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Ethnic and Nationality Policy in Azerbaijan

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Politik und Gesellschaft im Kaukasus

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Abstract

The text is about Azerbaijan’s poly-ethnic society And the differences between the various ethnical groups such as Turkic, Indo European and Caucasian ethnicities. This paper aims to describe the main elements of the ethnic and nationality policy of Azerbaijan and to analyze the process from the perspective of the construction of civic nationalism. Actually, after the independence, particularly during the presidency of Haydar Aliyev and later his son Ilham Aliyev “Azerbaijanism”, a civic nationalism, began to be introduced as a main state ideology and aimed to consolidate all the citizens from different groups under the same identity. In this paper, the authors focus on state policies of Azerbaijan on ethnic minorities, language, and religion and describe the effects of the Nagorno Karabakh Conflict on the nation building project of the government. The paper consists of two parts, in the first part the historical background of the formation of ethnic and national identities in Azerbaijan will be discussed. The second part mainly deals with the description of the related policies and their connection with the ethnic and nationality policy of Azerbaijan.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    Medes were ancient Iranian people lived in the Northwest of Iran between 1100–1000 BC. During the Soviet time in Azerbaijani history text books Medes were introduced as an ancestors of Azerbaijanis regardless of Turkic speaking origin of the people.

  2. 2.

    Muharrem regalia are held by Shia Muslims in the Muhharem month in order to mourn for the grandson of Prophet Muhammed Husyn and his family who were killed by the troops of Yezzid 14 centuries ago. Considering that historically majority part of Azerbaijani population was Shia Muslims even suppressive Soviet regime wasn’t able to clean this ceremony from the memory of the people.

  3. 3.

    Ashura rituals are held in Muharem month by majority of Shia Muslims in order to commemorate the death of Husyen ibn Ali, grandson of Prophet Muhammed.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Cornell University, Ithaca, NY, USA

    Ceyhun Mahmudlu

  2. Baku Engineering University, Baku, Aserbaidschan

    Yashar Ehtibarli

Authors
  1. Ceyhun Mahmudlu
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  2. Yashar Ehtibarli
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Correspondence to Ceyhun Mahmudlu .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Institut für Politikwissenschaft, Universität Jena, Jena, Germany

    Olaf Leiße

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Mahmudlu, C., Ehtibarli, Y. (2019). Ethnic and Nationality Policy in Azerbaijan. In: Leiße, O. (eds) Politik und Gesellschaft im Kaukasus. Springer VS, Wiesbaden. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-658-26374-4_11

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-658-26374-4_11

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