The plot begins not very long after the Third Expansion began (the First Expansion ended when humanity was conquered by the Squeem; the Second Expansion ended with the conquest of humanity by the Qax, and the Third Expansion, ~5400 CE, began after the events of Timelike Infinity, pursuant to Jim Bolder's destruction of the Qax home-system).
Nowadays there are Georgians—Ingilos (ინგილოები in Georgian, Ingiloylar in Azeri)—living in this region of Azerbaijan (districts of Qax, Balakan and Zaqatala).