this is our top stories now the russian billionaire playboy jumps into the presidential race. to be running for russia's top job next march the country's third wealthiest person end of the political stage. and he headed up the right course political party only to quit over disagreements with other party members. thousands flood the center of moscow again but this time it's the supporters of the united russia party it follows mass opposition money staged amid claims the results of a parliamentary vote were rigged. to greece's second multibillion euro rescue

package amid skepticism over the efficiency of the emergency measure. cracks within the e.u. wide with britain earlier in the franco german plans to create a common fiscal union. an occupy protesters take their rallies to a new level as they plan a shutdown of america's west coast ports from san diego to anchorage answers demonstrations in new york where reports of police have already started mass arrests. to bring it up to date for the moment of about with more news stories in less than half an hour from now in the meantime we take a look at the pardons taken by ex soviet states after the union collapsed twenty years ago and this time our special report explores the fate of azerbaijan. since ancient times this country has been called the under fire there are places

here when natural gas bursts out from under the earth mixing will soon soil before exploding into flames. it's a miracle of nature there's nothing like it anywhere in the world cash our country is called the land of fire. the first fortress tile as appeared here on the caspian shore in the twelfth century people build the houses inside the walls today this ancient district of baquba is on unesco's world heritage list oh resist the aura of this place is so amazing it's so easy to spend hours here just breathing this air that blows in from the north of the through the in taking in the scenery the war. since gaining independence in one nine hundred ninety one azerbaijan has gone through two difficult decades it has overcome political turmoil after nearly descending into civil war and built

a new basis for its economy. so . to. say. i need you. to know that we had an underwater city there's. no engineers but. they found ancient rocks that. l. dug a similar a new joe mouth and now two of the most well known people in azerbaijan know that. they did it just the. completely self-taught artists managed to exceed all expectations by taking first price at the euro vision song contest.

lately eldar have trouble avoiding fun seeking more to graphs or taking pictures with the. desolations goes thank you we have some guests who are on there are a zero zero zero zero zero nice. stomach so they all fit in the frame. of the day when the azerbaijani duet emerged victorious people flooded onto the streets of back. yes it was a big celebration it would have been really interesting to see how people reacted in front of their t.v.'s at home when they learned to live on. friday across the

planet before simple waving the azerbaijani flag from their car sunroofs it was marvelous. we're so happy that there's a genuine legend has made its mark. that. the republic of us a by zhang is located on the southwestern shore of the caspian sea as a version borders russia and georgia to the north to the west and around to the south it separates true the u.s.s.r. in ninety ninety one before the break up there was an ethnic conflict with. one of the most tragic events in azerbaijan history was when troops were deployed in the capital back in one nine hundred ninety. of the. time as a by john had a national liberation movement called the popular front the movement of staged mass protests around the country seizing government buildings when the situation got out

of control the authorities introduced a state of emergency on almost all of us a by chance terror trick on january the twentieth one thousand nine hundred ninety tanks and tobacco to restore order during the turmoil one hundred thirty seven people were killed. there from a laugh a dear brother. was among the first victims. after they launched a flare the tanks came in and started firing. the notice that ilham was not by my side and. he went down to the square to meet the tanks roku he raised his arms up and said but don't find them he said a lot and these people are unarmed for god's sake don't shoot. him from was mortally wounded some time later his pregnant wife took her own life

all their relatives have left of them a family photos. for these and this is my brother in threes are at their wedding. you know gumboots when i was putting the ring on her finger called so. everyone who died in back in one nine hundred ninety is buried at the city's alley of heroes. alofa dia rests next to his wife his mother and brother often come to the memorial cemetery. my son who dreams remained unfulfilled. every year on the last day of june as

a by johnny's commemorate the dead couple. i asked to leave of who was elected the first president of independent azerbaijan ruled for two years during his term in office as head of a new state he was faced with many tough problems. i witnessed that period if the bag then all i could think about was how are we going to survive how are we going to pay for green iraq and everything else we were getting from russia ukraine bellerose in kazakstan. we didn't have our own gold or foreign reserves or even a currency of our own and for we had absolutely nothing. today as a by john's international reserves amount to thirty five billion u.s. dollars the country gets its money from hydrocarbon exports it is estimated that

