"Amazing! I'm overwhelmed by the cuisine. The country with that kind of food is obviously a smart country!" French actor, film-maker, businessman and vineyard owner Gerard Depardieu voices his delight with the Azerbaijani dishes in an ad created almost 2 years ago.
The ad, only one from several created to promote the country image and attract more tourists was circulated on foreign channels. The official statistics on how much was spent on this ad and what impact it had is not disclosed, but the fact is the government spends millions on polishing its international image. And the reality is far from being "amazing" or "astonishing" because of political realities, ensuring basic human rights and also economic conditions.
Azerbaijan is a country of 9,686,210 (July 2014 est.), bordering the Caspian Sea in the East, Russia in the North, Iran in the South, Turkey and Georgia in the West.The main religion of local population is Islam, but there are Jewish and Orthodox Christian communities as well.
A ceasefire was agreed by the sides in 1994, but Armenian separatists had already taken control of Nagorno-Karabakh and seven surrounding provinces. The conflict caused almost one million Azerbaijanis to leave their lands.
OSCE Minsk group is coordinating the talks over the conflict resolution, dozens of meetings have been organized on bilateral level or with participation of a third party, Russia, USA or France, Minsk group co-chairs.
Azerbaijan's main demand in negotiations is for Armenia to unconditionally withdraw armed forces from its seven occupied and adjacent territories, and all refugees and IDPs return to their homelands.
Officials accuse international bodies, human rights watchdogs of ignoring rights of Azerbaijani refugees and IDPs. The West's sanctions on Russia for Ukrainian crisis are widely referred and the lack of the same approach with regards to Armenia is questioned.