Iranian Azerbaijan Research Articles

Bozkurt Kurgan Mezarlığı Kazıları

Bozkurt kurgan mezarlığı Ağrı ili, Doğubeyazıt ilçesinin 16 km. kuzeyinde ve Ağrı Dağı'nın batı eteğindedir. 2007 yılında bu mezarlıkta ilk kazılara başlanmıştır. Doğu Anadolu Bölgesi'nin özellikle kuzeydoğu kesiminde kurgan türü yığma taş tepeli mezar anıtlarının varlığı uzun yıllardan beri bilinir. Ancak Rus bilim adamları E. Ressler'in Kars yakınlarındaki Küçük Çatma kurganlarında 1900 yılında(1) , P. K. Kuchin'in ise 1916'da Erzurum yakınındaki Köprüköy'de(2) yaptığı kazılardan günümüze kadar geçen yüzyılda Türkiye'de başka hiçbir kurgan arkeolojik olarak kazılıp incelenebilmiş değildir. Buna karşılık sınır komşularımız Gürcistan, Ermenistan, Nahçıvan ve İran Azerbaycan'ında pek çok kurgan mezar uzun yıllardan beri kazılarak incelenmiştir.

Haftavan IV (Iron II) Settlement Cemetery, NW Iran, Azerbaijan

Some 25 graves excavated at Haftavan Tepe in Iranian Azerbaijan came from Iron Age II, Haftavan IV. This article examines the contents of the graves; all are simple pit graves with relatively simple ceramics and a poor collection of jewelry and other personal ornaments. The burials have been dug in the cemetery at the edges of the settlement areas. This can be seen in marked contrast to the old burial practices of period VI (LBA), where burials were made at various points under the settlement floor and, most importantly, infants were buried in jars. On the basis of relative dating, typological parallels and stratigraphic sources, the use of the graves can be assigned to the 12 th to 8 th centuries BC. Finally, from an overall viewpoint, the tentative nature of the conclusions presented in the article must be stressed.

Nasir ad-Din Tusi on social cooperation and the division of labor: Fragment from The Nasirean Ethics

Nasir ad-Din Tusi's (born 1201 in Tus in northeastern Persia; died 1274 in Baghdad), has been far more influential for his various contributions to astronomy and mathematics, including founding the Maraghah observatory (in Iranian Azerbaijan) and his brilliant reformulations of the Ptolemaic planetary model, which served as an important inspiration for Nicolaus Copernicus (1473–1543) revolutionary work than for anything else. Nonetheless, he also stands as one major figure in the medieval Islamic philosophical ethics and a profound thinker on socio-economic matters, as is attested by his masterpiece Akhlāq-i Nāsirī (The Nasirean Ethics – titled after his first name), from which the following Fragment is taken. He may be deservingly credited as an important pioneer of the science of political economy.

Jamil Hasanli, At the Dawn of the Cold War: The Soviet–American Crisis over Iranian Azerbaijan, 1941–1946, Harvard Cold War Studies Book Series (Lanham, Md.: Rowman and Littlefield, 2006). Pp. 424. $87.00 cloth.

Jamil Hasanli, At the Dawn of the Cold War: The Soviet–American Crisis over Iranian Azerbaijan, 1941–1946, Harvard Cold War Studies Book Series (Lanham, Md.: Rowman and Littlefield, 2006). Pp. 424. $87.00 cloth. - Volume 40 Issue 4

Jamil Hasanli, At the Dawn of the Cold War: The Soviet-American Crisis over Iranian Azerbaijan, 1941–1946.

Jamil Hasanli, <i>At the Dawn of the Cold War: The Soviet-American Crisis over Iranian Azerbaijan, 1941–1946</i>.

The formative years of Azerbaijani nationalism in post-revolutionary Iran

This article covers the period from the Islamic Revolution to Khatami's landslide victory at the presidential elections in 1997 and analyses the processes leading to the formation of a national movement in Iranian Azerbaijan. It successively explores the role played by the Turkish intellectual entrepreneurs, former Leftists and disillusioned Islamists in politicizing Azerbaijani identity and shaping a nationalist movement. This process of aggregation of different social groups reveal what has now become one of the main symptoms of the profound crisis faced by the Islamic Republic.

Some indications of shamanism in Arasbaran rock carvings

Four seasons (1998–2002) of ethnological and archaeological researches in the northern part of the Iranian Azerbaijan have revealed hundreds of carved and scratched drawings and figures on rocks and in subterranean rock-shelters. An anthropological study reveals remarkable information about the situation and the limits of the cultural domains, the cultural relations and the process of cultural diffusion in the prehistory at the intersection of Anatolia, Caucasus, Zagros and the central plateau of Iran. The human and animals figures and signs are contextualized and ichnographically interpreted. The animal symbolism is discussed in the contexts of ancient Iran and Caucasus art and tradition.

At the dawn of the Cold War: the Soviet-American crisis over Iranian Azerbaijan, 1941-1946

Chapter 1: The Penetration of the Soviet Troops into Iran and the Strengthening of the Soviet Position in Iranian Azerbaijan Chapter 2: The Intensification of Soviet Policy in Iranian Azerbaijan Chapter 3: The Struggle for Oil and the Government Crisis in Tehran Chapter 4: End of War in Europe: Decisions of Moscow and Iranian Azerbaijan Chapter 5: Creation of the Democratic Party and the Idea of Autonomy Chapter 6: Decision of the Popular Congress of Azerbaijan Chapter 7: Establishment of the National Government of Iranian Azerbaijan Chapter 8: The Situation in Iranian Azerbaijan and the Moscow Meeting of Foreign Ministers Chapter 9: The National Government of Iranian Azerbaijan: Between Autonomy and Independence Chapter 10: January 1946: Beginning Reforms in Tabriz Chapter 11: February 1946: Qavam As-Saltanah's Moscow Visit Chapter 12: The Starting Point of the Cold War: Iranian Azerbaijan, March 1946 Chapter 13: The Withdrawal from Iranian Azerbaijan and the Oil Policy of the Soviets Chapter 14: The Starting of Negotiations between the Central Government and Azerbaijan Chapter 15: The Strengthening of the U.S. Influence in Iran Chapter 16: The Failure of Stalin's Policy in Iranian Azerbaijan

