The Azerbaijani National Identity

The Azerbaijani National Identity 

        Recently, I have come to the understanding that national identity is not a simple concept that everyone can wrap their mind around. After referencing readings by Triandafyllidou and other scholarly authors, I have comprised my own definition of national identity. National identity is the sense of belonging felt throughout a nation’s community, but it also defines who the “others” are in order to distance themselves further from them and their ideals. It is a sense of solidarity one feels toward a particular group. According to Sana Imran, “National identity is not a trait with which people are born rather it comes with the experiences from the common lives of the people, which construct their identity” (Imran, 2018, p.102). This definition of national identity proves that it is not as simple as one might think. The focal point being that one has to define the outsider in order to not be like them. There is a thin line of whether or not the nation’s national identity is comprised from inward-looking, or if the concept of the uniqueness of a nation is conditioned from the outside (Triandafyllidou, 1998).

        For the instance of Azerbaijan, they too have their own national identity through which the Azerbaijani people are able to express themselves to the world. In her article, Imran states that “In case of Azerbaijan, the national identity formation process appears to be an interesting phenomenon” (Imran, 2018, p.103). To start, Azerbaijan is described as a developing Muslim country with exemplary interfaith harmony amongst its population. The majority religion is Islam at 96.9% and despite the fact that that it appears to be different from other Muslim countries in social and political dispositions, Azerbaijan has been an active member of the OIC (Organisation of Islamic Countries) since its independence in 1991 (Imran, 2018). The general authorities of Azerbaijan have been striving to foster an independent national identity, built upon its values of secularism, civic nationalism, and multiculturalism. An Azerbaijani trademark is their diverse culture found from the Ottoman, Russian, and Persian Empires. Despite its glaring differences with Russia, Azerbaijan still has a sizeable majority which speaks the Russian language. This is because of the nation’s history with Russia, given that it used to be a part of the Soviet Union until it separated from them in 1991. In an article written by Ceylan Tokluoglu about the type of national identities, he states “the emphasis on ethnicity and localism in Azerbaijan is a heritage from the Soviet system, it contributes more to ethnic nationalism (modern) rather than territorial nationalism (classical). As a result, conflicting national, ethnic and regional loyalties and identities come into play in Azerbaijan” (Toklugoglu, 2005). However, culturally and linguistically it is a part of the Turkic world. Geographically, Azerbaijan serves as the gateway to Europe from Asia and lies in a strategic location in the South Caucasian region. The main national symbol that they use is an eight-pointed star with fire in the middle surrounded by their national colors of red, blue, and green. The green represents Islam; the red represents the development and democracy of Azerbaijan, and blue represents that the Azerbaijani’s are a Turkic people. The tongues of fire in the center symbolize them as “The land of Fire”, but the flame is also interpreted as the Arabic word for “Allah”. As for their government, it is listed as a democracy, but the current president has been in power since 2003 and took control after his father was the previous president. So, they might self-declare themselves as a democracy, but all of the signs point to it being a monarchy. An excellent way of simplifying national identity is seeing it as the countries brand. All of the aforementioned points about Azerbaijan make up part of its brand to the rest of the world. 

        However, there is a large difference between a nation’s branding and their overall national identity. Branding usually only shows the good aspects of a nation or the things that will increase tourism and investment in that country. The national identity of a country shows the good, the bad, and the ugly. For Azerbaijan, this comes in the form of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict which is both an ethnic and territorial conflict between Azerbaijan and Armenia. This long-standing conflict has a violent past and resurfaced the bloodshed recently as Azerbaijan has been taking back territory. Very recently the president of Armenia agreed to the peace treaty terms that the Azerbaijani president proposed and is currently under fire from the Armenian people. 

        In Triandafyllidou’s article, she uses the terminology “significant other” which might sound like a term of endearment, but it is quite the opposite. Her definition of the term is a group of people that threaten a nation’s national identity (Triandafyllidou, 1998). These people can be external or internal, but in the case of Azerbaijan, they happen to be both. That might confuse some so there is some explaining that needs to be done. A significant other does not have to be a stronger or larger nation than the home nation. The main feature that makes some other group a significant other is the perceived idea that they threaten the existence of the nation. Triandafyllidou states the following in her article “This threat may concern the nation’s independence and self-determination, that is, the ‘significant other’ may be a nation that is in conflict with the ingroup because of a territorial or ethnic dispute” (Triandafyllidou, 1998 p.600). In relation to the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, this meets all of the criteria mentioned in this quote. One of the main two reasons for the conflict is over a territory that the Azerbaijani government owns. The issue over this land is that the people who are the majority population there are Armenian. This is where this conflict starts to get a bit more confusing. Triandafyllidou states that a significant other can be internal or external based on their location, but in this instance the majority of that area (Armenians) are receiving support from an outer source, the country of Armenia. According to this new information, Armenia could be seen as an external significant other and an internal significant other. Another way of looking at it could be that the Armenian people in the Nagorno-Karabakh region are seen as an internal significant other who are receiving support from an outside source. Given that this conflict has been going on for many centuries, Armenia has been a significant other since before Azerbaijan declared independence from the Soviet Union back in 1991. This conflict over the Nagorno-Karabakh area is essential in defining the national identity of the great nation of Azerbaijan. 

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References 

Dahbour, O. (2002). National identity: An argument for the strict definition. Public Affairs Quarterly, 16(1), 17-37. http://www.jstor.org/stable/40441311 

Imran, S. (2018). Nation branding endeavours of Azerbaijan: Reshaping national image. Strategic Studies, 38(1), 100-115. https://doi.org:10.2307/48539125 

Peters, B. (2002). A new look at “national identity:” How should we think about “collective” or “national identities?” Are there two types of national identities? Does Germany have an ethnic identity, and is it different? European Journal of Sociology, 43(1), 3-32. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0003975602001005 

Tokluoglu, C. (2005). Definitions of national identity, nationalism and ethnicity in post-soviet Azerbaijan in the 1990s. Ethnic and Racial Studies, 28(4), 722-758. https://doi.org/10.1080/01419870500092951

 

Triandafyllidou, A. (1998). National identity and the 'other'. Ethnic and Racial Studies, 21(4), 593-612.