the oil and gas supplies here will last for one hundred years. the outskirts of baquba home to the world's largest oil and gas terminal to have permission to open the pipe. it transports caspian oil to the mediterranean through the back to tbilisi j. hunt pipeline it is a boon for both as a by john and the european consumers of the other end who buy caspian oil. this is the b.b.c. pipeline which starts at sandwich i'll go through georgia and stop in turkey j homeport and this is the biggest pipeline in the caspian regio with the capacity of one point two million barrels a day. this is commonly acknowledged that azerbaijan knows a successful oil and gas development to the so-called contract of the century. it

was signed in one thousand nine hundred ninety four by then president gaydar father of the present leader of azerbaijan. he invited about a dozen of the world's largest oil and gas corporations including b.p. exon new coil and amoco to develop as a by jones oil fields in the caspian sea nowadays azerbaijan is number one in the commonwealth of independent states in terms of per capita best. for the us to feel if it was for the door for work the government is doing all it can in these days to diversify oil development production and transportation. so as to cater to multiple customers which are as a result we have great prospects of the. german reporter hans you can bet care has lived and worked in azerbaijan for twenty years he has witnessed all the changes bolton de azerbaijan has gone through.

really from the menders income. solving income like that. what it can do. to put. forward. in business and. one of us survive john's major interests is in foreign investment and seeks to provide favorable conditions for foreign businesses in the city of gebal three hundred kilometers north of back to the piano factory can be found. coming from a family of piano makers turns left wing has shifted the production of his time on a piano from germany to as. he claims his business is the largest of its kind in all of asia. this model piano for one twenty one upright piano we have

two hundred thirty strings more or less. every string is different as the other the length the diameter and is made by hand built man used to be a european brand for over one hundred years until hans left rink left his home country for azerbaijan and took his entire business with him. here the work as a baton there automatically automatically will think you know this because as my grandmother used to say always if you say in this case. they have to say be either and that's belgium piano.

question was that so much i was about to fade into i think if i'm going to give a real credit for almost immediately on to collapse of the soviet union twenty years ago the commonwealth of independent states would stop us in its original intent seen by many. wealthy british style tells us not under the guise. of. markets why not scandal. find out what's really happening to the global economy in the kinds of reports on r.g.p. . up. downtown

back on the caspian sea used to lap alongside the capitals full trust in old city until it eventually withdrew leaving the fortress walls exposed every day the keeper of his architectural relic crimes danger and fortifications that have enjoyed sieges. get the third level up when you realize war was arrested in the twelfth century by sharks aton the first who did a lot to fortify the city their inner city bakula remained an impregnable fortress that even the mongols failed to conquer in the thirteenth century new mugs that. that was when the mungo lama encountered the so-called liquid fire which the defenders of baquba would douse their enemies heads with it took scientists a couple of centuries to figure out that it was simply burning oil because you're moving with this thing and here we can see the openings that we're used to poor oil

down the wall. with you in the entire wall would be engulfed in flames and it would be impossible to climb out of the. old back who is considered a cultural treasure and is protected by unesco. when night falls the look of the city changes dramatically as cafes and live music halls open. music comes says come head to enjoy azerbaijan's very own brand of jazz the music combines eastern and choose with the limits of the western musical tradition. just evolved enough by john in the one nine hundred thirty s. it was prohibitive during the soviet times but today it is hugely popular once more . on the money it brings harmony it's wrong it puts you in

a certain mood under folks many colors so we thought we'd give each person hears the music in different ways matter by genre he's considered jazz their own it's their national music styles of. but the same day was brought to back who when he was a child twenty years ago his family fled from the atrocities of the nagorno-karabakh war. according to baquba records almost one million azerbaijanis were forced to flee back and armenia. the ticking time bomb of the nagorno-karabakh conflict started with the dawn of the soviet union when armenia and azerbaijan became part of the u.s.'s song for a long time there was no question about who controlled the region the war between the two states over nagorno-karabakh started at the end of the nineteen eighties after most governments and its grip on the republics today nagorno-karabakh remains

on recognised its main parties and amin is control but azerbaijan still considers nagorno-karabakh part of its territory. in time the refugees managed to settle down in their new homes. but. i remember the time when we arrived here we lived in her condition that there were two families to a house but we believed that we would get help and i want to thank the country are providing us with a good home. hello to you by. now . even though most refugees have managed to settle down they still hope to return home someday. but neither their matter how good it may be here homeland is there it's always better for

