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126-485: Karabakh ( Azerbaijani : Qarabağ [ɡɑɾɑˈbɑɣ] ; Armenian : Ղարաբաղ , romanized :  Ġarabaġ [ʁɑɾɑˈbɑʁ] ) is a geographic region in southwestern Azerbaijan and eastern Armenia , extending from the highlands of the Lesser Caucasus down to the lowlands between the rivers Kura and Aras . It is divided into three regions: Highland Karabakh , Lowland Karabakh (the steppes between

252-432: A new war erupted in the region, which saw Azerbaijan retake control of most of southern Karabakh ( Fuzuli , Jabrayil , Zangilan , Qubadli , Hadrut districts) and parts of north-eastern Karabakh ( Talish , Madagiz ). A trilateral ceasefire agreement signed on 10 November 2020 ended the war and forced Armenia to return all of the remaining territories surrounding Nagorno-Karabakh . The earliest concrete numbers about

378-429: A 2011 study, 30 Turkish participants were tested to determine how well they understood written and spoken Azerbaijani. It was found that even though Turkish and Azerbaijani are typologically similar languages, on the part of Turkish speakers the intelligibility is not as high as is estimated. In a 2017 study, Iranian Azerbaijanis scored in average 56% of receptive intelligibility in spoken Turkish. Azerbaijani exhibits

504-503: A census in 1823 and had tallied the number of villages (though not the number of people) and assessed the tax basis of the entire Karabakh khanate, which also included Lowland Karabakh. It is probable that the Armenians formed the majority of the population of Eastern Armenia at the turn of the seventeenth century, but following Shah Abbas I 's massive relocation of Armenians in 1604-05 their numbers decreased markedly, as they eventually became

630-505: A cliff on the bank of the Kura covering an area of 8 hectares (20 acres), contains underground living quarters, communal chambers, places of worship, storerooms, connected by a network of passageways. It reached its peak about 1,100 years ago as the political, religious and cultural center of the region, but in the 13th century, it fell to Mongolian invaders. Even though irrigation agriculture had been well established for thousands of years, until

756-449: A degree mutually intelligible, though it is easier for a speaker of Azerbaijani to understand Turkish than the other way around. Turkish soap operas are very popular with Azeris in both Iran and Azerbaijan. Reza Shah Pahlavi of Iran (who spoke South Azerbaijani) met with Mustafa Kemal Atatürk of Turkey (who spoke Turkish) in 1934; the two were filmed speaking their respective languages to each other and communicated effectively. In

882-634: A literary language in the 14th century through poetry and other works. One ruler of the Qara Qoyunlu state, Jahanshah , wrote poems in Azerbaijani language with the nickname "Haqiqi". Sultan Yaqub , a ruler of the Aq Qoyunlu state, wrote poems in the Azerbaijani language. The ruler and poet Ismail I wrote under the pen name Khatā'ī (which means "sinner" in Persian ) during the fifteenth century. During

1008-501: A minority among their Muslim neighbors. According to the statistics of the initial survey carried out by the Russians in 1823 and an official one published in 1836, Highland Karabakh was found almost overwhelmingly Armenian in population (96.7%). In contrast, the population of the Karabakh khanate, taken as a whole, was largely made up of Muslims (91% Muslim versus 9% Armenian). A decade after

1134-498: A much larger number of Persian and Arabic loanwords, phrases and syntactic elements. Early writings in Azerbaijani also demonstrate linguistic interchangeability between Oghuz and Kypchak elements in many aspects (such as pronouns, case endings, participles, etc.). As Azerbaijani gradually moved from being merely a language of epic and lyric poetry to being also a language of journalism and scientific research , its literary version has become more or less unified and simplified with

1260-529: A non-syllabic / v / can also be pronounced after the aforementioned diphthongs, to form / ou̯v / and / œy̯v / , the rules of which are as follows: Modern linguists who have examined Azerbaijani's vowel system almost unanimously have recognised that diphthongs are phonetically produced in speech. Before 1929, Azerbaijani was written only in the Perso-Arabic alphabet , an impure abjad that does not represent all vowels (without diacritical marks ). In Iran,

1386-513: A renaming campaign, targeting Turkic place names. According to 2009 data from the de facto Republic of Artsakh , of a total of 151 place names, 54 were renamed and 97 remained unchanged. The difference in place names between the Armenian and Azerbaijani sides is because the Armenians used less detailed maps than the Soviet and Azerbaijani maps and also excluded a number of smaller settlements. Furthermore,

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1512-506: A similar stress pattern to Turkish but simpler in some respects. Azerbaijani is a strongly stressed and partially stress-timed language, unlike Turkish which is weakly stressed and syllable-timed . Below are some cognates with different spelling in Azerbaijani and Turkish: The 1st person personal pronoun is mən in Azerbaijani just as men in Turkmen , whereas it is ben in Turkish. The same

1638-534: A standardization of the bureaucracy. Therefore, toponymc started to be recorded in Russian gazetteers and maps in the second half of the 19th century. As two toponymic systems were deemed impractical, only one toponymic landscape was recorded by the Tsarist officials, even though the double toponymic landscape remained visible in maps and gazetteers due to the occasional printing of double names. The Tsarist officials preferred

1764-461: Is Mt'k'vari (in old Georgian Mt'k'uari ), either from Georgian "good water" or a Georgianized form of Megrelian tkvar-ua "gnaw" (as in, "river that eats its way through the mountains"). The name Kura was adopted first by the Russians and later by European cartographers. In some definitions of Europe, the Kura defines the borderline between Europe and Asia . In the various regional languages,

1890-892: Is a Turkic language from the Oghuz sub-branch. It is spoken primarily by the Azerbaijani people , who live mainly in the Republic of Azerbaijan , where the North Azerbaijani variety is spoken, while Iranian Azerbaijanis in the Azerbaijan region of Iran , speak the South Azerbaijani variety . Azerbaijani has official status in the Republic of Azerbaijan and Dagestan (a federal subject of Russia ), but it does not have official status in Iran, where

2016-543: Is a flowering plant that is considered by some to be "official flower" of the Karabakh region. Its flower shape has been interpreted as being similar to a bulbul . Populations of Tulipa armena found in the Karabakh mountain range have been called T. karabachens. Azerbaijani language Azerbaijani ( / ˌ æ z ər b aɪ ˈ dʒ æ n i , - ɑː n i / AZ -ər-by- JAN -ee ) or Azeri ( / æ ˈ z ɛər i , ɑː -, ə -/ az- AIR -ee, ah-, ə- ), also referred to as Azeri Turkic or Azeri Turkish ,

