You have to remember that international relations are nothing whatsoever to do with what the common man thinks of the common man in another state.

Its purely political bargaining chips for the political elites. That goes for the enlightened west as much as it does for anywhere else for that matter. Governments tell us who are friends are and who we are supposed to not trust or like.

If the UK government tells us the Ukrianians are good guys and Russians are bad guys, despite them being pretty much exactly the same, the public buys it.

And thats exactly what happens.

Christian Armenia has good relations with Iran ISLAMIC Rep.
Azerbaijan is not an Islamic country at all !

Armenia has no other choice than Iran, no way out.
If you hear the horror stories here between the two countries and occupation problems together with cruel massacres, you will start to think it can never be possible to have good relations again. We will see what will happen in 10 years...

Bypassing Azerbaijan looks very sensible. I don't know about 72 hours rule but getting a way out is not easy here in Aze because of system.

P.S. : I lived in Tehran for four months last year and as a Turkish guy I can't say, Iran is an Islamic country at all ;) It only looks like that...

visas, rules and planning in the Caucasas
 

Hi,

Returning to original question. We went through through the region in 2010 on our RTW. I don't think there is a way round the Azeri 72 hour rule - particularly frustrating when you've paid $101 for a 30 day tourist visa!

Officials at the border were VERY clear about what would happen if we exceeded the 72 hours - you do not want to go there.

We had our Iran visa app rejected 3 times so ended up riding via Georgia which was really nice, Azer (in our humble opinion) wasn't up to much but Baku is a pretty grand town.

With regards to the Turkmenistan. A transit visa is the way to go. You get 4 days to go through which, in all honesty is enough - it's bloody hot, mostly desert and there's not a whole lot going on in the highly surreal capital.

Regarding visas, we can't recommend doing things in Istanbul highly enough. We had a slightly prolonged stay following an accident but used the time to pick visas up. Did the rest of the Stans there too and didn't require a single LOI or use of an agent like Stantours..

Regarding Turkmentistan, we applied in Istanbul (took twenty minutes) and asked to be able to pick it up in Baku. This way you can have the visa timed to coincide with your landing date in Turkmenbashi. If you pick up a visa elsewhere, as far as i know, you'll need to commit to a precise date and your four days will start from there.

If you need any more information, give me a shout or visit our website.

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