Azerbaijani nationalism (), also referred to as Azerbaijanism () originated in the early 20th century, in particular with the Russian Revolution of 1905.
Azerbaijani nationalism is characterized by irredentist and expansionist territorial claims to regions in Iran, Nagorno-Karabakh, and Armenia.
Characterization
Azerbaijani nationalism is characterized by irredentism, expansionism, and a sense of victimization. The belief that Azerbaijanis have been and continue to be victims of Iranians and Armenians is planted in children through state-sponsored propaganda and indoctrination in schools. Thus, to create a sense of national identity, particularly among the younger generations, Azerbaijani nationalism mixes their story of victimization with a depiction of the Armenian opponent.
The Government of Azerbaijan has advanced expansionist territorial claims to internationally recognized sovereign territories, including regions of Iran and significant portions, up to and including the entirety, of Armenia. These claims have been promoted under various labels, such as "Greater Azerbaijan," "Whole Azerbaijan," "Southern Azerbaijan," Expansionist claims targeting specifically Armenian territory include the "Goyche-Zangezur Republic," the "Republic of Irevan," "the Great Return", the "Zangezur Corridor," and "Western Azerbaijan."
Background Historically, the name "Azerbaijan" referred to the region south of the Aras River, in present-day northwestern Iran. The historical name of the present-day Republic of Azerbaijan was Arran and Shirvan. Azerbaijani national consciousness is a recent development. Before the 20th century, the Azerbaijanis barely constituted as an ethnic group, much less a nation. The people who lived in the present-day country of Azerbaijan identified as either Muslims of the ummah (community), or Turks, who shared a language family spread out throughout a considerable portion of Central Asia, or as Persians. Unlike the Armenians and the Georgians, they employed the Persian alphabet as they lacked their own.
Azerbaijani nationalism became more prominent in the aftermath of the Russian Revolution of 1905. Educational, theatrical, and artistic associations were established that promoted Azerbaijani nationalism. Books and other publications in the native language were increasingly published amid a more relaxed censorship regime. At the time, the nationalist activism did not necessarily demarcate the nationalism as being Muslim, Turkic, or Azerbaijani.
The delayed emergence of Azerbaijani national identity has several causes. Persian culture dominated the area that would become modern-day Azerbaijan for the majority of its history, up until the 1820s. The region never formed a distinct, unified state before the Russians finished conquering it in 1828, and even when Iran ruled the area, the eastern part of the South Caucasus was composed of numerous feudal khanates. The ethnic diversity in many of these khanates posed another barrier to national unification. In October 1917, the people in Baku were still not interested in referring to the region in the south Caucasus as "Azerbaijan". The local populace was frequently included under terms such as Türk milleti and Qafqaziya müsalman Xalqi ("the Muslim people of the Caucasus"). Even the name of the first Constituent Assembly, which was founded on 29 April 1917 in Baku, was "General Assembly of the Caucasian Muslims". It was not until 1918 that the ethnonym and endonym "Azerbaijani" was employed in public speech. Azerbaijani national identity came together at a widespread level during the Soviet era as a result of their policies. Before the Soviet Union established its rule over Azerbaijan, there was no distinguishing Azerbaijani nationalism as a political and social force.
History In relation to Iran Under the Soviet Union (1920–1991)
Modern Azerbaijani nationalism has its origins in Soviet-era historiography, with the exception of the Pan-Turkist agenda expressed during the October Revolution. The "indigenous history" of the Azerbaijani nation and the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict are specifically mentioned among "the tenets of this Soviet-nationalist mythology of Azerbaijani history and culture." Since 1918, political elites with pan-Turkist-oriented sentiments in the area that comprises the present-day Azerbaijan Republic have depended on the concept of ethnic nationalism to create an anti-Iranian sense of ethnicity among Iranian Azerbaijanis. Over the past century, Iranian nationalism has effectively dealt with the military, political, and argumentative threats aimed toward Iranian Azerbaijan. The Iranian Azerbaijanis exhibit stronger pro-Iranian and integrationist nationalist feelings and activities in contrast to the forceful nationalism seen in Azerbaijan. Prompted by the Soviets, Azerbaijani nationalists created an "Azerbaijani" alphabet to replace the Persian script in order to create an Azerbaijani national history and identity based on the territorial definition of a nation and to lessen the influence of Islam and Iran.
Several myths about Azerbaijan's history and its links with Iran were created between the time the Azerbaijan Democratic Republic was conquered by the Bolsheviks in 1920 and the period that its heritage reappeared as encouragement for the country's new nationalists in the 1980s. The development of Azerbaijan's post-Soviet identity has been substantially impacted by these myths. One myth was that the Turks were colonized and subjugated by the Persians. According to Eldar Mamedov, this "flies in the face of historical reality. It was the various Turko-Mongol groups that invaded Iran several times, killed millions of Iranians, and ruled over them for several centuries. If any colonization, including linguistic change, was done, it was by Turks." It was the Soviet Union who initially popularized the idea of "Persian colonialism" after it was forced to withdraw its forces from the Iranian province of Azerbaijan in 1946 due to its failure to establish an independent republic there. Another myth was of a united Azerbaijan that was "divided by treacherous Persians" was also established. However, a southern and a northern Azerbaijan are not mentioned in historical accounts. The existence of two Azerbaijans is not mentioned in any historical or geographical writings in either the Russian Empire or rest of Europe.
