The Development and Establishment of Political Identity in the Republic of Azerbaijan
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The Development and Establishment of Political Identity in the Republic of Azerbaijan by Yusuf Özcelik, EuroKaukAsia, Bonn-Berlin Abstract There is no doubt that the Azerbaijani people have experienced a very unsteady history for at least two centuries, which has had a deep impact on their national identity. Many times the country has faced a situation of radical changes between self-determination and foreign dominance, consequently leading to mass cultural influence and modernization, but also manipulation and destruction. Against this background, Azerbaijan looks back at a very rocky and tedious process of nation-building. As shown in this essay, the de- velopments are still ongoing. However, the Republic of Azerbaijan has managed to finally reach a balance with regard to its political identity and culture. Introduction closely related to “Azerbaijani” was even es- tablished as the (diplomatic) language of the here is no doubt that the Azerbaijani peo- Persian Empire under Shah Ismail I. in the Tple have experienced a very unsteady his- early 16th century, while Azerbaijanis were tory since the beginning of the 19th century. generally referred to as “Turks” or “Turk- This essay aims to reflect on this highly vari- meni” (Efendiyev 2007, p. 36). However, in able period, which has had an enormous im- the Russian Empire they were referred to as pact on the development of the political iden- “Tartars”. Although the Russian administra- tity of the population, by exploring external tion dealt with the terms Azerbaijani and Turk signs of political identity such as titles, lan- very restrictively, Azerbaijani intellectuals guages and flags. resisted this perceived injustice. The national awakening, which affected the Turkic areas Eventful history and the development of of the Russian Empire and the Ottoman Em- the Azerbaijani identity pire as of the late 19th century, was based on a pan-Turkish national movement, in which The signing of the Treaty of Turkmenchay Azerbaijani intellectuals played a crucial role. in 1828 heralded the beginning of Russian rule Already in 1891 Mehemmed aga Shakhtakhtli over the territory of contemporary Azerbaijan wrote in an article in the newspaper “Kaspi” and with it a period characterized by para- entitled “What should the trans-Caucasian doxical developments. On the one hand, Rus- Muslims be called” that the Turkish-speaking sian rule initiated an ominous era of massive nation consists of Azerbaijanis (Muradaliyeva cultural influence, manipulation and domi- & Aziz 2010, p. 136). Upon the foundation of nance, while on the other hand, the period was the Democratic Republic of Azerbaijan, the marked by modernization and westernization, term “Turk” emerged, which was enforced which led to greater cultural and social pros- in the Soviet Union as the sole term used for perity for both Azerbaijan as well as the sur- Azerbaijanis, while all things “Turkish” were rounding predominantly Muslim territories. oppressed and eradicated. These “termino- As a result of the colonization, the country logical tensions” did not subside until 1992 came under the influence of western and mod- when the country regained its independence ernist ideas. and “Azerbaijani” asserted itself as the only Previously, the Azerbaijanis played a de- formally correct term. However, the national cisive role in the development of Iran over identity is no longer limited exclusively to the several centuries. In fact, a form of Turkish “Turkish” family of cultures (Alakbarov 2012). Euxeinos 9 (2013) 27 Yusuf Özcelik The etymological origin of the term “Azer- Central Asia. The national movement was a baijan” has not yet been fully clarified. The modernist movement, which was largely driv- most prominent explanation is derived from en by European ideas. With the foundation Atropathene, which in turn can be traced back of the Democratic Republic of Azerbaijani in to the Satrap Atropates under Alexander the 1918, which occurred nearly simultaneously Great, who also served in the Persian Empire. with the establishment of the Georgian and The term Atropatene essentially described the Armenian Republics during the chaos of the contemporary province of Azerbaijan in Iran, October Revolution in the Russian Empire, the which is also known as Southern Azerbaijan. Turkish nationalists asserted their demand for In ancient times, the territory of the contem- independence (Resulzade 1993, p. 40). Shortly porary republic was called “Albania” and thus afterwards, voting rights for women were in- named after the ancient Caucasian people troduced as a sign of modernization. Howev- known as Albanians, who had nothing to do er, the young republic only survived for two with the contemporary Albanians (Shkipet- years before it was incorporated into the So- ars) in the Balkans except for the common for- viet Union. eign appellation. During the late antique pe- The name Azerbaijan did not result auto- riod during the Persian Sassanid Empire, the matically as the denomination of the young