Azerbaijani nationalism ( az, Azərbaycan milliyətçiliyi), also referred to as Azerbaijanism ( az, Azərbaycançılıq, link=no), started out as a cultural movement among Azerbaijani intellectuals within the

Russian Empire The Russian Empire was an empire and the final period of the Russian monarchy from 1721 to 1917, ruling across large parts of Eurasia. It succeeded the Tsardom of Russia following the Treaty of Nystad, which ended the Great Northern War. ...

during the second half of the 19th century. While initially cultural in nature, it was later developed further into a political ideology which culminated in the establishment of the

Azerbaijan Democratic Republic The Azerbaijan Democratic Republic), or simply as Azerbaijan in Paris Peace Conference, 1919–1920,''Bulletin d'Information de l'Azerbaidjan'', No. I, September 1, 1919, pp. 6–7''125 H.C.Debs.'', 58., February 24, 1920, p. 1467. Caucasian Az ...

in 1918.

Identity formation

Compared to

Armenian Armenian may refer to: * Something of, from, or related to Armenia, a country in the South Caucasus region of Eurasia * Armenians, the national people of Armenia, or people of Armenian descent ** Armenian Diaspora, Armenian communities across the ...

and

Georgian nationalism Georgian nationalism is a nationalism which argues for promotion of Georgian national identity and a nation state based on it. The beginning of Georgian nationalism can be traced to the middle of the 19th century, when Georgia was part of the ...

, a specifically

ethnic nationalism Ethnic nationalism, also known as ethnonationalism, is a form of nationalism wherein the nation and nationality are defined in terms of ethnicity, with emphasis on an ethnocentric (and in some cases an ethnocratic) approach to various politi ...

was rather slow to develop among Azerbaijanis, partly due to their self-identification as part of the larger Muslim world rather than as a singular ethnocultural nation. Soviet historian

Sheila Fitzpatrick Sheila May Fitzpatrick (born June 4, 1941) is an Australian historian, whose main subjects are history of the Soviet Union and history of modern Russia, especially the Stalin era and the Great Purges, of which she proposes a " history from belo ...

remarked that, "Of the Caucasus republics, Azerbaijan is the most egregious example of the Soviet invention of tradition with regard to nationality, and Azerbaijanis were particularly ruthless in dealing with the republic’s lesser, non-titular nationalities. This was despite, or perhaps because of, the exceptional fuzziness of their own national identity claims. ‘Azerbaijani’ became the preferred term for a particular set of Turkic people of Islamic faith in the region only in the mid 1930s: previous variants had included ‘Tiurks’ (as distinct from ‘Turks’), ‘Azerbaijani Tiurks’, ‘Muslims’, ‘Azerbaijani Tatars’, ‘Caucasian Tatars’ and ‘Azeris’. " Following the

Nagorno-Karabakh conflict The Nagorno-Karabakh conflict is an ethnic and territorial conflict between Armenia and Azerbaijan over the disputed region of Nagorno-Karabakh, inhabited mostly by ethnic Armenians, and seven surrounding districts, inhabited mostly by Azerbaij ...

and its declaration of independence in 1991, however,

Azerbaijan Azerbaijan (, ; az, Azərbaycan ), officially the Republic of Azerbaijan, , also sometimes officially called the Azerbaijan Republic is a transcontinental country located at the boundary of Eastern Europe and Western Asia. It is a part of th ...

has witnessed the ascent of a particularly strong Azerbaijani nationalism, including various types of

Pan-nationalism Pan-nationalism (from gr, πᾶν, "all", and french: nationalisme, "nationalism") is a specific term, used mainly in social sciences as a designation for those forms of nationalism that aim to transcend (overcome, expand) traditional boundari ...

and

irredentism Irredentism is usually understood as a desire that one state annexes a territory of a neighboring state. This desire is motivated by ethnic reasons (because the population of the territory is ethnically similar to the population of the parent sta ...

Territory

Irredentist claims by Azerbaijani nationalists would mainly seek to incorporate large sections of

Iran Iran, officially the Islamic Republic of Iran, and also called Persia, is a country located in Western Asia. It is bordered by Iraq and Turkey to the west, by Azerbaijan and Armenia to the northwest, by the Caspian Sea and Turkmeni ...

as well as parts of

Armenia Armenia (), , group=pron officially the Republic of Armenia,, is a landlocked country in the Armenian Highlands of Western Asia.The UNbr>classification of world regions places Armenia in Western Asia; the CIA World Factbook , , and ''Ox ...

