The
Azerbaijanis are an
ethnic groupAn ethnic group is a group of humans whose members identify with each other, through a common heritage that is real or presumed.Ethnic identity is further marked by the researcher Seng Yang in the recognition from others of a group's distinctiveness and the recognition of common cultural,...
mainly living in northwestern
IranIran , officially the Islamic Republic of Iran is a country in Western Asia. The name Iran has been in use natively since the Sassanid period and came into international use from 1935, before which the country was known internationally as Persia...
and the
Republic of AzerbaijanAzerbaijan , formally the Republic of Azerbaijan , is a country in the Caucasus region of Eurasia. Located at the crossroads of Western Asia and Eastern Europe, it is bounded by the Caspian Sea to the east, Russia to the north, Georgia to the northwest, Armenia to the west, and Iran to the south...
. Commonly referred to as
Azeris/
Āzarīs (
آذری -
Azəri) or
Azeri Turks , they also live in a wider area from the
CaucasusThe Caucasus or Caucas is a geopolitical region between at the border of Europe and Asia. It is home to the Caucasus Mountains, including Europe's highest mountain ....
to the
Iranian plateauThe Iranian plateau, also known as the Persian plateau is a geological formation in Southwest Asia and Southern Asia. It is the part of the Eurasian Plate wedged between the Arabian and Indian plates, situated between the Zagros mountains to the west, the Caspian Sea and the Kopet Dag to the north,...
. The Azeris are predominantly Shia
Muslim:A Muslim , , is an adherent of the religion of Islam. The feminine form is Muslimah . Literally, the word means "one who submits ". Muslim is the participle of the same verb of which Islam is the infinitive. Muslims believe that there is only one God, translated in Arabic as Allah...
and have a mixed heritage of
IranicThe Iranian peoples are an ethnic and linguistic branch of Indo-European peoples, living mainly on the Iranian plateau and beyond in central, southern, and southwestern Asia and southeastern Europe. As a group of people, they are predominantly defined along linguistic lines as speaking the Iranian...
, Caucasian, and
TurkicThe Turkic peoples are Eurasian peoples residing in northern, central and western Eurasia. They speak languages belonging to the Turkic language family. They share, to varying degrees, certain cultural traits and historical backgrounds...
elements.
Despite living on two sides of an international border since the treaties of Gulistan (1813) and
TurkmenchayThe Treaty of Turkmenchay was a treaty negotiated in Turkmenchay by which the Persian Empire, more commonly known today as Iran, recognized Russian suzerainty over the Erivan khanate, Nakhchivan khanate and the remainder of the Talysh khanate, establishing the Araks River as the common boundary...
(1828), after which
IranIran , officially the Islamic Republic of Iran is a country in Western Asia. The name Iran has been in use natively since the Sassanid period and came into international use from 1935, before which the country was known internationally as Persia...
lost its then northern territories to
RussiaRussia , officially known as both Russia and the Russian Federation , is a country in northern Eurasia . It is a semi-presidential republic, comprising 83 federal subjects...
, the Azeris form a single ethnic group. However, northerners and southerners differ due to nearly two centuries of separate social evolution in
RussiaRussia , officially known as both Russia and the Russian Federation , is a country in northern Eurasia . It is a semi-presidential republic, comprising 83 federal subjects...
n/
SovietThe Union of Soviet Socialist Republics was a constitutionally socialist state that existed in Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. The name is a translation of the , tr. Soyuz Sovetskikh Sotsialisticheskikh Respublik, abbreviated СССР, SSSR. The common short name is Soviet Union, from , Sovetskiy Soyuz...
-influenced Azerbaijan and Iranian Azarbaijan. The
Azerbaijani languageAzerbaijani is a language belonging to the Turkic language family, spoken in southwestern Asia, primarily in Azerbaijan and northwestern Iran...
unifies Azeris, and is mutually intelligible with
TurkmenTurkmen is the name of the national language of Turkmenistan. It is spoken by approximately 3,000,000 people in Turkmenistan, and by an additional approximately 380,000 in northwestern Afghanistan and 500,000 in northeastern Iran.- Classification, related languages and dialects :Turkmen is in the...
,
QashqaiQashqai are a people in Iran speaking a Turkic language. Qashqais mainly live in the provinces of Fars, Khuzestan and southern Isfahan, but especially around the city of Shiraz in Fars.The Qashqai were originally nomadic pastoralists and some remain so today...
and
TurkishTurkish is spoken as a first language by over 63 million people worldwide, making it the most commonly spoken of the Turkic languages. Its speakers are located predominantly in Turkey and Cyprus, with smaller groups in Iraq, Greece, Bulgaria, the Republic of Macedonia, Kosovo, Albania and other...
(including the dialects spoken by the
Iraqi TurkmenThe Iraqi Turks or Iraqi Turkmens are a distinct Turkic ethnic group, the third-largest ethnic group in Iraq, living mostly in northern Iraq, in an area which they call "Turkmeneli", notably in the cities of Kirkuk, Arbil, Tal Afar, and Mosul...
), all of which belong to
OghuzThe Oghuz languages, a major branch of the Turkic language family, are spoken by more than 110 million people in an area spanning from the Balkans to China.Oghuz in old Turkic means thirty, in terms of the thirty tribes.-Linguistic Features:...
, or Western, group of
Turkic languagesThe Turkic languages constitute a language family of some thirty languages, spoken by Turkic peoples across a vast area from Eastern Europe and the Mediterranean to Siberia and Western China, and are considered to be part of the proposed Altaic language family.Turkic languages are spoken by some...
.
Following the
Russian-Persian WarsThe Russo-Persian Wars were a series of wars fought between the Russian Empire and Persia in the 18th and 19th centuries, the most important of which were:*Russo-Persian War *Russo-Persian War *Russo-Persian War...
of the 18th and 19th centuries,
PersiaThe Qajar dynasty ) was a Turco-Persian Qajar royal family who ruled Persia from 1794 to 1925....
n territories in the Caucasus were ceded to the
Russian EmpireThe Russian Empire was a state that existed from 1721 until the Russian Revolution of 1917. It was the successor to the Tsardom of Russia, and the predecessor of the Soviet Union...
and the treaties of Gulistan in 1813 and
TurkmenchayThe Treaty of Turkmenchay was a treaty negotiated in Turkmenchay by which the Persian Empire, more commonly known today as Iran, recognized Russian suzerainty over the Erivan khanate, Nakhchivan khanate and the remainder of the Talysh khanate, establishing the Araks River as the common boundary...
in 1828 finalized the borders with Russia and present-day
IranIran , officially the Islamic Republic of Iran is a country in Western Asia. The name Iran has been in use natively since the Sassanid period and came into international use from 1935, before which the country was known internationally as Persia...
. The formation of
Azerbaijan Democratic RepublicThe Azerbaijan Democratic Republic was the first successful attempt to establish a democratic and secular republic in the Muslim world . The ADR was founded on May 28, 1918 after the collapse of the Russian Empire that began with the Russian Revolution of 1917 by Azerbaijani National Council in...
in 1918 established the territory of the Republic of Azerbaijan as it is today.
As a result of this separate existence, the Azeris are mainly secular in Azerbaijan and religious Muslims in Iran. Since
AzerbaijanAzerbaijan , formally the Republic of Azerbaijan , is a country in the Caucasus region of Eurasia. Located at the crossroads of Western Asia and Eastern Europe, it is bounded by the Caspian Sea to the east, Russia to the north, Georgia to the northwest, Armenia to the west, and Iran to the south...
's independence from the Soviet Union in 1991, there has been renewed interest in religion and cross-border ethnic ties
History
Azerbaijan is believed to be named after
AtropatesAtropates was a Persian nobleman who served Darius III, then Alexander III of Macedon, and eventually founded an independent kingdom and dynasty that was named after him...
, a
MedianThe Medes were an ancient Iranian people who lived in the northwestern portions of present-day Iran. This area is known as Media...
satrapSatrap was the name given to the governors of the provinces of ancient Median and Persian empires, including the Achaemenid Empire and in several of their heirs, such as the Sassanid Empire and the Hellenistic empires....
(governor) who ruled in
AtropateneAtropatene or Media Atropatene was an ancient kingdom established in the 4th century BC in modern Iranian Azerbaijan and Iranian Kurdistan. Its capital was Gazaca...
(modern Iranian Azarbaijan). Atropates is derived from Old Persian roots meaning "protected by fire."
Azerbaijan- Geography :* Republic of Azerbaijan, a current state in Eurasia, formerly:** Azerbaijan SSR, a Soviet republic ** Azerbaijan Democratic Republic, a short-lived republic...
has seen a host of inhabitants and invaders, including
MedesThe Medes were an ancient Iranian people who lived in the northwestern portions of present-day Iran. This area is known as Media...
,
ScythiaThe Scythians or Scyths were an Ancient Iranian people of horse-riding nomadic pastoralists who throughout Classical Antiquity dominated the Pontic-Caspian steppe, known at the time as Scythia. By Late Antiquity the closely-related Sarmatians came to dominate the Scythians in this area...
ns, Persians,
ArmeniansThe Armenians are a nation and ethnic group which originated in the Caucasus and the Armenian Highland. It is estimated that there are 8 million Armenians around the world. There is a large concentration of Armenians in the Caucasus, especially in Armenia, and there is a significant presence in...
,
GreeksAncient Greece is the civilisation belonging to the period of Greek history lasting from the Greek Dark Ages ca. 1100 BC and the Dorian invasion, to 146 BC and the Roman conquest of Greece after the Battle of Corinth. It is generally considered to be the seminal culture which provided the...
,
RomansThe Roman Empire was the post-Republican phase of the ancient Roman civilization, characterised by an autocratic form of government and large territorial holdings in Europe and around the Mediterranean. The term is used to describe the Roman state during and after the time of the first emperor,...
