Azerbaijanis in Russia or Russian Azerbaijanis ( (Latin), Русија азәрбајҹанлылары (Cyrillic); , Azerbajdzhantsy v Rossii) are people of Azeri descent in Russia. These may be either ethnic Azeris residents in the country or recent immigrants who profess Azeri ancestry.
Aside from the large Azeri community native to Russia's Dagestan Republic, the majority of Azeris in Russia are fairly recent immigrants. Azeris started settling in Russia (with the exception of Dagestan) around the late nineteenth century, but their migration intensified after World War II, and especially after the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991. According to the 2010 All-Russian Population Census, there are 603,070 Azeris residing in Russia, however the actual numbers may be much higher due to the arrival of guest workers in the post-Soviet era. The estimated total Azeri population of Russia as of 2002 might have reached as many as 3,000,000 people,Azerbaijan Acts to Limit the Discrimination Against Azeris in Russia by Nailia Sohbetqizi. Eurasianet.org. 11 November 2002. Retrieved 15 September 2006 with more than one and half million of them living in Moscow, though in the following decade there was a tendency for many Azeris to move back to Azerbaijan.Mammadov, Ramiz. Ethnic Azeris Returning Home, Says Expert. Aze.az. 29 November 2012. Retrieved 17 January 2015. The majority of post-1991 ethnic Azeri migrants have come to Russia from rural Azerbaijan, Georgia and Armenia. Today most provinces of Russia have more or less significant Azeri communities, the biggest ones, according to official numbers, residing in Dagestan, Moscow, Khanty–Mansi, Krasnoyarsk, Rostov-on-the-Don, Saratov, Sverdlovsk, Samara, Stavropol, etc.2002 All-Russian Population Census . Official website. Retrieved 15 September 2006
Dagestan
As of 2010, 130,919 Azeris lived in the Dagestan Republic, which makes them the region's sixth-largest ethnic group and 4.5% of its total population. Most of them are natives of the city of Derbent living in the historical quarter Mahal and making up about one-third of the city's population. Azeris constitute 58% of the population of the Derbentsky District (more than 20 towns and villages), 18% of that of the Tabasaransky District 2.35% in the Kizlyarsky District (villages of Bolshebredikhinskoye and Persidskoye), 1.64% in the Magaramkent Rayon, and 1.56% in the Rutul Rayon. The rest live in the cities of Makhachkala, Khasavyurt, Buynaksk and Kizlyar.Islam and the Problems of National Security in the Southern Federal District by K. Khanbabaev. RIA-Dagestan News Agency. 5 September 2005. Retrieved 15 September 2006 (in Russian)
Among cultural benefits, available to Dagestani Azeris, there are newspapers and magazines printed in the Azeri language, 72 public schools where Azeri is taught as a second language, and the Azeri Folk Theater in Derbent, founded in 1904.History of the Azerbaijani State Drama Theatre in Derbent . Historically Azeris of Dagestan were engaged in carpet weaving, currying, jewellery- and copper utensils making.The Peoples of Dagestan. Lakia.net. Retrieved 15 September 2006 (in Russian) Rural Azeris were occupied in farming. Most Azeris of Dagestan are Shia, although Sunni Muslims are found among the rural population. Igor Dobayev. Radicalisation of Islamic Movements in Central Asia and the North Caucasus: A Comparative Political Analysis. Chapter IV: Islam and Islamism in the Republic of Dagestan . СКНЦ ВШ ЮФУ: Moscow, 2010.
In 2000, in a presidential decree, Azeris along with 13 other ethnic groups of Dagestan received the status of a native community of Dagestan.Decree 191 of the Dagestan State Council "On the Native Communities of Dagestan" . As of 2011, there are four Azeri members of the Dagestan State Council.Number of Azeris in Dagestan Increasing. Timeturk Azerbaijan. 21 April 2011. Retrieved 10 August 2012.
