Baku from a Hungarian perspective – 80 amazing pictures

Azerbaijan and its capital were frequently in the news these days, since the 2012 Eurovision Song Contest was held there, the 1^st European Games were conducted there and Formula 1 Grand Prix will also be on the Baku streets from next year. The editor of Daily News Hungary met a kind invitation when she visited Baku which is 2500 km away from Budapest as the crow flies. We are trying to introduce Azerbaijani people and their capital to those who wish to travel in a longer article.

Direct Wizz Air flights operated between Budapest and Baku, then it was abolished due to financial reasons, but as Daily News Hungary also reported, direct flight will restart in March. This is important because currently you can get to the Azerbaijani capital with a change in Istanbul which means 6-7 hours of travel including the transfer.

EU citizens have to apply for a visa, if they go to Azerbaijan. The paperwork can be arranged in the embassy located next to Oktogon (Budapest Eotvos Street 14, 1067). The procedure is not simple, but it is sure it is worth to apply for the visa, you will have special experiences during a trip to Baku.

Arriving in Baku, first you need to cope with the three-hour time difference, but don’t worry about the difficulties, as you will notice even at the Baku Heydar Aliyev International Airport that, instead of the imagined oriental conditions and atmosphere, the passengers arrive at a modern airport satisfying all requirements, and you can get to the downtown on a broad highway from the airport.

Azerbaijan is the most dynamically-developing country of the Caucasus; the GDP growth is continuous due to the oil and gas revenues. Such large-scale construction projects and improvements have been made in recent years that Baku was called “little Dubai” by many people. It is important to emphasize, however, that while huge skyscrapers are being built in the capital, only a trace of this economic power can be seen in the remote regions. The intentions of the government led by Ilham Aliyev are clear: the country released from the captivity of the Soviet Union primarily wants to make the capital fascinating, and when the pace of mega investment will have been slowing down, the huge amounts of oil revenues will be spent on rural developments.

One thing is certain: when the Hungarian tourists arrive in Baku, they see a stunningly vibrant and expanding city, you can see cranes among the several glass palaces which build additional imposing buildings around the clock. The Azerbaijani do everything for the change, they carry out the grandiose plans in months which are followed by further and further plans. Compared to the Hungarian national constructions and road renovations, the work is moving at light speed in Baku, and although according to the locals, the building boom is much more subdued than a few years ago, you can feel the power of the uncompromising implementation.

One of the most impressive attractions of Baku is the Flag Square, whose center there is a 70X35 m Azerbaijani flag. The square handed over a couple of years ago tells a lot about the capital and its residents. The Azerbaijani are tremendously proud of their nation and its symbols. In Hungary, many people spoke against the flag on Kossuth Square for being too big and ostentatious, but comparing to the flag in Baku, it is a miniature one. At the foot of the flag rod, there is the flag museum where you can see the centuries, during which the look of the flag changed a lot, but you can also see original footage on the 200 kg flag’s raising ceremony.

In the immediate vicinity of the Flag Square, there is the hall built for the 2012 Eurovision festival, but one of the world’s longest seaside promenades also ends here, which leads to the city center following the line of the Caspian Sea.

Almost in all promotional pictures, there is the three buildings  which can be seen from nearly every point of the city, they are beautiful glass palaces daytime and huge graphical interfaces at night, where the colors of the Azerbaijani flag are seen, then the building turns into a huge fire, proclaiming the “Land of fire” nickname.

There is the country’s parliament in the immediate neighborhood of the symbolic buildings. It can be a disappointment for Hungarians due to its simplicity, but only a few could compete with the Hungarian one.

Azerbaijan was only a peripheral region of empires until the beginning of the 20^th century, their independent country was formed only after the termination of the tsarist Russia. Georgia, Armenia and Azerbaijan, the neighboring countries, became part of the Soviet Union, while the ethnic map did not match the countries’ borders, and unfortunately, several bloody confrontations emerged between the Azerbaijanis and the Armenians. During an Armenian attack, so many people got massacred that such a violent and planned aggression can rightly be called genocide. A good example is the city of Guba not far from the Russian-Azerbaijani border, where a memorial park was created in memory of an Armenian massacre, which commemorates the Guba massacre in the early 20^th century. Next to the huge building of the museum, there is a smaller tent where mass graves are also presented. The image clearly shows that Azerbaijani people massacred by the Armenians were thrown into a common grave then were covered with soil, almost the entire population was sent to the next world.