Azerbaijanis in Turkey

This article's factual accuracy is disputed. Please help to ensure that disputed facts are reliably sourced. See the relevant discussion on the talk page. (March 2010)

It is hard to determine how many ethnic Azerbaijanis currently reside in Turkey because ethnicity is a rather fluid concept in this country.^[1] According to some sources, there are about 800,000 Twelvers, however this figure may differ substantially from the real one.^[2] Up to 300,000 of Azeris who reside in Turkey are citizens of Azerbaijan.^[3] They currently are the largest ethnic group in the city of Iğdır^[4] and second largest ethnic group in Kars.^[5]

Ethnic map of Turkey, showing the Azerbaijani settlement areas in eastern Turkey.

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History

Azerbaijanis first settled in what is now Turkey during the period of Safavi governance over Kars and neighbouring areas.^{[dubious – discuss][6]} Their numbers grew at the beginning of the 19th century, when according to the Gulistan and Turkmenchay treaties between Persia and Russia, the latter gained sovereignty over the khanates of Karabakh (1813), Nakhchevan (1828) and Erivan (1828), among others, and the Treaty of Adrianople gave Christians and Muslims the right to choose a place of residence between Russia and Turkey. Similarly to those of the North Caucasus, large groups of local Muslim population refused to live within Russian boundaries and migrated to Turkey, settling in its eastern regions, especially in the Şenkaya district of Erzurum and the Taşlıçay district of Ağrı,^[7][8][6][9] The Turkish dialect of Erzurum has been grammatically influenced by the Azerbaijanis language.^[10] Phonemic analyses indicate that Azeri-influenced dialects are spoken as far as Elâzığ^[11] and Van's Erciş district.^[12]

In 1813, a group of Azeris from Karabakh settled in Aziziye, in the southern part of the Afyon Province. Despite having undergone major assimilation in their language and religious beliefs, they still identify themselves as Karabağlı and are viewed as a distinct group by the local population.^[13] A different branch of the same group settled in Iğdır. Caferoğlu argues that the Afyon group may have left Karabakh for Turkey much earlier, in 1578, fighting for the Ottoman Empire in the Second Ottoman–Safavid War.^[14]

In addition, in the early nineteenth century, several Sunni families from Shirvan, particularly from Agsu,^[15] settled in Amasya, where for a long time they were known as Şirvanlı. In 1894, a unique baroque-style mosque was built here by Şeyh Hacı Mahmut Efendi. The mosque has been known as the Şirvanlı Mosque or the Azerîler Mosque.^[16] The descendants of those migrants nowadays live in six villages of Amasya's Suluova and Merzifon districts and have preserved their Azeri identity and culture.^[17] Another group of Azerbaijanis from Shaki relocated to Bursa in 1863.

The next wave of Azerbaijani immigration to eastern Turkey took place in 1918–1925, when many Muslim residents of then newly independent Armenia fled their homes, escaping massacres by armed bands of Armenian nationalists.^[18] In 1941, already 5,000 Azerbaijanis lived in 60 villages along the Turkish bank of the Arpaçay.^[19] They were followed by former members of the overthrown government of the Democratic Republic of Azerbaijan and their families, as well as many upper-class Azerbaijanis, who fled to Turkey in fear of persecution by the Bolsheviks and settled primarily in Istanbul, Bursa and Ankara.^[20][21] Together with other political immigrants from the Caucasus and led by members of the deposed democratic government of Azerbaijan such as Rasulzadeh, Khasmammadov and Sultanov, some of them engaged in anti-Soviet political propaganda and activities in Turkey in an attempt to restore the independence of the Bolshevik-occupied Caucasus states. The signing of Soviet-Turkish non-aggression pacts in 1925 and 1935 created obstacles in continuing this activity in the form of arrests and bans on the publishing of anti-Soviet periodicals. This forced some politically active members of the movement to relocate to Germany and Poland by the late 1930s.^[22]

After the failure of the USSR-created regional Azerbaijan People's Government in 1946, ethnic Azeri political immigrants from Iran increased the numbers of Azerbaijanis in Turkey.^[6] By 1990, about 400,000 Azerbaijanis lived in a belt of land on the Turkish side of the Soviet border.^[23] Finally, starting from the early 1990s tens of thousands of immigrants from the newly independent Azerbaijan have made their way to Turkey due to economic reasons, settling mostly in big cities.

The Terekeme people are often considered ethnic Azerbaijanis of Sunni Muslim background.^[24]

In general, the Azerbaijani population in Turkey is considered well-integrated into Turkish society, mainly due to cultural and linguistic affinities between Azerbaijani and Anatolian Turks. Nevertheless, differences still remain in the areas of religion (Azerbaijanis are mainly Shi'a, whereas Anatolian Turks are mostly Sunni Muslims), dialect, and self-conception in terms of historical memory and ethnic/national consciousness.^[6] In 2011, Sinan Oğan, an ethnic Azerbaijani and a diaspora activist from Iğdır, won a seat in the Turkish parliament.^[25]

Famous Azerbaijanis of Turkey

Servet Çetin, Turkish football player

• Ali Özgündüz, former public attorney and politician
• Süreyya Ağaoğlu, first female lawyer in Turkish history
• Cem Karaca, musician (Azerbaijanis father)
• Haydar Hatemi, Turkish-Iranian artist
• Elnara Kerimova, Azerbaijani and Turkish conductor and chorus master.
• Melahat Abbasova, Turkish actress and producer
• Nigar Talibova, Turkish model
• Sinan Şamil Sam, Turkish-German boxer
• Rasim Başak, basketball player
• Servet Çetin, football player
• Alihan Samedov, master player of instruments (balaban, clarinet, tutek, oboe, saxophone), chess master
• Mubariz Mansimov, businessman, billionaire and founder of Palmali Group of Companies
• Telman Ismailov, businessman, billionaire and founder of AST Group of Companies
• Samad bey Rafibeyli, Turkish army general
• Ahmet Ağaoğlu, Azerbaijani and Turkish publicist and journalist
• Nesrin Cavadzade, actress
• Nuri Berköz, Lt.General, General Commander of Turkish Gendarmerie
• Nuri Saryal, scientist, engineer
• Neriman Saryal Duranoglu, poet, writer

See also

• Minorities in Turkey
• ASAIF
• Azerbaijanis
• List of Azerbaijanis
• Azerbaijan
• Turkey
• Demographics of Turkey
• Turks in Azerbaijan

Notes and references

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