.

-Conduct of an independent foreign policy aimed at the soonest restoration of sovereignty and territorial integrity of Azerbaijan over its territory.

-Elimination of threats and risks to the security, political independence, sovereignty and territorial integrity of Azerbaijan.

-Peaceful settlement of the conflict with Armenia over Nagorno-Karabakh region of Azerbaijan through negotiations within the framework of the OSCE Minsk Group on the basis of the principles of the OSCE Lisbon Summit.

-Liquidation of the consequences of military aggression of Armenia against Azerbaijan.

-Development of good-neighbourly and mutually advantageous relations with neighbouring countries.

-Promotion of security and stability in the region.

-Prevention of illegal arms and other transfers in the region.

-Adherence to existing global non-proliferation regimes and establishment of a nuclear-free zone in the Southern Caucasus.

-Demilitarization of the Caspian Sea Basin.

-Integration into European and Transatlantic security and cooperation structures, including NATO, EU, WEU, CE.

-Facilitation of the development of various sectors of the country's economy with due consideration of Azerbaijan's crucial geostrategic location at the crossroads between the East and West.

-Development of the Eurasian Transport Corridor of which Azerbaijan is a part.

Retrieved from http://www.azembassy.us/new/pages.php?name=FPP

Afghanistan's natural resources

Afghanistan's natural resources include: natural gas, petroleum, coal, copper, uranium, gold, silver, chromite, talc, barites, sulfur, lead, zinc, iron ore, salt, precious and semiprecious stones.
Geography of Afghanistan

Suicide bombers invade government building

Four gunmen equipped with explosive vests stormed a government building in the eastern province of Khost this morning, which triggered several hours of clashes with security forces. Two suicide bombers were able to detonate their explosives and the two others were shot dead during the fight. Three police soldiers were killed and five others were injured.

http://www.miamiherald.com/2011/05/22/2229263/suicide-bombers-invade-afghan.html

Religious Conflicts in Armenia

Jehovah’s Witnesses members accused of attacking a priest deny being the guilty party, while claiming it was rather the Armenian Apostolic Church servant who behaved aggressively in their respect.

Earlier this week media quoted Holy Trinity Church priest Ter Yesayi Artenyan as claiming that on Sunday, May 15, he asked two young people preaching near his church in Yerevan to leave the territory but in response they attacked him, hurled obscenities and threats “to bite his head off”. A criminal case had been instituted in connection with the incident on the hallmarks of “beating, threats and arbitrariness.”

Armenia in Biblical Times

One of the world's oldest civilizations, Armenia once included Mount Ararat, which biblical tradition identifies as the mountain that Noah's ark rested on after the flood. It was the first country in the world to officially embrace Christianity as its religion (c. A.D. 300).

Inflation and Oil in Azerbaijan

I found one article that talks about how inflation in Azerbaijan has actually dropped over the last few months. I thought that it was interesting that the prices on goods are getting cheaper, but the prices of oil are increasing. I have attached both articles.

Inflation- http://www.today.az/news/business/86161.html
Increase on oil prices- http://www.today.az/news/business/86289.html

Azerbaijan and The United States

Ever since Azerbaijan was no longer a part of the Soviet Union, the United States has had contact with the country. For example, there are companies from the U.S. who are involved in the offshore oil development, and in return the U.S. is helping the country out in other areas such as telecommunication.

The United States is helping Azerbaijan transition into a democracy as well as helping to form an open market economy. In October of 1992, there was The Freedom Support Act which has provided about $22 million dollars for humanitarian, democracy and economic reform assistance. In 1995, there was a bilateral trade agreement that was signed which listed Azerbaijan as a "most favored nation". Then in 2008, there was a bilateral investment treaty signed between the U.S. and Azerbaijan, in which Azerbaijan was listed as a beneficiary under the Generalized System of Preferences program.

