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48-524: ANRO seeks to regain withheld economical, political, social, cultural and human rights and fundamental liberties of Azeri people in Iranian Azerbaijan . ANRO aims to act within the democratic and civil struggle methods and values. The group avoids and condemns all kinds of violence, especially those from governments and organized armed terrorists. In the ANRO's opinion, the struggle for self-determination

96-403: A Muslim biographer and geographer of the 14th century, clearly separates the geographical boundaries of Aran and Azerbaijan: “ Aran, an Iranian name, is a vast territory with many cities, one of which is Janzeh. This is the same town that people refer to as Ganja and also, Bardha’a, Shamkor, and Bilaqan. Separating Azerbaijan and Aran is a river called Aras. Everything north and west of this river

144-520: A free rule for their country would want to put aside the ancient and historical name of their country and transgresses towards Azerbaijan [‘s name]?” The decision to use the name "Azerbaijan" drew protests from Iran. According to Hamid Ahmadi: Though the weak Iranian state was in a transitional period, struggling with foreign domination, the Iranian political and intellectual elites in Tehran and Tabriz ,

192-531: A number of Soviet historians, including the well-known Russian Orientalist Ilya Pavlovich Petrushevsky , to accept the completely uncorroborated idea that the former khanates' territory—with the exception of Yerevan, which had become Soviet Armenia —was a part of an Azerbaijani nation. Consequently, Azerbaijan and Azerbaijanis are used in Petrushevskii's two significant studies on the South Caucasus, which cover

240-520: A popular member of the political elite in Iranian Azerbaijan and the leader of the Democratic Party ( Firqhe Democrat ), changed the name of the province to Azadistan (land of freedom). According to Ahmad Kasravi, Khiabani’s deputy at the time, the main reason for such a change was to prevent any future claim by the pan-Turkist Ottomans to Iranian Azerbaijan on the basis of the similarity of

288-555: Is Aran and everything else located in the south is Azerbaijan. ” Abu al-Fida , a historian of the 14th century, specifies that Azerbaijan and Aran are two different regions. In his book, Borhan-e Qati , Borhan Khalaf-e Tabrizi, an author of the 17th century, writes that “Aras is the name of a famous river” that “separates Aran from Azerbaijan.” In the accounts of the 13th-century scholar Yaqut al-Hamawi (which Xavier de Planhol refers to "imprecise and sometimes contradictory information"), Azerbaijan stretched as far as Erzincan in

336-615: Is a Soviet-invented word , originally used to lay the Soviet Union's territorial claim on the Iranian historical region of Azerbaijan in line with a propaganda campaign to construct a national narrative. Though documents reveal that Moscow was behind instructing such propaganda work, there is also evidence of Soviet internal dissent to this policy, as Sergey Kavtaradze warned Vyacheslav Molotov that "renaming of Iranian Azerbaijan into Southern Azerbaijan... would be inexpedient and fraught with

384-665: Is a legitimate and necessary right of the Turkic people in Iranian Azerbaijan . The ANRO's news outlet is ArazNews , and Babek Chalabiyanli is the group's official spokesman. The ceremony for the tenth anniversary of the Azerbaijan National Resistance Organization was held with the presence of ANRO authorities, members, supporters and guests from other organizations in South Azerbaijan on 22 March 2016. South Azerbaijan The toponym " Azerbaijan "

432-532: Is no written evidence, some scholars have presumed al-rānīya to be an Iranian dialect while others have presumed it to be a remnant of a Caucasian Albanian language. The area in which there was Ganja, during the 9th to 12th century named Arran; its urban population spoke mainly in Persian. After the Turkification of the region, the population became Turkic speaking, and thus referred to by Europeans , particularly

480-664: The Caspian Sea to the Alazani River and the land of Mede Atropatene to the south.” Movses Kaghankatvatsi , the author of the book The History of the Country of Albania , which covers the period between 4th century AD and 10th century AD, describes the boundaries of Albania as one that does not go beyond the Aras River . In addition to Greek works, there are numerous Muslim geographers and historians that have provided information on

528-562: The Caucasus territories to Russia. The population of Arran consisted of a great variety of peoples. Greek, Roman and Armenian authors provide the names of some peoples who inhabited the lands between the Kur and Araxes rivers: In the late 4th century, when the region passed to Caucasian Albania, its population consisted of Armenians and Armenicized aborigines, though many of the latter were still cited as distinct ethnic entities. In pre-Islamic times

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576-664: The Ildegizid state. It was taken briefly by the Khwarizmid dynasty and then overran by Mongol Hulagu empire in the 13th century. Later, it became a part of Chobanid , Jalayirid , Timurid , and Iranian Safavid , Afsharid , and Qajar states which means at least from 1500 until 1828, when Iran lost a major battle to the expanding Russian Empire and as a result had to sign the Treaty of Turkmenchay ( Russian : Туркманчайский договор , Persian : عهدنامه ترکمنچای ) in which it had to concede all

