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Ethnic Profile of Post-Soviet Azerbaijan

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Ethnic Profile of Post-Soviet Azerbaijan Arif Yunusov* Ethnic Profile of Post-Soviet Azerbaijan I. Introduction Following the breakdown of the USSR, interethnic conflicts and rising self-identifica- tion processes in many nations were among the most serious problems that emerged within the territory of the former superpower. Azerbaijan not only failed to avoid these processes but, due to various circumstances, found itself at the forefront of the stand- off. It was in Azerbaijan that the first interethnic conflict in the former USSR started between Armenians and Azeris over Nagorno Karabakh in the late s. This conflict is still unresolved and remains a stumbling block, not only for the relationship between the two Caucasian nations, but also for stability in the entire region. Azerbaijan is a multiethnic country and the progressing ethnic self-identification trends have become a baseline for the emergence of ethnic secessionism within the republic. All these processes have occurred against the background of an independent nation-state construction in Azerbaijan, where the Azeris are the indigenous/titular people. The interethnic conflict with the Armenians over Karabakh, the construction of the nation-state and the upsurge of self-identification movements among the many ethnicities of Azerbaijan are all processes that are occurring simultaneously and sig- nificantly affect other developments unfolding in the republic. How have these proc- esses been developing and what shapes are they going to acquire in the future? What measures have the republican government been applying to solve the minority issues in Azerbaijan? These are the focal issues addressed in this article. II. Ethno-linguistic Situation in Azerbaijan before the Dissolution of the USSR The roots of the current ethnic conflicts and interethnic collisions within the territory of Azerbaijan lie in the distant past when, at the beginning of the nineteenth century, the Russian empire conquered the South Caucasus and started pursuing a policy of reshaping the region’s existing ethno-confessional profile. Not only in Azerbaijan, but also on the territory of neighbouring Armenia, Muslims constituted the majority of the population. Such a demographic situation did not suit the authorities of the Russian * Arif Yunusov, Dr. of History, Head of the Department of Conflict and Migration Studies, Institute of Peace and Democracy, Azerbaijan. European Yearbook of Minority Issues Vol 4, 2004/5, ISBN 90 04 14953 8, 481-494. © 2006 Koninklijke Brill NV. Printed in the Netherlands. Downloaded from Brill.com09/29/2021 12:00:39PM via free access Arif Yunusov empire and the decision was made to expel the Muslim peoples and settle Christians in their place. This decision primarily applied to Azerbaijan where, according to the offi- cial Russian statistics of , the Turkish-speaking Azeris, as well as Persian-speaking Kurds, Tats, Talysh, etc., were the overwhelming majority of the , population.1 It was natural that the Turks, constituting the majority of the South Caucasian population, were expected to be expatriated first. A Russian population was to replace them in the region. The first group of Russian settlers in Azerbaijan, comprising the so-called sectarians or Raskolniks (Molokans, Subbotnics, Dukhobors, Baptists, etc.), began to appear in Azerbaijan after and settled in rural areas. As the political situation stabilized these groups were followed by Orthodox Christians. As a result, Azerbaijan had about Russian settlements by . In the late s, as Baku was turned into an industrial centre of the South Caucasus, the country was flooded by a third surge of Russians. Consequently, the Russian population grew from , (slightly over % of the total country’s population) in the middle of the nineteenth century to , (, Orthodox Christians and , sectarians).2 Other Christian peoples followed the Russians to settle in Azerbaijan. As early as , , Germans were resettled there to establish their colony of Yelenendorf (today’s Khanlar) near the town of Ganja. By , about , Germans (. % of the country’s total population) lived in four colonies.3 More Christian peoples (Greeks, Ukrainians, etc.) appeared in Azerbaijan during the same period, although in extremely insignificant numbers, which meant that the Russian Empire relied more on the Armenians, the major Christian group in the region, especially in the first half of the nineteenth century. Another factor that played an important role was that a small group of Armenian-speaking peoples had lived in the mountainous parts of Karabakh for a significant period, with more living in Turkey and Iran. With their shared Christian heritage, these peoples might become reliable supporters of Russian policy in the region. This