Ophelia Jafarova has been an IDP from Agdam since 1994. “I am 49 years old, and I have been living in the Yeni Yasamal-1 district for 9 years already; in the basement of Building No. 13, among the sewage pipes, with rats and mice.”   

An unfinished building meant to be an Emergency Center in the Binagadi district, 9th microraion of Baku, is a shelter for IDPs from occupied Khodjaly, Agdam, Fuzuli, Jabrayil, and Kalbajar regions since 1995. Initially there were 4 families here; it is believed to be more than 300 now. In June 2013 some of these families moved to the new Masazir settlement.  

An IDP from Lachin, Asif Allahverdiyev, participated in the battles for Karabakh. Complications from a gunshot wound that he received there eventually cost him the use of his legs.

In the satirical novel Don Quixote, the chivalrous hero wanders the country charging in vain at windmills with his spear. Friends of Nigar Kocharli - who started out 15 years ago with $600 and now runs 20 Ali and Nino bookstores across Baku - ask her "why she insists on fighting her own windmills, not just by running her own business in Baku, but running it cleanly and honestly."

As the heat rises to 36 degrees, two women covered from head to toe in soot are working around two tandirs (a cylindrical clay oven used in cooking and baking). One is making a ball of dough, while the other is forcefully stabbing the chickens onto the spits.

In socially conservative Azerbaijan, most families prefer that their mothers, wives and daughters seek medical care from female gynecologists.

Doctors say that women often consult the gynecologist when couples have trouble conceiving, but men rarely seek medical treatment.

With a large grey economy and poorly observed labour laws, Azerbaijanis who lose their jobs have little hope of recourse.

When I woke up on the last Sunday of September and reached for my phone to snooze the alarm, a message on the screen caught my eye and I jumped up: severe fighting erupted at the border! I was in Lankaran - far from the frontline, at the southern border of the country, filming. I left my work unfinished and left for Baku. On the way, I already saw the moving military vehicles. People standing along the road were applauding soldiers as they passed.

A tentative plan to restart train traffic between Armenia and Azerbaijan could have a major impact on both counties.

For some in Azerbaijan, radio programs provide a link to the past