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AZERBAIJAN
Independence declared: 30 August 1991
Population: 7.7 million
Capital: Baku
President: Heydar Aliyev (since 18 June 1993)
 Country profile
Timeline
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VIEWPOINTS
There’s a bigger choice of food now, but who can afford to buy it? I used to earn 140 roubles a month. My husband was an academic, and he earned almost 500 roubles. With this money we were able to travel every year throughout the Soviet Union. The bus and the metro cost 5 kopecks. Salaries today aren’t even enough for transport. If you don’t have a supplementary income from somewhere, you can’t survive. I know academics who work as painters and decorators and so on. I’m now very ill, but we have to pay for medicine. In Soviet times, it was free. These days people can find themselves at death’s door, but they still don’t go to the doctor because they simply have no money.
Gulnara Gasanova, 61, pensioner
Everyone lived well in Soviet times. Everyone received free education. We had confidence in the future. At weekends everyone relaxed. But today everyone is just trying to find work. People live from hand to mouth. Before, young people had families earlier. But today’s youth first think about where they will find work. And in the search for careers they end up emigrating.
Mariam Teimurova, 63, pensioner
In Soviet times everyone lived communally, there was no unemployment and living standards were high. But we did not value this enough.
Aliya Mamed-Zade, 53, teacher
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