word Atropatene developed into Aturpatakan, republic. The naming of the republic was pre- while under the Arab rule as of the 7th century ceded by discussions, during which – besides it evolved into Azerbaijan under the influence Azerbaijan – “Turkey” was also considered, as of Arabic (Gink & Turanszky 1980, p. 11). the Republic of Turkey did not yet exist (the By majority, the contemporary popula- neighbouring country was still formally the tion of Azerbaijan can be categorized as part Ottoman Empire) (Resulzade 1993, p. 47, Al- of the Turkic family of peoples. Under the rule akbarov 2012). The founding father and Presi- of the Turkish Seljuqs which began in 1025 and dent Memmed Emin Resulzade was able to due to the immigration of Turkish tribes from assert the name “Azerbaijan”), because in his western Central Asia, in particular, the ethnic view “Azerbaijan” referred to the Azerbaijan- composition of the territory rapidly changed Turks as an ethnic denomination (Resulzade (Gink & Turanszky 1980, p. 16). Even though 1993, p. 48). The nation was constituted by the earlier migration of Turkic tribes above Azerbaijani Turks and the language was Turk- all from the contemporary Southern Russian ish, but it is important to note that this was the steppe is well documented, such early waves Azerbaijani variation of the language. of migration did not have a formative impact With the establishment of the republic in (Qeybullaev 1994, p. 8). 1918 a red flag with a crescent and eight-edged When Russian rule was established in the star based on Ottoman flag of the 19th centu- early 19th century based on the Treaty of Turk- ry was introduced. Later on, the Azerbaijani menchay, the Azerbaijani intelligentsia became national activist Ali Bey Huseynzade added an integral part of the Turkish national move- the colours blue and green to the red in order ment between Istanbul and Tashkent. This to represent the Turkish heritage (i.e. “Turk- had far-reaching consequences for politics, the dom”) and Islam (Aliyev & Maharramov territory of Azerbaijan, contemporary Turkey, 2008, p. 14). the Crimean Peninsula, the Ural region and Euxeinos 9 (2013) 28 Yusuf Özcelik The Azerbaijani SSR (1920-1991) and regarding the written language. While the Sovietization Christian peoples neighbouring Azerbaijan – the Georgians and Armenians – were allowed The incorporation of Azerbaijan into the to maintain their century-old alphabets, the Soviet Union initially masked the national Azerbaijanis and all other Muslim peoples in question. Initially, under the leadership of the the Union had to replace their also century- Azerbaijani revolutionist Nariman Narimanov old alphabets based on Arabic first with the the establishment of Soviet power was consti- uniform Latin alphabet and several years later tuted in a smooth manner. However, with the with a Cyrillic alphabet with partially differ- increasing stabilization of the Union and the ent letters (Fenz 2003, p. 113). ongoing cultural revolution, severe changes For many ethnic groups this was praised were imminent in the cultural identities of as cultural progress with the trivial and dubi- the Muslim peoples, in particular, which had ous justification that they did not yet have their a significant impact on the following dimen- own language of literature. However, this ex- sions. planation cannot be accepted at face value. As First, at the linguistic level, the denomi- described above, since there was previously nation of and later the content and substance no need for an own standard language based of the official language became a central issue on a local dialect, this function was generally of power politics. For those peoples, who did fulfilled by passed down standard languages not yet have an own standard language as a such as Chagatai (Turki, Eastern Turkish) language of literature and culture, the devel- in Central Asia or Turkish (Azerbaijani vari- opment of the standard and literary language ant) in the Caucasus. The consequence of the on the basis of their local dialects became a re- change in alphabets was that the Soviet lead- quirement. For example, this was the case with ership now had come to control the funda- the Central Asian peoples who used Chagatai mental issue of identity and was able to dilute (Turki, Eastern Turkish), which is the linguis- all previously strong ties between neighbour- tic “forerunner” of contemporary Uzbek. This ing Muslim peoples. created an artificial barrier between the lin- The additional changes affected the iden- guistically related peoples. tity and the historical self-conception of the This also applied to Azerbaijani, as the Azerbaijani nation. The national realignment targeted language policy led to its alienation practically took place over night. While dur- from Ottoman/ Anatolian Turkish and the ing the early years of the Soviet Union the other Turkic languages. This policy involved designation “Turk” was printed as the nation not only a list of forbidden words, which cor- of the Azerbaijanis in their personal identity responded with the common vocabulary of documents, this was changed to “Azerbaijan- these languages.