2142-519: Is a landlocked region located in the south of Armenia and the west of Azerbaijan . There is currently no official designation for what constitutes the whole of Karabakh. Historically, the maximum extent of what could be considered Karabakh was during the existence of the Karabakh Khanate in the 18th century, which extended from the Zangezur Mountains in the west, following eastwards along

2268-463: Is also longer. However, because of the more arid conditions and equally intensive water use, the discharge of the Aras is much less than the Kura, so downstream of the confluence the river is still called the Kura. About 52% of the river's flow comes from snowmelt and glaciers, 30% comes from groundwater seepage, and roughly 18% from precipitation. Because of high water use, many of the smaller tributaries of

2394-477: Is as follows: The modern Azerbaijani Latin alphabet contains the digraphs ov and öv to represent diphthongs present in the language, and the pronunciation of diphthongs is today accepted as the norm in the orthophony of Azerbaijani. Despite this, the number and even the existence of diphthongs in Azerbaijani has been disputed, with some linguists, such as Abdulazal Damirchizade  [ az ] , arguing that they are non-phonemic. Damirchizade's view

2520-457: Is because there is a strong tu-vous distinction in Turkic languages like Azerbaijani and Turkish (as well as in many other languages). The informal "you" is used when talking to close friends, relatives, animals or children. The formal "you" is used when talking to someone who is older than the speaker or to show respect (to a professor, for example). Kura (Caspian Sea) People have inhabited

2646-637: Is certain that Russian and Iranian words (sic), respectively, have entered the vocabulary on either side of the Araxes river, but this has not occurred to an extent that it could pose difficulties for communication". There are numerous dialects, with 21 North Azerbaijani dialects and 11 South Azerbaijani dialects identified by Ethnologue. Three varieties have been accorded ISO 639-3 language codes: North Azerbaijani, South Azerbaijani and Qashqai . The Glottolog 4.1 database classifies North Azerbaijani, with 20 dialects, and South Azerbaijani, with 13 dialects, under

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2772-557: Is close to present-day Azeri- Türki . ), Afshari (often considered a separate language ), Shahsavani (sometimes considered its own dialect, distinct from other Turkic languages of northwestern Iran ), Baharlu (Kamesh), Moqaddam, Nafar, Qaragozlu, Pishagchi, Bayat, Qajar, Tabriz ". Russian comparatist Oleg Mudrak  [ ru ] calls the Turkmen language the closest relative of Azerbaijani. Speakers of Turkish and Azerbaijani can, to an extent, communicate with each other as both languages have substantial variation and are to

2898-647: Is common throughout former USSR countries). The Shirvan dialect as spoken in Baku is the basis of standard Azerbaijani. Since 1992, it has been officially written with a Latin script in the Republic of Azerbaijan, but the older Cyrillic script was still widely used in the late 1990s. Ethnologue lists 21 North Azerbaijani dialects: "Quba, Derbend, Baku, Shamakhi, Salyan, Lenkaran, Qazakh, Airym, Borcala, Terekeme , Qyzylbash , Nukha, Zaqatala (Mugaly), Qabala, Nakhchivan, Ordubad, Ganja, Shusha (Karabakh), Karapapak , Kutkashen, Kuba". South Azerbaijani, or Iranian Azerbaijani,

3024-765: Is encountered in many dialects of the Turkmen language and may be observed in such words as: boyun > moyın in Yomut – Gunbatar dialect, büdüremek > müdüremek in Ersari and Stavropol Turkmens' dialects, bol > mol in Karakalpak Turkmens' dialects, buzav > mizov in Kirac dialects. Here are some words from the Swadesh list to compare Azerbaijani with Turkmen: Azerbaijani dialects share paradigms of verbs in some tenses with

3150-639: Is first mentioned in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries in The Georgian Chronicles ( Georgian : ქართლის ცხოვრება "Life of Kartli"), and in Persian sources. The name became common after the 1230s when the region was conquered by the Mongols . The first time the name was mentioned in an Armenian source was in the fifteenth century, in Thomas of Metsoph 's History of Tamerlane and His Successors . Karabakh

3276-694: Is from Turkish Azeri which is used for the people ( azerice being used for the language in Turkish), itself from Persian آذری, Āzarī. The term is also used for Old Azeri , the ancient Iranian language spoken in the region until the 17th century. Azerbaijani evolved from the Eastern branch of Oghuz Turkic ("Western Turkic") which spread to the Caucasus, in Eastern Europe , and northern Iran, in Western Asia , during

3402-529: Is limited and decreases every year. Irrigation agriculture has been one of the primary economic mainstays of the lower Kura valley since ancient times. Because of water taken out for irrigation use, up to 20% of the water that formerly flowed in the river no longer reaches the Caspian Sea. Over 70% of the water in the Iori (Gabirry) River, a major tributary of the Kura, is expended before it reaches Lake Mingachevir. Of

3528-504: Is regarded as one of the most stressed river basins in Asia. Most of the water comes from snowmelt and infrequent precipitation in the mountains, which leads to severe floods and an abundance of water for a short time of the year (generally in June and July), and a relatively low sustainable baseflow . Forest cover is sparse, especially in the Kura and Aras headwaters, and most of the water that falls on

3654-501: Is spelled Buş and Schröder becomes Şröder . Hyphenation across lines directly corresponds to spoken syllables, except for geminated consonants which are hyphenated as two separate consonants as morphonology considers them two separate consonants back to back but enunciated in the onset of the latter syllable as a single long consonant, as in other Turkic languages . Some samples include: Secular: Invoking deity: Azerbaijani has informal and formal ways of saying things. This

3780-622: Is still written in Cyrillic script. The Azerbaijani Latin alphabet is based on the Turkish Latin alphabet. In turn, the Turkish Latin alphabet was based on former Azerbaijani Latin alphabet because of their linguistic connections and mutual intelligibility. The letters Әə , Xx , and Qq are available only in Azerbaijani for sounds which do not exist as separate phonemes in Turkish. Northern Azerbaijani, unlike Turkish, respells foreign names to conform with Latin Azerbaijani spelling, e.g. Bush

3906-622: Is that, along with the "large" translation of kara , the bagh component was derived from the nearby canton called Baghk , which at some point was part of Melikdoms of Karabakh within modern-day Karabakh — Dizak and the Kingdom of Syunik (in Baghk , the -k suffix is a plural nominative case marker also used to form names of countries and regions in Classical Armenian ). In this sense, Karabakh would translate to "Greater Baghk." The placename

