Forging a Nation: The Turbulent Birth of Modern Azerbaijan

Welcome to a new episode of The Levant Files

Imagine a place that, just over a century ago, was little more than a geographical name on a map. Fast forward through a century of imperial collapse, world wars, revolution, and brutal conflict, and it emerges as a modern nation-state. What forces drive such a breakneck transformation? And what legacy does that turbulent journey leave for a country navigating the complexities of the 21st century?

This week, in our new podcast episode, we delve into the fascinating and often turbulent history of modern Azerbaijan. We'll trace its path from a collection of people under the Russian Empire—where local Muslims faced systemic discrimination—to the surprisingly rapid formation of a national identity in the early 1900s. We explore the brief, doomed dream of its first independence, crushed by the Soviet Red Army, and the 70 years that followed, where Moscow both institutionalized the "Azerbaijani" ethnic category while simultaneously attempting to erase inconvenient histories.

Join us as we unpack the chaos of the Soviet collapse, the explosion of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict that came to define an era, and the political turmoil that paved the way for a second, hard-won independence. We'll examine how the legacies of Soviet-era corruption, immense oil wealth, and unresolved conflict continue to shape the nation today. Ultimately, this is a story that asks a profound question: What does it take to forge a stable, unified identity when the very definition of your people has been contested, constructed, and in constant flux for generations?

Selected Sources:

Bolukbasi, Suha. Azerbaijan: A Political History. United Kingdom: Bloomsbury Publishing, 2013.

Transcaucasia, Nationalism, and Social Change. USA: University of Michigan Press, 1996.

Zeynaloglu, Jahangir. A Concise History of Azerbaijan: From Azerbaijani Turkic Dynasties of the Middle Ages to the First Turkic Republic. N.p.: Independently Published, 2020.