a person to be where he was born it's not if you're from i miss my homeland. despite the fact that twenty years of post i'm ready to return there right now. the new goal no karabakh conflict was frozen in one nine hundred ninety four after the two sides signed a cease fire. came to power peaceful negotiations started and the leader of managed to secure a cease fire zim in the president also tried to resolve the conflict peacefully conflict this movie all in a bunch of stuff. the negotiations between us by john ona media are still ongoing with the help of russia but the parties have not yet signed a peace treaty on the going to come back. in a feature vanno thomas republic is six hundred kilometers to the west of baquba one can only get to this as a bunch of enclaves surrounded by other countries but playing the highway across

some menial has been closed while traveling there via rand is far too long and expensive. the hitch of an autonomous republic is located in the southern part of the transco casus it is a landlocked azerbaijan enclave bordering on mania turkey and around the republic's population amounts to four hundred thousand people the republic is actively trading with iran and turkey archeologists say the republics capital of the hay chavan is one of the oldest cities in the east the first mention of the city dates back to fifteen thirty nine b.c. . form of president of azerbaijan. of was born here there is a street a square and a museum and his own. if they don't believe in his

son it'll come more always together. there was his advisor home followed in his footsteps. in two thousand and three shortly before his death gaydar removed his candidacy from the presidential list in favor of his son. not far from olives family estate is situated one of his lambs most sacred places as coffee. it is even mentioned in the qur'an thousands of pilgrims from many countries come here to pray. for. lots of people visit this shrine and they want to feel close to our. people make

their wishes here and ask god to make them come true. the keeper of the old city is coming from back to up to northern azerbaijan he is to meet with archaeologists. who has made a number of important discoveries. since usually good we heard you found some new things new we can you show them to us we are always finding new things. is conducting an excavation in the ancient city of. the city used to be the capital of caucasian albania a state that emerged on as a territory in the fourth century b.c. . so there are this is a very old site who was this man this man was a citizen of i don't know what he did we know he was a christian as he is buried in accordance with christian rights that the could i say this man is my ancestor are used you know yes absolutely. artifacts found in go

could be similar to those in the ancient back who fortress archaeologists ashore that people have lived here since the bronze age. ancient people living on the territory of us and by john were particularly respectful towards fire a source of light and heat plumes of gas have been burning here for centuries there was a place not far from baquba which is called burning mountain it slopers covered the tunnel flames it is not only land that burns and as a pasha the temperature of the water to meet the ground can reach seventy degrees it is used for treating people. in the miracle of nature there is nothing like it anywhere else in the world our country is called the land of fire even our water burns because it contains

a lot of sulfur this water can treat many illnesses particularly bone diseases like osteoporosis and. the plantations can be found three hundred kilometers to the south from back near the iranian border not far from the city of len qur'an five hectares of land belonging to farm a l yes i have his family has been in the tea business for fifty years now. so now we start gathering tea. please make sure that the tealeaves comply with the same standards. tea growing in the south of us by jan is a priority industry according to local scientists the tigua on this land is chemically different to other kinds of tea it contains lots of tonnage sensual oils and caffeine. but the committee growing process requires

a lot of effort of the including irrigation and fertilizers it's an industrial roman yana good and the final product depends on how well it has been taken care of . after their collected the tea leaves a process to the factory once the leaves are dried in this sort again by hand the result is different sorts of tea. we collect the three most tender leaves from the top of each plant we then use those leaves to make of ok. and now as you can see i'm in the process of sorting to leave this child after they're processed the tea will be packed and is then ready to be drunk gov lusterless. the village of sadowy on the outskirts

of back to the family of famous carpet we've heard over drinks azerbaijani tea every day even though she is ninety one years old she still remembers weaving carpets that were given as presents to kremlin officials. as you can see we cover the teapot with a towel it comes out stronger that way a very good mix thanks to that this tea can help us stomach or spared her problems the important thing though is that it gives you energy and puts you in a good mood. mina virtue is grandmother of the family she is passing on her knowledge of carpets to her grandchildren and their children minute verse ten year old granddaughter rock shunned guy over also wants to wave azerbaijani carpets when she's older but right now she's still a big enough to. have a seat grandmother. by journey carpets are different from

all other kinds of carpets in color they are produced differently to. in the old times as a by johnny carpets were called solid gold and priced accordingly even today the price of some handmade carpets can be as high as several thousand dollars. threaded the needle here. in the war what did i do it right the end of the needle and you pull it down. nowadays citizens of azerbaijan's capital enjoy walking by the city seafront. one side you can see the old fortress from the other oil platforms cusp you see.

here the past on the present have merged together fluidly. today violence is once again flared up. these are the images the world seeing from the streets of canada. giant corporations to rule the day.