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Azerbaijan
has a rather complex ethnic structure. Azerbaijan inherited its historical
past together with the nations who created the history of South-East Caucasus.
However, the physical extinction resulting from various invasions, as well
as the ethnic assimilation which continued for the last three centuries brought
to the minimum the ethnic presence of the nations of Caucasus Albania and
neighboring Armenians and Georgians who were merged into various administrative
and political units. In the course of the middle ages and the new history
the "old nations" either gradually moved to highlands or were merged with
some groups who did not form individual ethnic groups yet. According to the
Azerbaijani historian A.K. Alekperov (cf. "Surveys on Archeology and Ethnography
of Azerbaijan", Baku, 1960), "In the 9th and 10th centuries the territory
was settled by Pecheneges and Kengerlis.
The territory
of Azerbaijan was more expansively populated with Kipchaks and Poloves in
the region of Borchali-Kazakh during the reign of the Georgian king David
in the 12th century. The period covering the 13th and 14th centuries was notable
for the severe struggle between the Mongol states: Juchids of the Gold Hordes
and the Iranian Ilkhans. In the 10th century the process of migration of the
Turkish-speaking tribes from the north to the south started. Meanwhile, another
movement from the south to the north, i.e., from Iran, was launched. A particularly
huge wave of migrants moved to the above-noted territories from Iran in the
15th century. Those were the Cara-Coyunlu tribes. In the 14th and 15th centuries
the territory was inhabited with a big number of major Turk tribes…" (Details
in: Regionin Dimentions)
The process of
diverse ethnic-cultural contacts of the newly settled invaders and the local
Caucasus and Iranian-speaking nations, Georgians, Armenians, as well as the
minor Arab-speaking tribes who had settled there since the times of the Arab
caliphate continued for a long time. Even at the beginning of the 20th century
it was difficult to somehow determine the level of the ethnic self-consciousness
and exo-perception of the Turkish-speaking groups inhabiting in the territories
of the former Baku and Yelizavetpol Provinces, part of Erivan Province and
Zakatal District of the Tsarist Russia. Later these territories were included
in one of the Soviet republics which was named Azerbaijan (in light of the
political program aimed at merging the Iranian Azerbaijan with the newly established
administrative unit, Soviet Azerbaijan).
At the beginning
of the 20th century the Turkish-speaking population of the region who were
later officially acknowledged as the "Azerbaijani" (the name derives from
the Soviet Republic of Azerbaijan) had numerous ethnic names. Each of those
names indicated a specific form of self-identification or exo-perception.
Motivated by the pursuit for the self-identification through the collective
names the Turkish-speaking poets and writers searched for alternatives in
the existing lexical practice. Thus, Vagif, the court poet of the Karabagh
khan distinguished between these tribes only by the nomadic tribes of "el".
Mirza Fatali Akhundov called them in the Russian manner: "Caucasus", "Moslems",
"Tatars". Sabir used exclusively the word "Moslems". The non-Turkish-speaking
authors often used the terms "Karapapakhs", "Kizilbashes", "Kajars", "Tarakiyama",
as well as "Turks", "Tatars", etc. Each of these names had a definite historical
background. A similar diversity of collective names for identifying the Turkish-speaking
population of the South-East Caucasus was traced among the neighboring nations.
A. K. Alekperov writes that the Azerbaijani were called "Kizilbashes" by the
Dagestan peoples (the term derives from the name of the soldiers of the Sefivid
Army) or "Kajars" by the name of the former rulers of Iran who attempted to
conquer Transcaucasus in the 18th century. In addition, the Dagestans more
widely used the tribal names, such as "Mugals", "Padars" with respect of individual
Azerbaijani tribes and groups. The name "Padars" was applied to the nearest
neighboring groups of the Azerbaijani, the Tats…".
The variety of
the self-identification names within the group is also indicative of the diversity
of self-perception. A. Alekperov writes, "Self-identification was defined
by the level of development of the society. For example, the semi-nomadic
inhabitants where some of the patriarchal relations were still preserved,
were called by the name of the family or tribe to which they belonged. This
is how the names of "Avshars", "Tekels", "Ayrums", etc. originated. The settled
rural and urban population was called by the territorial characteristic such
as the people of Shirvan, Karabagh, Sheki, Kuba and Baku…" See details
in:Historical-Political Aspectsof Karabagh
Conflict
It is more likely
that as a result of such practice preconditions were created for the spreading
within a short period of time of the term "Azerbaijani" which is the derivative
of the newly created toponym-politinym "Azerbaijan".
Thus, the word
"Azerbaijani" which means "residents of Azerbaijan" (nowadays understood as
the citizens of Azerbaijan) was readily accepted by many nations who had survived
since the times of Caucasus Albania and were absorbed by the process of assimilation.
For 500-600 years these nations had co-existed side by side with the Turkish-speaking
groups as neutral tribes and the process of assimilation of the remaining
minor aborigine people, as well as all Kurds of Azerbaijan was completed.
Nevertheless, relatively
small ethnic groups who lived in the periphery and remote mountainous areas
of Azerbaijan continued their ethnical existence. Those were mainly Lezgins,
Armenians, Georgian Ingeloys, Iranian-speaking Tats, Talishes, as well as
the remaining Udins and the so-called nations of the "Shahdagh group", i.e.,
Krizes, Khinalugs, Budgougs, Jheks and Gaputlins who had miraculously survived.
