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This article is about the region in Iran; for other uses, see Azerbaijan (disambiguation).

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Azerbaijan or Azarbaijan, also Iranian Azarbaijan, Iranian Azerbaijan, or Persian Azarbaijan (Persian: آذربایجان ایران; Āzārbāijān-e Irān; Azarbaijani language: آذربایجان), is a region in northwestern Iran bordering Armenia and the Republic of Azarbaijan.

The region is also being called Southern Azarbaijan or South Azerbaijan, which is a product of the last century and politically motivated by Pan-Turkists. One of the reasons is that historically the Republic of Azerbaijan prior to 1918 was called Arran (ancient Albania).

Geography

Azarbaijan has an area of 176,512 square kilometers and a population of about 10 million (estimates vary). Azeris make up the majority of the population in the Iranian region of Azarbaijan. Azarbaijan is famous for its great natural beauty. There are 17 rivers and two lakes in the region. Cotton, nuts, textiles, tea, machinery and electrical equpiments are main industries. The northern, alpine region, which includes Lake Urmia, is mountainous, with deep valleys and fertile lowlands.

Agriculture

Grains, fruits, cotton, rice, nuts, and tobacco are the staple crops of the region.

Industrial and Handicrafts

Industries include machine tools, vehchile factories, oil refinery, petrochemical complex, food processing, cement, textiles, electric equipment, and sugar milling. Oil and gas pipelines run through the region. Wool, carpets, and metalware are also produced produced.

People

The majority of the people of Azarbaijan are Azaris of Iranian stock attested, who are Shi'a Muslims. There are also Armenians, Assyrians, Kurds, Jews, Georgians, and Persians.

A recent study of the genetic landscape of Iran was completed by a team of Cambridge geneticists led by Dr. Maziar Ashrafian Bonab (an Iranian Azarbaijani). Bonab remarked that his group had done extensive DNA testing on different language groups, including Indo-European and non Indo-European speakers, in Iran. The study found that the Azerbaijanis of Iran do not have a similar FSt and other genetic markers found in Anatolian and European Turks. However, the genetic Fst and other genetic traits like MRca and mtDNA of Iranian Azeris were identical to Persians in Iran.

Provinces and Cities

Iranian Azarbaijan is divided into the provinces of East Azarbaijan (1996 pop. 3,325,540), West Azarbaijan (1996 pop. 2,496,320), Ardebil. (1996 pop. 1,168,011), and Zanjan. The chief cities include Tabriz (the capital of East Azarbaijan), Urmia (the capital of West Azerbaijan), Ardebil (the capital of Ardabil), Maragheh, Marand, Zanjan, and Khoy (Khvoy). The region is bounded in the north by Armenia and the Republic of Azarbaijan in the historical Iranian territory of Arran and in the West by Lake Urmia and Kurdish-inhabited Areas of Iran.

History

In ancient times, before the Aryan migration to Iranian Plateau, Azarbaijan was dominated by the Kingdom of Urartu (in Armenia). By the 8th century BC, it had been settled by Medes, and it later formed the province of Media Minor in the Persian Empire. After Alexander the Great conquered Persia, he appointed (328 BC) as governor the Persian general Atropates, who eventually established an independent dynasty. Later, the region, which came to be called Atropatene or Media Atropatene, was much disputed. In the 2nd century BC, it was liberated from Seleucid domination by Mithradates I of Arsacid dynasty, and c. AD 226 it became part of the Sassanid Empire of Ardashir I. Shapur II enlarged Azarbaijan by adding territory in the north known as Arran or Aran (today known as the Republic of Azerbaijan or Azarbaijan).

Heraclius, the Byzantine emperor, briefly held the region in the 7th century, just before the Islamic Conquest of Iran; Arab invaders converted most of its people to Islam and made it part of the caliphate. The Persianized Seljuk Turks dominated the region in the 11th and 12th centuries, and the Mongols under Hulagu Khan established (13th century) their capital at Maragheh. After being conquered by Timur in the 14th century, Tabriz became an important provincial capital of the Timurid empire. It was out of Ardebil (Ancient Artavilla) that the Safavid dynasty arose (c. 1500) to renew the state of Persia. There was fierce fighting between the Ottoman Empire and Persia for Azerbaijan. After brief Ottoman control, Shah Abbas the Great, regained control of the region in 1603.

The northern Iranian provinces of Arran and Shirvan, which today constitute the State of Azarbaijan were ceded to Russia by treaties of 1813 and 1828. Following their expantionist policies, the soviet forces occupied Iranian Azarbaijan in 1941 and created a very short-lived autonomous, Soviet-supported state in May 1946, which was dissoleved after re-unification of Iranian Azerbaijan with Iran in November of the same year.

Separatist movements in Azarbaijan can visibly trace their origins back to the colonialist policies of the Soviet Union and Imperial Russia. In a cable sent on July 6th 1945 by the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, the local Soviet commander in Russian (northern) held Azarbaijan was instructed as such:

"Begin preparatory work to form a national autonomous Azarbaijan district with broad powers within the Iranian state and simultaneously develop separatist movements in the provinces of Gilan, Mazandaran, Gorgan, and Khorasan".