,
KhazarsThe Khazars were a semi-nomadic Turkic people who dominated the Pontic steppe and the North Caucasus from the 7th to the 10th century CE. The name 'Khazar' seems to be tied to a Turkic verb form meaning "wandering"....
,
ArabsThe Caliph is the head of state in a Caliphate, and the title for the leader of the Islamic Ummah, an Islamic community ruled by the Shari'ah. It is a transliterated version of the Arabic word which means "successor" or "representative"...
,
Oghuz TurksThe Oghuz were a group of Turkic peoples. In the ninth century the Oghuz Turks from the Aral steppes drove the Pecheneg Turks of the Emba region and the River Ural toward the west...
, Seljuq Turks,
MongolsThe Mongol Empire was an empire from the 13th and 14th century spanning from Eastern Europe across Asia. It is the largest contiguous empire in the history of the world...
, and
RussiansThe Russian Empire was a state that existed from 1721 until the Russian Revolution of 1917. It was the successor to the Tsardom of Russia, and the predecessor of the Soviet Union...
.
Ancient Azaris spoke the
Ancient Azari languageAzari, also spelled Adari, Adhari, is the name used for the Iranian language composed of groups of dialects which were spoken in Azerbaijan at one time...
, which belonged to the
IranianThe Iranian languages are a branch of the Indo-European language family and its subfamily, Indo-Iranian. They are spoken by the Iranian peoples. Avestan is the oldest recorded Iranian language....
branch of
Indo-European languagesThe Indo-European languages are a family of several hundred related languages and dialects, including most major languages of Europe, Iran, and northern India, and historically also predominant in Anatolia and Central Asia...
. In the 11th century A.D. with Seljukid conquests,
OghuzOghuz may refer to:* Oğuz, a male first name in Turkey*Oghuz Turks*Oghuz languages*Oghuz Rayon, Azerbaijan*Oğuz, Azerbaijan...
TurkicThe Turkic peoples are Eurasian peoples residing in northern, central and western Eurasia. They speak languages belonging to the Turkic language family. They share, to varying degrees, certain cultural traits and historical backgrounds...
tribes started moving across the Iranian plateau into the Caucasus and Anatolia. The influx of the Oghuz and other Turkmen tribes was further accentuated by the Mongol invasion. Here, the Oghuz tribes divided into various smaller groups, some of whom — mostly
SunniSunni Islam is the largest denomination of Islam. It is also referred to as Ahl as-Sunnah wa’l-Jamā‘ah or Ahl as-Sunnah for short...
- moved to
AnatoliaAnatolia is a geographic region of Western Asia, comprising most of the modern Republic of Turkey. The region is bounded by the Black Sea to the north, the Caucasus to the northeast, the Iranian plateau to the southeast, the Mediterranean Sea to the south and the Aegean Sea to the west...
(i.e. the Ottomans) and became settled, while others remained in the Caucasus region and later — due to the influence of the Safawiyya - eventually converted to the Shi'ite branch of Islam. The latter were to keep the name "Turkmen" or "Turcoman" for a long time: from 13th century onwards they gradually Turkified the Iranian-speaking populations of Azerbaijan, thus creating a new identity based on Shiism and the use of Oghuz Turkic. However, it is notable that the Turkification of Azaris was completed only by the late 1800s, while the old Iranic speakers can still be found in tiny isolated recesses of the mountains or other remote areas (such as Harzand, Galin Guya, Shahrud villages in Khalkhal and Anarjan). Today, this Turkic-speaking population is also known as Azeris
Ancient period
Caucasian AlbaniaAlbania is the historical name for the country of the eastern Caucasus, roughly corresponding to the...
ns are believed to be the earliest inhabitants of the region where modern day Republic of Azerbaijan is located. Early Iranian settlements included the
ScythiaThe Scythians or Scyths were an Ancient Iranian people of horse-riding nomadic pastoralists who throughout Classical Antiquity dominated the Pontic-Caspian steppe, known at the time as Scythia. By Late Antiquity the closely-related Sarmatians came to dominate the Scythians in this area...
ns in the ninth century BC. Following the Scythians, the Medes came to dominate the area to the south of the Aras. The Medes forged a vast empire between 900-700 BC, which was integrated into the Achaemenids Empire around 550 BC. During this period,
ZoroastrianismZoroastrianism is the religion and philosophy based on the teachings ascribed to the prophet Zoroaster , after whom the religion is named. The term Zoroastrianism is, in general usage, essentially synonymous with Mazdaism, i.e...
spread in the Caucasus and Atropatene. The Achaemenids in turn were defeated by
Alexander the GreatAlexander III of Macedon, popularly known as Alexander the Great , was an Ancient Greek king of Macedon who created one of the largest empires in ancient history...
in 330 BC, but the Median satrap Atropates was allowed to remain in power. Following the decline of the Seleucids in Persia in 247 BC, an
Armenian KingdomThe Kingdom of Armenia was an independent kingdom from 190 BC to AD 387 and a client state of the Roman and Persian empires until 428, stretching from the Caspian to the Mediterranean seas.- History :...
exercised control over parts of Caucasian Albania between 190 BC to 387 AD. Caucasian Albanians established a kingdom in the first century BC and largely remained independent until the
Persian SassanidsThe Sassanid Empire or Sasanian Empire, known to its inhabitants as Ērānshahr, was the last pre-Islamic Persian Empire, ruled by the Sasanian Dynasty who reigned from 224 to 651 CE...
made the kingdom a
vassal stateThe term vassal state commonly refers to any state that was subordinate to another in the pre-modern international system. The vassal in these cases was the ruler, rather than the state itself...
in 252 AD. Caucasian Albania's ruler, King Urnayr, officially adopted
ChristianityChristianity is a monotheistic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus of Nazareth as presented by the revelations in the New Testament....
as the state religion in the fourth century AD, and Albania would remain a Christian state until the 8th century. Sassanid control ended with their defeat by Muslim
ArabsThe Abbasid Caliphate was the third of the Islamic Caliphates of the Islamic Empire. It was ruled by the Abbasid dynasty of caliphs, who built their capital in Baghdad after overthrowing the Umayyad caliphs from all but Al Andalus....
in 642 AD.
Medieval period
Muslim Arabs defeated the Sassanids and
ByzantinesThe Byzantine Empire or Eastern Roman Empire, was the continuation of the Roman Empire during the Middle Ages, centered on the capital of Constantinople, and ruled by Emperors in direct and de jure succession to the ancient Roman Emperors...
as they marched into the Caucasus region. The Arabs made Caucasian Albania a vassal state after the Christian resistance, led by Prince
JavanshirJavanshir , which is Persian for Young Lion, was the prince of Caucasian Albania from 643 to 681, hailing from the region of Gardman. His deeds are the subject of legends and epic...
, surrendered in 667. Between the ninth and tenth centuries, Arab authors began to refer to the region between the
KuraKura may refer to:* Kura River in Turkey, Georgia and Azerbaijan* Kura River in Russia* Kura Test Range in Kamchatka Krai, Russia, a major ICBM testing site during the Cold War* Kura, Nigeria, a Local Government Area of Kano State...
and Aras rivers as
ArranArran , also known as Aran, Ardhan , Al-Ran , Aghvank and Alvank , Ran-i or Caucasian Albania , was a geographical name used in ancient and medieval times to signify the territory which lies within the triangle of land, lowland in the east and mountainous in the west, formed by the...
. During this time, Arabs from
BasraAl-Baṣrah is the capital of Basra Province, and had an estimated population of 3,800,200 as of 2009. Basra is also Iraq's main port, although it is incapable of deep water access, which is handled at the the port of Umm Qasr...
and
KufaKufa is a city in Iraq, about 170 km south of Baghdad, and 10 km northeast of Najaf. It is located on the banks of the Euphrates River. The estimated population in 2003 was 110,000....
came to Azerbaijan and seized lands that indigenous peoples had abandoned; the Arabs became a land-owning elite. Conversion to Islam was slow as local resistance persisted for centuries and resentment grew as small groups of Arabs began migrating to cities such as
TabrizTabriz is the fourth largest city of Iran and the capital of East Azerbaijan Province. Situated at an altitude of 1,350 meters at the junction of the Quri River and Aji River, it was the second largest city in Iran until the late 1960s, one of its former capitals and residence of the crown prince...
and Maraghah. This influx sparked a major rebellion in Iranian Azarbaijan from 816–837, led by a local
ZoroastrianA Zoroastrian is an adherent to Zoroastrianism, the first monotheistic religion that is based on the teachings and philosophies of Zoroaster....
commoner named
BābakBābak Khorram-Din was one of the main Persian revolutionary leaders of the Iranian Khorram-Dinān , which was a local freedom movement fighting the Abbasid Caliphate...
. However, despite pockets of continued resistance, the majority of the inhabitants of Azerbaijan converted to Islam. Later on, in the 10th and 11th centuries,
KurdishThe Kurds are an Ethnic-Iranian ethnolinguistic group mostly inhabiting a region known as Kurdistan, which includes adjacent parts of Iran, Iraq, Syria, and Turkey...
dynasties of
ShaddadidThe Shaddadids were a Kurdish dynasty who ruled in various parts of Armenia and Arran from 951-1199 A.D. They were established in Dvin. Through their long tenure in Armenia, they often intermarried with the Bagratuni royal family of Armenia....
and
RawadidRawadid , , was a kurdicized principality ruling Azerbaijan from the 10th to the early 11th centuries, centered around Tabriz and Maragheh. It was founded by a Kurdish chief named Muhammad ibn Husain in the mid tenth century...
ruled parts of Azerbaijan.
