Assimilation In Azerbaijan: Understanding Cultural Merging

Azerbaijan has a complex ethnic makeup, with over 80 ethnic groups calling the country home. While ethnic Azerbaijanis make up over 94% of the population, the country has faced criticism for its treatment of ethnic minorities and its assimilation policies. The topic of assimilation in Azerbaijan refers to the alleged forced assimilation of minority groups, including the Avars, Talysh, Tsakhurs, Lezgins, Kurds, Tats, and Armenians. This has led to complaints of ethnic unrest and concerns from international organisations about discrimination and human rights violations.

The Talysh people

Historically, the Talysh identity has been suppressed, particularly during the Soviet era. In the early Soviet period, there were Talysh schools, a Talysh newspaper called "Red Talysh", and several books published in the Talysh language. However, by the end of the 1930s, these schools were closed, and the Talysh identity was not acknowledged in official statistics. The Talysh were classified as "Azerbaijani," and their language and culture were subjected to forced assimilation by the Azerbaijani authorities.

The 1939 census recorded 87,510 Talysh people in the Azerbaijan SSR, making them the fifth-largest nationality in the republic. However, the 1959 census counted only 85 individuals of Talysh nationality, with the official explanation being that the Talysh voluntarily identified as Azerbaijanis. This “erasure” of the Talysh from the census was a way to increase the "titular" Azerbaijani majority in the republic and promote homogenization.

Despite these challenges, the Talysh have a strong sense of self-identity, shaped by their consistent struggle against unfaithful treatment by Azerbaijan. The rise of Pan-Turkist ideology in the country after the Soviet era further contributed to the growing Iranian identity of the Talysh in Azerbaijan.

In recent times, there have been efforts to revive and promote Talysh history, culture, traditions, and customs. The establishment of the Republican Center of Talysh Culture in 1990 and the approval of curricula for teaching Talysh in schools are positive steps toward recognizing and preserving the unique heritage of the Talysh people in Azerbaijan.

The Tsakhurs

From the 15th century onwards, some Tsakhurs began migrating south to the Zaqatala District of modern-day Azerbaijan. In the 18th century, the capital of their state moved from Tsakhur in Dagestan to İlisu, becoming the Elisu Sultanate. West of this sultanate, the Tsakhurs formed the Djaro-Belokani free communities. The sultanate fell under the influence of the Shaki Khanate and became part of the Russian Empire in the 19th century.

Today, the Tsakhurs live in Azerbaijan's Zaqatala region, comprising 14% of the population, and in Gakh, where they make up less than 2%. In Dagestan, they reside in the mountainous areas of the Rutulsky district. Their main traditional occupation is sheep farming, but they are also skilled artisans, including stonemasonry, tailoring, carpentry, and handicrafts like carpet-weaving and knitting.

The Tsakhur language, or Tsakhur dili, is a Lezgic language with about 11,700 speakers in Azerbaijan and 10,600 in Russia. While it is endangered in communities with close contact to Azerbaijani, it is vigorous in others, gaining prominence in schools and cultural materials. The Tsakhur alphabet in Azerbaijan is Latin-script based, while in Dagestan, it uses Cyrillic. The language has a complex phonology and a large number of vowel phonemes.

The Avars

In Azerbaijan, the Avars are considered to be Azeri, even in census counts. They are estimated to number around 200,000 in the country, with some sources placing the figure as high as 750,000. The Avars have expressed fears of forced assimilation and ethnic cleansing by the Azerbaijani government to ensure the dominance of Azerbaijani Turks in the country. They have also faced discrimination in areas such as housing, education, and employment, along with other ethnic minorities in Azerbaijan.

The Avar people have a rich ancient culture, characterised by their intense sense of honour. However, a notable absence in Avar culture is grace, or the lack of forgiveness, tolerance, and mercy. This has left the Avar people vulnerable to intense cycles of violence.

In recent years, there has been a growing number of Avar believers, with over 50 Avar converts to Christianity. The New Testament, along with several books of the Old Testament, have been translated into the Avar language.

The Kurds

Kurds established a presence in the Caucasus with the establishment of the Kurdish Shaddadid dynasty in the 10th and 11th centuries. Some Kurdish tribes were recorded in Karabakh by the end of the 16th century. However, the mass character of Kurdish settlement in Azerbaijan is thought to have occurred in the late 16th century, when Shah Abbas of Iran deployed Kurdish tribes from western Iran to guard the empire's northwestern frontier. In the 18th century, many Kurdish tribes had formed tribal unions with Azeris in the Karabakh lowlands.