In the north of Azerbaijan several villages of the Avars and Tzakhurs also
survived.
Throughout the 20th
century those Armenians who still lived in the territory of Azerbaijan had
to protect themselves against the physical extinction and fight for their
ethnic-cultural unity. In particular, the "ethnic self-protection" was manifested
through active migration. As a result, many Armenians fled from Azerbaijan
to Russia, Central Asian countries, and, naturally, Armenia, long before the
Karabagh events. This process was completed at the end of the 20th century:
the indirect pressure exhorted on the Armenian population grew into an aggressive
attack against the Armenians at the time when the Azerbaijani authorities
took full advantage of the chaotic period. As a result, all Armenians were
forced to flee from Azerbaijan.
The main areas of Azerbaijan
inhabited by Tats include the Siazan, Divichinsk, Kuba, Konakhkend, Semakh,
Ismail Regions, Baku and the Apsheron Peninsula. According to the census of
1926, there were 28 500 Tats in Azerbaijan, and 30 years later, according
to the official data, their number was 11000. The Iranian-speaking Tats lived
in the said area for around 1500 years. Until recently both Moslems and Christians
(Gregorians and Judas) lived among the Tats. The Christian Tats or otherwise
Armenian Tats were intensely being ousted from their historical homeland during
the last two centuries. Many of the Armenian Tats settled in Dagestan in the
18th-19th centuries and they still live there. The survived Armenian Tats
who lived in the village Kilvar (Divichinsk Region) and Madras (Shemakh Region)
were forcefully ousted from their settlements together with the Armenians
in 1988 - 1990 č nowadays live in Armenia. The Judaic Tats are called Highlander
Tats. Very few of the survived Judaic Tats live in Bardashen (currently Oguz),
in the village Krasnaya Sloboda (Kuba Region), as well as in the town of Baku.
The homeland of the
ancient nation of the Caucasus Albania, the Udins, covers the territory of
Vardashen (currently Oguz), including the regions of Kutkashen (currently
Kabala) and Sheki, as well as some part of Zakatali region. Despite the intensive
forced assimilation with Turks and conversion into the Islamic religion the
Udins desperately continued to survive till the 18th -19th centuries. Kazar
Hovsepyan, an Udin historian sorrowfully gives the list of those Udin villages
where the population was assimilated into Turks at the beginning of the 20th
century: Vantam, Vardanlu, Ermanit, Mukhants, Oraban, Ptez, Kungyut, Kokhmukh,
Kutkashen, Kormukh, Zaizit, Gis, Jourlu, Soultan-Nukhi, Mirzabeilu, Bum and
many others. Even at the beginning of the 20th century the people of these
villages who had been forcedly converted into Moslems made attempts to revive
their native language. Some of the aforementioned villages, such as Mirzabeilu,
Jourlu, Soultan-Nukhi were still bilingual (Azerbaijani and Udinish) till
the 60s' of the 20th century. The Udinish language and the ethnic self-consciousness
of the Udins was maintained only in two of the Christian settlements, Vardashen
and Nijh where the Udins continue to live by now. The Armenian massacres in
the 20s' of the 20th century which grew into felony against Christians, including
the Udins. As a result, part of the Udins moved to Georgia, and a separate
Udin settlement, Octoberi, was established.
The ethnic names
of the survived five minor nations of the Caucasus Albania, known as "Shahdagh
nations" (this name derives from Mount Shahdagh in Konakhkend region where
these ethnic groups live) originate from the names of their main villages:
Budukh, Kriz, Khinalug, Jhek and Gaput. No records about these ethnic groups
were made in the censuses after 1924, although in the 70s' only in Khachmas
Region 12 Kriz villages were identified during the ethnographic expedition
of the Academy of Sciences of Azerbaijan. The unnoticeable sustentation of
the "Shahdagh nations" in the remote mountainous areas of Caucasus (the altitude
reaches 2000-2300 meters) helped these nations to survive. Because of the
scarcity of land and the conditions of mountainous landscape they had to live
in small settlements with massed houses ascending one on another. They no
longer cultivate land and are basically involved in cattle-breeding. The connection
between these villages and other regions of Azerbaijan is operational mainly
in the summer time.
The remaining
minor groups of the Georgian Ingiloys, Moslem Sunits are trying to revive
their ethnic culture
The south-east
and south Azerbaijan (Lenkoran, Astar, and partially Lerik and Masal regions)
are inhabited by Iranian-speaking Talishes. According to the census of 1926
their number reached 77000. Later the Talishes were no longer recognized as
an ethnicity. Probably, this nation has a preemptive right to be called the
"Azeris", an ethnonym which has become the second ethnonym of the Azerbaijani
during the last decade. The Azeri language which has been formerly spoken
by the Talishes and existed till the Medieval period was absorbed by the Turk
languages. During the last few years the Talishes have been attempting to
fight for the maintenance of their ethnicity .
It is hard
to tell the precise number of Iranian-speaking Kurds of Azerbaijan. The Kurdish
tribes who first appeared in Transcaucasus in the 10th - 12th centuries, mainly
settled in the area between the Rivers Arax and Kur. At the beginning of the
20th century the major Kurdish settlements were concentrated in the Zangelan
and Lachin Regions where the Kurdistan District was established in 1923 (the
administrative center of the district was Lachin). Later, the dissolution
of the Kurdistan District, the administrative unit of the Kurds, practically
meant the eviction of the Kurdish ethnicity from the ethnical palette of Azerbaijan