In the middle of the eleventh century, the Seljuq dynasty overthrew Arab rule and established an empire that encompassed most of
Southwest AsiaWestern Asia, West Asia, Southwest Asia or Southwestern Asia are terms that describe the westernmost portion of Asia. The terms are partly coterminous with the Middle East - which describes geographical position in relation to Western Europe rather than location within Asia...
. The Seljuk period marked the influx of
OghuzThe Oghuz were a group of Turkic peoples. In the ninth century the Oghuz Turks from the Aral steppes drove the Pecheneg Turks of the Emba region and the River Ural toward the west...
nomads into the region and, thus, the beginning of the
turkificationCultural assimilation is a political response to the demographic fact of multi-ethnicity which encourages absorption of the minority into the dominant culture...
of Azerbaijan as the West Oghuz Turkic language supplanted earlier Caucasian and Iranian ones.
However, Iranian cultural influence survived extensively, as evidenced by the works of then contemporary writers such as
PersianPersian is an Iranian language within the Indo-Iranian branch of the Indo-European languages. It is widely spoken in Iran, Afghanistan, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan and to some extent in Iraq and Bahrain, and has a status of official language in the first three countries under different names...
poet
Nezāmī GanjavīNezāmi-ye Ganjavi , or Nezāmi , whose formal name was Niżām ad-Dīn Abū Muḥammad Ilyās ibn-Yūsuf ibn-Zakī ibn-Mu‘ayyad, is considered the greatest romantic epic poet in Persian literature, who brought a colloquial and realistic style to the Persian epic...
. The emerging Turkic identity was chronicled in epic poems or
dastans, the oldest being the
Book of Dede KorkutThe Book of Dede Korkut, also spelled as Dada Gorgud, Dede Qorqut or Korkut-ata , is the most famous epic story of the Oghuz Turks...
, which relate
allegoricalAllegory is a figurative mode of representation conveying a meaning other than the literal. An allegory is a device that can be presented in literary form, such as a poem or novel, or in visual form, such as in painting or sculpture...
tales about the early Turks in the Caucasus and Asia Minor. Turkic dominion was interrupted by the
MongolsThe Mongol Empire was an empire from the 13th and 14th century spanning from Eastern Europe across Asia. It is the largest contiguous empire in the history of the world...
in 1227 and later the Mongols and Tamerlane ruled the region until 1405. Turkic rule returned with the Sunni
Qara QoyunlūThe Kara Koyunlu or Qara Qoyunlu, also called the Black Sheep Turkomans ; , were a Shi'ite Oghuz Turkic tribal federation that ruled over the territory comprising the present-day Armenia, Azerbaijan, north western Iran, eastern Turkey and Iraq from...
(Black Sheep Turkmen) and Aq Qoyunlū (White Sheep Turkmen), who dominated Azerbaijan until the
Shi'aShia Islam , is the second largest denomination of Islam, after Sunni Islam. The followers of Shia Islam are called Shi'as or Shi'ites....
SafavidsThe Safavids were one of the ruling dynasties of Iran. They ruled one of the greatest Iranian empires since the Islamic conquest of Persia and established the Ithnāˤashari school of Shi'a Islam as the official religion of their empire, marking one of the most important turning points in the...
took power in 1501.
Modern period
The Safavids, who rose from Iranian Azerbaijan and lasted until 1722, established the modern Iranian state. Noted for achievements in state building, architecture, and the sciences, the Safavid state crumbled due to internal decay and external pressures from the Russians and
AfghansThe Hotaki dynasty was an Afghan dynasty that ruled Persia and the Afghanistan region after the Safavid dynasty, before the rise of the Afsharid dynasty. It was founded in 1709 by Mirwais Khan Hotak, the chief of the Ghilzai Pashtuns of Kandahar, Afghanistan. In April of 1709, Mirwais Khan and...
. The Safavids encouraged and spread Shi'a Islam which is an important part of the national identity of Iranian Azerbaijani people as well as many Azerbaijanis north of the Aras. The Safavids encouraged the arts and culture and Shah
AbbasAbbas, medieval Latin for "abbot", is an element in a number of place names in England and may refer to:- Places named Abbas :* Abbas Combe, Somerset* Bradford Abbas, Dorset* Cerne Abbas, Dorset* Compton Abbas, Dorset* Itchen Abbas, Hampshire...
the Great created an intellectual atmosphere which according to some scholars was a new
Golden Age of Persia. He reformed the government and the military, and responded to the needs of the common people.
The brief
OttomanThe Ottoman Empire or Ottoman State , also known by its contemporaries as the Turkish Empire or Turkey , was an empire that lasted from 1299 to November 1, 1922 The Ottoman Empire or Ottoman State (Ottoman Turkish: دَوْلَتِ عَلِیَّهِ عُثْمَانِیَّه Dawlet-il ʿAliyyat-il ʿOs̠māniyye, Modern Turkish:...
occupation followed the Safavid state. After the defeat of Afghans and the re-conquest by Nadir Shah Afshar, a chieftain from Khorasan, tried to stabilize the internal affair by balancing the power of the Shi'a. The brief reign of
Karim KhanKarim Khan Zand, , , was the ruler and de facto Shah of Iran from 1760 until 1779. Founder of the Zand dynasty and a member of theLur peoples, he never styled himself as "shah" or king, and instead used the title Vakil e-Ra'aayaa .Karim Khan Zand was one of the generals of Nader Shah Afshar...
came next, followed by the
QajarsThe Qajar dynasty ) was a Turco-Persian Qajar royal family who ruled Persia from 1794 to 1925....
, who ruled Azarbaijan and Iran starting in 1779. Russia loomed as a threat to Persian holdings in the Caucasus in this period. The
Russo-Persian WarsThe Russo-Persian Wars were a series of wars fought between the Russian Empire and Persia in the 18th and 19th centuries, the most important of which were:*Russo-Persian War *Russo-Persian War *Russo-Persian War...
began in the eighteenth century and ended in the early nineteenth century with the Gulistan Treaty of 1813 and the
Turkmenchay TreatyThe Treaty of Turkmenchay was a treaty negotiated in Turkmenchay by which the Persian Empire, more commonly known today as Iran, recognized Russian suzerainty over the Erivan khanate, Nakhchivan khanate and the remainder of the Talysh khanate, establishing the Araks River as the common boundary...
in 1828, which officially gave the Caucasian portion of Qajar Iran to the Russian Empire.
Iranian Azerbaijan's role in the Iranian constitutional revolution cannot be underestimated. The greatest figures of the democracy seeking revolution
Sattar KhanSattar Khan Sattar Khan Sattar Khan (1868—November 9, 1914, honorarily titled Sardār-e Melli (Persian: سردار ملی meaning National Commander), born in Tabriz (Janali village), located in Iranian Azerbaijan, was a key figure in the Iranian Constitutional Revolution and one of the...
and
Bagher KhanBagher Khan , honorarily titled Sālār-e Melli , was one of the key figures in the Persian Constitutional Revolution-See also:* Persian Constitutional Revolution...
were both from Iranian Azerbaijan. The Constitutional Revolution of 1906–11 shook the Qajar dynasty, whose kings had virtually sold the country to the tobacco and oil interests of the British Empire and had lost territory to the Russian empire. A parliament (Majlis) came into existence by the efforts of the constitutionalists. It was accompanied in some regions by a peasant revolt against tax collectors and landlords, the only indigenous mainstay of the monarchy. Pro-democracy newspapers appeared, and Iranian intellectuals began to relish the modernist breezes blowing from Paris and Petrograd. The Qajar Shah and his British advisers crushed the Constitutional Revolution, but the demise of the dynasty could not be long postponed. The last Shah of the Qajar dynasty was soon removed by a military coup led by Reza Khan, an officer of an old Cossack regiment, which had been created by Czarist Russia and officered by Russians to protect the Qajar ruler and Russian interests. In the quest of imposing national homogeneity on the country where half of the population consisted of ethnic minorities, Reza Shah issued in quick succession bans on the use of Azerbaijani language on the premises of schools, in theatrical performances, religious ceremonies, and, finally, in the publication of books.
With the dethronement of Reza Shah in September 1941, Russian troops captured Tabriz and northwestern Persia for military and strategic reasons.
Azerbaijan People's GovernmentThe Azerbaijan People's Government was a short-lived, Soviet-backed client state in northern Iran. Established in Iranian Azerbaijan, the APG's capital was the city of Tabriz...
, a client state set up by the order of Stalin himself, under leadership of Sayyid Jafar Pishevari was proclaimed in Tabriz However, under pressure by the Western countries, the Soviet army was soon withdrawn, and the Iranian government regained control over Iranian Azerbaijan by the end of 1946.
According to Professor. Gary R. Hess:
While the Azeris in Iran largely integrated into modern Iranian society, the Azeris in what is today called the Republic of Azerbaijan lived through the transition from the Russian Empire to brief
independenceThe Azerbaijan Democratic Republic was the first successful attempt to establish a democratic and secular republic in the Muslim world . The ADR was founded on May 28, 1918 after the collapse of the Russian Empire that began with the Russian Revolution of 1917 by Azerbaijani National Council in...
from 1918–1920 and then incorporation into the
Soviet UnionThe Union of Soviet Socialist Republics was a constitutionally socialist state that existed in Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. The name is a translation of the , tr. Soyuz Sovetskikh Sotsialisticheskikh Respublik, abbreviated СССР, SSSR. The common short name is Soviet Union, from , Sovetskiy Soyuz...
despite pleas by
Woodrow WilsonThomas Woodrow Wilson was the 28th President of the United States. A leading intellectual of the Progressive Era, he served as President of Princeton University from 1902 to 1910, and then as the Governor of New Jersey from 1911 to 1913...
for their independence at the
Treaty of VersaillesThe Treaty of Versailles was one of the peace treaties at the end of World War I. It ended the state of war between Germany and the Allied Powers. It was signed on 28 June 1919, exactly five years after the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand. The other Central Powers on the German side of...
conference. The Republic of Azerbaijan achieved independence in 1991, but became embroiled in a war over the enclave of
Nagorno-KarabakhNagorno-Karabakh is a landlocked region in the South Caucasus, lying between Lower Karabakh and Zangezur and covering the southeastern range of the Lesser Caucasus mountains...
with
ArmeniaArmenia , officially the Republic of Armenia , is a landlocked mountainous country in the Caucasus region of Eurasia...
