The Genesis of Azerbaijan's National Identity

 The Genesis of Azerbaijan’s National Identity

National Identity

“Where are you from?” This is a simple, common and innocent question that someone might be asked when in any form of international space. However, when thought about more deeply, this question brings up the question: “What does it mean to be X nationality?” There are many ways that this question could be answered: to be a citizen of that country, to be someone who lives there, to live its unique culture, to share the ideals and values of the other people who live there. Each of these answers have one or two problems and edge cases that put the answer’s correctness into question. Many people define themselves through a series of identities, labels that represent an aspect of a person. While many of these identities can be very interesting to analyze, nation is one of the ones that stand out most as questionable because for an identity to have meaning, it must signify a cohesive group and that isn’t quite true for nations. This is the myth of national identity: a nation is a cohesive group that shares the same values. According to Anthony D. Smith, a nation is “… a named human population sharing a historic territory, common myths and historical memories, a mass, public culture, a common economy and common legal rights and duties for all members…” (Smith, 1991, p. 43).

National identity is made up. It is a relatively new concept in its current form. In the past it was based around smaller groups that shared multiple traits with each other like language, purpose and a common home. Nations are much bigger than those groups and lack the same unity. Despite that, people still hold onto the idea that a nation is a cohesive group that is made up of similar people. Sharing things like language, ethnicity, religion and ideals. (Fisher, 2018) National identity can also be something that governments cultivate on purpose. This can be for a variety of reasons: to create unity, to make their country more inviting to others for business and tourism, to gain power, or to convince their people to go to war. Azerbaijan’s history with its national identity is a very good example for how national identity is formed and can be used. 

Introducing Azerbaijan

Azerbaijan is a nation located in a region named Transcaucasia which is in the southwest area of Asia and acts as a bridge between Asia and Europe. It shares this area with Armenia and Georgia. It is also bordered by Russia to the north and Iran to the south. Formerly a part of the Soviet Union, it declared its independence in 1991. Since then, it has been in conflict with Armenia over territory. It is comprised almost entirely of Azerbaijani people 91.6%, with other ethnic groups being the Lezghin at 2%, Russian, Armenian and Talysh all at 1.3% of the population. In terms of religion, it is mostly Muslim with 97.3% of the population identifying as Muslim. (CIA World Factbook, 2026)

The definition of Azerbaijan’s people and who is considered Azerbaijani has been carefully controlled throughout history. The Azerbaijani language is from the Western Oghuz branch of the Turkish language. (Omniglot, n.d.) It is from this that we know that Azerbaijani come from the Turkic people mixed with the Caucasians and Iranians that were there.

Pre Soviet Time

Before 1918, there was no concept of Azerbaijan as a nation. The Azerbaijani people were referred to as Tatars or Caucasian Tatars. In 1918, the Azerbaijani Republic gained its indepence. The Müsavat Party was the main nationalist and Pan-Turkist party. However, they were occupied by the Soviet Union in 1920, in which the idea of an Azerbaijani nation quickly dispersed. (Meneshian, 2021)

 

Soviet Era 

Although concept of the Azerbaijani people as a nation vanished during the time under the Soviet Union, various myths about the people’s history appeared during this time. One such myth is that the Turks were colonized and subjugated by the Persians. The Soviet Union had popularized this idea after it was forced to withdraw its forces from the Iranian province of Azerbaijan in 1946. Another myth was of a united Azerbaijan that was divided by Persians. Both myths are not believable from a historical perspective, yet they are held by the majority of the Azerbaijani people to this day. These myths continue to affect certain attitudes within the country as well. (Wikipedia, n.d.)

One of the other big changes that happened during this era was the definition of the Azerbaijani language as separate from the Turkish language. This seems to have been in effort from the Soviet Union to remove the direct connection between Azerbaijan and Turky. (Goyusov, 2018)

Post Soviet Union

The Popular Front of Azerbaijan (APF) was the main political party of Azerbaijan up until 1993. They are responsible for the pro-Turkey and anti-Israeli sentiments in Azerbaijan. Starting from 1989, they moved to build Azerbaijan as a nation. They were an anti-Soviet party that gained lots of support from the Freedom Square movement that happened in 1989. 

