Whole Azerbaijan

Whole Azerbaijan (Azerbaijani: Bütöv Azərbaycan) is an irredentist concept of uniting presumed historically Azerbaijani-inhabited territories into the Republic of Azerbaijan.

Map of "Whole Azerbaijan" according to Azerbaijani historian Adalet Tahirzade [az]^[1]

History

The idea of "Whole Azerbaijan" was formulated by Piruz Dilanchi in 1991^[2] and defined in 1992 by Azerbaijani president Abulfaz Elchibey (s. 1992-93). In 1991, Dilanchi founded the SANLM nationalist organization and in 1997 Elchibey founded the "Whole Azerbaijan Union" (Bütöv Azərbaycan Birliyi) organization.^[3][4] Elchibey published his book on the idea, Bütöv Azərbaycan yolunda, in Turkey in 1998. It claimed that the borders of Azerbaijan should extend from Derbent to the Persian Gulf.^{[5][dubious – discuss]} Elchibey claimed that this was a territory of Azerbaijani historical ethnic presence.^{[6][verification needed]} He proposed that Azerbaijan had right to rule it, under a proposed system of governance called "United Azerbaijani Lands" (Birləşmiş Azərbaycan Yurdları).^[5] After his death in 2002, it was published postmortem. He opposed the idea of a separate and independent South Azerbaijan.^{[7][dubious – discuss][verification needed]} Elchibey's ultimate goal was to unite the newly independent Republic of Azerbaijan with the Azerbaijan region under Iranian rule(in his words, South Azerbaijan) and then unite with Turkey to establish a "Turk" federation.^[8]

Azerbaijani historiography portrays the early to mid 1800s as the "ideal" and "normative" situation with Azeri sovereignty over Karabakh and Southern Azerbaijan (Iran), despite that a "united Azerbaijan" was never, in fact, independent but always part of the Iranian empires.^[9] The concept of Whole Azerbaijan has been Azerbaijani state policy since the September 2022 Armenia–Azerbaijan clashes.^[10]

Political initiatives

The term Whole Azerbaijan continued in political initiatives including the SANLM (CAMAH)^[11] and Whole Azerbaijan Popular Front Party.^{[citation needed]}

Boundaries

Although the boundaries of Whole Azerbaijan are not strictly defined, some proponents portray them as encompassing the following areas:^{[12][13][14][15]}

• Iranian Azerbaijan / South Azerbaijan (Cənubi Azərbaycan) - provinces of East Azerbaijan, West Azerbaijan, Ardabil and Zanjan

• Western Azerbaijan (Qərbi Azərbaycan) - all^{[16][17][18][19]} of the territory of Armenia

• Derbent (Dərbənd) - Derbentsky district, Republic of Dagestan

• Borchali (Borçalı) - part of the Kvemo Kartli province of Georgia

See also

• Armenia–Azerbaijan border
• Azerbaijan (toponym)
• Azerbaijan–Iran border
• Azerbaijani nationalism
  • Southern Azerbaijan National Awakening Movement
• Zangezur Corridor
• Western Azerbaijan (irredentist concept)
• Qara Qoyunlu