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4032-522: Is the official language of the Republic of Azerbaijan . It is closely related to modern-day Istanbul Turkish, the official language of Turkey. It is also spoken in southern Dagestan , along the Caspian coast in the southern Caucasus Mountains and in scattered regions throughout Central Asia . As of 2011 , there are some 9.23 million speakers of North Azerbaijani including 4 million monolingual speakers (many North Azerbaijani speakers also speak Russian, as

4158-402: Is true for demonstrative pronouns bu , where sound b is replaced with sound m . For example: bunun > munun / mının , muna / mına , munu / munı , munda / mında , mundan / mından . This is observed in the Turkmen literary language as well, where the demonstrative pronoun bu undergoes some changes just as in: munuñ , munı , muña , munda , mundan , munça . b > m replacement

4284-687: Is widely spoken in Iranian Azerbaijan and, to a lesser extent, in neighboring regions of Turkey and Iraq , with smaller communities in Syria . In Iran , the Persian word for Azerbaijani is borrowed as Torki "Turkic". In Iran, it is spoken mainly in East Azerbaijan , West Azerbaijan , Ardabil and Zanjan . It is also spoken in Tehran and across the Tehran Province , as Azerbaijanis form by far

4410-811: The Aras river to the point where it meets with the Kura river in the Kur-Araz Lowland . Following the Kura river north, it stretched as far as what is today the Mingachevir reservoir before turning back to the Zangezur Mountains through the Murov Mountains . However, when not referring to the territory covered by the Karabakh Khanate, the northern regions are often excluded (modern-day Goranboy and Yevlakh ). During

4536-535: The Azerbaijan SSR . According to the first census of this administrative unit the population was 94% Armenian, however, this census did not count a considerable Azeri nomadic population. The NKAO consisted of the Armenian-dominated part of historical Mountainous Karabakh and many Azeri villages of this region were administratively excluded from the former. During the Soviet period, several attempts were made by

4662-670: The Chuvash language , on which linguists also rely in the study and reconstruction of the Khazar language . Azerbaijani phonotactics is similar to that of other Oghuz Turkic languages, except: Works on Azerbaijani dialectology use the following notations for dialectal consonants: Examples: The vowels of the Azerbaijani are, in alphabetical order, a /ɑ/ , e /e/ , ə /æ/ , ı /ɯ/ , i /i/ , o /o/ , ö /œ/ , u /u/ , ü /y/ . The typical phonetic quality of South Azerbaijani vowels

4788-529: The Eastern Anatolia Region and all over Iran from the 16th to the early 20th centuries, alongside cultural, administrative, court literature, and most importantly official language (along with Azerbaijani) of all these regions, namely Persian . From the early 16th century up to the course of the 19th century, these regions and territories were all ruled by the Safavids , Afsharids , and Qajars until

4914-503: The First Nagorno-Karabakh war . The region's Azerbaijani inhabitants were expelled from the territories that came under Armenian control. While Nagorno-Karabakh remained an internationally recognised territory of Azerbaijan, the four UN Security Council resolutions , adopted in 1993 and demanding immediate withdrawal of the Armenian occupying forces from all occupied regions of Azerbaijan, remained unfulfilled until 2020. In 2020,

5040-588: The Khrami , crossing the Georgia- Azerbaijan border and flowing across grasslands into Shemkir reservoir and then Yenikend reservoir . The Kura then empties into Mingachevir reservoir , the largest body of water in Azerbaijan, formed by a dam near its namesake town at the southeastern end. The rivers Iori (also known as Qabirri ) and Alazani formerly joined the Kura, but their mouths are now submerged under

5166-942: The Kipchak-Turkic language of the same name), the dialect of the Ayrïm (Āyrom) tribe (which, however, resembles Turkish ), and the dialect spoken in the region of the Borchala river ; (3) northern group: Zakataly , Nukha , and Kutkashen ; (4) southern group: Yerevan (Īravān), Nakhichevan (Naḵjavān), and Ordubad (Ordūbād); (5) central group: Ganja (Kirovabad) and Shusha ; (6) North Iraqi dialects ; (7) Northwest Iranian dialects: Tabrīz , Reżāʾīya ( Urmia ), etc., extended east to about Qazvīn ; (8) Southeast Caspian dialect ( Galūgāh ). Optionally, we may adjoin as Azeri (or "Azeroid") dialects: (9) East Anatolian , (10) Qašqāʾī , (11) Aynallū, (12) Sonqorī , (13) dialects south of Qom , (14) Kabul Afšārī . North Azerbaijani, or Northern Azerbaijani,

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5292-643: The Kura and Aras rivers), and the eastern slopes of the Zangezur Mountains (roughly Syunik and Kalbajar–Lachin ). The Russian name Карабах , transliterated Karabakh , derives from the Azerbaijani Qarabağ , which is generally believed to be a compound of the Turkic word kara (black) and the Iranian word bagh (garden), literally meaning "black garden." However, there are some other hypotheses. Russian Orientalist Vladimir Minorsky believed that

5418-577: The Kura-Aras Lowland , which covers most of central Azerbaijan and abuts the Caspian Sea. The Kura is the third largest, after the Volga and Ural , of the rivers that flow into the Caspian. Its delta is the fourth largest among the rivers that flow into the Caspian Sea, and is divided into three main sections, or "sleeves", composed of sediment the river deposited during different periods of time. Before 1998,

5544-542: The Ottoman-Safavid War of 1578-1590 and during the disintegration of Safavid Iran, respectively. In 1747, Panah Ali Khan , a local Turkic chieftain from the Javanshir clan , seized control of the region after the death of the Persian ruler Nader Shah , and both Lower Karabakh and Highland Karabakh comprised the new Karabakh Khanate . Qajar Iran reestablished rule over the region several years later. In 1813, under

5670-479: The Russian Empire , the eastern lowlands where the Kura and Aras rivers meet (mostly modern-day Imishli ) were also excluded, but most pre- Elisabethpol maps include that region in Karabakh. [REDACTED] Azerbaijan: Lachin , Qubadli , Zangilan The region today referred to as Karabakh, which was populated with various Caucasian tribes, is believed to have been conquered by the Kingdom of Armenia in

5796-468: The 11th century onwards, Karabakh became home to numerous Oghuz Turkic tribes , the ancestors of the modern Azeris , who stuck to the nomadic way of life, circulating between the winter pastures in Karabakh lowlands and the summer pastures in Karabakh highlands. These tribes dominated the region, and were key allies of the Safavid Empire, which ruled over Karabakh from the 16th to early 18th century. In