624-737: The Kura and Aras rivers, including the highland and lowland Karabakh , Mil plain and parts of the Mughan plain . In pre-Islamic times, it corresponded roughly to the territory of the modern-day Republic of Azerbaijan . The term is the Middle Persian equivalent to the Greco-Roman Albania . It was known as Aghvania , Alvan-k in Armenian , and Al-ran (Arabized form of Arran ) in Arabic . Today,

672-576: The Ottoman Empire . The Ottoman Empire who claimed to be the champion of the Muslim world increased its support for Muslims in the Caucasus . At the same time, in the late 19th century, ideas on Islamic unity and Turkish unity had gained popularity among Ottoman intellectuals. It resulted in the establishment of the Committee of Union and Progress in 1889 which called for the preservation of all peoples under

720-699: The Party of Turkic Federalists , another national-democratic right-wing organization, and adopted a new name, Musavat Party of Turkic Federalists. At this time, the main goal of Musavat leaders was to create a united Muslim state under the protection of the Ottoman Empire. After the October Revolution in 1917, when Musavat leaders failed to reach an agreement with Caucasian Bolsheviks , they decided to establish their own government and declare independence. Thus, on May 28, 1918, Musavat leaders declared independence under

768-507: The " Ajayib-ad-Dunya ", written in the 13th century by an unknown author, says Arran was 30 parasangs (200 km) in width, and 40 farsakhs (270 km) in length. The entire right bank of the Kura river until it joined with the Aras was attributed to Arran (the left bank of the Kura was known as Shirvan ). The boundaries of Arran have shifted throughout history, sometimes encompassing the entire territory of

816-568: The 12th century Bundahishn (29:12) identified the " Airyana Vaego by the Vanguhi Daitya " on the northern border of Azerbaijan, and did so "probably in order that it should be as near as possible to the seat of the Zoroastrian religion yet without losing its supernatural character by the counter-evidence of facts." Darmesteter further associated the Vanguhi Daitya river with the Araxes, and compared

864-551: The Ottoman Empire around the three pillars of Islam, Turkishness, and Caliphate. In 1911, a group of Muslim Turkish-speaker intellectuals founded the Muslim Democratic Musavat Party , a small and secret underground organization to work for political unity among Muslims and Turkish-speaking peoples. Influenced by the Young Turks ideas, the leaders of Organizations were sympathetic to Pan-Turkism . In October 1917,

912-608: The Rus . Bardha'a never recovered after these raids and was replaced as capital by Beylaqan , which in turn was sacked by the Mongols in 1221. After this Ganja rose to prominence and became the central city of the region. The capital of the Shaddadid dynasty, Ganja was considered the "mother city of Arran" during their reign. The territory of Arran became a part of the Seljuq Empire , followed by

960-774: The area south of the Aras River. Following the Russo-Persian War of 1826–1828 , when the Russian Empire incorporated territory north of the Aras, Russian diplomat Alexander Griboyedov draw up "The Statute on the Governance of Azerbaijan" and "The General Rules for the Operation of the Azerbaijani Administration". Russian imperial generals like Pavel Tsitsianov and Dmitri Osten-Sacken have since used "Azerbaijan" for

1008-523: The capital of Iranian Azerbaijan , soon protested against such naming. For almost a year, the printed media in Tehran, Tabriz, and other big Iranian cities on the one side, and the media in Baku, the capital of the newly independent Republic of Azerbaijan, on the other side, presented their arguments to prove that such naming was wrong or right. Iranians were generally suspicious of Baku’s choice and regarded confiscating

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1056-443: The form Arian/Aryan. In pre-Islamic times, Caucasian Albania/Arran was a wider concept than that of post-Islamic Arran. Ancient Arran covered all of eastern Transcaucasia , which included most of the territory of the modern-day Azerbaijan Republic and part of the territory of Dagestan . However, in post-Islamic times the geographic notion of Arran shrank to the territory between the rivers of Kura and Araks. A medieval chronicle,

1104-468: The geographical boundaries of Aran and Azerbaijan . For instance, Ibn Hawqal , a 10th-century Muslim geographer, draws a map of Azerbaijan and Aran with the Aras River as the natural boundary between these two regions. Estakhri , Another Muslim geographer from the 10th century identifies Aran and Azerbaijan as two separate regions. In his book, the Mu'jam ul-Buldān (Dictionary of Countries), Yaqut al-Hamawi ,

1152-660: The historical name of Iran’s north-western province as a pan-Turkist conspiracy planned by the Ottoman Young Turks , then active in Baku, for their ultimate goal of establishing a pan-Turk entity ( Turan ) from Central Asia to Europe. By calling the real historical Azerbaijan located in Iran “southern Azerbaijan”, the pan-Turkists could claim the necessity of unifying the Republic of Azerbaijan and “southern Azerbaijan” in their future “Turan.” Fearing such threats, Shaikh Mohammad Khiabani,

