Revision as of 12:03, 12 May 2007 by Aivazovsky (talk | contribs) (History)
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Before the arrival of Turkish tribes a thousand years ago, Azerbaijan was a Christian state known as Caucasian Albania, or in Armenian Aghvan (sp?). Their church followed the same branch of Christianity as the Armenian Church, and they used the same alphabet.

On the lowlands, the Turkic conquers began to assimilate the local population, who slowly adopted the language and religion of the Turks. In the mountains, pockets of Christians remained, and the Albanian Church remained intact until the 1800s, when the Russian rulers abolished the Albanian Church and what remained was absorbed into the Armenian Church. The remaining Albanians are today known as Udis. In 1873, oil was discovered in and around the city of Baku, Azerbaijan's future capital. Oil has since become an important source of revenue for the area.

Most of present-day Azerbaijan roughly corresponds to the former Baku and Elisabethpol Governorates of the Russian Empire (parts of the latter eventually became what are today the provinces of Syunik and Tavush in Armenia and Nagorno-Karabakh). The concept of the Azerbaijani national identity came into being for the first time with the establishment of the Azerbaijan Democratic Republic (ADR) in 1918. Prior to that time, the term "Azerbaijan" had only been applied to a region in Northern Iran while the term "Arran" was applied to what is now the Republic of Azerbaijan. Likewise, the Turkic inhabitants of the area were known as Tatars by both Russian authorities as well as outside observers. This lasted until the founding of the Azerbaijan SSR, when the term "Azerbaijanis" or "Azeris" fell into common use.



In general, the Azerbaijanis and the Armenians had friendly relations during the Soviet years (with frequent cases of intermarriages). However this changed when the government of the Azerbaijan SSR (led by Heydar Aliyev) began making efforts to assimilate and "Azerify" the predominately Armenian region of Nagorno-Karabakh (which had, since its incorporation into the USSR, become an autonomous oblast). This ultimately lead to the outbreak of the Karabakh conflict. Most Azerbaijanis supported retaining Karabakh, believing that it could threaten the remaing territory of Azerbaijan and thus the focal point of Azerbaijan's national identity.




Armenian Genocide

Aliev Says Armenian Genocide A 'Fantasy'





France is home to Europe's largest share of the Armenian diaspora.


See also