5922-425: The 16th century, the poet, writer and thinker Fuzûlî wrote mainly in Azerbaijani but also translated his poems into Arabic and Persian . Starting in the 1830s, several newspapers were published in Iran during the reign of the Azerbaijani speaking Qajar dynasty , but it is unknown whether any of these newspapers were written in Azerbaijani. In 1875, Akinchi ( Əkinçi / اکينچی ) ("The Ploughman") became

6048-489: The 1920s, wetlands were drained and reservoirs were created to facilitate development of irrigation in the lower Kura valley. In the 1950s and 1960s, when the Caucasus region was part of the Soviet Union , construction of many of the reservoirs and waterworks in the Kura basin began. Of the major reservoirs in the Kura catchment, one of the earliest was at Varvara in 1952. Large-scale construction of dams continued until

6174-416: The 1920s, humans did not have a significant effect on the ecology or hydrology of the Kura catchment area. Since then, logging , grazing and especially agriculture began to have a severe outcome on the water availability of the basin. Many forested areas in the mountains have been replaced by thin grassland because of logging. These habitat changes have been detrimental to the ecology of the Kura basin. After

6300-476: The 2009 data also omits a number of Azerbaijani settlements that were destroyed during the First Nagorno-Karabakh War and were never rebuilt afterwards. According to Saparov, both sides followed the same logic of "imposing a symbolic toponymic landscape that belonged to one of the ethnic groups on the disputed territory, in the process destroying the ‘enemy’ toponyms and thus denying any legitimacy to

6426-599: The 20th century. In the 1950s, the Soviet Union started building many dams and canals on the river. Previously navigable up to Tbilisi in Georgia, the Kura is now much slower and shallower, having been harnessed by irrigation projects and hydroelectric power stations . The river is now moderately polluted by major industrial centers like Tbilisi and Rustavi in Georgia. The name Kura is related either to Mingrelian kur 'water, river' or to an ancient Caucasian Albanian language term for 'reservoir'. The Georgian name of Kura

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6552-751: The 2nd century BC and organized as parts of the Artsakh , Utik and the southern regions of Syunik provinces. However, it is possible that the region had earlier been part of the Satrapy of Armenia under the Orontid dynasty from as early as the 4th century BC. After the partition of Armenia by Rome and Persia in 387 AD, Artsakh and Utik became a part of the Caucasian Albanian satrapy of Sassanian Persia , while Syunik remained in Armenia. The Arab invasions later led to

6678-546: The 4,525,000 hectares (11,180,000 acres) of agricultural land in the lower Kura catchment area, 1,426,000 hectares (3,520,000 acres), about 31%, are irrigated. Much of the water diverted from the river for irrigation goes to waste because of leakage from the canals, evaporation, poor maintenance, and other causes. Leaking water causes groundwater to rise, in some areas so high that about 267,000 hectares (660,000 acres) of land are so waterlogged that they are no longer suitable for agriculture. About 631,000 hectares (1,560,000 acres) of

6804-638: The Armenian term for " gorge "), or Meshadishen (combining the Turkic first name Meshadi with the Armenian term shen , i.e. village), and Sardarashen (combination of the Persian word sardar and the Armenian term for village, shen ). Some place names derive from the names of historic figures, including local lords. Most of these lords were Armenian or Turkic in origin. However, as the Armenian notables of Karabakh often borrowed their personal names from their immediate Muslim overlords, these anthroponyms such as Kherkhan, Farukh and Seiti are usually, as Saparov narrates (citing Gaziyan and Mkrtchyan), assigned "to

6930-547: The Azerbaijani macrolanguage with "significant differences in phonology, lexicon, morphology, syntax, and loanwords" between the two. The International Organization for Standardization (ISO) considers Northern and Southern Azerbaijani to be distinct languages. Linguists Mohammad Salehi and Aydin Neysani write that "there is a high degree of mutual intelligibility" between North and South Azerbaijani. Svante Cornell wrote in his 2001 book Small Nations and Great Powers that "it

7056-407: The Azerbaijani authorities in the territory of Karabakh, 81 were renamed and 127 remained unchanged. The main goal was to remove toponyms that could, in any way, support the territorial claims of the Armenians. Following the Second Nagorno-Karabakh War , the Azerbaijani government successfully petitioned Google to remove Armenian place names from maps of Karabakh. The Armenian side has also initiated

7182-434: The Azerbaijani government) as provisional governor-general of Karabakh and Zangezur, pending a final decision at the Paris Peace Conference . The local council representing the Karabakh Armenian community consented to this decision until, in August 1919, the region was made subject to Azerbaijan military jurisdiction in advance of Azerbaijan's prospective annexation of Karabakh. Karabakh Armenians accused Azerbaijan of violating

7308-406: The Caucasus region for thousands of years and first established agriculture in the Kura Valley over 4,500 years ago. Large, complex civilizations eventually grew on the river, but by 1200 CE most were reduced to ruin by natural disasters and foreign invaders. The increasing human use, and eventual damage, of the watershed's forests and grasslands, contributed to a rising intensity of floods through

7434-600: The Iranian languages in what is now northwestern Iran, and a variety of languages of the Caucasus and Iranian languages spoken in the Caucasus , particularly Udi and Old Azeri . By the beginning of the 16th century, it had become the dominant language of the region. It was one of the spoken languages in the court of the Safavids , Afsharids and Qajars . The historical development of Azerbaijani can be divided into two major periods: early ( c.  14th to 18th century) and modern (18th century to present). Early Azerbaijani differs from its descendant in that it contained

7560-422: The Kura no longer reach the river, instead disappearing in the plain many kilometers from their original mouths. The following rivers are tributaries of the Kura, from source to mouth: Steppe characterizes the arid reaches of the Kura catchment, while meadows are often found in the alpine areas. The Kura catchment area is considered as part of the Kura-South Caspian Sea Drainages ecoregion . Some portions of

7686-492: The Kura-Aras lowland called the river Mother Kür , signifying the importance of the river to the region. The first irrigation agriculture began about 4,500 years ago in the eastern Azerbaijan lowlands. Trading centers were established in time, including one at Mingachevir in Azerbaijan and another at Mtskheta in Georgia. The site at Mingachevir (probably Sudagylan ), first discovered in the 1940s by archaeologist G. I. Ione, had "seven rectangular kilns ... The fuel chamber

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7812-421: The Latin script and not South Azerbaijani written in the Perso-Arabic script. Modern literature in the Republic of Azerbaijan is primarily based on the Shirvani dialect, while in the Iranian Azerbaijan region (historic Azerbaijan) it is based on the Tabrizi one. An Azerbaijani koine served as a lingua franca throughout most parts of Transcaucasia except the Black Sea coast, in southern Dagestan ,