Russia Russia (, , ), or the Russian Federation, is a List of transcontinental countries, transcontinental country spanning Eastern Europe and North Asia, Northern Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, largest country in the ...

Georgia Georgia most commonly refers to: * Georgia (country), a country in the Caucasus region of Eurasia * Georgia (U.S. state), a state in the Southeast United States Georgia may also refer to: Places Historical states and entities * Related to the ...

and

Turkey Turkey ( tr, Türkiye ), officially the Republic of Türkiye ( tr, Türkiye Cumhuriyeti, links=no ), is a list of transcontinental countries, transcontinental country located mainly on the Anatolia, Anatolian Peninsula in Western Asia, with ...

within a proposed enlarged territory known as

Whole Azerbaijan Whole Azerbaijan ( az, Bütöv Azərbaycan) is an irredentist concept of uniting presumed historically Azerbaijani-inhabited territories into the Republic of Azerbaijan. History The idea of "Whole Azerbaijan" was formulated by Piruz Dilanchi ...

or "Augmented Azerbaijan."Laurence Boers,
Augmented Azerbaijan? The Return of Azerbaijani Irredentism
" ''Eurasianet'' 5 August 2021. Iran hosts a larger number of ethnic Azerbaijanis than the

Republic of Azerbaijan A republic () is a "state in which power rests with the people or their representatives; specifically a state without a monarchy" and also a "government, or system of government, of such a state." Previously, especially in the 17th and 18th ...

, and prior to the establishment of the

in 1918, the name of "Azerbaijan" was exclusively used to identify the adjacent region of contemporary northwestern Iran. Laurence Broers, the Caucasus program director at

Conciliation Resources Conciliation Resources is an independent organization working with people in conflict to prevent violence and build peace, providing advice, support, and practical resources. It also takes the lessons learned to government decision-makers and oth ...

explains replication of dynamics previously characterizing the line of contact around Nagorno-Karabakh along the internationally recognized Armenian-Azerbaijani borders in the political context of Azerbaijan's effort to enforce peace on its terms after its victory in the

2020 Nagorno-Karabakh War The Second Nagorno-Karabakh War was an armed conflict in 2020 that took place in the disputed region of Nagorno-Karabakh and Armenian-occupied territories surrounding Nagorno-Karabakh, the surrounding territories. It was a major escalation of ...

, imposing a set of territorial claims articulated with increasing intensity since May 2021. He sees the deployment of Azerbaijani troops to pockets of Armenia's territory along the border between the two states as "borderization": the transformation of a line of actual control into an international border, or a future concession in a coercive bargaining game. Another set of claims concerns Soviet-era exclaves – three Azerbaijani exclaves in Armenia and an Armenian one in Azerbaijan – which were de facto incorporated into the surrounding state during conflict in the 1990s. The largest claim however, is the revival of a historical territorial designation for the region of

Zangezur Zangezur ( hy, Զանգեզուր) is a historical and geographical region in Eastern Armenia on the slopes of the Zangezur Mountains which largely corresponds to the Syunik Province of the Republic of Armenia. It was ceded to Russia by Qajar Ir ...

as a lost Azerbaijani ethno-space, deriving the concept from the name of a

Zangezur uyezd The Zangezur uezd was a county (''uezd'') of the Elizavetpol Governorate of the Russian Empire with its administrative center in Gerusy (present-day Goris) from 1868 until its formal abolition and partition between the Soviet republics of Armeni ...

(the right of transit across southern Armenia outlined in

2020 Nagorno-Karabakh ceasefire agreement The 2020 Nagorno-Karabakh ceasefire agreement is an armistice agreement that ended the Second Nagorno-Karabakh War. It was signed on 9November by the President of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev, the Prime Minister of Armenia Nikol Pashinyan and the Pre ...

is widely referred to in Azerbaijan as the "

Zangezur corridor The Zangezur corridor; az, Naxçıvan dəhlizi), the "Meghri corridor", ( hy, Մեղրիի միջանցք; az, Meğri dəhlizi) and the "Syunik corridor" ( hy, Սյունիքի միջանցք; az, Sünik dəhlizi). ( hy, Զանգեզուրի ...

", which Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev has threatened to take by force if not willingly given. On July 7, 2021, Azerbaijan reorganized its internal economic regions creating a new region bordering Syunik called "Eastern Zangezur", implying that there is a "Western Zangezur" – that is, Syunik). Beginning in the early twentieth century, Azerbaijani nationalist ideologues have also made common cause with ethnically affiliated populations through

Pan-Turkism Pan-Turkism is a political movement that emerged during the 1880s among Turkic intellectuals who lived in the Russian region of Kazan (Tatarstan), Caucasus (modern-day Azerbaijan) and the Ottoman Empire (modern-day Turkey), with its aim bei ...