After gaining independence in 1991, there was discourse over the creating a national identity. The APF was centered around Turkism as an identity and they were opposed by Azerbaijanism, which was held by Aliyev’s party, the New Azerbaijan Party. Under the APF, the written language was changed from primarily using Cyrillic script to Latin script and a new currency was introduced. However, 1993 they were ousted and Heydar Aliyev was elected president. 

Under the New Azerbaijan Party, focus from was diverted from Turkifying to Azerbaijanism. They argued that Turkism would create separatist movements that would endanger Azerbaijan. Therefore, they shifted focus to making Azerbaijan its own country. (Ergun, 2021) In 1995, the name of both the language and people was changed to Azerbaijani officially. However Turkish influences remain prominent within culture to this day. This extends to historical heroes, legends, and people. Azerbaijani as an ethnicity expanded to engulf the multiple different ethnic groups within the area. (Alekberli, 2021)

Others

Othering has a core role in creating national identity. Othering is creating groups, both internal and external, that are defined as the “other” to the nation. National identity does not exist without making an other. (Triandafyllidou, 1998) Azerbaijan is great example of how integral othering is to developing a nation. Triandafyllidou lays out two types of othering, internal and external. Azerbaijan has made great use of external significant others to create cohesion within. The first example of this is the Soviets. As they were seeking to liberate themselves from it, the Azerbaijani people came together to support the APF. The other significant other for Azerbaijan is Armenia. 

Azerbaijan has been in conflict with Armenia since both of them gained independence. The reason for the tension is the Nagorno Karabkh area. There had been sporadic fighting in the area. There also exists tension with Iran. These tensions both originate from the myth of the division of a unified Azerbaijan that gained prominence during the Soviet era.  

Internal significant others are a bit rarer as the main groups that would normally be othered are dominated by a single group which does not seem to assign blame to other groups within itself. Through the Azerbaijanism movement, groups that had previously been singled out were embraced to prevent internal conflict. 

Conclusion

Azerbaijan has adopted “the land of fire” as its motto. This is in reference to Yanar Dag, a perpetually burning hillside that has naturally been burning continuously for centuries. Fire has been used as a symbol to represent them internationally and been used in international events that they host such as Eurovision. Azerbaijan has a complex history that directly has shaped its national identity. It has branded itself a victim of cultural invasion. By claiming the victim, it has created tensions with its neighbors which reinforce its own national identity. 

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References

Alekberli, F. (2021, April 10). Paradigms of the Azerbaijani national identity. Aze.media. https://aze.media/paradigms-of-the-azerbaijani-national-identity

Azerbaijan. (2026, January 5). CIA World Facebook. Retrieved February, 2026, from https://www.cia.gov/the-world-factbook/

Azerbaijani. (2025, November 7). Omniglot. https://www.omniglot.com/writing/azeri.htm

Azerbaijani national identity. (2026, February 2). Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Azerbaijani_national_identity

Ergun, A. (2021). Citizenship, national identity, and nation-building in azerbaijan: Between the legacy of the past and the spirit of independence. Nationalities Papers, 50(4), 813-830. https://doi.org/10.1017/nps.2020.81

Goyushov, A. (2018, September 26). Türk dili, yoxsa Azərbaycan dili? [The Language of Azerbaijan: Turkish or Azerbaijani?]. Baku Research Institute. https://bakuresearchinstitute.org/en/azerbaijani-turk-dili-yoxsa-azerbaycan-dili/

Meneshian, G. (2021, February 4). Exploring the Azerbaijani national identity: a historical analysis. Institute of Middle East, Central Asia and Caucasus Studies. https://mecacs.wp.st-andrews.ac.uk/2021/exploring-the-azerbaijani-national-identity-a-historical-analysis/

Smith, A. D. (1991). National identity. University of Nevada Press.

Triandafyllidou, A. (1998). National identity and the 'other'. Ethnic and Racial Studies, 21(4), 593-612. https://doi.org/10.1080/014198798329784