7938-446: The Modern Azeric family, a branch of Central Oghuz. In the northern dialects of the Azerbaijani language, linguists find traces of the influence of the Khazar language . According to Encyclopedia Iranica : We may distinguish the following Azeri dialects: (1) eastern group: Derbent (Darband), Kuba , Shemakha (Šamāḵī), Baku , Salyani (Salyānī), and Lenkoran (Lankarān), (2) western group: Kazakh (not to be confounded with

8064-472: The Red Army occupied Azerbaijan and in December, Armenia. The issue of Karabakh's status was taken up by the Soviet authorities. In 1921 after the heavy trilateral negotiations, the Bolsheviks decided that Karabakh would remain within the borders of the new Soviet republic of Azerbaijan. In 1923, the Armenian-inhabited parts of Mountainous Karabakh were made a part of the newly established Nagorno-Karabakh Autonomous Oblast (NKAO), an administrative entity within

8190-540: The Republic of Azerbaijan and Russia) is based on the Shirvani dialect, while South Azerbaijani uses variety of regional dialects. Since the Republic of Azerbaijan's independence from the Soviet Union in 1991, Northern Azerbaijani has used the Latin script. On the other hand, South Azerbaijani has always used and continues to use the Perso-Arabic script . Azerbaijani is closely related to Turkmen , Turkish , Gagauz , and Qashqai , being mutually intelligible with each of these languages to varying degrees. Historically,

8316-408: The Russian Empire collapsed in 1917. After the dissolution of Russian Empire Karabakh, Zangezur and Nakhchivan were disputed between newly established republics of Armenia and Azerbaijan . Fighting between two republics broke out. Following the defeat of the Ottoman Empire in World War I , British troops occupied the South Caucasus . The British command affirmed Khosrov bey Sultanov (an appointee of

8442-428: The Russian Empire, the entire Karabakh region (mountainous and flatland) was divided into four counties ( uezds ) within the Elizavetpol Governorate : Jevanshir , Zangezur , Jebrail , and Shusha . Their ethnic composition in 1897 and 1916 was as follows: The historian Arsène Saparov explains that due to Karabakh's location as a peripheral borderland within the region in relation to local historical empires, as well

8568-477: The Russian annexation of the region, many Armenians who had fled Karabakh during the reign of Ibrahim Khalil Khan (1730-1806) and settled in Yerevan, Ganja , and parts of Georgia were repatriated to their villages, many of which had been left derelict. An additional 279 Armenian families were settled in the villages of Ghapan and Meghri in Syunik. Though some of the returning Armenians wished to settle in Karabakh, they were told by Russian authorities that there

8694-429: The Soviet era". During the ongoing Nagorno-Karabakh conflict , both Armenia and Azerbaijan have changed the names of numerous settlements in Karabakh order to support the legitimacy of their respective territorial claims. Azerbaijani authorities have targeted historical Armenian place names in Karabakh, whereas the Armenians have removed Turkic place names. Both sides use the place names that were historically used within

8820-429: The Turkic suffix, -kend , i.e. "village"). Other place names are toponymically unrelated in relation to their respective substitution, such as the town known as Susalykh (in Turkic) with its Armenian equivalent Mokhranes. The two toponymic systems coexisted and served both groups until the arrival of the Russian Empire. The Russians introduced the administrative system of a centralized European Empire, which brought about

8946-474: The Turkic toponymic landscape". Due to Karabakh's specific economic conditions, with its lowland nomads crossing into the mountains during summer across agricultural settlements, two overlapping toponymic landscapes were created over time; Armenian and Turkic. Until the arrival of the Russian Empire , these two toponymic landscapes were used concurrently by the Armenian group on one hand and the nomads consisting of Turkics (later known as Azerbaijanis) and Kurds on

9072-467: The Turkic toponyms over the Armenian ones, as they, in the words of Saparov (citing the historian George Bournoutian ), likely relied on the existing Persian tax records kept by the administration of the Karabakh Khanate . During the existence of the Soviet Union , toponyms that were deemed ideologically unacceptable to the Soviet doctrine and leadership, such as those that showed social, monarchic, or religious affiliations, were changed en masse as in

9198-742: The authorities of the Armenian SSR to unite it with the NKAO but these proposals never found any support in Moscow. In February 1988, within the context of Mikhail Gorbachev 's glasnost and perestroika policies, the Supreme Soviet of the NKAO voted to unite itself with Armenia. By the summer of 1989 the Armenian-populated areas of the NKAO were under blockade by Azerbaijan as a response to Armenia's blockade against Nakhchivan , cutting road and rail links to

9324-520: The catchment is in Turkey, 29,743 square kilometres (11,484 sq mi) in Armenia, 46,237 square kilometres (17,852 sq mi) in Georgia, 56,290 square kilometres (21,730 sq mi) in Azerbaijan, and about 63,500 square kilometres (24,500 sq mi) are in Iran. At the confluence with the Aras River, the drainage area of the tributary is actually larger than the Kura by about 4%, and it

9450-419: The cession of Transcaucasia proper and Dagestan by Qajar Iran to the Russian Empire per the 1813 Treaty of Gulistan and the 1828 Treaty of Turkmenchay . Per the 1829 Caucasus School Statute, Azerbaijani was to be taught in all district schools of Ganja , Shusha , Nukha (present-day Shaki ), Shamakhi , Quba , Baku , Derbent , Yerevan , Nakhchivan , Akhaltsikhe , and Lankaran . Beginning in 1834, it

9576-462: The early 1920s, the Armenian leaders of the newly established Nagorno-Karabakh Autonomous Oblast had succeeded in—although partially—restoring the Armenian toponymic landscape, bringing it to status of legitimacy, and replacing the previously dominant Turkic one that had become favoured under the Russian Empire. This situation remained in place, Saparov narrates, "largely unaffected until the end of

9702-715: The fifteenth century, the German traveler Johann Schiltberger visited Lowland Karabakh and described it as a large and beautiful plain in Armenia, ruled by Muslims. Highland Karabakh from 821 until the early 19th century passed under the hands of a number of states, including the Abbasid Caliphate , Bagratid Armenia , the Mongol Ilkhanate and Jalayirid Sultanates , the Turkic Kara Koyunlu , Ak Koyunlu , and Safavid Iran (the province of Karabakh ). Armenian princes of