.
Origins
In many references, Azerbaijanis are designated as a
Turkic peopleThe Turkic peoples are Eurasian peoples residing in northern, central and western Eurasia. They speak languages belonging to the Turkic language family. They share, to varying degrees, certain cultural traits and historical backgrounds...
, due to their
Turkic languageThe Turkic languages constitute a language family of some thirty languages, spoken by Turkic peoples across a vast area from Eastern Europe and the Mediterranean to Siberia and Western China, and are considered to be part of the proposed Altaic language family.Turkic languages are spoken by some...
. However, modern-day Azerbaijanis are believed to be primarily the descendants of the
Caucasian AlbaniaAlbania is the historical name for the country of the eastern Caucasus, roughly corresponding to the...
n and
IranicThe Iranian peoples are an ethnic and linguistic branch of Indo-European peoples, living mainly on the Iranian plateau and beyond in central, southern, and southwestern Asia and southeastern Europe. As a group of people, they are predominantly defined along linguistic lines as speaking the Iranian...
peoples who lived in the areas of the Caucasus and northern Iran, respectively, prior to
TurkificationTurkification is a term used to describe a process of cultural change in which something or someone who is not a Turk becomes one, voluntarily...
. Various historians including Vladimir Minorsky explain how largely Iranian and Caucasian populations became Turkish-speaking:
Thus, centuries of Turkic migration and turkification of the region helped to formulate the modern Azerbaijani ethnic group.
Turkification
Although, "Turkic penetration probably began in the
HunnicThe Huns were a group of nomadic pastoral people who, appearing from beyond the Volga, migrated into Europe c.AD 370 and built up an enormous empire in Europe. They were possibly the descendants of the Xiongnu who had been northern neighbours of China three hundred years before and may be the first...
era and its aftermath," there is little evidence to indicate, "permanent settlements". The earliest major Turkic incursion began and accelerated during the Seljuk period. The migration of Oghuz Turks from present-day
TurkmenistanRepublic of Turkmenistan is a country in Central Asia. Until 1991, it was a constituent republic of the Soviet Union, the Turkmen Soviet Socialist Republic...
, which is attested by linguistic similarity, remained high through the Mongol period, as many troops under the Ilkhans were Turkic. By the
SafavidThe Safavids were one of the ruling dynasties of Iran. They ruled one of the greatest Iranian empires since the Islamic conquest of Persia and established the Ithnāˤashari school of Shi'a Islam as the official religion of their empire, marking one of the most important turning points in the...
period, the Turkification of Azerbaijan continued with the influence of the
KizilbashQizilbash, Qazilbash or Kizilbash is a name given to a wide variety of Shī‘ī militant groups that flourished in Anatolia and Kurdistan from the late 13th century onwards, and later helped to found the Safavid dynasty of Iran...
. The very name Azerbaijan is derived from the pre-Turkic name of the province, Azarbayjan or Adarbayjan, and illustrates a gradual language shift that took place as local place names survived Turkification, albeit in altered form.
Most academics view this migration as the most likely source of a Turkic background, but one that most likely involved the linguistic Turkification of predominantly non-Turkic-speaking indigenous peoples and assimilation of small bands of Turkic tribes.
Iranian origin
The Iranian origins of the Azeris likely derive from ancient Iranic tribes, such as the
MedesThe Medes were an ancient Iranian people who lived in the northwestern portions of present-day Iran. This area is known as Media...
in Iranian Azarbaijan, and Scythian invaders who arrived during the eighth century BCE. It is believed that the Medes mixed with an indigenous population, the Caucasian Mannai, a
Northeast CaucasianThe Northeast Caucasian languages, also called East Caucasian, Nakh'-Dag'estanian, or Caspian, constitute a language family spoken in the Russian republics of Dagestan, Chechnya, and Ingushetia, in northern Azerbaijan, and in Georgia, as well as in diaspora populations in Russia, Turkey, and the...
group related to the Urartians. Ancient written accounts, such as one written by Arab historian Abu al-Hasan Ali ibn al-Husayn al-Masudi(896-956), attest to an Iranian presence in the region:
Scholars see cultural similarities between modern Persians and Azeris as evidence of an ancient Iranian influence. Archaeological evidence indicates that the Iranian religion of
ZoroastrianismZoroastrianism is the religion and philosophy based on the teachings ascribed to the prophet Zoroaster , after whom the religion is named. The term Zoroastrianism is, in general usage, essentially synonymous with Mazdaism, i.e...
was prominent throughout the Caucasus before Christianity and Islam and that the influence of various Persian Empires added to the Iranian character of the area. It has also been hypothesized that the population of Iranian Azarbaijan was predominantly Persian-speaking before the Oghuz arrived. This claim is supported by the many figures of
Persian literaturePersian literature spans two-and-a-half millennia, though much of the pre-Islamic material has been lost. Its sources have been within historical Persia including present-day Iran as well as regions of Central Asia where the Persian language has historically been the national language...
, such as
Qatran TabriziAbū-Mansūr Qatrān-i Tabrīzī , , was a royal Iranian poet.Originating from Shadi-abad near Tabriz , he was the most famous panegyrist of his time in Iran. His full name according to an old manuscript handwritten by the famous poet Anvari Abivardi is Abu Mansur Qatran al-Jili al-Azerbaijani...
,
Shams TabriziShams-e-Tabrīzī or Shams al-Din Mohammad was an Iranian Sufi mystic born in the city of Tabriz in Iranian Azerbaijan. He introduced Mawlānā Jalāl ad-Dīn Muhammad Balkhi, usually known as Rumi in the West, to mysticism, for which he was immortalized in Rumi's poetry collection Diwan-e Shams-e...
,
NezamiNezāmi-ye Ganjavi , or Nezāmi , whose formal name was Niżām ad-Dīn Abū Muḥammad Ilyās ibn-Yūsuf ibn-Zakī ibn-Mu‘ayyad, is considered the greatest romantic epic poet in Persian literature, who brought a colloquial and realistic style to the Persian epic...
, and Khaghani, who wrote in Persian prior to and during the Oghuz migration, as well as by
StraboStrabo was a Greek historian, geographer and philosopher.-Life:Strabo was born in a wealthy family from Amaseia in Pontus , which had recently become part of the Roman Empire.. He studied under various geographers and philosophers; first in Nysa, later in Rome...
, Al-Istakhri, and Al-Masudi, who all describe the language of the region as
PersianPersian is an Iranian language within the Indo-Iranian branch of the Indo-European languages. It is widely spoken in Iran, Afghanistan, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan and to some extent in Iraq and Bahrain, and has a status of official language in the first three countries under different names...
. The claim is mentioned by other medieval historians, such as
Al-MuqaddasiMuhammad ibn Ahmad Shams al-Din Al-Muqaddasi , also transliterated as Al-Maqdisi and el-Mukaddasi, was a notable medieval Arab geographer, author of Ahsan at-Taqasim fi Ma`rifat il-Aqalim .-Biography:Al-Muqaddasi, "the Hierosolomite" was born in Jerusalem in 946 AD...
. Other common Perso-Azeribaijani features include Iranian place names such as
TabrizTabriz is the fourth largest city of Iran and the capital of East Azerbaijan Province. Situated at an altitude of 1,350 meters at the junction of the Quri River and Aji River, it was the second largest city in Iran until the late 1960s, one of its former capitals and residence of the crown prince...
and the name Azerbaijan itself.
Various sources such as Encyclopaedia Iranica explain how, "The Turkish speakers of Azerbaijan (q.v.) are mainly descended from the earlier Iranian speakers, several pockets of whom still exist in the region." The modern presence of the Iranian
TalyshTalysh are an Iranian people who speak the Talysh language, one of the Northwestern Iranian languages. It is spoken in the northern regions of the Iranian provinces of Gilan and Ardabil and the southern parts of the Republic of Azerbaijan...
and
TatsTats are the Iranian ethnos, presently living on the territory of Republic of Azerbaijan and the Russian Federation . Variants of self-designation are Tati, Parsi, Daghli, Lohijon...
in Azerbaijan is further evidence of the former Iranian character of the region. As a precursor to these modern groups, the
ancient AzarisAzari, also spelled Adari, Adhari, is the name used for the Iranian language composed of groups of dialects which were spoken in Azerbaijan at one time...
are also hypothesized as ancestors of the modern Azerbaijanis.
Caucasian origin
According to Encyclopedia Britannica about Azeris in the Republic of Azerbaijan:
The Caucasian origin mostly applies to the Azeris of the Caucasus, most of whom are now inhabitants of the Republic of Azerbaijan. There is evidence that, despite repeated invasions and migrations, aboriginal
CaucasianAlbania is the historical name for the country of the eastern Caucasus, roughly corresponding to the...
s may have been culturally assimilated, first by
IraniansAncient Iranian peoples who settled Greater Iran in the 2nd millennium BC first appear in Assyrian records in the 9th century BC. They remain dominant throughout Classical Antiquity in Scythia and Persia.-Origins:...
and later by the Oghuz. Considerable information has been learned about the Caucasian Albanians including their language, history, early conversion to
ChristianityChristianity is a monotheistic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus of Nazareth as presented by the revelations in the New Testament....
, and close ties to the
ArmeniansThe Armenians are a nation and ethnic group which originated in the Caucasus and the Armenian Highland. It is estimated that there are 8 million Armenians around the world. There is a large concentration of Armenians in the Caucasus, especially in Armenia, and there is a significant presence in...