By the 19th century, Kurds were found in large numbers in the uyezds of Zangezur, Javanshir, and Jabrayil. In 1886, they constituted 4.68% of the population of the Elisabethpol Governorate. Small populations of Kurds were also found in the uyezds of Nakhchivan, Sharur-Daralagoz, and Aresh. The mass migration of Kurds from Persia and, to a lesser degree, the Ottoman Empire into the mountainous regions of present-day Azerbaijan continued throughout the 19th and early 20th centuries, until 1920 when Azerbaijan became part of the Soviet Union.

The Kurdish population of Azerbaijan was prone to internal immigration. In the 1920s, a number of Kurds from Azerbaijan relocated to Armenia, leading to a significant decrease in their population in Azerbaijan. The common religion (Shi'a Islam) and shared elements of culture led to the rapid assimilation of Azerbaijan's Kurdish population by the end of the 19th century. Statistical data from 1886 shows that Kurds of Jabrayil, Arash, and partly Javanshir spoke Azeri as a first language. According to the first Soviet census of 1926, only 3,100 (or 8.3%) of Azerbaijan's Kurdish population (which at the time numbered 37,200 people) spoke Kurdish.

Kurds were well-integrated into Azerbaijani society, with representation in the government of the shortly independent Democratic Republic of Azerbaijan in 1918-1920. After the establishment of Soviet rule in Azerbaijan, the Central Executive Committee of the Azerbaijan SSR created an administrative unit known as Red Kurdistan in the districts of Lachin, Qubadli, and Zangilan, with its capital in Lachin. According to the 1926 census, 73% of its population was Kurdish and 26% was Azeri. In 1930, Red Kurdistan was abolished, and most remaining Kurds were progressively recategorized as Azerbaijani.

Kurds continued to assimilate into the dominant culture of the neighbouring Azeris, with intermarriage being commonplace. However, the Kurdish language was rarely passed on to the children in such marriages. During the perestroika era in the 1980s, there was a resurgence in the nationalist aspirations of Soviet Kurds, leading to the formation of the Yekbûn organization in 1989, which aimed to re-establish Kurdish autonomy.

The Nagorno-Karabakh conflict between Armenia and Azerbaijan further displaced the Kurdish population, with Armenian troops advancing into Kalbajar, Lachin, Qubadli, and Zangilan in 1992-1993, forcing the non-Armenian civilian population out. As a result, 80% of the Kurdish population of those regions settled in IDP camps in Aghjabadi.

The 2009 census recorded 6,100 Kurds in Azerbaijan, accounting for 0.1% of the population. However, estimates from the 1990s suggested figures as high as 200,000, and estimates from the 1920s put their number at 40,000. The discrepancies may reflect the heavy assimilation of Azerbaijani Kurds, with many using Azeri as their mother tongue.

The geographical areas of concentration of Kurds in Azerbaijan were Kelbajar, Lachin, Qubadli, and Zangilan districts, sandwiched between Armenia and the Nagorno-Karabakh region of Azerbaijan. As a result of the 2020 Nagorno-Karabakh war, Azerbaijan retook these districts, and the internally displaced persons are expected to return to their territory under the supervision of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees.

The Lezghins

Historically, the Lezghins have inhabited some northern regions of Azerbaijan, and their presence in the country is associated with the relocation of part of the Dagestan Lezgins to the south of its territory. They are the largest ethnic minority in Azerbaijan, making up 40% of the populations of the Qusar and Khachmaz regions and 1.8% of Greater Baku. The Lezghins' social structure is based on equality and deference to individuality, and their society is structured around djamaat (unions of clans) and autonomous local clans called syhils.

In recent times, the Lezghins have faced challenges and concerns about assimilation in Azerbaijan. They have lobbied for greater protection of their rights and cultural autonomy, with some even proposing the creation of an independent state encompassing their historic homeland on both sides of the Russian-Azerbaijani border. There are fears among the Lezghins that the Azerbaijani authorities' Turkic nationalistic policies are leading to forceful assimilation and the erosion of their cultural and historical identity. This includes the renaming of Lezghin historical and religious monuments with Azeri words, the closure of Sunni mosques, and the lack of representation in official Azerbaijani history.

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