9828-508: The first Azerbaijani newspaper to be published in the Russian Empire . It was started by Hasan bey Zardabi , a journalist and education advocate. Mohammad-Hossein Shahriar is an important figure in Azerbaijani poetry. His most important work is Heydar Babaya Salam and it is considered to be a pinnacle of Azerbaijani literature and gained popularity in the Turkic-speaking world. It

9954-400: The founder of Varlıq , Javad Heyat , in 2001 where a document outlining the standard orthography and writing conventions were published for the public. This standard of writing is today canonized by a Persian–Azeri Turkic dictionary in Iran titled Loghatnāme-ye Torki-ye Āzarbāyjāni . Between 1929 and 1938, a Latin alphabet was in use for North Azerbaijani, although it was different from

10080-425: The highlands becomes runoff instead of supplying groundwater . Attempts at flood control include the constructions of levees , dikes and dams, the largest of which is at Mingachevir , an 80-metre (260 ft)-high rockfill dam impounding over 15.73 cubic kilometres (12,750,000 acre⋅ft) of water. However, because of the high sediment content of rivers in the Kura basin, the effectiveness of these floodworks

10206-413: The irrigated lands have a dangerously high salt content because of mineral deposits from irrigation. Of this, 66,000 hectares (160,000 acres) are extremely salinated. Irrigation returns water, returned to the river by an extensive but outdated drainage system, contributes to severe pollution. Some of this degradation also comes from industrial and municipal wastewater discharge. The ancient inhabitants of

10332-519: The lake. After leaving the dam, the river meanders southeast where it meets its biggest tributary Tartarchay in Barda Rayon and continues across a broad irrigated plain for several hundred kilometers, turning east near Lake Sarysu , and shortly after, receives the Aras , the largest tributary, at the city of Sabirabad . At the Aras confluence it makes a large arc to the north and then flows almost due south for about 60 kilometres (37 mi), passing

10458-593: The language was referred to by its native speakers as türk dili or türkcə , meaning either "Turkish" or "Turkic". In the early years following the establishment of the Azerbaijan Soviet Socialist Republic , the language was still referred to as "Turkic" in official documents. However, in the 1930s, its name was officially changed to "Azerbaijani". The language is often still referred to as Turki or Torki in Iranian Azerbaijan . The term "Azeri", generally interchangeable with "Azerbaijani",

10584-459: The largest minority in the city and the wider province, comprising about 1 ⁄ 6 of its total population. The CIA World Factbook reports that in 2010, the percentage of Iranian Azerbaijani speakers was at around 16 percent of the Iranian population, or approximately 13 million people worldwide, and ethnic Azeris form by far the second largest ethnic group of Iran, thus making the language also

10710-527: The letter of the 1919 agreement and, with the support of emissaries from Armenia, in March 1920 launched an ill-fated rebellion in Shusha. The Azerbaijani forces quickly suppressed the uprising, massacring and expelling the Armenian population of Shusha and establishing control over the main centers of Karabakh (Shusha, Khankendi, Askeran), although fighting in the countryside of Mountainous Karabakh continued. In April 1920,

10836-565: The local Armenian (Vararakn) and Turkic (Khankendi) names as the town's sole official name. The town of Kolkhozashen reflected the Soviet practise of creating collective farm villages, i.e., a kolkhoz in Russian. Under the Soviets, a partial reversal of Tsarist policies took place, and Armenian place names therefore reappeared on official Soviet maps. Simultaneously, Turkic place names that violated Bolshevik doctrines (e.g. settlements named after lords, landowners or religious names), were removed. By

10962-512: The loss of many archaic Turkic elements, stilted Iranisms and Ottomanisms, and other words, expressions, and rules that failed to gain popularity among the Azerbaijani masses. The Russian annexation of Iran 's territories in the Caucasus through the Russo-Iranian wars of 1804–1813 and 1826–1828 split the language community across two states. Afterwards, the Tsarist administration encouraged

11088-443: The lower half, which is typically more turbid and polluted. This pattern is also apparent in most of its tributaries, especially the larger ones that span more climate zones, such as the Aras and Alazani. There are many lakes and wetlands along the Kura's lower course, most of which are formed by flooding, and some of which are formed by irrigation runoff water. Many lakes also form at the mouths of small tributaries that do not reach

11214-539: The majority of Iranian Azerbaijani people live. Azerbaijani is also spoken to lesser varying degrees in Azerbaijani communities of Georgia and Turkey and by diaspora communities, primarily in Europe and North America. Although there is a high degree of mutual intelligibility between both forms of Azerbaijani, there are significant differences in phonology , lexicon , morphology , syntax , and sources of loanwords . The standardized form of North Azerbaijani (spoken in

11340-435: The medieval Turkic migrations . Persian and Arabic influenced the language, but Arabic words were mainly transmitted through the intermediary of literary Persian. Azerbaijani is, perhaps after Uzbek , the Turkic language upon which Persian and other Iranian languages have exerted the strongest impact—mainly in phonology, syntax, and vocabulary, less in morphology. The Turkic language of Azerbaijan gradually supplanted

11466-464: The name possibly connected to an extinct Turkic tribe of the same name. By comparison, there are similar toponyms in Azerbaijan, Iran, Turkey and Afghanistan. According to Iranian linguist Abdolali Karang, kara could have derived from kaleh or kala , which means "large" in the Harzani dialect of the extinct Iranian Old Azeri language . The Iranian-Azerbaijani historian Ahmad Kasravi also speaks of

11592-500: The northwest, then into a canyon near Akhaltsikhe where it starts to run northeast in a gorge for about 75 kilometres (47 mi), spilling out of the mountains near Khashuri . It then arcs east before flowing east-southeast for about 120 kilometres (75 mi), past Gori , then near Mtskheta , flows south through a short canyon and along the west side of T'bilisi , the largest city in the region. The river flows steeply southeast past Rustavi and turns eastward at its confluence with

11718-457: The oblast to Azerbaijani control. The local government in the region of Shahumian also declared its independence from the Azerbaijan SSR in 1991. In late 1991, the Armenian representatives in the local government of the NKAO proclaimed the region a republic, independent from Azerbaijan. Most of upper Karabakh and portions of lowland Karabakh came under the control of Armenian forces following

11844-487: The oldest Russian toponyms in Karabakh date to the 19th century, assigned to hamlets that were originally settlements of Russian colonists or Cossack outposts on the border with Iran . Some examples are Kuropatkino , Sunzhinka, Lisagorskoe, Skobolevka, and Kotliarovka. Turkic toponyms include Dashbulag, Agbulag, Karabulag and Chailu . Armenian toponyms include Tkhkot , Mokhratakh, Vank and Kolatak . Mixed toponyms include Mamedazor (Islamic first name Mamed combined with

