Abstract
AbstractThe aim of this article is to shed light on the process of nation-building and the formation of national identity in post-Soviet Azerbaijan. The peculiarity of Azerbaijani nation-building is that the debates on how to build a nation and define national identity were nourished by two discourses: Azerbaijanism (Azerbaycançılıq) and Turkism (Tűrkçűlűk). The article focuses firstly on the discourses on national identity and nation-building in the pre-independence period while elaborating on the roots and premises of the nationalist independence movement. Secondly, it highlights the discourses of nation-building in the post-independence period while discussing the meanings attributed to national identity and nationhood. It shows how these two discourses shaped the existing identity formation in Azerbaijan with a particular emphasis on citizenship identity, marked by multiculturalism, hospitality, tolerance, and patriotism. Yet one can still categorize the country as having an incomplete nation-building process, due the violation of territorial integrity as a result of the Karabakh conflict.
Highlights
The study of the rise of nationalism in the Soviet Union and how national resurgence paved the way for its dissolution is the subject of a wide range of academic literature (Bremmer and Taras 1997; Brubaker 1996; Buttino 1993; Diuk and Karatnycky 1993; Hajda and Beissinger 1990; Lapidus, Zaslavsky, and Goldman 1992; Smith et al 1998; Tishkov 1997)
The process was generally explained by the legacy of the Soviet Union, the emergence of nationalizing elites and their rediscovery of cultural, social, political, and national origins, and by the ways in which the nationalist-independence movements paved the way for the formation of independent states
Some authors argued that it was the result of the suppression of the national and religious identities that were kept under control by Soviet ideology in creating Soviet citizens, whereas others authors argued that it was the Soviet policy toward the titular nationalities that defined the current boundaries of identity formation (Brubaker 1996; Suny 1990; Saroyan 1989)
Summary
The study of the rise of nationalism in the Soviet Union and how national resurgence paved the way for its dissolution is the subject of a wide range of academic literature (Bremmer and Taras 1997; Brubaker 1996; Buttino 1993; Diuk and Karatnycky 1993; Hajda and Beissinger 1990; Lapidus, Zaslavsky, and Goldman 1992; Smith et al 1998; Tishkov 1997). The process was generally explained by the legacy of the Soviet Union, the emergence of nationalizing elites and their rediscovery of cultural, social, political, and national origins, and by the ways in which the nationalist-independence movements paved the way for the formation of independent states. Instead of eliminating national affiliations, Soviet nationality policy unconsciously created and consolidated ethnicity and the “growing cohesion among the major
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