was why Tsar Nikolai I issued a decree on the establishment of a separate, so-called Armenian, oblast within the territories of the Irevan and Nakhchevan Khanates, conquered after the Russian-Turkish and Russian-Persian wars in the first quarter of the nineteenth century.4 Later, the Russian authorities started the resettlement of Armenians from Turkey and Iran. This time the resettlement process took place on a much larger scale. In this regard, it is edifying to refer to the information provided by Russian officials at the beginning of the twentieth century: as Mr. N. N. Shavrov pointed out in , more than ,, Armenians living in the South Caucasus at that time belonged “to the native population of the region and were settled by Russians”.5 A sizeable number were resettled in the former See details in K. U. Verdiyeva, Resettlement Policy of the Russian Empire in the North Azerbaijan (Altay, Baku, ), (in Russian language). See details in ibid., -. Ibid., -; see also, Gamarshakh Djavadov, National Minorities and Minor Ethnicities of Azerbaijan (Elm, Baku, ), - (in Azeri language). For an overview of the history of the Armenian people, see Collected Acts, Part (Moscow, ), - (in Russian language). N. N. Sahvrov, The New Threat to the Russian Policy in the Transcaucasia, (Ministry of Finance Publishing House, St. Petersburg, ), - (in Russian language). Downloaded from Brill.com09/29/2021 12:00:39PM via free access Ethnic Profile of Post-Soviet Azerbaijan Irevan Khanate (today’s Republic of Armenia) and Azerbaijan. As a result, as early as , about , Armenians ( % of the total population) were registered in the former Elizavetpol and Baku provinces (currently Azerbaijan’s territories), whereas before the resettlement there were only ,.6 The Armenian population had particu- larly grown in Karabakh: according to sources, the Armenian population in the future Nagorno Karabakh Autonomous Oblast (the Shusha, Djebrai and Zangezur uezds/districts) totalled ,, while the Azeri population was reduced to , people (or . % of the region’s population).7 Thus, as a result of the colonial policy of the Russian Empire, significant demo- graphic changes occurred in Azerbaijan. During the period -, over a million people settled in the country: , of them were Armenians; , Russians; and over , Greeks, Germans, Ukrainians and other Christian peoples. Considering the emigration of the Azerbaijani population (predominantly Sunnites, as a result of which the number of Shiites became prevalent by the end of the nineteenth century, totalling % of the Azeris in the present day), it is quite clear that such ethno-demo- graphic changes could easily cause ethnic collisions. This issue became particularly aggravated in Karabakh and industrial centres such as Baku and Ganja, then the areas of colonial settlements. As the majority of settlers were Armenians they were in conflict with the local population during - and -, which, in the majority of cases, resulted in fatal collisions. After the Soviets came to power in Azerbaijan, the Communists managed to stall the Armenian-Azeri stand-off. In Karabakh, they established a new administrative territorial structure – the Nagorno Karabakh Autonomous Oblast (NKAO) – where Armenians constituted the majority. Another wave of Russian migrants poured into Azerbaijan during the Soviet period, the majority of whom were soldiers and their families. This portion of Russian expatriates settled in the cities, predominantly in Baku, Ganja, Sumgayit and Mingechaur. By , the number of Russians reached a peak of , people (or . % of the country’s population). From the s to the s, different trends began to take shape. Russians started leaving Azerbaijan, an exodus that took place mainly from the rural areas of the repub- lic. As a result, by the time of the population census, the Russian population in Azerbaijan totalled , people (. % of the republic’s population), which was con- centrated mostly in the Baku, Ganja, Sumgayit, Shemakha, Ismayilly and Lenkoran districts. The beginning of the s witnessed an increased outflow of Russian emi- grants from Azerbaijan: the last Soviet census registered a little over , Russians (. % of the country’s population), , of whom resided in Baku. Similar trends of decline were observed in the ethnic populations that had settled in Azerbaijan in previous centuries. These movements were particularly visible among Armenians: by , , Armenians (. % of their total number) were registered in Azerbaijan compared to , in . The majority of Armenians resided in former NKAO (,) and in the capital (, ). All these changes occurred against the background of constant increases in the local population of native/titular peoples. The last Soviet census in registered K. U. Verdiyeva, Resettlement Policy …, -. The Caucasus Calendar for (Tiflis, ), - (in Russian language). Downloaded
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