Ilham Aliyev in the context of 2009 Azerbaijani constitutional referendum

The Baku–Tbilisi–Kars (BTK), or Baku–Tbilisi–Akhalkalaki–Kars railway (BTAK), is a railway connecting Azerbaijan, Georgia and Turkey, which became operational on 30 October 2017 following several years of delays. The project was originally due to be completed by 2010, but was delayed to 2013, 2015, 2016, and, following a fifth trilateral meeting in February 2016, foreign ministers of the three countries announced that the railway would finally be completed in 2017.

Following the first test run by a passenger train from Tbilisi to Akhalkalaki on 27 September 2017, the BTK was inaugurated for cargo service on 30 October 2017, in a ceremony in Alyat hosted by the President of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev.

The National Assembly (Azerbaijani: Milli Məclis), also transliterated as Milli Mejlis, is the legislative branch of government in Azerbaijan. The unicameral National Assembly has 125 deputies: previously 100 members were elected for five-year terms in single-seat constituencies and 25 members were elected by proportional representation; as of the latest election, however, all 125 deputies are returned from single-member constituencies.

The Assembly nominally has powers under the Azerbaijan Constitution, but in practice power is heavily concentrated in Ilham Aliyev, the President of Azerbaijan. Parliamentary elections in Azerbaijan are widely regarded as not being free and fair.

Azerbaijan is administratively divided into 67 districts (rayon) and 11 cities (şəhər) that are subordinate to the Republic. Out of these districts and cities, 7 districts and 1 city are located within the Nakhchivan Autonomous Republic. The districts are further divided into municipalities (bələdiyyə).

Additionally, the districts of Azerbaijan are grouped into 14 Economic Regions (İqtisadi Rayon). On 7 July 2021, President of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev signed a decree "On the new division of economic regions in the Republic of Azerbaijan".

The 2020 Nagorno-Karabakh ceasefire agreement was an armistice agreement that ended the Second Nagorno-Karabakh War. It was signed on 9 November by the President of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev, the Prime Minister of Armenia Nikol Pashinyan and the President of Russia Vladimir Putin, and ended all hostilities in the Nagorno-Karabakh region from 00:00, on 10 November 2020 Moscow time. The president of the breakaway Republic of Artsakh, Arayik Harutyunyan, also agreed to an end of hostilities.