ASSA-Irada,
20, May 2008

Azerbaijan ranks 101st in the world on peace, according to a new survey.

Iceland, Denmark and Norway were in the top three positions, with war-torn Iraq, Somalia, Sudan and Afghanistan the bottom four, says the Global Peace Index by the Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU) assessing 140 nations.

Iceland's taking the lead was explained by political stability and an extremely low number of prisoners in the country. Moreover, the country has no regular army and maintains high-level relations with neighboring states, the report said.

Sixteen of the top 20 most peaceful nations are European. Nonetheless, Cyprus, Greece, Britain, and France were outside the top 10, mainly due to militarization in these countries. Britain ranked 49th, falling behind most of its European neighbors, while Ireland was rated the sixth most peaceful country. Germany ranked 14th, Spain 30th and France 36th. The US ranked 97th, behind China, 67th, but ahead of Russia in 131st place. Kazakhstan was rated 72nd, while Turkmenistan - 102nd, Iran 105th, Uzbekistan 111th, Turkey 115th, and Israel 136th.

Azerbaijan's South Caucasus neighbors - Georgia and Armenia - were not indicated in the list.

Overall, the survey found that the world became more peaceful this year, according to 24 indicators studied. The criteria included levels of crime, government corruption, prison population, spending on weapons and the threat of terrorism.