Nagorno-Karabakh Conflict

Azerbaijan's defeat in the

First Nagorno-Karabakh War The First Nagorno-Karabakh War, referred to in Armenia as the Artsakh Liberation War ( hy, Արցախյան ազատամարտ, Artsakhyan azatamart) was an ethnic and territorial conflict that took place from February 1988 to May 1994, in th ...

(1992-1994) gave birth to what historian

Ronald Grigor Suny Ronald Grigor Suny (born September 25, 1940) is an American historian and political scientist. Suny is the William H. Sewell Jr. Distinguished University Professor of History at the University of Michigan and served as director of the Eisenberg In ...

has described as a "reactive nationalism": "something that was generated and shaped in that conflict" among a population for whom, amidst the Soviet collapse,

civil society Civil society can be understood as the "third sector" of society, distinct from government and business, and including the family and the private sphere.

Azerbaijani Historiography and the Karabakh Conflict

During the Soviet era, a number of Azerbaijani scholars sought to construct a

pseudohistorical Pseudohistory is a form of pseudoscholarship that attempts to distort or misrepresent the historical record, often by employing methods resembling those used in scholarly historical research. The related term cryptohistory is applied to pseudohist ...

national past by examining the small kingdoms and principalities that were founded on the territory of the modern republic of Azerbaijan during the medieval period. Based on a dubious rereading and interpretation of primary sources,

Ziya Bunyadov Ziya Musa oglu Bunyadov ( az, Ziya Bünyadov sometimes spelled in English as Zia Buniatov or Bunyatov) (21 December 1923, Astara – 21 February 1997, Baku) was an Azerbaijani historian, academician, and Vice-President of the National Academy of ...

and

Farida Mammadova Farida Jafar gizi Mammadova ( az, Fəridə Cəfər qızı Məmmədova; 8 August 1936 – 8 December 2021) was an Azerbaijani historian who specialized in the history of ancient Caucasian Albania. She was a lecturer at the Western Caspian Univers ...

both argued in their first publications in the 1950s and 1960s that the leaders and inhabitants of

Caucasian Albania Caucasian Albania is a modern exonym for a former state located in ancient times in the Caucasus: mostly in what is now Azerbaijan (where both of its capitals were located). The modern endonyms for the area are ''Aghwank'' and ''Aluank'', among ...

, a state established in the 2nd century BC, were the direct ancestors of modern Azeris, thereby establishing a link to the ancient past and the Azerbaijanis' indigeneity to Nagorno-Karabakh. In the process, the Armenians who inhabited the South Caucasus were written out of the narrative altogether, with Azerbaijani historians ascribing an Albanian origin to nearly all of the Armenian artifacts, monasteries, churches, and other monuments in Nagorno-Karabakh and the neighboring region of Nakhichevan, with the state going so far as outright destroying Armenian cultural heritage in Julfa and elsewhere. Many medieval-era Armenian written sources, and even traveler accounts by foreigners who visited Karabakh, that have been published in Azerbaijan deliberately omit the names "Armenia" and "Armenians" or replace them with Albania and Albanians, respectively. In the years following the Soviet collapse and the end of the first war in 1994, Azerbaijan adopted and amplified the Albanian thesis and continues to propagate it in state-sponsored books, pamphlets, and other forms of media. Ohannes Geukjian has written that, for Azerbaijani historians, "the ethnic past was important to legitimate their present claims to Karabakh. Without a well-established ethnic past, it would be difficult to mobilize the community for political purposes."Ohannes Geukjian, ''Ethnicity, Nationalism and Conflict in the South Caucasus: Nagorno-Karabakh and the Legacy of Soviet Nationalities Policy'' (London: Routledge, 2016), pp. 27-29, here 29.

External links

*
'Врагу - ненависть, ненависть, ненависть.' Чем 'культ победы' оборачивается для азербайджанских школьников
"

BBC Russian BBC News Russian (russian: BBC News Ру́сская слу́жба) – formerly BBC Russian Service (russian: Ру́сская слу́жба Би-би-си́) – is part of the BBC World Service's foreign language output, one of nearly 4 ...

, 26 December 2022.

Identity formation

Territory

Nagorno-Karabakh Conflict

See also

External links

References

Further reading