As the crown jewel of the Caucasus and Central Asian Tsarist Empire, it was a perfect place for the arts to flourish – a multi-ethnic land of not only Azeris but also Russians, Persians, Armenians, Georgians, Jews and many other ethnicities.

The pipeline between Greece and Bulgaria is TAP's 182-kilometre interconnector that will bring around 1 billion cubic metres (bcm) of gas from Azerbaijan to Bulgaria, providing between 25 and 30 percent of the European country's gas needs.

The warning was issued as Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko stoutly defended the action to divert the Ryanair aircraft to Minsk.

Zelensky may be hoping for more explicit U.S. support, but no new format for talks to resolve the Ukrainian crisis is likely before Biden meets Putin.

The first shipment in amount of about 2,000 tonnes was imported this week by SOCAR New Energy, the company's subsidiary.

If the EU and the West as a whole do not react harshly and adequately to Lukashenko's trick, then not only Putin, but also Lukashenko, or both, will wipe their feet about this collective West.

Since the elections in August, Protasevich has allegedly been targeted by the Lukashenko regime and has had criminal charges filed against him for allegedly being a terrorist. In Belarus, terrorists can face the death penalty.