Azerbaijan is completely off the beaten tourist path but is a great place to visit. People there are extremely friendly. Their languages is very close to Turkish but the country is more middle-eastern, with influences from Iran and a huge legacy from Russia as an former CIS republic. As a result, a lot of people speak Russian too. It is the most tolerant Muslim country on the planet but is still quite conservative. Most of the foreigners you might meet there work in the oil industry and the list of foreign companies in Baku is a testament to that. Don’t miss unusual natural phenomena like mud volcanoes.