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  1. #1
    Thailand Expat tomcat's Avatar
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    Oh, To Be in Nakhchivan...

    Insular and isolated, the autonomous republic of Nakhchivan is emerging as one of the world’s most sustainable places.


    • By David McArdle 22 July 2020



    Chances are you’ve never heard of Nakhchivan. Jammed between Armenia, Iran and Turkey on the Transcaucasian plateau, this autonomous republic of Azerbaijan is one of the most isolated outposts of the former Soviet Union and a place few travellers ever visit.

    Geographically severed from its nation by an 80-130km strip of Armenia, this 450,000-person slice of Azerbaijan is the world’s largest landlocked exclave, a Bali-sized amalgam of Soviet apartment blocks, gold-domed mosques and arid rust-red mountains wedged between the Black and Caspian seas.

    Surrounded by Armenia, Turkey and Iran but part of Azerbaijan, Nakhchivan is the world's largest landlocked exclave (Credit: PeterHermesFurian/Getty Images)

    It’s home to a towering mausoleum where the prophet Noah is buried; a medieval mountaintop fortress which Lonely Planet dubbed the “Machu Picchu of Eurasia”; and an eerily clean capital where civil servants plant trees and sweep the streets on weekends. It also happened to be the first part of the crumbling Soviet Union to declare its independence – a couple of months before Lithuania – only to incorporate itself into Azerbaijan a mere fortnight later.

    Of course, I didn’t know any of this before recently hopping the last of five 30-minute daily flights from Azerbaijan’s oil-drenched capital, Baku, to Nakhchivan City, the region’s eponymous capital.

    It still remains relatively unknown to many in the Russian-speaking world and beyond
    In the 15 years or so I’ve spent travelling across the vast outer reaches of the former Soviet Union, I’ve learned Russian, ventured to breakaway micronations like Transnistria and monitored elections in Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan. But a trip to Nakhchivan had always remained elusive. Because of Nakhchivan’s unique position on the Soviet Union’s frontier bordering NATO-member Turkey and Iran, it was something of a secretive exclave largely closed off even to most Soviet citizens. And 30 years after this autonomous republic broke free from the USSR, it still remains relatively unknown to many in the Russian-speaking world and beyond.

    Very few foreign visitors travel to this far-flung part of the former USSR (Credit: Anar Aliyev/Getty Images)

    Today, anyone with an Azerbaijani visa can enter the region, and while it’s a relatively safe place to visit, authorities continue to be on alert when outsiders show up, in part because very few foreigners do. After alighting from my Azerbaijan Airlines plane and shuffling past the immigration desks, a man whispered in my ear: “The police… they’re talking about you”. “How do they know who I am?” I replied. “They’ve been told that the incoming British citizen is wearing bright red shorts.” It seemed the airport in Baku had called ahead to inform security in Nakhchivan of my arrival, and my garish shorts most likely didn’t help any attempt to blend in.

    You won’t find a single piece of litter lying around Nakhchivan

    “You won’t find a single piece of litter lying around Nakhchivan,” my taxi driver-cum-tour guide Mirza Ibrahimov informed me, as we pushed out of Nakhchivan’s impeccably tidy airport in his gleaming black Mercedes and drove through the spotless streets towards the region’s second-largest city, Ordubad.

    He was right: my first impression of the exclave was one of surreal, almost shocking, cleanliness. I wanted to ask how the streets, squares and Soviet-era housing complexes we passed remained so tidy, but was distracted by a soaring octagonal pinnacle graced with tiled Islamic geometric patterns in the distance, which Ibrahimov explained holds a special place in the hearts of local residents.

    Nakhchivanis refer to their region as the "land of Noah" and believe the prophet is buried in this mausoleum (Credit: Toghrul Rahimli)

    Noah’s Tomb is one of at least five final resting places of the prophet scattered around the world, but don’t tell that to the Nakhchivanis who proudly refer to their motherland as the “land of Noah”. Some scholars say the name “Nakhchivan” is a combination of two Armenian terms, which together mean “place of descent”, while many Azerbaijanis claim it comes from Nakh (“Noah”) and chivan (“place”, meaning “Noah’s place”) in ancient Persian languages.

    According to local legend, when the great flood receded, Noah’s ark is said to have landed atop nearby Mount Ilandag, carving out the defined cleft seen on the peak today. Many Nakhchivanis will tell you that the prophet and his followers lived the rest of their days here, and that they are their descendants.


    ...the rest of the article is here: http://www.bbc.com/travel/story/2020...ainable-nation
    Majestically enthroned amid the vulgar herd

  2. #2
    Thailand Expat Saint Willy's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by tomcat View Post
    and my garish shorts most likely didn’t help any attempt to blend in.
    Should be a crime.

  3. #3
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    Quote Originally Posted by TheRealKW View Post
    Should be a crime.
    Depends on if he shaves his legs like others here . . .

  4. #4
    Thailand Expat

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    Thanks for posting that Mr Cat.
    I’d never heard of it.

  5. #5
    Thailand Expat tomcat's Avatar
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    ...you're welcome...

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