Culture

Azeris are culturally very close to the rest of the Iranians though their language is Turkic. The people of Azerbaijan are different from most of other Turkic speaking peoples mostly because of their race as well as their religion which is Shia Islam. This may be the most important characteristic of the Azeris setting them apart from other Turkic speakers (who are mostly Sunni Muslims). Azeris celebrate Nouruz for the turn of the new Iranian year, the arrival of spring. Azerbaijan has a dinstinct music in Iran. Many local dances and folk music continue to survive among the various peoples of the provinces. Although Azerbaijani language is not an official language it is widely used, mostly in an oral tradition, among the Azeris in Iran. Many poets that came from Azerbaijan wrote poetry in both Persian and Azerbaijani. Renowned poets in Azerbaijani language are Nasimi, Shah Ismail I (who was known with the pen-name Khatai), Fuzuli, and Mohammad Hossein Shahriar. Fuzuli and Nasimi were probably born outside what is now Iranian Azerbaijan. Azerbaijani was the dominant language of the ruling dynasties of the Turkic rulers of the area such as the Ak Koyunlu and later it was used in the Safavid courts for a short time, until Persian was adopted, however, Turkic was used especially among the Kizilbash warriors. As a longstanding province of Iran (Persia), Azerbaijan is mentioned favorably on many occasions in Persian literature by Iran's greatest authors and poets. Examples:

گزیده هر چه در ایران بزرگان
زآذربایگان و ری و گرگان
All the nobles and greats of Iran,
Choose from Azarbaijan, Ray, and Gorgan.
--Vis o Ramin

از آنجا بتدبیر آزادگان
بیامد سوی آذرآبادگان
From there the wise and the free,
set off to Azarbaijan
--Nizami

بیک ماه در آذرآبادگان
ببودند شاهان و آزادگان
For a month's time, The Kings and The Free,
Would choose in Azarbaijan to be
--Ferdowsi

References

1. Brown, Cameron S. 2002 (Dec.). "Observations from Azerbaijan." Middle East Review of International Affairs: v. 6, no. 4, (LINK)
2. Dr. Kaveh Farrokh, "Pan-Turanism takes aim at Azarbaijan: A Geopolitical Agenda", (LINK)
3. Dr. Enayatollah Reza, "Arran: the real name of the Republic Azarbaijan", The Circle of Ancient Iranian Studies (CAIS), (LINK)
4. Dr. Kaveh Farrokh, "Pan-Turanism takes aim at Azarbaijan: A Geopolitical Agenda", (LINK)
5. Dr. Kaveh Farrokh, "Pan-Turanism takes aim at Azarbaijan: A Geopolitical Agenda", (LINK)
6. ^ "Maziar Ashrafian Bonab" — Department of Genetics, University of Cambridge (retrieved 9 June 2006)
7. "Cambridge Genetic Study of Iran" — ISNA (Iranian Students News Agency), 06-12-2006, news-code: 8503-06068 (retrieved 9 June 2006)
8. Decree of the CC CPSU Politburo to Mir Bagirov, CC Secretary of the Communist Party of Azarbaijan, on "measures to Organize a Separatist Movement in Southern Azarbaijan and Other Provinces of Northern Iran". Translation provided by The Cold War International History Project at The Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars.
9. "Cambridge Genetic Study of Iran" — ISNA (Iranian Students News Agency), 06-12-2006, news-code: 8503-06068 (retrieved 9 June 2006)

Colleges and Universities

1. Sahand University of Technology
2. Tabriz University of Medical Sciences
3. Tabriz University of Tarbiat Moallem
4. University of Tabriz
5. Islamic Azad University of Tabriz
6. Islamic Azad University of Shabestar
7. Islamic Azad University of Maragheh
8. Islamic Azad University of Miyaneh
9. Tabriz Islamic Arts University
10. Azarbaijan University of Tarbiat Moallem, Azarshahr
11. University College of Nabi Akram
12. Urmia University of Medical Sciences
13. Urmia University
14. Islamic Azad University of Khoi
15. Islamic Azad University of Urmia
16. Ardabil University of Medical Sciences
17. Mohaghegh Ardabili University
18. Islamic Azad University of Ardabil
19. Islamic Azad University of Khalkhal
20. University of Zanjan
21. Zanjan University of Medical Sciences
22. Islamic Azad University of Zanjan
23. Islamic Azad University of Abhar
24. Institute for Advanced Studies in Basic Sciences (IASBS)

See also

• Atropatene
• Iranian theory regarding the origin of the Azerbaijanis
• History of the name Azerbaijan

External links

• "Azerbaijan" (Columbia Encyclopedia, 6th edition; 2001-05)
• Azerbaijan entries in the Encyclopedia Iranica

• Geography of Iran