. Many academics believe that the
Udi languageThe Udi language, spoken by the Udi people, is a member of the Northeast Caucasian language family. It is believed this was the main language of Caucasian Albania, which stretched from south Dagestan to current day Azerbaijan....
, still spoken in Azerbaijan, is a remnant of the Albanians' language.
This Caucasian influence extended further south into Iranian Azarbaijan. During the 1st millennium BCE, another Caucasian people, the
MannaeansThe Mannaeans were an ancient people who lived in the territory of present-day Iran, around the 10th to 7th centuries BC...
(Mannai) populated much of Iranian Azarbaijan. Weakened by conflicts with the Assyrians, the Mannaeans are believed to have been conquered and assimilated by the Medes by 590 BCE.
Genetics
Some new genetic studies suggest that recent erosion of human population structure might not be as important as previously thought, and overall genetic structure of human populations may not change with the immigration events and thus in the Azerbaijani case; the Azeris of Azerbaijan republic most of all genetically resemble other Caucasian people like Armenians and people in the Azarbaijan region of Iran to other Iranians.
Studies conducted at Cambridge University
A recent study of the genetic landscape of Iran was completed by a team of Cambridge geneticists led by Dr. Maziar Ashrafian Bonab (an Iranian Azarbaijani). Bonab remarked that his group had done extensive DNA testing on different language groups, including
Indo-EuropeanThe Indo-European languages are a family of several hundred related languages and dialects, including most major languages of Europe, Iran, and northern India, and historically also predominant in Anatolia and Central Asia...
and non Indo-European speakers, in Iran. The study found that the Azerbaijanis of Iran do not have a similar FSt and other genetic markers found in Anatolian and European Turks. However, the genetic Fst and other genetic traits like MRca and mtDNA of Iranian Azeris were identical to Persians in Iran.
Studies conducted in the Caucasus
A 2003 study found that: "Y-chromosome haplogroups indicate that Indo-European-speaking Armenians and Turkic-speaking Azerbaijanians (of the Republic of Azerbaijan) are genetically more closely related to their geographic neighbors in the Caucasus than to their linguistic neighbors elsewhere." The authors of this study suggest that this indicates a language replacement of indigenous Caucasian peoples. There is evidence of limited genetic admixture derived from Central Asians (specifically
Haplogroup H12In human genetics, Haplogroup H is a Y-chromosome haplogroup.This haplogroup is found at a high frequency in Indian Subcontinent. It is generally rare outside of the Indian subcontinent but is common among the Roma people, particularly the H-M82 subgroup.-Origins:It is a branch of Haplogroup F,...
), notably the
TurkmenThe Turkmen are a Turkic people located primarily in the Central Asian states of Turkmenistan, Afghanistan, northern Iraq and in northeastern Iran...
, that is higher than that of their neighbors, the
GeorgiansThe Georgians are a South Caucasian people and nation mainly centered in Georgia. They also live in Turkey, Russia, the United States, Iran, and other countries....
and
ArmeniansThe Armenians are a nation and ethnic group which originated in the Caucasus and the Armenian Highland. It is estimated that there are 8 million Armenians around the world. There is a large concentration of Armenians in the Caucasus, especially in Armenia, and there is a significant presence in...
. MtDNA analysis indicates that the main relationship with Iranians is through a larger West Eurasian group that is secondary to that of the Caucasus, according to a study that did not include Azeris, but Georgians who have clustered with Azeris in other studies. The conclusion from the testing shows that the Caucasian Azeris are a mixed population with relationships, in order of greatest similarity, with the Caucasus, Iranians and Near Easterners, Europeans, and Turkmen. Other genetic analysis of mtDNA and Y-chromosomes indicates that Caucasian populations are genetically intermediate between Europeans and Near Easterners, but that they are more closely related to Near Easterners overall. Another study, conducted in 2003 by the Russian Journal of Genetics, links Iranians in Azerbaijan (the
TalyshTalysh are an Iranian people who speak the Talysh language, one of the Northwestern Iranian languages. It is spoken in the northern regions of the Iranian provinces of Gilan and Ardabil and the southern parts of the Republic of Azerbaijan...
and
TatsTats are the Iranian ethnos, presently living on the territory of Republic of Azerbaijan and the Russian Federation . Variants of self-designation are Tati, Parsi, Daghli, Lohijon...
) with Turkic Azerbaijanis of the Republic:
Ethnonym
Historically the Turkic speakers of Iranian Azerbaijan and the Caucasus called themselves or were referred to by others as Muslims, Turks, or
AjamAjam in Arabic literally means "one who is illiterate in language", "silent", or "mute", and refers to non-Arabs in general, or Persians specifically. In the former sense it is a neutral term meaning "stranger" or "foreign"...
s (by Kurds), and religious identification prevailed over ethnic identification. When the South Caucasus became part of the
Russian EmpireThe Russian Empire was a state that existed from 1721 until the Russian Revolution of 1917. It was the successor to the Tsardom of Russia, and the predecessor of the Soviet Union...
in the nineteenth century, Russian authorities, who traditionally referred to all Turkic people as Tatars, defined Azeris as Aderbeijans/Azerbaijani or (Trans)Caucasian Tatars to distinguish them from other Turkic peoples. The Russian
Brockhaus and Efron Encyclopedic DictionaryThe Brockhaus and Efron Encyclopedic Dictionary is, in its scope and style, the Russian counterpart to the 1911 Britannica. It contains 121 240 articles, 7 800 images, and 235 maps...
, written in the 1890s, also refers to Azerbaijanis as Aderbeijans (адербейджаны). According to the article Turko-Tatars of the above encyclopedia:
This ethnonym was also used by
Joseph DenikerJoseph Deniker was a French naturalist and anthropologist, known primarily for his attempts to develop highly-detailed maps of race in Europe.- Life :...
:
Demographics and society
There are an estimated 24 to 33 million Azerbaijanis in the world, but census figures are difficult to verify. The vast majority live in Azerbaijan and Iranian Azarbaijan. Between 16 and 23 million Azeris live in Iran, mainly in the northwestern provinces. Approximately 7.6 million Azeris are found in the Republic of Azerbaijan. A diaspora, possibly numbering in the millions, is found in neighboring countries and around the world. There are sizable communities in
TurkeyTurkey , known officially as the Republic of Turkey
, is a Eurasian country that stretches across the Anatolian peninsula in Western Asia and Thrace in the Balkan region of southeastern Europe...
,
GeorgiaGeorgia Georgia Georgia is a country in the Caucasus region of Eurasia. Situated at the juncture of Western Asia and Eastern Europe, it is bounded to the west by the Black Sea, to the north by Russia, to the south by Turkey and Armenia, and to the east by Azerbaijan...
,
RussiaRussia , officially known as both Russia and the Russian Federation , is a country in northern Eurasia . It is a semi-presidential republic, comprising 83 federal subjects...
,
UKThe United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland is a sovereign state located off the northwestern coast of continental Europe. It is an island country, spanning an archipelago including Great Britain, the northeastern part of Ireland, and many small islands...
,
USAThe United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
,
CanadaCanada is a country occupying most of northern North America, extending from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west and northward into the Arctic Ocean...
,
GermanyGermany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a country in Central Europe. It is bordered to the north by the North Sea, Denmark, and the Baltic Sea; to the east by Poland and the Czech Republic; to the south by Austria and Switzerland; and to the west by France, Luxembourg, Belgium,...
and other countries.
While population estimates in Azerbaijan are considered reliable due to regular censuses taken, the figures for Iran remain questionable. Since the early twentieth century, successive Iranian governments have avoided publishing statistics on ethnic groups. Unofficial population estimates of Azeris in Iran range from 20–24%. However, many Iran scholars, such as Nikki Keddie, Patricia J. Higgins, Shahrough Akhavi, Ali Reza Sheikholeslami, and others, claim that Azeris may comprise as much as one third of Iran's population.
A large expatriate community of Azerbaijanis is found outside Azerbaijan and Iran. According to
EthnologueEthnologue: Languages of the World is a web and print publication of SIL International , a Christian linguistic service organization, which studies lesser-known languages, primarily to provide the speakers with Bibles in their native language.The Ethnologue contains statistics for 7,358 languages...
, there were over 1 million Azerbaijani-speakers of the north dialect in southern
DagestanThe Republic of Dagestan is a federal subject—republic—of the Russian Federation, located in the North Caucasus region....
,
ArmeniaArmenia , officially the Republic of Armenia , is a landlocked mountainous country in the Caucasus region of Eurasia...
,
EstoniaEstonia , officially the Republic of Estonia , is a country in Northern Europe. It is bordered to the north by the Gulf of Finland, to the west by the Baltic Sea, to the south by Latvia , and to the east by the Russian Federation...
,
GeorgiaGeorgia Georgia Georgia is a country in the Caucasus region of Eurasia. Situated at the juncture of Western Asia and Eastern Europe, it is bounded to the west by the Black Sea, to the north by Russia, to the south by Turkey and Armenia, and to the east by Azerbaijan...
,
KazakhstanKazakhstan , officially the Republic of Kazakhstan, is a country situated in Eurasia that is ranked as the ninth largest country in the world. It is also the world's largest landlocked country. Its territory of 2,727,300 km² is greater than Western Europe...
,
KyrgyzstanKyrgyzstan , officially the Kyrgyz Republic, is a country in Central Asia. Landlocked and mountainous, it is bordered by Kazakhstan to the north, Uzbekistan to the west, Tajikistan to the southwest and China to the east....
,
RussiaRussia , officially known as both Russia and the Russian Federation , is a country in northern Eurasia . It is a semi-presidential republic, comprising 83 federal subjects...