11970-536: The one used now. From 1938 to 1991, the Cyrillic script was used. Lastly, in 1991, the current Latin alphabet was introduced, although the transition to it has been rather slow. For instance, until an Aliyev decree on the matter in 2001, newspapers would routinely write headlines in the Latin script, leaving the stories in Cyrillic. The transition has also resulted in some misrendering of İ as Ì . In Dagestan, Azerbaijani

12096-402: The opponent's territorial claim". The Armenian population of the region speaks the Karabakh dialect of Armenian which has been heavily influenced by the Persian, Russian, and Turkish languages. It was the most extensively spoken of all Armenian dialects until the Soviet period when the dialect of Yerevan became the official tongue of the Armenian SSR . The Khari-bulbul ( Ophrys caucasica )

12222-438: The other. An example in this regard is the place of Karintak in Armenian, known in Turkic as Dashalty (both versions translate as "village under the rock"). There are also place names from one language that were linguistically altered by another. For example, the place of Vank, became known in Turkic as Vanklu (by adding the Turkic suffix "-lu"), and the town of Shosh (Armenian) became known in Turkic as Shushikend (by adding

12348-602: The outside world. On July 12 the Nagorno-Karabakh AO Supreme Soviet voted to secede from Azerbaijan, which was rejected unanimously by the Supreme Soviet of USSR , declaring NKAO had no right to secede from Azerbaijan SSR under Soviet Constitution. Soviet authorities in Moscow then placed the region under its direct rule, installing a special commission to govern the region. In November 1989 the Kremlin returned

12474-431: The overuse of Persian, Arabic, and European elements in both colloquial and literary language and called for a simpler and more popular style. The Soviet Union promoted the development of the language but set it back considerably with two successive script changes – from the Persian to Latin and then to the Cyrillic script – while Iranian Azerbaijanis continued to use the Persian script as they always had. Despite

12600-581: The population included 30,000 Armenians and 62,000 Moslems (Azeris), of whom approximately 50,000 were nomads, who circulated between Lowland and Mountainous Karabakh. In 1828 the Karabakh khanate was dissolved and in 1840 it was absorbed into the Kaspijskaya oblast, and subsequently, in 1846, made a part of Shemakha Governorate . In 1876 it was made a part of the Elisabethpol Governorate , an administrative arrangement which remained in place until

12726-511: The population of Karabakh is from a survey prepared by the Russian imperial authorities in 1823. According to the census, 91% of the villages were registered as "Muslims", while 9% were "Armenians". Almost all of the Armenians compactly resided in its mountainous parts (on the territory of the five traditional Armenian principalities ) where they constituted an absolute demographic majority, such that 90.8% of recorded villages were Armenians, whilst 9.2% were Tatar (later known as Azerbaijani). During

12852-419: The process of standardization of orthography started with the publication of Azerbaijani magazines and newspapers such as Varlıq ( وارلیق — Existence ) from 1979. Azerbaijani-speaking scholars and literarians showed great interest in involvement in such ventures and in working towards the development of a standard writing system. These effort culminated in language seminars being held in Tehran , chaired by

12978-607: The region's subjection to Russia, although many Armenians were induced by the Russian government, after the Treaty of Turkmenchay , to emigrate from Iran to Karabakh. Censuses and surveys, which were conducted in winter, did not count tens of thousands Azeri nomads, who stayed in the lowlands during winter and were migrating en masse to the summer pastures in Mountainous Karabakh during the warmer months. Seasonal demographic changes were significant, as e.g. in 1845 in historic Karabakh

13104-399: The rest of the Soviet realm. Specifically, in relation to Karabakh, these include names that bore names of local lords, religious holidays or personalities. The Soviets replaced such toponyms with commemorative names from the pantheon of Soviet leaders and figures, often locals of the area in question. For instance, Stepanakert , named after Armenian Bolshevik leader Stepan Shaumian , replaced

13230-467: The rise of several Armenian princes who came to establish their dominance in the region. Centuries of constant warfare on the Armenian Plateau forced many Armenians, including those in the Karabakh region, to emigrate and settle elsewhere. During the period of Mongol domination, a great number of Armenians left Lowland Karabakh and sought refuge in the mountainous (Highland) heights of the region. From

13356-797: The river as Tord in Persian. The river should not be confused with the Kura river in Russia , a westward flowing tributary of the Malka in Stavropol Krai ; the Kur near Kursk , Russia; Kur near Khabarovsk , also in Russia and Kor River , which is located in Fars Province , Iran . It rises in northeastern Turkey in a small valley in the Kars Upland of the Lesser Caucasus . It flows west, then north and east past Ardahan , and crosses into Georgia . It arcs to

13482-410: The river flow through a semi- desert environment. Forest cover is sparse. Almost 60 species of fish inhabit the Kura and its tributaries. Some common families include loach , bleak , trout and nase , and many of these fish are endemic to the region. Among rivers of the Caucasus, the Kura has the largest number of endemic species. The upper section of the river supports much more biodiversity than

13608-558: The river flowed all the way to the tip of the delta, where it discharged into the Caspian. In that year, the river escaped its channel and started to flow off to the west, leaving the last few kilometers abandoned. The course change is believed to be the result of a rise in the level of the Caspian Sea coupled with a major flood of the Kura. About 174 kilometres (108 mi) of the river is in Turkey, 435 kilometres (270 mi) in Georgia, and 906 kilometres (563 mi) in Azerbaijan. About 5,500 square kilometres (2,100 sq mi) of

13734-516: The river is known as: Azerbaijani : Kür , Georgian : მტკვარი , Mt’k’vari , Persian : Korr, Armenian : Կուր , Kour , and Turkish : Kür . In Greek and Latin sources of antiquity, the river was known as the Cyrus river; Ancient Greek : Κῦρος ; Latin : Cyrus , as attested by Strabo and Pliny respectively. Bundahishn , a Zoroastrian source written in Book Pahlavi , refers to

13860-409: The river. Most of the elevation change in the river occurs within the first 200 kilometres (120 mi). While the river starts at 2,740 metres (8,990 ft) above sea level, the elevation is 693 metres (2,274 ft) by the time it reaches Khashuri in central Georgia, just out of the mountains, and only 291 metres (955 ft) when it reaches Azerbaijan. The lower part of the river flows through

13986-399: The same territory, but are used concurrently by two groups. One toponymic landscape was used by the sedentary Armenians of Karabakh, whereas the Turkic (later known as Azerbaijanis ) and Kurdish nomads of the area used the other toponymic system for the same territory. Iranian toponyms are attested in places such as Chldran , Charektar , Khojavend and Hadrut . Saparov explains that