Retrieved from http://www.state.gov/r/pa/ei/bgn/2909.htm

Bomb Kills 1, and Injures 7 in Khost

On Thursday, one person was killed, while seven were injured from a bomb explosion in Khost. The seven people were admitted to the provincial capital hospital. The injured people were "all civilians and and sustained wounds in a bomb blast in Khost city, some 150 km southeast of the Afghan capital Kabul." The possible target of the bomb was Afghan security forces, according to eyewitnesses.

http://news.xinhuanet.com/english2010/world/2011-05/12/c_13871390.htm

Government of Afghanistan

The Afghan government consists of an elected President, two Vice Presidents, and a National Assembly consisting of two Houses: the House of People (Wolesi Jirga), and the House of Elders (Meshrano Jirga). There is also an independent Judiciary branch consisting of the Supreme Court (Stera Mahkama), High Courts and Appeal Courts. The President appoints the members of the Supreme Court with the approval of the Wolesi Jirga.

http://www.afghan-web.com/facts.html

Marrigage registrations

Thursday, Parliament of Armenia adopted the changes and amendments in the law “On acts of civil registration” discussing the dates of marriage registration.

Presenting the amendments, Armenian Justice Minister Hrayr Tovmasyan said that the changes suggest to reduce the dates of marriage registration in Armenia from one month to seven days. Today it is 30 days for Armenian citizens (from the moment of submitting application for registration of marriage) and three months – for foreign citizens.

Byzantine Empire

In 591, the Byzantine Emperor Maurice defeated the Persians and recovered much of the remaining territory of Armenia into the empire. The conquest was completed by the Emperor Heraclius, himself ethnically Armenian, in 629.

Azerbaijan's Environmental Issues

The soil throughout the region of Azerbaijan is highly contaminated with DDT and toxic defoliants that were used during cotton production during the Soviet era. Petroleum and petrochemicals have contributed to the current water and air pollution problems. There are not many funds that have been able to go towards the environmental clean-up efforts. Another problem rests with the over-fishing of Caspian sturgeon, which is where most of the world's supply of caviar comes from.

Retrieved from http://www.state.gov/r/pa.ei/bgn/2909.htm

Azerbaijan: Extra-Curricular Acitivities

Azerbaijan is a member of the United Nations, the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), NATO's Partnership for Peace (and maintains a 90-troop presence in Afghanistan), the Euro-Atlantic Partnership, the World Health Organization, GUAM Organization for Democracy and Economic Development, The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, the Council of Europe, the International Monetary Fund, the Organization of the Islamic Conference, and the World Bank. Azerbaijan is also an observer at the Community of Democracies.

Retrieved from http://www.state.gov/r/pa/ei/bgn/2909.htm

Armenian laguage newspaper

The Takvim-i Vekayi, which was first published in 1831, was known as the first Ottoman newspaper, was also published in five languages other than Ottoman Turkish. These five other languages were Arabic, Armenian, Farsi, French and Greek. This original Ottoman newspaper carried both official as well as other announcements and continued on in a slightly different capacity later.

Armenia past war celebration

For 19 years already the Armenian people celebrate May 9 not only as the day of victory the Great Patriotic War but also as the day of liberation of Shushi, one of the crucial episodes in history of Armenian people. Liberation of Shushi had become the turning point in the Karabakh war, marking the way for future achievements.

Provines of Afghanistan

In Afghanistan, there are currently 34 provinces; two of which (Panjshir and Daykundi)
were added in 2004. Each province is divided into districts.

http://sites.google.com/site/worldfactsinc/the-provinces-of-afghanistan

Flash Flood Kills 12 in Afghanistan

A flash flood in Afghanistan has killed 12 people. On Saturday heavy rains, which have also caused some property damage has caused twelve people to die along with five people that are missing. Of those that died, five of them are from the same family.
http://www.presstv.ir/detail/178772.html

U.S. Embassy in Azerbaijan Not Closing

In the aftermath of the death of Osama Bin Laden, there has been an increased worry about retaliation. This means that some of the U.S. Embassy's in other countries could be targeted. This idea has gone so far that many of the Embassy's have decided to temporarily close in order to avoid an attack. The Embassy in Azerbaijan though has decided that they will not close and will resume work as normal. The link to the article is listed below.

http://www.today.az/news/politics/85434.html

What Does Azerbaijan's Flag Stand For?

I thought it would be interesting to post something about the national symbol for the country. The crescent moon in the middle of the flag and the eight pointed star represents the eight branches of the Turkic people. The blue stripe stands for the Turks and the green stripe stands for Islam. The red stripe in the middle stands for the adherence to freedom, democracy, and human rights.

Retrieved from:
http://www.mapsofworld.com/flags/azerbaijani-flag.html
http://www.sabunchucourt.gov.az/eng/index-1.html#2