Membership: Why you should join

Azerbaijan is a fascinating country of great strategic and commercial importance. With large oil and gas reserves, a highly sophisticated and cultured people and significant agricultural and tourism potential, it holds one of the main keys to the prosperity of the whole Caspian region. It has close historical ties with the UK from the time of its brief independence between 1918 and 1920.

Since Azerbaijan's independence in 1991, links with the UK have grown in strength and depth. British companies (especially BP) and the British government have played an important role in the development of the economy, and in 2006 the BP-led Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan (BTC) pipeline came on stream. This pipeline (together with the South Caucasus gas pipeline from the Shah Deniz field) will transform the finances of Azerbaijan and earn the country some $250 billion in coming years. The world is watching how this "wall of money" will be handled. However, the country has been dealt a difficult set of geographical and political cards: a territorial conflict with Armenia, unresolved offshore border issues with neighbours, the troubled North Caucasus not far away, and the big powers of Russia to the north and Iran to the south. All this is against a background of great EU and US strategic interest.

Those interested in closer involvement with Azerbaijan should join the Society. They will learn much, meet fascinating people, and through the charitable and humanitarian work of the Society make a real difference to some of the most disadvantaged people of the Caspian region. Although not an objective of the Society, membership will also raise the profile of your company in Azerbaijan and help deepen its commercial relationship with the country.

Funding

The Society's practice is that all money raised at charitable events goes to good causes in Azerbaijan. No administration costs are taken from these funds. That means that the Society depends on our sponsors, members and special events to support the Society's running costs.

Individual Membership £25
Small Business Membership (less than 10 employees) £100
Corporate Membership £500
Corporate Sponsorship £5,000