Azeri people
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The Azeri, also referred to as Azerbaijanian Turks, are a Turkic-Muslim people. They live in Azerbaijan, which is located in a crossroads between eastern Europe and western Asia. The term Azerbajani was first introduced by bolsheviks, with the intention to claim a northern province of Persia (Iran) in 1936.
Before 1918, the Muslim population of the modern territory of Azerbaijan did not have ethnic identification and called themselves merely Muslims. By 1918 approximately 60% of population were Talysh, whereas Azerbaijanis (or, correctly, Azeri Turks) contituted ca 30% of population. Ethnic cleansing and descrimination on ethnic basis almost completely eliminated Talysh and Lezgi population.
The northern half of Iranian province of Azerbaijan was annexed by the Russians in 1828. Between 1900 and 1918 approximately one million Azeri Turks migrated to Baku from Iran. Total number of Azeri Turks is more than 10 million worldwide, with the majority living outside of the Republic of Azerbaijan. The Republic of Azerbaijan has a population of 5 million, while more than 2 million live in Russia and 1 million living in different CIS contries, mainly in Ukraine, the northwestern region of Iran in the provinces of Ardebil, East Azerbaijan, West Azerbaijan and Zanjan; the territory of South Azerbaijan.
More than 8 million live in various cities in central Iran especially in the capital of Tehran. Most analysts state that at least 50% of the city and province of Tehran including the city of Karaj, is inhabited by Azeri Turks. The nomadic Turkic tribes of Afshar, Shahseven, Qarapapaq, Qajar and Timurtash who are spread across Iran are tribes of the Azerbaijanians. There are also 2 million indigenous Azerbaijanians living in the eastern region of Turkey (mostly in Kars and Igdir), 2.5 million throughout the Russian Federation (mostly in the autonomous republic of Dagestan and the capital city of Moscow) 1 million living in northern Iraq (whom are referred to as Turkmens that live mostly in Kirkuk, Erbil and Mosul) and 300,000 living in the southern region of Georgia. There are also scattered populations of Azerbaijanians in Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan, Syria and Afghanistan, including a large diaspora living in North America and Europe.
