Azerbaijan: From the South Caucasus to the South Pole, Top Baku Official Conquers Antarctica

On January 11, Azerbaijani Ecology and Natural Resources Minister Huseyn Bahirov scaled the top of Vinson Massif, Antarctica's highest peak at some 5,139 meters (16,680 feet) above sea level. In doing so, he made history.

To mark the feat, Bahirov hoisted the Azerbaijani flag on Vinson Massif, and left behind two bronze plates. One plate features the late Azerbaijani President Heydar Aliyev with the Azeri inscription "I am proud that I am Azerbaijani." A second features Aliyev's son and current president, Ilham Aliyev, with his 2008 election campaign slogan "Azerbaijan, Forward with Ilham."

A congratulatory satellite phone call from President Aliyev after Bahirov scaled Vinson Massif was the expedition's most memorable moment, the minister told a February 3 news conference in Baku. "At that moment, I understood that I had displayed great courage and felt the full sense of responsibility" for the accomplishment, a beaming Bahirov said.

But this is no ordinary cabinet minister. The 54-year-old Bahirov, a dedicated alpinist, is president of Azerbaijan's Extreme Sports Federation. Joining him in the two-man expedition to Antarctica was the federation's vice-president, Tarlan Ramazanov.

Bahirov's own sports enthusiasm appears to have driven the mission. The government did not pay for it. Instead, Western University, a private institution in Baku that was founded by Bahirov, fronted most of the 250,000-manat (about $300,000) cost. Bahirov himself contributed the rest, he told reporters.

The expedition set off on December 24, reaching Chile six days later, and then flying on to the privately run Patriot Hills logistics base station in Antarctica. There, the two men were joined by a Dutch-British expedition that had its own reason for reaching the South Pole -- peace in Africa.

Braving typhoons and -34 to -40 degree Celsius temperatures (-29.2 to -40 degrees Fahrenheit), the minister and Ramazanov pressed on, both skiing and walking, to reach Vinson Massif 12 days later. The pair slept in frost-resistant tents that could withstand temperatures as low as -60 degrees Celsius (-76 degrees Fahrenheit). By January 26, they had attained the South Pole itself, where they again left commemorative bronze plates of the two President Aliyevs and an Azerbaijani flag.

The mission -- a first also for citizens of any non-Slavic former Soviet republic -- received a "personal endorsement" from President Ilham Alilyev, who discussed "important issues" about the trip with the minister before he set off, a source in the Ecology and Natural Resources Ministry said.

But the expedition was not just about symbolism, claimed Bahirov, who took an official leave of absence from his post to make the trip. Science also played a role, he said.

En route to the South Pole, Bahirov and Ramazanov collected two kilograms of samples for as-yet-unidentified geological research to be conducted by the Azerbaijani National Academy of Sciences. The pair also made some 500 "observations" of meteorological patterns, but details of their investigation have not been released. "The main purpose of this research is for Azerbaijani scientists to enter the list of research on Antarctica," Bahirov said.

According to the minister, the expedition was another means of enhancing Azerbaijan's status and image in the world. "We fully carried out all the expedition's tasks, which were scientific, sports-related, political and symbolic," he said.