| Total population |
|---|
| 43,400 (1999 census) 90,000 to 110,000[1] plus 16,000 Turkish nationals[2] |
| Regions with significant populations |
| Baku |
| Languages |
| Religion |
Turks in Azerbaijan are Turkish people who live in Azerbaijan. According to the 1999 Azeri census, there was 43,400 Turks living in Azerbaijan (the next census will be held in 2009). This number included both Meskhetian Turks, who have largely immigrated to Azerbaijan in the 1950's-1960s and the 1990s, and Turks from Turkey who have settled in Azerbaijan since the 1990s, who are mainly expatriate Turkish citizens.
Contents |
History
Turkish and Azeri people share many aspects of Turkic heritage from a common culture and history, and the mutual intelligibility of Turkish and Azerbaijani.
Between the tenth and eleventh centuries, the lands of Anatolia and Azerbaijan were conquered and inhabited by Oghuz Turks, the founders of both the Seljuk Empire and its succesor the Ottoman Empire, from which its last succesor, the modern Republic of Turkey eventually developed.
Modern history
The first Turks entered Azerbaijan in the 19th century as deportees from Georgia, more arrived in 1918-20. Later, in 1944 Stalin's ethnic cleansing of the Northern-Caucasus forced most Meskhetian Turks to Central Asia, and some eventually migrated to Azerbaijan. In 1958-62 the settlement of over 20,000 families was sanctioned by the government in the districts of Saatly Rayon, Sabirabad Rayon, Khachmaz Rayon and Shamkir Rayon. In the last days of the Soviet Union, pogroms in Uzbekistan brought the latest wave of Meskhetian Turks to Azerbaijan, which settled mostly in the districts Balakan Rayon, Zaqatala Rayon, Qakh Rayon near the Georgian border. The Azerbaijani government, facing problems with its own 1 million internally displaced Azeri refugees from its break-away region of Nagorno-Karabakh, did not accept larger numbers and the further settlement of Meskhetian Turks to Azerbaijan was stopped in 1993. The majority of Turks in Azerbaijan live in the capital Baku. [3]
Demographic history
| Year | Turkish population | % of Azerbaijan's population |
|---|---|---|
| 1959 | 200 | 0% |
| 1970 | 8,500 | 0.2% |
| 1979 | 7,900 | 0.2% |
| 1989 | 17,700 | 0.2% |
| 1999 | 43,400 | 0.5% |
| 2009 | N/A | N/A |
| (Source: Azerbaijani Census) [4] | ||
Notable Turks in Azerbaijan
See also
References
- ^ Council of Europe 2006, 23.
- ^ Rep. of Turkey Ministry of Labour and Social Security. "YURTDISINDAKI VATANDASLARIMIZLA ILGILI SAYISAL BILGILER". http://www.calisma.gov.tr/article.php?article_id=371. Retrieved 2009-10-27.
- ^ Azerb. "Meskhetian Turks in Azerbaijan". http://azerb.com/az-meskhetian.html. Retrieved 2009-07-02.
- ^ Source: The State Statistical Committee of the Republic of Azerbaijan
Bibliography
- Council of Europe (2006), Documents: working papers, 2005 ordinary session (second part), 25-29 April 2005, Vol. 3: Documents 10407, 10449-10533, Council of Europe, ISBN 9287157545.
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