,
TurkmenistanRepublic of Turkmenistan is a country in Central Asia. Until 1991, it was a constituent republic of the Soviet Union, the Turkmen Soviet Socialist Republic...
, and
UzbekistanUzbekistan, officially the Republic of Uzbekistan , is a doubly landlocked country in Central Asia, formerly part of the Soviet Union...
as of 1993. Other sources, such as national censuses, confirm the presence of Azeris throughout the former
Soviet UnionThe Union of Soviet Socialist Republics was a constitutionally socialist state that existed in Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. The name is a translation of the , tr. Soyuz Sovetskikh Sotsialisticheskikh Respublik, abbreviated СССР, SSSR. The common short name is Soviet Union, from , Sovetskiy Soyuz...
. The Ethnologue figures are outdated in the case of Armenia, where conflict over Nagorno-Karabakh has affected the population of Azeris. Ethnologue further reports that an additional 1 million South Azeris live outside Iran, but these figures most likely are a reference to the
Iraqi TurkmenThe Iraqi Turks or Iraqi Turkmens are a distinct Turkic ethnic group, the third-largest ethnic group in Iraq, living mostly in northern Iraq, in an area which they call "Turkmeneli", notably in the cities of Kirkuk, Arbil, Tal Afar, and Mosul...
, a distinct though related Turkic people.
Azeris in Azerbaijan
By far the largest ethnic group in Azerbaijan (over 90%), the Azeris generally tend to dominate most aspects of the country. Unlike most of their ethnic brethren in Iran, the majority of Azeris are secularized from decades of official Soviet
atheismAtheism can be either the rejection of theism,or the position that deities do not exist.In the broadest sense, it is the absence of belief in the existence of deities....
. The literacy rate is high, another Soviet legacy, and is estimated at 98.8%. Whereas most urban Azeris are educated, education remains comparatively lower in rural areas. A similar disparity exists with healthcare.
Azeri society has been deeply impacted by the war with Armenia over
Nagorno-KarabakhNagorno-Karabakh is a landlocked region in the South Caucasus, lying between Lower Karabakh and Zangezur and covering the southeastern range of the Lesser Caucasus mountains...
, which has displaced nearly 1 million Azeris and put strains upon the economy. Azerbaijan has benefited from the oil industry, but high levels of corruption have prevented greater prosperity for the masses. Many Azeris have grown frustrated over the political process in Azerbaijan as the election of current president
Ilham AliyevIlham Heydar oglu Aliyev is the current President of Azerbaijan. He also functions as the Chairman of the New Azerbaijan Party.-Biography:...
has been described as "marred by allegations of corruption and brutal crackdowns on his political opposition". Despite these problems, there is a renaissance in Azerbaijan as positive economic predictions and an active political opposition appear determined to improve the lives of average Azeris.
Azeris in Iran
Azerbaijanis in Iran are mainly found in the northwest provinces: East Azerbaijan,
ArdabilArdabīl is one of the Azeri inhabited provinces located in the North-West Iran and its center is Ardabil. It is in the north-west of the country, bordering the Republic of Azerbaijan and the provinces of East Azarbaijan, Zanjan, and Gilan. Its center is the city of Ardabil...
,
ZanjanZanjan is one of the Azeri inhabited provinces of Iran located in the North-West Iran. Its capital is Zanjan city. Zanjan province with an area of 36,400 km² has a mostly rural, population of 964,601 . The province lies 330 km northwest of Tehran, connected to it via a freeway.Zanjan...
, parts of
HamedanHamedān or Hamadān is the capital city of Hamadan Province of Iran. It had an estimated population of 550,284 in 2005....
,
QazvinQazvin is the largest city and capital of the Province of Qazvin in Iran with an estimated population of 331,409 in 2005...
, West Azerbaijan and
MarkaziMarkazi is one of the 30 provinces of Iran. The word markazi means central in Persian. Markazi is in west Iran, and its capital is Arak. Its population is estimated at 1.35 million...
. Many others live in
TehranTehran is the capital and largest city of Iran, and the administrative center of Tehran Province. Tehran is a sprawling city at the foot of the Tochal mountain range with an immense network of highways unparalleled in Western Asia...
,
Fars ProvinceFārs Fārs Fārs (pronounced /fɑː(ɹ)s/ (Persian: Fārs, Pārs) (Originally Pars) is one of the 30 provinces of Iran. It is in the south of the country and its center is Shiraz. It has an area of 122,400 km²...
, and other regions. Generally, Azeris in Iran were regarded as "a well integrated linguistic minority" by academics prior to
Iran's Islamic RevolutionThe Iranian Revolution of 1979 or 1979 Islamic Revolution refers to events involving the overthrow of Iran's monarchy under Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi and its replacement with an Islamic republic under Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, the leader of the revolution...
. Despite friction, Azerbaijanis in Iran came to be well represented at all levels of, "political, military, and intellectual hierarchies, as well as the religious hierarchy."
Resentment came with Pahlavi policies that suppressed the use of the
Azerbaijani languageAzerbaijani is a language belonging to the Turkic language family, spoken in southwestern Asia, primarily in Azerbaijan and northwestern Iran...
in local government, schools, and the press. However with the advent of the
Iranian RevolutionThe Iranian Revolution of 1979 or 1979 Islamic Revolution refers to events involving the overthrow of Iran's monarchy under Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi and its replacement with an Islamic republic under Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, the leader of the revolution...
in 1979, emphasis shifted away from nationalism as the new government highlighted religion as the main unifying factor. Within the Islamic Revolutionary government there emerged an Azeri nationalist faction led by
Ayatollah Kazem ShariatmadariGrand Ayatollah Sayyid Mohammad Kazem Shariatmadari , also spelled Shariat-Madari , born to an Azeri family in Tabriz, he was among the most senior leading Twelver Shi'a clerics in Iran and Iraq and was known for his forward looking and liberal views...
, who advocated greater regional autonomy and wanted the constitution to be revised to include secularists and opposition parties; this was denied. In May 2006 Iranian Azerbaijan witnessed riots over publication of a
cartoonThe cockroach cartoon controversy of "Iran weekly magazine" arose over a cartoon, published in the Iranian holiday-magazine of Iran-e-jomee, drawn by the cartoonist Mana Neyestani, an ethnic Iranian Azeri...
that many Azeris found offensive. The cartoon was drawn by
Mana NeyestaniMana Neyestani is an Iranian cartoonist of Iranian Azeri ethnicity. He is the brother of Touka Neyestani, who is also a cartoonist.Riots erupted by ethnic Azeris in Iran when they took offense in Mana Neyestani's , published in the children's section of the 12 May 2006 supplement of Iran, a...
, an ethnic Azeri, who was fired along with his editor as a result of the controversy.
Despite sporadic problems, Azeris are an intrinsic community within Iran. Currently, the living conditions of Azeris in Iran closely resemble that of Persians:
Andrew Burke writes:
Azeris in Iran are in high positions of authority with the Ayatollah
Ali KhameneiAyatollah Sayyid Ali Hoseyni Khāmene’i , also known as Ali Khamenei, is an Iranian politician, cleric and the figurehead of the conservative establishment in Iran. He has been the Supreme Leader of Iran since 1989 and was president of Iran from 1981 to 1989...
currently sitting as the Supreme Leader. Azeris in Iran remain quite conservative in comparison to most Azeris in the Republic of Azerbaijan. Nonetheless, since the Republic of Azerbaijan's independence in 1991, there has been renewed interest and contact between Azeris on both sides of the border.
Culture
In many respects, Azeris are
Eurasian-Geography:* Adjective referring to the continent of Eurasia**Eurasian Steppe**Eurasian Plate**Eurasian Avars**Eurasian nomads-Regional organizations:*Eurasian Region, a geographical division of the World Organization of the Scout Movement...
and bi-cultural, as northern Azeris have absorbed Russo-Soviet and Eastern European influences, whereas the Azeris of the south have remained within the
Turko-IranianThe composite Turko-Persian tradition was a variant of Islamic culture. It was Persianate in that it was centered on a lettered tradition of Iranian origin; it was Turkic insofar as it was for many generations patronized by rulers of Turkic background; it was Islamic in that Islamic notions of...
and Persianate tradition. Modern Azeri culture includes significant achievements in literature, art, music, and film.
Language and literature
The Azerbaijanis speak
AzerbaijaniAzerbaijani is a language belonging to the Turkic language family, spoken in southwestern Asia, primarily in Azerbaijan and northwestern Iran...
(sometimes called Azerbaijani Turkish or Azeri), one of branches of Oghuz
Turkic languagesThe Turkic languages constitute a language family of some thirty languages, spoken by Turkic peoples across a vast area from Eastern Europe and the Mediterranean to Siberia and Western China, and are considered to be part of the proposed Altaic language family.Turkic languages are spoken by some...
. Oghuz Turks entered in Azerbaijan in 11th and 12th century CE and Azeri went through a gradual development before assuming its present form. Early Oghuz was mainly an oral language. The origins of the later compiled epics and heroic stories of
Dede KorkutThe Book of Dede Korkut, also spelled as Dada Gorgud, Dede Qorqut or Korkut-ata , is the most famous epic story of the Oghuz Turks...
, is probably this period. Oral tradition continues for the next two hundred years. The first accepted Oghuz Turkic text goes back to 15th century. The beginning of written, classical Azeri literature was after the Mongol invasion. Some of the earliest Azeri writings of the past are traced back to the poet Nasimi (died 1417) and then decades later
FuzûlîFużūlī was the pen name of the Azerbaijani poet, writer and thinker Muhammad bin Suleyman . Often considered one of the greatest contributors to the Dîvân tradition of Azerbaijani literature, Fuzûlî in fact wrote his collected poems in three different languages: Azerbaijani Turkic, Persian, and...
(1483–1556).
