Azerbaijan

Summary

Following the collapse of the Russian Empire; it was subsequently incorporated into the Soviet Union for seven decades. Azerbaijan has yet to resolve its conflict with Armenia over Nagorno-Karabakh, a primarily ethnic Armenian-populated region that Moscow recognized in 1923 as an autonomous republic within Soviet Azerbaijan after Armenia and Azerbaijan disputed the territory’s status. Armenia and Azerbaijan reignited their dispute over the area in 1988; the struggle escalated militarily after both countries attained independence from the Soviet Union in 1991. By May 1994, when a cease-fire took hold, ethnic Armenian forces held not only Nagorno-Karabakh but also seven surrounding provinces in the territory of Azerbaijan. The OSCE Minsk Group, co-chaired by the US, France, and Russia, is the framework established to mediate a peaceful resolution of the conflict.

Corruption in the country is widespread, and the government, which eliminated presidential term limits in a 2009 referendum and approved extending presidential terms from 5 to 7 years in 2016, has been accused of authoritarianism. Although the poverty rate has been reduced and infrastructure investment has increased substantially in recent years due to revenue from oil and gas production, reforms have not adequately addressed weaknesses in most government institutions, particularly in the education and health sectors, as well as the court system. [1]

📷 : Wikipedia

Statistics

People Groups
40
Population
9,789,000
Unreached
96.6%

From the The Joshua Project [2]

📷 : Wikipedia

Prayer Guide

Expatriate Christians must minister with discretion, since open proselytism is forbidden. But there are ample opportunities to demonstrate Christ’s love to Azerbaijanis, especially via tentmaking and development work. The Azeri Church is open for foreign believers to partner with them in ministry. Pray for an increase of new Kingdom workers there and for their fruitfulness.

The unreached:

  1. Most Azerbaijani towns and villages have never been evangelized.
  2. The poor and displaced. Employment opportunities (outside of the fortunate few in the oil industry), clean water supplies and long-term solutions related to the 800,000 displaced are all needs. There are many untapped ways of showing Christian compassion to them.
  3. The Caucasus peoples are mostly Muslim and unevangelized. The only exceptions are Georgians and Udi, who are traditionally Orthodox. Pray for the Lezgi, Avar, Tsakhur, Kryz and Buduq peoples, the most populous of these peoples.
  4. The Indo-Iranian-speaking minorities of Talysh, Tat and Kurds are unreached.

Source [3]