Beginning in 2014, the Azeri population of Derbent voiced its concern due to the government's indifference towards the poor state of infrastructure and frequent acts of vandalismUnrest in Derbent: Azeris on Verge of Protesting. Haqqin.az. 7 January 2015. Retrieved 17 January 2015.Adamova, Rahimat. Another Azeri Sanctuary Vandalised in Derbent. Haqqin.az. 12 January 2015. Retrieved 17 January 2015.Nizami Monument Vandalised Thus. Haqqin.az. 9 January 2015. Retrieved 17 January 2015. and unauthorised removalMonument of Azeri Hero Demolished in Derbent. Haqqin.az. 15 October 2014. Retrieved 17 January 2015.Adamova, Rahimat. Azeris Fruitless Protest: Yaraliyev Reappointed as Mayor. Haqqin.az. 12 January 2015. Retrieved 17 January 2015. of Azeri cultural landmarks in the city. These concerns led to protests and demands for a better representation at the municipal level.Adamova, Rahimat. Azeris Took to Derbent Streets. Haqqin.az. 10 January 2015. Retrieved 17 January 2015.Another Azeri Deposed in Derbent. Haqqin.az. 16 January 2015. Retrieved 17 January 2015. American political analyst Paul A. Goble characterised these events as "the boiling point" in the interethnic relations in Derbent and did not exclude the possibility of them leading to an ethnic conflict that would threaten to extend across the Russian–Azerbaijani border.Goble, Paul. City on Russian-Azerbaijani Border Ready to Explode. Eurasia Daily Monitor Volume: 12 Issue: 7. 13 January 2015. Retrieved 17 January 2015.
Azerbaijanis in Derbent After the disintegration of the Caliphate, the city of Derbent and the surrounding area (currently the Derbent Rayon) became an independent emirate closely allied with the neighbouring state of Shirvan (present day northeastern Azerbaijan). During this period, the emirate became destination for the migration of numerous Turkic tribes. This factor, as well as the influence of the Seljuq Empire, ensured the spread of an Oghuz Turkic idiom in Derbent already in the eleventh century.Magomedkhan Magomedkhanov. Building of the Tower of Babel: Ethnolinguistic Processes in Dagestan. Russian Academy of Sciences, Dagestan Science Centre. The Mongol invasion put an end to the emirate's independence for the next two centuries. In the fifteenth century, Ibrahim I, who hailed from Derbent, became the new ruler of Shirvan and incorporated Derbent into Shirvan.Barthold, W., C.E. Bosworth "Shirwan Shah, Sharwan Shah. "Encyclopaedia of Islam. Edited by: P. Bearman, Th. Bianquis, C.E. Bosworth, E. van Donzel and W.P. Heinrichs. Brill, 2nd edition.
The ethnic make-up of Derbent remained unchanged until the city became part of the Safavid Empire in the early sixteenth century. The Safavid rule was characterised with active resettlement policies, aimed at securing Shia Muslim dominance in the conquered lands. In 1509, 500 Karamanli Turkic families from Tabriz settled in Derbent. An unknown number of Turkic-speakers from the Kurchi tribe were resettled her in 1540. Half a century later, 400 more families of the Turkic-speaking Bayat clan were relocated to Derbent on the orders of Abbas I. Finally, in 1741, Nadir Shah relocated Turkic-speakers from the Mikri clan to Derbent. By 1870 the settlers were all regarded as speaking a common language, Azeri.Notes of the Caucasus Department of the Russian Imperial Geographical Society; p. 24 Due to their Shia adherence, the new migrants were referred to by contemporary historians as Persians (), a term that was erroneously applied to Shia Azeris of Dagestan way into the twentieth century.E. Kozubsky. History of Derbent. Temir Khan Shura: V. Sorokin's Russian Printing House, 1906; p. 192 Adam Olearius who visited the region around 1635 described Shirvan as a state of many peoples, all of whom, however, besides their own language, also spoke Turkic.Adam Olearius. Kurtzer Begriff einer holsteinischen Chronic. Schleswig, 1663; Book IV, Chapter 20. At the time of Peter the Great's conquest of the Caspian coastline in 1722, the city of Derbent was predominantly inhabited by Azeris.