1200-525: The independence of every Muslim land as a "source of joy," asked in its newspaper if the choice of the name Azerbaijan implied the new republic's desire to join Iran. If so, they said, it should be stated clearly, otherwise, Iranians would be opposed to calling that republic Azerbaijan. Consequently, to allay Iranian fears, the Azerbaijani government would accommodatingly use the term Caucasian Azerbaijan in its documents for circulation abroad. Southern Azerbaijan

1248-495: The name "Airyana Vaego" with that of Arran. According to English historian and Orientalist C.E. Bosworth : The Georgians knew them [the Caucasian Albanians] as Rani, a form taken over in an Arabized form for the early Islamic geographical term al-Rān (pronounced ar-Rān) . Later Greek writers also call the country Ariania instead of Albania, and the people Arianoi instead of Albanoi. In some Classical authors one finds

1296-536: The name change, although it seems that he was unaware of the motives behind choosing the name Azerbaijan. In his book, Forgotten Rulers, he wrote: “It is astonishing that Aran is named Azerbaijan now. Azerbaijan or Azerbaigan has always been the name of the territory that is bigger and more famous than its neighbor, Aran, and the two territories have always been distinct from each other. To this day, we have not been able to understand that why our brethren in Aran who strived for

1344-557: The name of the Azerbaijan People’s Republic . Some scholars argue that the reason behind choosing the name Azerbaijan over Aran was because of the demands of the Turks (Ottomans who had a profound influence on Musavat leaders). Naming Aran as Azerbaijan could provide sufficient justification for the political unity of Turkish-speaking people of South Caucasus and northwest Iran under the name of Azerbaijan. It could facilitate

1392-584: The names. According to Tadeusz Swietochowski : Although the proclamation restricted its claim to the territory north of the Araz River, the use of the name Azerbaijan would soon bring objections from Iran. In Teheran, suspicions were aroused that the Republic of Azerbaijan served as an Ottoman device for detaching the Tabriz province from Iran. Likewise, the national revolutionary Jangali movement in Gilan , while welcoming

1440-598: The people in Baku were still not interested in referring to the region in the south Caucasus as "Azerbaijan". The local populace was frequently included under terms such as Türk milleti and Qafqaziya müsalman Xalqi ("the Muslim people of the Caucasus"). Even the name of the first Constituent Assembly, which was founded on 29 April 1917 in Baku, was "General Assembly of the Caucasian Muslims". On June 17, 1917, Musavat merged with

1488-506: The people of the north of Aras by their location, such as Yerevanis, Ganjavis, etc. The Soviets encouraged Azeri nationalists to create an "Azeri" alphabet, which supplanted the Arabo-Persian script, in order to create an Azerbaijani national history and identity based on the territorial concept of a nation and to lessen the influence of Iran and Islam. In the 1930s, the Soviet government ordered

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1536-519: The period from the 16th to the 19th centuries. Naming Aran as Azerbaijan caused surprise, confusion, and rage in Iran, especially, among Iranian Azeri intellectuals. Mohammad Khiabani , an Iranian Azeri political activist and some other Iranian Azeri intellectuals recommended changing the name of Iranian Azerbaijan to Azadistan (the Land of freedom) to protest the name change. Ahmad Kasravi , an Iranian Azeri historian, also got surprised when he heard about

1584-447: The population of Arran and most of Caucasian Albania had mostly been Christian who belonged to the Church of Caucasian Albania . Under Arabic rule (7th to 9th centuries) a part of the population was Islamicized and adopted Alevism . Muslim chronicles of the 10th century reported that some of the population of Arran spoke al-rānīya, as well as Arabic and Persian languages . Because there

1632-562: The present-day Republic of Azerbaijan, and at other times only parts of the South Caucasus . Sometimes Arran was part of Armenia. Medieval Islamic geographers gave descriptions of Arran in general, and of its towns, including Barda , Beylagan , and Ganja . Following the Arab invasion of Iran , the Arabs invaded the Caucasus in the 8th century and most of the former territory of Caucasian Albania

1680-565: The process of Azerbaijan annexation to the Ottoman Empire (later Turkey ). The Azerbaijani politician Mahammad Amin Rasulzade noted that "Azerbaijan" was a new term for the region and that it had only been used after the Russian Revolution . In a number of seminars at Baku State University in November and December 1924, the distinguished Soviet orientalist Vasily Bartold talked about

1728-521: The purpose suggested by this designation; "however, the term Azerbaijan was chosen, because when the Azerbaijani republic was established, it was supposed that the Persian and this Azerbaijan would form one entity, since they have a very large similarity in the composition of their populations." Prior to the Sovietization of the South Caucasus , its Turkish-speaking Muslim population were referred to as "Tatars" by Russian sources. Iranian sources labeled

