Young people call their region the land of Noah & believe that Noah is buried here.
Chances are you have not heard of Nakhjuan. A mountainous region beyond the Qaf Mountains between Armenian Iran & Turkey it is an autonomous region an area of Azerbaijan a remote southern region of the Soviet Union of its time where very few tourists visit.
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It is geographically cut off from the Autonomous Republic of Azerbaijan an 80 to 130 km long strip of Armenia between Nakhchivan and Azerbaijan the largest landlocked outlying area in the world equal to the island of Bali. Area, which is a region of dry mountains between the Black Sea and the Caspian Sea with a golden domed mosque.
Surrounded by Turkey Iran & Armenia this region is actually the territory of Azerbaijan. Nakhjuan is an overseas region surrounded by the world's largest arid land
There is a very high mausoleum where Noah is buried. There is a fort built on top of a mountain which has been termed as 'Machu Picchu of Eurasia by the information program Lonely Planet of the planet (Machu Picchu is actually South. The Inca civilization of the United States is the name of an ancient mountain town the cleanest capital in the world where government employees plant trees and clean the streets every week. It was the first region to declare independence at the time of the collapse of the Soviet Union, a few weeks before Lithuania, in order to become part of Azerbaijan in two weeks.
Obviously I did not know about it before the recent accidental trip from the oil-smelling capital of Azerbaijan Baku to the capital city of Nakhchivan Nakhchivan.
I have traveled to many parts of the former Soviet Union over the last 15 years learned Russian & discovered many small nations such as Transnistria as well as elections in Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan. Monitoring is also done.
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But Nakhjuan never had a chance to go. Because it was a remote part of the Soviet Union during the Cold War which at the time had two members of the US military alliance NATO on the Turkish Iranian border & because of its strategic uniqueness it was isolated and so secretive There was an area where the citizens of the Soviet Union were not allowed to come here due to security reasons. Thirty years after secession from the Soviet Union the nation is still an unknown region to Russia and the world.
Very few foreign tourists travel to this remote part of the former Soviet Union
Today if anyone has a visa to Azerbaijan, they can go to the region & because it is a relatively safe region the authorities here are immediately alerted as soon as they see a foreigner coming there because the region I rarely see foreigners.
As I was getting off the plane of Azerbaijan Airlines and passing through various immigration desks a man whispered in my ear and said Police ... She talking about you. I said to him How do you know who I am? "He said the incoming British citizen was wearing a shiny red shirt. This means that the security at Baku airport informed me of my arrival before Nakhjuan arrived. And it is possible that my flamboyant knickers did not allow me to look like a normal person.
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You will not see so much rubbish anywhere in Nakhjuan |
You will not see so much rubbish anywhere in Nakhjuan
When I got out of the airport in my taxi driver Mirza Ibrahimov' huge Mercedes car he told me You won't see so much rubbish in any part of Nakhjuan. From Nakhjuan he left for Urduabad the second largest city in the region.
He was right: My first impression of this outer region was fascinating the city was amazingly clean. I wanted to know why the Soviet-era dwelling buildings I was passing by were so clean, but my attention was drawn to a monument to Islamic verses written in an eight-triangular style visible from afar. Ibrahimov said he had a lot of respect for the locals.
The young people call their region the land of Noah and believe that Noah is buried here.
One of the tombs of Noah is one of the five places spread all over the world but don't tell this to the young people because they believe that their homeland is Noah land. Some historians say that the word Nakhjuan is a mixture of 2 Armenian words meaning region of ancestral origin while many Azerbaijanis claim that it is the ancient Persian word Nakh (Noah). And chuan place.
According to local tradition when the flood of Noah subsided Noah's ark came to rest on a mountain called Elandagh & its traces are also mentioned on the place where this ark rests. Many young people will tell you that Prophet Noah & his followers stayed in this place for many days & the people here are descendants of Noah.
Ibrahimovic told me a few days later that the cut mark on the top of the mountain was the place where Noah's ark had collided with when it sank. One day while I was sitting in a park in Urduabad an old man came to me he knew that I was a foreigner. Pointing to a cigarette in his hand he said Noah's ark came to rest on the top of this mountain.
According to the narration, Noah's ark collided with the top of Mount Al-Andagh after the water came down, which left a mark there.