Ismail IShāh Ismā'il Abu'l-Mozaffar bin Sheikh Haydar bin Sheikh Junayd Safawī , was a Shah of Iran and the founder of the Safavid Empire, which survived until 1736. Shah Ismail started his campaign in Azerbaijan in 1502, and had re-unified all of Iran by 1509...
, Shah of
Safavid PersiaThe Safavids were one of the ruling dynasties of Iran. They ruled one of the greatest Iranian empires since the Islamic conquest of Persia and established the Ithnāˤashari school of Shi'a Islam as the official religion of their empire, marking one of the most important turning points in the...
wrote Azeri poetry under the pen name Khatâ'i. Modern Azeri literature continued with a traditional emphasis upon,
humanismHumanism is a perspective common to a wide range of ethical stances that attaches importance to human dignity, concerns, and capabilities, particularly rationality. Although the word has many senses, its meaning comes into focus when contrasted to the supernatural or to appeals to authority...
, as conveyed in the writings of Samad Vurgun,
ShahriarSeyyed Mohammad Hossein Behjat-Tabrizi , chiefly known by his pen name as Shahriar , was an Iranian poet, writing in Persian and Azerbaijani....
, and many others.
Azeris are generally bilingual, often fluent in either Russian (in Azerbaijan) or Persian (in Iran). Around 5,000,000 of Azerbaijan's roughly 8,000,000 population speaks Russian. Moreover, in 1999, around 2,700 Azeris in the Azerbaijan Republic (0.04% of the total Azeri population) reported Russian as their mothertongue. An Iranian survey (2002) revealed that 90.0% of the sample household population in Iran is able to speak Persian, 4.6% can only understand it, and 5.4% can neither speak nor understand Persian. Azeri is the most spoken minority language in an Iranian household (24%).
Religion
The majority of Azerbaijanis are Twelver
Shi'a MuslimsShia Islam , is the second largest denomination of Islam, after Sunni Islam. The followers of Shia Islam are called Shi'as or Shi'ites....
. Religious minorities include
Sunni MuslimSunni Islam is the largest denomination of Islam. It is also referred to as Ahl as-Sunnah wa’l-Jamā‘ah or Ahl as-Sunnah for short...
s (mainly
HanafiThe Hanafi school is one of the four schools of law or jurisprudence within Sunni Islam. The Hanafi madhhab is named after Abu Hanifa an-Nu‘man ibn Thābit , and his legal views were preserved primarily by his two most...
),
ZoroastriansZoroastrianism in Azerbaijan goes back to the first millennium BC or earlier. The religion was the predominant religion of Greater Iran before the conversion...
,
ChristiansChristianity is a monotheistic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus of Nazareth as presented by the revelations in the New Testament....
and
Bahá'ísThe Bahá'í Faith is a monotheistic religion founded by Bahá'u'lláh in nineteenth-century Persia, emphasizing the spiritual unity of all humankind. There are an estimated five to six million Bahá'ís around the world in more than 200 countries and territories.The Bahá'í Faith teaches a doctrine of...
. Azeris in the Republic of Azerbaijan have an unknown number showing no religious affiliation, since being in a secular country. Many describe themselves as
cultural MuslimCultural Muslim is a general term used to define a group of people who are identified by association with a Muslim community rather than Islamic faith or rituals.-Concept:...
s. There is a small number of
NaqshbandiNaqshbandi is one of the major tasawwuf orders of Islam. The order is considered to be a "sober" order as many following the Naqshbandi Sufi way have chosen the silent dhikr of the Heart, rather than the vocalized forms of dhikr common in other orders.The Naqshbandi Order is the only Sufi order...
SufisSufism or ' , also spelled as tasavvuf and tasavvof, is generally understood to be the inner, mystical dimension of Islam. A practitioner of this tradition is generally known as a ' , though some adherents of the tradition reserve this term only for those practitioners who have attained the goals...
among Muslim Azeris. Some Azeris from rural regions retain pre-Islamic animist beliefs, such as the sanctity of certain sites and the veneration of certain trees and rocks. In the Republic of Azerbaijan traditions from other religions are often celebrated in addition to Islamic holidays, including
NorouzNowrūz , meaning 'New Day') is the traditional Iranian new year ceremony.Nowruz is celebrated and observed by Iranian peoples and the related cultural continent and has spread in many other parts of the world, including parts of Central Asia, South Asia, Northwestern China, the Crimea, Somalia,...
and
ChristmasChristmas , also referred to as Christmas Day, is an annual holiday celebrated on December 25 that commemorates the birth of Jesus of Nazareth. The day marks the beginning of the larger season of Christmastide, which lasts twelve days. The nativity of Jesus, which is the basis for the anno Domini...
. After the fall of the
Soviet UnionThe Union of Soviet Socialist Republics was a constitutionally socialist state that existed in Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. The name is a translation of the , tr. Soyuz Sovetskikh Sotsialisticheskikh Respublik, abbreviated СССР, SSSR. The common short name is Soviet Union, from , Sovetskiy Soyuz...
, Azerbaijanis have increasingly returned to their Islamic heritage as recent reports indicate that many Azerbaijani youth are being drawn to Islam.
Performance art
Azeris express themselves in a variety of artistic ways including dance, music, and the media. Azeri folk dances are ancient and similar to that of their neighbours in the Caucasus and Iran. The group dance is a common form found from
southeastern EuropeThe Balkans is a geopolitical and cultural region of southeastern Europe...
to the
Caspian SeaThe Caspian Sea is the largest enclosed body of water on Earth by area, variously classed as the world's largest lake or a full-fledged sea. It has a surface area of 371,000 square kilometres and a volume of 78,200 cubic kilometres...
. In the group dance the performers come together in a semi-circular or circular formation as, "The leader of these dances often executes special figures as well as signaling and changes in the foot patterns, movements, or direction in which the group is moving, often by gesturing with his or her hand, in which a kerchief is held." Solitary dances are performed by both men and women and involve subtle hand motions in addition to sequenced steps.
Azeri musical tradition can be traced back to singing
bardIn medieval Gaelic and British culture a bard was a professional poet, paid by a monarch to praise the sovereign's activities....
s called Ashiqs
, a vocation that survives to this day. Modern Ashiqs play the sazSaz can be a shortened version of Sarah, or may refer to:* Saz, or baglama, a Middle Eastern stringed instrument* Sameh Zakout, rap artist...
(luteLute can refer generally to any plucked string instrument with a neck and a deep round back, or more specifically to an instrument from the family of European lutes....
) and sing dastans
(historical balladA ballad is a form of verse, often a narrative and set to music. Ballads were particularly characteristic of British and Irish popular poetry and song from the later medieval period until the 19th century and used extensively across Europe and later North America, Australia and North Africa. Many...
s). Other musical instruments include the tarThe tār is a long-necked, waisted Iranian/Persian instrument But other cultures and countries adapted this instrument into their culture,like Azerbaijan, Georgia, and other areas near the Caucasus region. The word tar itself means "string" in Persian...
(another type of lute), dudukThe duduk is a traditional woodwind instrument, popular with the people of Caucasus, Middle East and Eastern Europe. This English word is often used generically for a family of ethnic instruments including the doudouk or duduk The duduk is a traditional woodwind instrument, popular with the people...
(a wind instrument), Kamancha (fiddle), and the dholFor Armenian Dhol and Georgian Doli, see Nagara Not to be confused with doldrum, the dhol dohol , is a drum widely used in the Indian subcontinent, especially the Punjab region, and especially among the Sikhs of East Punjab...
(drums). Azeri classical music, called mughamMugam also known as Azerbaijani Mugham is one of the many folk musical compositions from Azerbaijan, contrast with Tasnif, Ashugs...
, is often an emotional singing performance. Composers
Uzeyir HajibeyovUzeyir bey Abdul Hussein oglu Hajibeyov was an Azerbaijani and Soviet composer, conductor, scientist, publicist, playwright, teacher, translator, and social figure. He is recognized as the father of Azerbaijani classical music and opera...
,
Gara GarayevGara Abulfaz oghlu Garayev , also spelled as Qara Qarayev or Kara [Abulfazovich] Karaev, was a prominent Azerbaijani composer of the Soviet period...
and
Fikret AmirovFikret Mashadi Jamil oghlu Amirov was a prominent Azerbaijani composer of the Soviet period.Fikret Amirov grew up in an atmosphere of Azerbaijani folk music...
created a hybrid style that combines Western classical music with mugham. Other Azeris, notably Vagif Mustafa Zadeh and
Aziza Mustafa ZadehAziza Mustafa Zadeh also known as The Princess of Jazz, or Die Prinzessin des Jazz or as Jazziza is an Azerbaijani singer, pianist and composer who plays a fusion of jazz and mugam with classical and Avant-garde influences...
, mixed
jazzJazz is a musical art form which originated at the beginning of the 20th century in African American communities in the Southern United States from a confluence of African and European music traditions....
with mugham. Some Azeri musicians have received international acclaim, including
Rashid BehbudovRashid Behbudov was an Azerbaijani singer and actor. He sang in Azerbaijani, Russian, Persian, Turkish, Hindi, Armenian, Urdu and Bengali among other languages....
(who could sing in over eight languages) and Muslim Magomayev (a pop star from the Soviet era).
Meanwhile in Iran, Azeri music has taken a different course. According to Iranian Azeri singer
Hossein AlizadehHossein Alizadeh , is a distinguished Iranian composer, Radif-preserver, researcher, teacher, and excellent tar and setar instrumentalist and improviser, dubbed by many as an Ostad of Persian music...
, "Historically in Iran, music faced strong opposition from the religious establishment, forcing it to go underground." As a result, most Iranian Azeri music is performed outside of Iran amongst exile communities.
