Azerbaijani national identity is a term referring to the sense of national identity, as embodied in the shared and characteristic culture, language and traditions, of the Azerbaijani people of Azerbaijan.
History Background
The Azerbaijani people have an identity that has been shaped by the interaction of many ethnic and cultural elements throughout history. With the arrival of the Seljuk Turks in the region in the 11th century, the Oghuz tribes settled in Azerbaijan and mingled with the Iranic-origin peoples and Caucasian indigenous communities living here. This process was a period in which the foundations of the Azerbaijani Turkic language were laid and Islamic culture became widespread.Barthold, V.V. (1963). Turkestan Down to the Mongol Invasion. London: Luzac & Co.
During the Qara Qoyunlu and Aq Qoyunlu periods, Azerbaijani Turkish (known as "Turki" in contemporary sources) gradually emerged as a literary and poetic medium of expression, and Azerbaijani Turkic gradually began to differentiate from Anatolian Turkic.Claus Schönig, Turkic languages and literatures in the Timurid and post-Timurid period, in: The Cambridge History of Iran, Volume 6, Cambridge University Press, 1986. → s. 708–710V. Minorsky. Jihān-Shāh Qara-Qoyunlu and His Poetry (Turkmenica, 9). Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London. — Published by: Cambridge University Press on behalf of School of Oriental and African Studies, 1954. — V.16, p . 272, 283: «It is somewhat astonishing that a sturdy Turkman like Jihan-shah should have been so restricted in his ways of expression. Altogether the language of the poems belongs to the group of the southern Turkman dialects which go by the name of Azarbayjan Turkish.»; «As yet nothing seems to have been published on the Br. Mus. manuscript Or. 9493, which contains the bilingual collection of poems of Haqiqi, i.e. of the Qara-qoyunlu sultan Jihan-shah (A.D. 1438—1467).»Javadi, Hasan; Burrill, Kathleen (2012). "Azerbaijan". In Yarshater, Ehsan (ed.). Encyclopædia Iranica. Vol. III/3: Azerbaijan IV–Bačča(-ye) Saqqā (Online ed.). Encyclopædia Iranica Foundation. § x. Azeri Turkish Literature, pp. 251–255. The 15th century saw the beginning of a more important period in the history of the Azeri Turkish literature. The position of the literary language was reinforced under the Qarāqoyunlu (r. 1400–68), who had their capital in Tabriz. Jahānšāh (r. 1438–68) himself wrote lyrical poems in Turkish using the pen name of 'Ḥaqiqi.' During this period, writing in Turkic became fashionable at court and among poets. The Qara Qoyunlu ruler Jahan Shah was known for his pen name "Haqiqi," while the Aq Qoyunlu ruler Sultan Ya'qub was known for writing Turkish poetry.Mehmet Fuat Köprülü, Türk Edebiyatı Tarihi, İstanbul (Turkish): Türk Tarih Kurumu, 1926.s. 96–101Javadi, Hasan; Burrill, Kathleen (2012). "Azerbaijan". In Yarshater, Ehsan (ed.). Encyclopædia Iranica. Vol. III/3: Azerbaijan IV–Bačča(-ye) Saqqā (Online ed.). Encyclopædia Iranica Foundation. § x. Azeri Turkish Literature, pp. 251–255. The 15th century saw the beginning of a more important period in the history of the Azeri Turkish literature. The position of the literary language was reinforced under the Qarāqoyunlu (r. 1400–68), who had their capital in Tabriz. Jahānšāh (r. 1438–68) himself wrote lyrical poems in Turkish using the pen name of 'Ḥaqiqi.'
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. Before its conquest by the Russian Empire, Shirvan was a province of an imperial structure that was entirely Iranian, in the same fashion as other provinces such as Lorestan and Khorasan. 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.
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.
At the end of the 19th century, there was still no widely accepted national identity in the area. Both historical Azerbaijan to the south of the Aras River and the Russian-ruled Baku and Elizavetpol governorates to the north were home to a majority of Turkic-speaking people, who were defined differently by opposing ideologies. The ones to the north of the Aras were known by different sources as "Tatar", "Turk", "Muslim" or "Persian". Only a few sources at the end of the 19th-century call them "Azerbaijani", a term which first started becoming popular after the fall of the Russian Empire in 1917. The Russian imperial government stated that "Azerbaijani Tatars were erroneously called Persians. They were Shiite by denomination and imitated Persians in many ways, but their language is Turkic-Tatar." In order to distinguish them from the other "Tatars" of the empire and the Persian speakers of Iran, the Russian Empire's official documents and numerous published works from the pre-1917 era also referred to them as "Tatar" or "Caucasian Tatars," "Azerbaijani Tatars," and even "Persian Tatars." This came about as a result of all Turkic-speakers being commonly referred in the Russian language as "Tatar." In Azerbaijani language publications, the expression "Azerbaijani nation" referring to those who were known as Tatars of the Caucasus first appeared in the newspaper Kashkul in 1880. However, the identity of the "Azerbaijani people" in today's sense was mainly shaped in the 20th century, during the Soviet Union. The Soviet administration officially defined the identity of "Azerbaijan" in the process of classifying ethnic identities and establishing national republics, and within this framework, a common language, history and culture policy was developed.Swietochowski, Tadeusz (1995). Russia and Azerbaijan: A Borderland in Transition. Columbia University Press.
