Military conscription in Azerbaijan: corruption risks and reform prospects

On paper, Azerbaijan is still growing. Its population reached just over 10.25 million in 2025, edging upward by a modest 0.3 percent. But beneath that steady headline figure, a more consequential transformation is unfolding — one that is reshaping families, labor markets and the country’s long-term economic trajectory.

This year in Azerbaijan, spring officially began on March 20 at 13:45 Baku time (UTC+4), when the spring equinox occurred, marking the arrival of the Novruz holiday.

In the hills of Khojavend on March 16th, officials from Azerbaijan’s presidential administration gathered for another meeting of the Coordination Headquarters overseeing the reconstruction of territories recaptured after decades of Armenian control. The session, chaired by Samir Nuriyev, head of the presidential administration, was one of many bureaucratic rituals underpinning one of the most ambitious state projects in the South Caucasus: the “Great Return” of displaced Azerbaijanis to Karabakh.

On March 12, a joint meeting of the Milli Majlis Committee on Legal Policy and State Building and the Committee on Human Rights discussed the addition of a new article — 523-1 “Engaging in Begging” — to the Code of Administrative Offenses. If adopted, begging would be removed from the category of vagrancy and classified as a separate administrative offense, with specific administrative sanctions applied.