14112-519: The second most spoken language in the nation. Ethnologue reports 10.9 million Iranian Azerbaijani in Iran in 2016 and 13,823,350 worldwide. Dialects of South Azerbaijani include: "Aynallu (often considered a separate language ), Karapapakh (often considered a separate language. The second edition of the Encyclopaedia of Islam mentions that it is close to both "Āzerī and the Turkish of Turkey". The historian George Bournoutian only mentions that it

14238-565: The specific economic relations between its peoples, "an extremely complex palimpsest-type toponymic landscape in Karabakh" was formed. There are four main toponymic layers in Karabakh; Turkic , Armenian , Iranian and Russian . In addition, there are a large number of mixed toponyms which contain elements from more than one language. Lastly, there has been a complexicity of simultaneous existence of two overlapping toponymic landscapes belonging to different languages. These two toponymic systems overlap, as Saparov explains, in space and time, and cover

14364-632: The spread of Azerbaijani in eastern Transcaucasia as a replacement for Persian spoken by the upper classes, and as a measure against Persian influence in the region. Between c.  1900 and 1930, there were several competing approaches to the unification of the national language in what is now the Azerbaijan Republic, popularized by scholars such as Hasan bey Zardabi and Mammad agha Shahtakhtinski . Despite major differences, they all aimed primarily at making it easy for semi-literate masses to read and understand literature . They all criticized

14490-418: The terms of the Treaty of Gulistan , the region of Karabakh was lost by Iran to the Russian Empire . Under Russian rule, Karabakh (both Lowland and Highland) was a region with an area of 13,600 km (5,250 sq mi), with Shusha (Shushi) as its most prominent city. Its population consisted of Armenians and Muslims (mainly of Tatars, later known as Azerbaijanis , but also Kurds ). The Russians conducted

14616-619: The times ruled as vassal territories by the Armenian House of Khachen and its several lines, the latter Melikdoms of Karabakh . The Safavid Shah ("King") Tahmasp I ( r.   1524–1576) appointed the family of Shahverdi Sultan , who hailed from the Ziad-oglu branch of the Qajar tribe , as governors of Karabakh. It was also invaded and ruled by Ottoman Empire between 1578-1605 and again between 1723 and 1736, as they briefly conquered it during

14742-601: The translation of kara as "large" and not "black." The kara prefix has also been used for other nearby regions and landmarks, such as Karadagh ( dagh "mountain") referring to a mountain range, and Karakilise ( kilise "church") referring to the largest church complex in its area, built mainly with white stone, the Monastery of Saint Thaddeus . In the sense of "large," Karakilise would translate to "large church," and Karabakh would translate to "large garden." Another theory, proposed by Armenian historian Bagrat Ulubabyan ,

14868-566: The two toponymic landscapes that co-existed before the arrival of the Russians during the Russo-Persian Wars . Most renamings by the Azerbaijani government occurred during the First Nagorno-Karabakh War , as a way to, as Saparov explains "to reinstate the symbolic authority of Azerbaijan over this disputed secessionist territory and as a result targeted what they perceived as Armenian place-names". Out of 208 toponyms recorded by

14994-443: The ultimate destination in the Caspian most of the time. The local name for these lakes translate to dead lake or dead water , suggesting that these lakes do not support much biodiversity. Formerly navigable up to Tbilisi , the largest city on the river, the amount of water in the Kura has greatly diminished in the 20th century because of extensive use for irrigation , municipal water , and hydroelectricity generation. The Kura

15120-483: The west side of Shirvan National Park , before turning east and emptying into the Caspian Sea at Neftçala . Most of the Kura runs in the broad and deep valley between the Greater Caucasus and Lesser Caucasus Mountains, and the major tributary, the Aras, drains most of the southern Caucasus and the mountain ranges of the extreme northern Middle East . The entirety of Armenia and most of Azerbaijan are drained by

15246-567: The wide use of Azerbaijani in the Azerbaijan Soviet Socialist Republic , it became the official language of Azerbaijan only in 1956. After independence, the Republic of Azerbaijan decided to switch back to a modified Latin script. The development of Azerbaijani literature is closely associated with Anatolian Turkish, written in Perso-Arabic script . Examples of its detachment date to the 14th century or earlier. Kadi Burhan al-Din , Hasanoghlu , and Imadaddin Nasimi helped to establish Azerbaiijani as

15372-505: Was a trapezoid. The inner walls and floor were covered with a special coating. These kilns were attributed to the third century B.C. [2,300 years ago]. The number of kilns and the quantity of raw material indicate a trade center." The settlement was probably destroyed by a fire around A.D. 600, but its demise is uncertain. But perhaps the most famous of the ancient settlements on the Kura is the "cave town" at Uplistsikhe , Georgia, first settled as early as 3,500 years ago. The city, carved into

15498-458: Was challenged by others, such as Aghamusa Akhundov  [ az ] , who argued that Damirchizade was taking orthography as the basis of his judgement, rather than its phonetic value. According to Akhundov, Azerbaijani contains two diphthongs, / ou̯ / and / œy̯ / , represented by ov and öv in the alphabet, both of which are phonemic due to their contrast with / o / and / œ / , represented by o and ö . In some cases,

15624-591: Was introduced as a language of study in Kutaisi instead of Armenian. In 1853, Azerbaijani became a compulsory language for students of all backgrounds in all of Transcaucasia with the exception of the Tiflis Governorate . Azerbaijani is one of the Oghuz languages within the Turkic language family . Ethnologue lists North Azerbaijani (spoken mainly in the Republic of Azerbaijan and Russia) and South Azerbaijani (spoken in Iran, Iraq, and Syria) as two groups within

15750-486: Was no room for them. This took place at the same time as many of the region's Muslims departed for the Ottoman Empire and Qajar Iran. The population of Karabakh, according to the official returns of 1832, consisted of 13,965 Muslim and 1,491 Armenian families, besides some Nestorian Christians and Romani people . The limited population was ascribed to the frequent wars and emigration of many Muslim families to Iran since

15876-726: Was translated into more than 30 languages. In the mid-19th century, Azerbaijani literature was taught at schools in Baku , Ganja , Shaki , Tbilisi , and Yerevan . Since 1845, it has also been taught in the Saint Petersburg State University in Russia . In 2018, Azerbaijani language and literature programs are offered in the United States at several universities, including Indiana University , UCLA , and University of Texas at Austin . The vast majority, if not all Azerbaijani language courses teach North Azerbaijani written in

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