Today, the autonomous republic enjoys a high level of autonomy from Azerbaijan boasting its own parliament and prime minister. During this war, Nakhchivan was blockaded and plunged into isolated darkness for a long time and in order to survive, this isolated exclave was forced to become very self-reliant. During the collapse of the USSR, Nakhichevan was actually the very first post-Soviet regions to claim independence, shortly after these visions of independence it was annexed by Azerbaijan and the Nagorno-Karabakh War between Azerbaijan and Armenia erupted and killed tens of thousands of people. Technically, Nakhchivan is an exclave of Azerbaijan, but this bizarre republic is geographically separated from the rest of Azerbaijan by its mortal enemy, Armenia, with whom they’re still at war with since the 1990s.

It’s no secret that the Soviet Europe team at YPT love autonomous republics, breakaway states and bizarre exclaves, so when we were invited to bring tour groups by the tourism ministry of the Nakhchivan Autonomous Republic we seized the chance to run organized tours to Nakhchivan and add it to our growing Soviet tours calendar! Due to this republic being extremely unknown, it is arguably one of the most underrated Azerbaijan attractions so read on for an in-depth YPT explanation.