According to a more recent revisionist theory, Russia and Iran plotted to split up Azerbaijan in the 19th century. Commenting on this, Mamedov states that "Considering that Iran fought two devastating wars with Russia (1803–1813 and 1824–1828), the idea of a Russo-Iranian conspiracy against Azerbaijan is totally absurd." The claim is repeated by the Azerbaijani nationalist poet Bakhtiyar Vahabzadeh in his poem Gülüstan. Today, the majority of Azerbaijani nationalists hold this opinion. As a result, Azerbaijan's post-Soviet national identity is strongly anti-Iranian and primarily Turkocentric. It has been built in various ways to oppose Iran as "the other," not just as a country but also as a culture and historical entity. Nowadays, being Azerbaijani means rejecting any ties to Iran.
The Pan-Turkists' appeal to the unity of the Azerbaijani people was exploited by the Soviet authorities during World War II to weaken Iran. Together with the British, the Soviet Union invaded and conquered the northern portion of Iran in August–September 1941. Azerbaijanis made up a large portion of the Soviet contingent stationed in Iran. Soviet Azerbaijanis, particularly intellectuals from Baku, managed the Red Army's Chief Administration for Political Propaganda. It was here that the concepts to destabilize Iran were defined in two Soviet-sponsored publications, Vatan Yolunda ("On the Road to the Homeland") and Azärbayjan. In November 1945 the Soviets also assisted in the establishment of a puppet Azerbaijan People's Government in Iranian Azerbaijan. The government formally called for the "Nation of Azerbaijan" to have autonomy inside the borders of Iran. Nevertheless, its president Ja'far Pishevari occasionally made threats of independence against Iran.
The Azerbaijan People's Government collapsed in November 1946 as a result of the Soviet Union's (hesitant) departure from Iran, widespread local protests, and Iranian military intervention. Due to their failure of conquering Iranian Azerbaijan, Soviet historians started to refer the region as "South Azerbaijan", claiming it had been divided from "North Azerbaijan". The Azerbaijan Soviet Socialist Republic institutionalized what became the "Southern Question", which had multiple procedures and variants involved. In Soviet Azerbaijan, "progressive" Iranian Azerbaijani cultural and political émigrés were warmly received.
There were also published works by Soviet Azerbaijanis about the liberation fight of Iranian Azerbaijan. The Union of Azerbaijani Writers, in particular, printed the works of Iranian Azerbaijani writers and welcomed them with open arms. This association, together with the Azerbaijan Society for Cultural Relations with Foreign Countries, met together in December 1947 and discussed Iranian Azerbaijani literature. The Section on the History of Countries of the Foreign East was converted by the Presidium of the Academy of Sciences of the Soviet Union into an Iranian studies institute, which was eventually renovated and renamed the Institute of Oriental Studies. It was intended to examine liberation movements throughout the Middle East, with a focus on Iran in particular. To publish and research Iranian Azerbaijani literature, a separate branch was founded in the Nizami Institute of Literature of the Azerbaijan SSR Academy of Sciences in 1976.
In order to study the "Southern Question," academic departments were also established in Soviet Azerbaijan. Broadcasts targeting Iranian Azerbaijanis started in the middle of the 1950s. After 1975, both their material and tone become increasingly extreme. In general, priority was given to the Azerbaijan Writers Union when addressing the "Southern Question." According to Stephan H. Astourian; "suffice it here to state that the Soviets devised, cultivated, and promoted the theme of "Southern Azerbaijan"." The primary literary representation of the "Southern Question," aside from historical works, was the literature of "longing" (hasrät). Poetry, drama, and fiction lamented that the Aras river, which marked the border between the Soviet Union and Iran, and kept the Azerbaijanis apart from one another. Literature and history courses in Azerbaijan have incorporated these themes. Profoundly expressed anti-Iranian sentiment was a major consequence of this literary genre. The Soviet leadership tolerated this anti-Iranian sentiment and even supported it. There are three distinct periods to this literature and culture of "longing," which is also portrayed through music. Between 1941 and 1950, it evolved its primary symbols and style, and it became "politically and esthetically acceptable."
From 1950 to 1979, when the Pahlavi dynasty ruled Iran, historical discussions concerning the identity, geography, and language of the Azerbaijanis gained prominence in Soviet Azerbaijan. Any form of cooperation with Iran was extremely challenging for Soviet Azerbaijan, partly because of mutual mistrust and strict monitoring of phone and mail correspondence. Another major cause of mistrust between the two countries was the nationalism of Soviet Azerbaijan and its connections to irredentism in northern Iran. The poetry of "longing" blossomed in Azärbayjan and Ädäbiyyat vä İnjäsänät ("Literature and Longing") after the Pahlavi dynasty collapsed in 1979, signaling the beginning of a new era. For example, in June 1981, Heydar Aliyev, then the First Secretary of the Central Committee of the Azerbaijan Communist Party, spoke at the Seventh Congress of the Union of Azerbaijani Writers;
Republic of Azerbaijan (1991–present day)