Formation Much remained to be done before the peasantry became a nation, and for the locals, religion or regional identification came first. This was a time of ambiguity and debates about Azerbaijani identity. The Tiflis-based publicist, writer, and philosopher Mirza Fatali Akhundov (who is regarded as a nation-builder by both Azerbaijanis and Iranians), considered Iran to be his fatherland while simultaneously classifying his kinsmen as Turki. The influence of Azerbaijan's numerous and diverse pre-Russian conquerors, beginning with the Arab caliphate in the middle of the 7th-century and continuing with the Seljuk Empire, the Mongol Empire, the Ottoman Empire, and the Iranian dynasties, led to an identity problem for the Azerbaijanis. Their small group of intellectuals hence fluctuated between Iranian, Ottoman, Islamic, and pan-Turkic alignment. Only a small percentage favored an exclusively Azerbaijani identity, which was most strongly supported by Firidun bey Kocharli. The Himmät, a socialist movement centered on the ethnically diverse working class of Baku's oilfields, was also present. The future of Azerbaijan, according to the Himmät, lay not in ethnic nationalism but rather in the uniting of all the various national groups who called the region home, operating under the banner of a democratic revolution that would engulf the entire Russian Empire. In 1891, the idea of recognizing oneself as an "Azerbaijani Turk" was first popularized amongst the Caucasus Tatars in the periodical Kashkül. The articles printed in Kaspiy and Kashkül in 1891 are typically credited as being the earliest expressions of a cultural Azerbaijani identity.
The 1900s led to the increase Turkic national sentiments in present-day Azerbaijan as a result of three events in quick succession; the Russian Revolution in 1905 and the subsequent Armenian–Tatar massacres of 1905–1906; the Iranian Constitutional Revolution in 1905 and its failure; and the Young Turk Revolution in 1908, which installed Pan-Turks as the ruling party in the Ottoman Empire. In present-day Azerbaijan, Pan-Turks stressed their Turkic roots. Attempts were made to describe this newly discovered Turkicness in reference to the Ottoman Turks. The Turkic population of the Ottoman Empire and in present-day Azerbaijan were both identified by Ali bey Huseynzade in his magazine Füyuzat (1906) as descended from the Oghuz Turks, and he asserted that the differences between the two peoples were of minimal significance. He advocated for some sort of union with the Ottoman Empire. This Turkish movement was also supported by publications like Açıq Söz (1915–1918), which was edited by Mahammad Amin Rasulzade. However, the writers in Azärijilar and other thinkers like Jalal Mammad Quluzadä claimed that the Azerbaijani identity had to develop independently of the Ottomans in order to thrive after its recent "recovery" from Iranian dominance.
The Turkish ethnolinguistic identity was also opposed by some in Baku at that time. In order to help develop a Persian territorial identity in Baku, they published Azarbayjan, Joz-e la-yanfakk-e Iran ("Azerbaijan, an Inseparable Part of Iran"). A non-Persian speaker was easily able to fit into this all-Persian identity at this point because the Iranian identity was still defined by dynasty rule. 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".
Iran was in the midst of deterioration and revolution when the formation of the Azerbaijani national identity was taking place, and therefore it did not provide an ideal role model or source of inspiration. Iran was perceived by some intellectuals in Baku as a "backward society" with a long history of "oriental despotism" and Shiite clericalism. The final decision was influenced by convenience as well. Nationalists in present-day Azerbaijan could not use Iran in 1918 since it was under the control of foreign forces. Iran's power in the Caucasus would not have been permitted, especially by Britain, which was aiding those opposing the Bolsheviks. Britain was also worried that Iran may ask for the restoration of the Caucasian regions it had lost to Russia. Iran wanted to make complaints at the Paris Peace Conference in 1919, particularly its lost Caucasus regions, but Britain forbade Iran from even going.
The linguistic differences with Iran was the deciding element in the decision of the Azerbaijanis, and thus pan-Turkism was chosen over pro-Iranianism.
Azerbaijan Democratic Republic (1918–1920)
On May 28, 1918, Mahammad Amin Rasulzade and a group of Azerbaijani nationalist elites proclaimed the formation of the Azerbaijan Democratic Republic (abbreviated as ADR), thus ending a century of Russian colonial rule. This marked the start of Azerbaijan as both state and nation. It was a pro-Turkish government that was established with the help of the Ottoman army.