Azeri film and television is largely broadcast in Azerbaijan with limited outlets in Iran. Some Azeris have been prolific film-makers, such as
Rustam IbragimbekovRustam Mammad Ibrahim oglu Ibrahimbeyov, also spelled Ibragimbekov is Azerbaijani and Soviet screenwriter, dramatist and producer, well known beyond his home Azerbaijan and the CIS....
, who wrote
Burnt by the SunBurnt by the Sun is a film by Russian director and actor Nikita Mikhalkov. The film received the Grand Prize at the 1994 Cannes Film Festival and the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film, among many other honours.-Plot:...
, winner of the Grand Prize at the
Cannes Film FestivalThe Cannes Film Festival , founded in 1946, is one of the world's oldest and most prestigious film festivals. The private festival is held annually at the Palais des Festivals et des Congrès, in the resort town of Cannes, in the south of France.The 62nd edition started 13 May and ended 24 May 2009...
and an
Academy AwardThe Academy Awards, popularly known as the Oscars, are presented annually by the American Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences to recognize excellence of professionals in the film industry, including directors, actors, and writers. The formal ceremony at which the awards are presented is...
for
Best Foreign Language FilmThe Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film is one of the Academy Awards of Merit, popularly known as the Oscars, handed out annually by the U.S.-based Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences...
in 1994. Many Iranian Azeris have been prominent in the
cinematic tradition of IranThe cinema of Iran is a flourishing film industry with a long history. Many popular commercial films are annually made in Iran, and Iranian art films win praise around the world....
, which has received critical praise since the 1980s.
Sports
Sports have historically been an important part of Azeri life. Numerous competitions were conducted on horseback and praised by poets and writers such as Gatran Tabrizi and
Nezami GanjaviNezāmi-ye Ganjavi , or Nezāmi , whose formal name was Niżām ad-Dīn Abū Muḥammad Ilyās ibn-Yūsuf ibn-Zakī ibn-Mu‘ayyad, is considered the greatest romantic epic poet in Persian literature, who brought a colloquial and realistic style to the Persian epic...
. Other ancient sports include wrestling, javelin throwing and ox-wrestling.
The Soviet legacy has in modern times propelled some Azeris to become accomplished athletes at the Olympic level. The Azeri government supports the country's athletic legacy and encourages Azeri youth to take part.
FootballAssociation football, more commonly known as football or soccer, is a team sport played between two teams of eleven players using a spherical ball...
is very popular in both Azerbaijan and Iranian Azarbaijan. There are many prominent Azeri soccer players such as
Ali DaeiAli Daei is a former Iranian football player and coach. He is a former captain of the Iran national football team, and is the world's all-time leading goalscorer in international matches...
, the world's all-time leading goal scorer in international matches and the former captain of the Iran national soccer team. Azeri athletes have particularly excelled in
weight liftingPowerlifting is a strength sport, consisting of three events: the squat, the bench press, and the deadlift.Powerlifting resembles the sport of olympic weightlifting, as both disciplines involve lifting weights in three attempts. It evolved from a sport known as 'odd lifts' which followed the same 3...
,
gymnasticsGymnastics is a sport involving performance of exercises requiring physical strength, flexibility, agility, coordination, balance and grace. Artistic gymnastics is the best known and most popular of the gymnastics sports governed by the Fédération Internationale de Gymnastique...
,
shootingShooting is the act or process of firing rifles, shotguns or other projectile weapons such as bows or crossbows. Even the firing of artillery, rockets and missiles can be called shooting. A person who specializes in shooting is a marksman...
, javelin throwing,
karateis a martial art developed in the Ryukyu Islands from indigenous fighting methods called and Chinese kenpō. Karate is a striking art using punching, kicking, knee and elbow strikes, and open-handed techniques such as knife-hands...
,
boxingBoxing is a combat sport where two participants, generally of similar weight, fight each other with their fists. Boxing is supervised by a referee and is typically engaged in during a series of one to three-minute intervals called rounds. There are three ways to win...
, and
wrestlingWrestling is an ancient martial art that uses grappling type techniques such as clinch fighting, throws and takedowns, joint locks, pins and other grappling holds. A wrestling bout is a physical competition, generally between two people, who attempt to gain and maintain a superior position...
. Weight lifters, such as Iran's Hossein Reza Zadeh, world’s super heavyweight lifting record holder and two times Olympic champion in 2000 and 2004 and
Nizami PashayevNizami Pashayev is an Azerbaijani athlete in weightlifting. He won two World Weightlifting Championships titles and one European Weightlifting Championships title, when he hauled 402 kilograms in total to take the overall gold in the men's 94 kg category.Pashayev totalled 402 kg on 20 May 2006,...
, who won the European heavyweight title in 2006, have excelled at the international level.
ChessChess is a board game played between two players. The current form of the game emerged in Southern Europe during the second half of the 15th century after evolving from a similar, much older game of Indian origin...
is another popular pastime in Azerbaijan. The country has produced many notable players, such as
Teimour RadjabovTeimour Radjabov, also spelled Teymur Rajabov Teimour Radjabov, also spelled Teymur Rajabov Teimour Radjabov, also spelled Teymur Rajabov ' onMouseout='HidePop("86893")' href="http://www.absoluteastronomy.com/topics/Civil_society">civil society
Civil society is composed of the totality of voluntary civic and social organizations and institutions that form the basis of a functioning society as opposed to the force-backed structures of a state and commercial institutions of the market.-Definition:There are myriad definitions of civil...
to develop. In contrast, in Iranian Azerbaijan Islamic theocratic institutions dominate nearly all aspects of society, with most political power in the hands of the
Supreme Leader of IranThe post of Supreme Leader was created in the constitution of the Islamic Republic of Iran as the highest ranking political and religious authority of the nation, in accordance with the concept of Guardianship of the Islamic Jurists...
and the Council of Guardians. Yet both societies are in a state of change. In Azerbaijan there is a secular democratic system that is mired in political corruption and charges of election fraud. Azerbaijan's civil society is a work in progress:
Despite these problems Azerbaijan has an active political opposition that seeks more expansive democratic reforms. Azeris in Iran remain intertwined with the Islamic republic's
theocraticTheocracy is a form of government in which a god or deity is recognized as the state's supreme civil ruler, or in a higher sense, a form of government in which a state is governed by immediate divine guidance or by officials who are regarded as divinely guided. In Common Greek, “theocracy” means a...
regime and lack any significant civil society of a secular nature that can pose a major challenge. There are signs of civil unrest due to the policies of the Iranian government in Iranian Azarbaijan and increased interaction with fellow Azeris in Azerbaijan and satellite broadcasts from
TurkeyTurkey , known officially as the Republic of Turkey
, is a Eurasian country that stretches across the Anatolian peninsula in Western Asia and Thrace in the Balkan region of southeastern Europe...
have revived Azeri nationalism.
Women
Azeri females have historically struggled against a legacy of male domination but have made great strides since the twentieth century. In Azerbaijan, women were granted the right to vote in 1919. Women have attained Western-style equality in major cities such as
BakuBaku , sometimes known as Baqy, Baky, Baki or Bakou, is the capital, the largest city, and the largest port of Azerbaijan and all the Caucasus. Located on the southern shore of the Absheron Peninsula, the city consists of two principal parts: the downtown and the old Inner City...
, although in rural areas more traditional views remain. Some problems that are especially prevalent include violence against women, especially in rural areas. Crimes such as rape are severely punished in Azerbaijan, but rarely reported, not unlike other parts of the former Soviet Union. Azeri women were forced to "give up the veil," placing Azerbaijan in sharp contrast with Iranian Azarbajan. Women are underrepresented in elective office but have attained high positions in parliament. An Azeri woman is the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court in Azerbaijan, and two others are Justices of the Constitutional Court. As of 6 November 2005, women constituted 12% of all MPs (fifteen seats in total) in the
National Assembly of AzerbaijanThe National Assembly is the legislative branch of government in Azerbaijan. The unicameral National Assembly has 125 deputies: previously 100 members were elected for five-year terms in single-seat constituencies and 25 were members elected by proportional representation; as of the latest...
. The Republic of Azerbaijan is also one of the few Muslim countries where
abortionAn abortion is the termination of a pregnancy by the removal or expulsion from the uterus of a fetus or embryo. An abortion can occur spontaneously due to complications during pregnancy or can be induced, in humans and other species...
is available on demand.
In Iran, the continued unequal treatment of women has been met with increasingly vocal protests, including that of
Shirin EbadiShirin Ebadi is an Iranian lawyer, human rights activist and founder of Centre for the Defence of Human Rights in Iran. On October 10, 2003, Ebadi was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for her significant and pioneering efforts for democracy and human rights, especially women's, children's, and...
, who won the
Nobel Peace PrizeThe Nobel Peace Prize is one of the five Nobel Prizes bequeathed by the Swedish industrialist and inventor Alfred Nobel.-Background:...
in 2003 for her strong advocacy for women's rights. A groundswell of grassroots movements have emerged seeking gender equality since the 1980s. Regular protests take place in defiance of government bans and are often dispersed through violence, as in June 2006 when "[t]housands of women and male supporters came together on June 12 in Haft Tir Square in Tehran" and were dispersed through "brutal suppression". Past Iranian leaders, such as
Mohammad KhatamiSeyed Mohammad Khātamī is an Iranian scholar and politician. He served as the fifth President of Iran from August 2, 1997 to August 3, 2005...
, promised women greater rights, but the government has opposed changes that they interpret as contrary to Islamic doctrine. As of 2004, nine Azeri women have been elected to parliament (
MajlisMajlis , is an Arabic term meaning "a place of sitting" used to describe various types of formal legislative assemblies in countries with linguistic or cultural connections to Islamic countries. Also it is the equivalent of the term legislature in some Islamic-culture states...
) and while most are committed to social change, some represent conservative positions regarding gender issues. The social fate of Azeri women largely mirrors that of other women in Iran.
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