In a sense Nakhjawan is another name for Prophet Noah but seven and a half thousand years ago he landed on Mount Al-Andagh (according to some people, the mountains with him landed on Mount Ararat it depends on who you ask. & their descendants are present there today as a Muslim majority population looking back to the periods of Iranians, Ottomans and then Russians. One of their conflicts with the Soviet-era Armenia of a few decades ago still exists as a "cold remnant of the past.
In 1988, as Moscow's control over the Soviet republics was weakening, a war broke out between the Armenian-backed Armenian minority and Azerbaijan in Nagorno-Karabakh southwestern Azerbaijan, in Nakhchivan neighborhood. About 30,000 people were killed before the 1994 ceasefire. However during the war the nearby Armenian population closed all rail & road routes between the Soviet Union and Azerbaijan and Nakhchivan. The two bridges over the Ars River to Turkey and Iran saved the people of Nakhchivan from complete destruction.
As a result of the food shortage caused by this siege of Nakhjuan the people here felt a strong need for self-reliance. They did not want to rely on their neighbors and the bridges over the river so the young people began to make their own food and make their own necessities. Since then Baku has invested heavily in the region deepening the national spirit of self-reliance in the region, which is a great example for the study of sustainable development.
The strong need for self-reliance in Nakhjuan during the siege created a strong sense of national identity.
Today, like North Korea, this outlying region of Azerbaijan is one of the best examples of independent economic development, where a kingdom or a country can survive on its own resources without any international assistance or trade. But I soon learned that the slow-food, organic, and eco-friendly effects of Nakhchivan's internal economic strategy are enormous --- and that this thinking has become a source of pride and recognition for the region.
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| The strong need for self-reliance in Nakhjuan during the siege created a strong sense of national identity. |
Food is highly valued in Nakhjuan and there is a reason for it. We are eating like this today because we can eat today.
Al-Shad Hasanov a friend of Ibrahimov's said this while we were eating near the Iranian border. He and Ibrahimovic said that the memories of storing food are still fresh in their minds but after being freed from the policy of economic dependence on the Soviet Union Nakhjuan strictly banned the use of any pesticides in his region. Imposed, organic food only. Many health-conscious people now try to eat the meat of a sheep that came from a young farm the fish that came from a young lake, the wild soy, the fennel, the tarkhun and the seeds of Balanga from the hills of Nakhjuan. The fruits & even the salt of the Nakhjuani orchards may have been extracted from the Nakhjuani caves.
Shortly after a pile of mutton and its soft bones was picked up where we were eating. All of these salads cheese large loaves of bread, kebabs, hundreds of different spices, freshly prepared fish beer & vodka - each contained a cure for some ailment.
When asked about the motives behind eating Nakhjuani organic local food Hasnov said that the real motivation is our own improvement. "Our people are healthy, and we don't suffer from the diseases we used to have because we eat what is natural. As I listened to this I cut a large tomato with my teeth and filled it with my sweet juice. Undoubtedly I had never eaten such a delicious tomato before.
The use of scientific inventions for food production is strictly prohibited in the region & gradually the food culture has made it a haven for local food consumption.
The secret to the health of young people is not just food free from scientific inventions. There are salt mines in Duzdag 14 kilometers from Nakhjuan city, the atmosphere is very impressive and there is also a Soviet sanatorium in the caves of these mines. The map of these mines assures medical tourists that the 13 million tons of pure salt in these mines can cure many respiratory diseases from asthma to tuberculosis.
Nakhjuan 30 C temperature dropped shortly after when Ibrahimovic and I entered a dark cave where we felt a puff of salt particles and thought of the benefits of treating respiratory illnesses in that environment. The environment can be called a cure. We took a deep breath. We get tourists from all over the world Ibrahimov said. Last year a man from Uruguay came here with severe asthma. He is OK. At the same time a delegation of students & teachers of the school came & spent the night in silence & salt.
When we got out of our ears I decided that I would know the secret of the city best cleaning frenzy. In all respects Nakhchivan can be said to be the cleanest city in Adarbaijan if not the entire Qaf region. Everywhere you looked the motorways were perfectly paved the streets were perfectly clean the bushes were beautifully cut and the weeds were completely removed from the ground.
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