The northern part of the Derbent Rayon was historically populated by the Tarakama, a Turkic-speaking people akin to the Karapapak, who were sometimes classified as a separate ethnic group until the twentieth century. In Dagestan, they are also sometimes referred to as Padars. The Tarakama originated in various parts of Shirvan and were resettled by Khan Muhammad of Kaitag to the north of the city of Derbent around 1600. From then on, the area inhabited by them has been referred to as the Tarakama mahal (district) and constituted an administrative unit until the early twentieth century.Abbasgulu Bakikhanov. Gulustani-Iram. Book IV. The district included 10 villages. In 1736, around 300 Tarakama families from Kaitag advanced further across the Sulak River and settled on the Terek Valley in three villages, where they later mixed with the Kumyks.Muratbek Mansurov. History of the Village of Temiraul. Makhachkala, 1999; p. 1 The rest gradually assimilated among Azerbaijanis and today for the most part consider themselves Azerbaijani.Sakinat Hajiyeva. The Tarakama of Dagestan in the 19th and 20th Centuries. Nauka: Moscow, 1990. They are mainly Sunni and speak a variety of Azeri, close to the dialect of Shamakhy.
Such assimilation notably affected not only Turkic-speaking peoples of Dagestan. In the past, southern Dagestan had a large Tat population which originally spoke an Iranian language like other Tats. In 1866, they numbered 2,500 people and by 1929 lived in seven villages, including Zidyan, Bilgadi, Verkhny Chalgan, and Rukel.Boris Miller. Tats: Their Settlement and Dialects. Azerbaijan Research and Study Society Publication: Baku, 1929 However, by the beginning of the twentieth century most of them had become Azeri-speaking and assumed Azeri identity in the later decades. Today, 16 out of 40 settlements in Derbent are majority-Azeri populated, and in nine more, Azeris constitute either a relative majority or a significant minority: Berikei, Delichoban, Velikent, Verkhny Chalgan, Nizhny Chalgan, Sabnova, Dzhemikent, Zidyan, Zidyan-Kazmalyar, Mitagi, Mitagi-Kazmalyar, Kala, Mugarty, Muzaim, Padar, Kommuna, Rukel, Tatlyar, Karadagly, Bilgadi, Belidzhi, Arablinsky, Arablyar, Gedzhukh, Chinar, Nyugdi, Rubas, Salik, Ullu Terekeme, Khazar, the town of Mamedkala.
Derbent was still a predominantly Azeri (called Transcaucasian Tatars in older Russian sources) town in 1897, with 9,767 persons constituting 66.7% of its population.1897 Russian Census. Decades later, even though their numbers continued to grow, due to heavy immigration in the town, as of 2010, Azeris constituted just 32.3% of its total population with 38,523 persons.
Azerbaijanis in Tabasaran
In the historical region of Tabasaran, ethnic Azeris populate the left bank of the Rubas river. The growth and establishment of ethnic Azeris in this region has heavily depended on assimilation processes. In 1876, many Tabasarans were already in the process of switching from Tabasaran to Azeri as their first language.N. Dzhidalaev. Trends of Functional Language Development in Pre-Revolution Dagestan. Makhachkala: RAS DSC, 2004. In addition, from the Middle Ages, the population of a number of villages in Tabasaran, namely Arablyar, Gimeidi, Darvag, Yersi, and Kemakh consisted of ethnic Arabs who were gradually being absorbed by the neighbouring population, mainly Azeri, such as in Yersi. In 1929, Kemakh was listed among Tat-populated villages, whereas Gimeidi (abandoned in 1976) was described as mixed Tat and Azeri. These Tats, in turn, were assimilated by Azeris in the following decades. Arablyar, which is now part of the Kurakh Rayon, currently has mixed Lezgin and Azeri population. Residents of Darvag retained the knowledge of Arabic as a first language until the 1930s, after which they also integrated linguistically and ethnically into the Azeri surrounding.Zelkina, Anna. Arabic as a Minority Language. Walter de Gruyter, 2000; p. 101.