1776-633: The republic of Azerbaijan was the historic Shirvan , as well as Quba /Qubbah). The region is known as Ardhan in Parthian , Al-Ran in Arabic , Aghvank or Alvank in Armenian , Rani ( Georgian : რანი ) in Georgian and Caucasian Albania in Latin . According to the Movses Kagankatvatsi , Arran or Arhan was the name of the legendary founder of Caucasian Albania , who in some versions

1824-483: The risk of unwanted consequences". The Soviets continued to promote this word even after demise of Ja'far Pishevari and the puppet state Azerbaijan People's Government . After the dissolution of the Soviet Union , the "southern" theme was revived again. Utilization of the term has been an integral part of a nation-building attempt by the present-day Republic of Azerbaijan and its government. Official history thought at schools and universities tends to rediscover

1872-482: The separation of the nation when Russo-Persian Wars took place in the early 19th century, and a revisionist interpretation of events to show "constant struggle of the Azerbaijanis for their unity". As a result, usage of the term Iranian Azerbaijan would automatically adjust Republic of Azerbaijan to Iran and undermine justification for independence of the former, and is thus. Certain political circles in Baku welcome

1920-408: The so-called Southern Azerbaijan National Awakening Movement . Arran (Caucasus) Arran ( Middle Persian form; Persian : اران or اردان), also known as Aran or Ardan , was a geographical name used in ancient and medieval times to signify a historically- Iranian region which lay within the triangle of land, lowland in the east and mountainous in the west, formed by the junction of

1968-458: The term Aran is mainly used in Azerbaijan to indicate territories consisting of Mil and Mughan plains (mostly, Beylagan , Imishli , Kurdamir , Saatly , Sabirabad provinces of the Republic of Azerbaijan). It has also been used by Iranian historian Enayatollah Reza to refer to the country of Azerbaijan, freeing the name "Azerbaijan" to refer to a region within Iran. The bulk of the territory of

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2016-639: The territory north of the Aras. Following the Russo-Iranian wars of the 19th century, and the consequent Treaty of Turkmenchay in 1828, the Aras River was set to be the boundary between Iran and Russia . As a result, the entire Caucasus was incorporated into the Russian Empire . Given the military weakness of Iran, the Turkish-speaking Muslims of the Caucasus, who were unhappy with Russia and had no hope of protection from Iran , turned to

2064-555: The time included Rawadids , Sajids , Salarids , Shaddadids , Shirvanshahs , and the Sheki and Tiflis emirates. The principal cities of Arran in early medieval times were Bardha'a (Partav) and Ganja . Bardha'a reached prominence in the 10th century and was used to house a mint . Bardha'a was sacked by the Rus and Norse several times in the 10th century as a result of the Caspian expeditions of

2112-536: The west. However, in other instances, Yaqut includes Arran and the Mughan plain as part of Azerbaijan, bringing its border up to the Kura River . This suggests that, starting around this time, the definition of Azerbaijan tended to be expanded to the north and that its meaning was swiftly changing. In Safavi times, the name "Azerbaijan" was applied to all the Muslim-ruled khanates of the eastern Caucasus , alongside

2160-495: Was historically used to refer to the region located south of the Aras River - today known as Iranian Azerbaijan , located in northwestern Iran . Historians and geographers usually referred to the region north of the Aras River as Arran , but the name "Azerbaijan" has also been extended to this area as well. On May 28, 1918, following the collapse of the Russian Empire , the Azerbaijan Democratic Republic

2208-608: Was included under the name of Arran. This region was at times part of the Abbasid Caliphate based on numismatic and historical evidence. Dynasties of Parthian or Persian descent, such as the Mihranids had come to rule the territory during Sassanian times . Its kings were given the title Arranshah , and after the Arab invasions, fought against the caliphate from the late 7th to middle 8th centuries. Early Muslim ruling dynasties of

2256-506: Was proclaimed to the north of the Aras. The name of the region north of the Aras River known today as the Republic of Azerbaijan was previously an unrelated entity called Caucasian Albania by ancient Greek geographers and historians. For example, Strabo (64 or 63 BC – c. AD 24), a Greek geographer, identifies Albania as a separate territory from Atropatene (the ancient name of Iranian Azerbaijan) and describes it as “a land extending from

2304-408: Was the son of Noah 's son Yafet ( Japheth ) and also, possibly the eponym of the ancient Caucasian Albanians ( Aghvan ), and/or the Iranian tribe known as Alans (Alani). The nearby Araks (Aras) river was known to Ancient Greek geographers as the Araxes , and has a source near Mount Ararat . James Darmesteter , in his discussion of the geography of the Avesta 's Vendidad I, observes that

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