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You wanna talk about personal impressions?
Okay, i have been in both countries several times.
Azerbaijan is typical Central Asian state. With president's and his family portraits everywhere, police takes bribe on the roads, like in soviet times.
Armenia is more poor, there is no oil. But political system is nothing like in Azerbaijan. Democracy in Armenia is far from perfection, but Armenians doing much better, than Azerbaijan.
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Who said Armenia is rich? I said Armenia is poor, even compared to Azerbaijan. We were talking about corruption and democracy.
Emigration rate is high not only in Armenia, but also in Azerbaijan. You live in Russia, you see how many Azerbaijanian migrants come to your country?
Georgians do not migrate to Russia. First of all it's not the place where Georgians dream to live, second it's impossible, we have visa regime.
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Georgians
According to Wikipedia there's only 150K in Russia and 100K in Iran
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Islam in Azerbaijan
Approximately 99.2 percent of the population of Azerbaijan is Muslim according to a 2009 Pew Research center report. The rest of the population adheres to other faiths or are non-religious, although they are not officially represented. Among the Muslim majority, religious observance varies and Muslim identity tends to be based more on culture and ethnicity rather than religion; however, many imams reported increased attendance at mosques during 2003. The Muslim population is approximately 85% Shi'a and 15% Sunni; differences traditionally have not been defined sharply.
Most Shias are adherents of orthodox Ithna Ashari school of Shi'a Islam. Other traditional religions or beliefs that are followed by many in the country are the orthodox Sunni Islam, the Armenian Apostolic Church (in Nagorno-Karabakh), the Russian Orthodox Church, the Georgian Orthodox Church, and various Christian sects. Traditionally villages around Baku and Lenkoran region are considered stronghold of Shi'ism. In some northern regions, populated by Sunni Dagestani (Lezghian) people, the Salafi movement gained great following. Folk Islam is widely practiced but there is little evidence of an organized Sufi movement.
Radical Islamism
There is a certain rise of religious extremism across the Azerbaijan as a result of continued problems such as corruption, poverty, and semi-authoritarian government rule, combined with disillusionment with the West and support of religious sects from different countries. However there's a very limited support for radical Islam in Azerbaijan. According to Svante Cornell:
Azerbaijan can rightly claim to be among the most progressive and secular Islamic societies. Aside from having been the first Muslim country to have operas, theater plays, and a democratic republic, Azerbaijan today is among the Muslim countries where support for secularism is the highest, and where radical ideologies have met only very limited interest.
Svante Cornell believes that the radical groups remain weak, but have a potential to grow under the current domestic and international circumstances. To confront this, the Azerbaijani state needs to address the diarchy in terms of supervision of religious structures. He writes, that the Government policies toward Islam in general and Islamic radicalism in particular have been inadequate.
Islamic activism, and radicalism, has geographic variations: while Shias are strong in the South of Azerbaijan, the Sunni radicalism is growing in the North, and the capital is experiencing growth in both Shi’a and Sunni radicalism.
The International Crisis Group has determined, in the executive summary of the findings from its special report on religion in Azerbaijan, that: "Azerbaijan is a secular state with an overwhelmingly moderate (predominantly Shiite) Muslim population. Since the break-up of the Soviet Union and independence in 1991, independent Sunni and Shiite groups have emerged which refuse the spiritual authority of the official clergy. Some are political, but very few, if any, appear intent on employing violence to overthrow the state.
Azerbaijani journalist Rafiq Tağı, critical of Islam, was sentenced to three years in prison in Azerbaijan and killed by a group of Azerbaijanis after parole in 2011. According to IPWR reporter K. Guluzade, the case of journalist "demonstrates that Islamic sentiment is strong in Azerbaijan and has complicated relations with Azerbaijan’s southern neighbor, the Islamic Republic of Iran."
The Islamic Groups and Forces in Azerbaijan include The Juma Mosque Community, the Islamic Party of Azerbaijan and Jeyshullah.
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