Cenozoic Primates of eastern Eurasia (Russia and adjacent areas)

In the Eocene, distribution of the order Primates in the northern part of eastern Eurasia was confined to Mongolia. A form of Omomyidae (Altanius orlovi) is represented. Northern Eurasian primates attributed to later times cover the interval between the Late Miocene (Late Turolian) to the Middle Pleistocene (Mindel–Riss). Primates are distributed in the western part of eastern Eurasia (Moldavia, Ukraine), Transcaucasus (Georgia, Iranian Azerbaijan) and Central Asia (Tadjikistan, Afghanistan, Transbaikalian, Mongolia). The total number of known primate taxa is not large: seven genera and eleven species in three families (Omomyidae, Hominidae, Cercopithecidae). The Neogene and Pleistocene representatives of the order Primates comprise either widely distributed Eurasian forms or endemic taxa. The distribution pattern of primates in the western and eastern part of eastern Eurasia can be interpreted in relation to links with African and East Asian faunal provinces. By the Late Pleistocene all non-human representatives of the order Primates in the northern part of eastern Eurasia became extinct.

Contemporary Azerbaijani Historiography on the Problem of "Southern Azerbaijan" after World War II

In an attempt to fill the post-Soviet ideological vacuum and to consolidate power, the leaders of the newly independent Azerbaijan turned to continuous search for nation-state identity and re-evaluation of the Azerbaijani historical past. The lost war against Armenia in NagornoKarabakh (1988-1994), and the socio-economic crisis of the first half of the 1990s led to indoctrination through the public domain and education system and heavily influenced the new nation's shaping identity. Azerbaijani nationalism broke out with renewed force after the independence. Defeat in Nagorno-Karabakh sharpened the defensive feelings of the small Azerbaijani suppressed and divided in former times by its great neighbours, Russia and Iran. Suffering from the post-war low morale, the Azerbaijani people demanded new, comforting and encouraging national concepts. Not only historians considered it their duty to write on the glories and tragedies of the Azerbaijani nation, but also intellectuals, publicists, scientists, and journalists from all sorts of backgrounds came together to furnish proof that Nagorno-Karabakh had belonged to the Azerbaijani people since time immemorial. The idea of 'the great Azerbaijan state' possessing territory in contemporary Iran, Armenia, and Georgia gained great currency. One of the most popular themes, within the numerous branches of academia became 'the question of Southern Azerbaijan'. Geographically the so-called Southern Azerbaijan is now in an area north-west of Iran (Iranian Azerbaijan)' comprising two provinces of West Azerbai-

Wanting to Have Their Cake and Their Neighbor's Too: Azerbaijani attitudes towards Karabakh and Iranian Azerbaijan

Azerbaijan's foreign policy agenda, even prior to independence in 1991, has been largely dominated by two main issues: how to regain the Armenian-occupied region of Nogorno-Karabakh, and what relationship the state should have with the millions of ethnic Azerbaijanis who live in the bordering provinces of Iran. Over the past decade, two schools of thought have emerged, which reflect not only two different approaches to these issues, but also two opposing notions of what constitutes the Azerbaijani nation.

Turkmenistan (Un)transformed

Essay| April 01 1994 Turkmenistan (Un)transformed David Nissman David Nissman David Nissman is the author of The Soviet Union and Iranian Azerbaijan: The Use of Nationalism for Political Penetration (Boulder, Colo.: Westview Press, 1987) and articles on Central Asia and the Caucasus. His works have been translated into Russian, Turkish, and Persian. Search for other works by this author on: This Site PubMed Google Scholar Current History (1994) 93 (582): 183–186. https://doi.org/10.1525/curh.1994.93.582.183 Views Icon Views Article contents Figures & tables Video Audio Supplementary Data Peer Review Share Icon Share Twitter LinkedIn Tools Icon Tools Get Permissions Cite Icon Cite Search Site Citation David Nissman; Turkmenistan (Un)transformed. Current History 1 April 1994; 93 (582): 183–186. doi: https://doi.org/10.1525/curh.1994.93.582.183 Download citation file: Ris (Zotero) Reference Manager EasyBib Bookends Mendeley Papers EndNote RefWorks BibTex toolbar search Search Dropdown Menu toolbar search search input Search input auto suggest filter your search All ContentCurrent History Search This content is only available via PDF. © 1994 by The Regents of the University of California1994 Article PDF first page preview Close Modal You do not currently have access to this content.

Hail to Heydarbaba: a comparative view of popular Turkish &amp; classical Persian poetical languages

Muhammad Husayn Shahriyar (1906-1988) is one of the most famous contemporary poets in both the Persian and the Azerbaijani Turkish (Azeri)l languages. He was born in Tabriz, his mother-tongue being Turkish, and received his preliminary religious training in Arabic at a traditional madrasa. As part of the policy of eradication of the spirit of resistance and rebellion repeatedly welling up in Azerbaijan-further intensified after the reform movement of the Constitutional Revolution (1905-1911) had been extinguished-the Azerbaijani population of Iran was at this time discouraged and estranged from its identity, culture and language. The Pahlavi regime that came to power in 1925 was founded on an extreme Persian nationalism: no Azerbaijani was allowed to speak his native Turkish tongue in schools, government offices or other premises, or at any official meeting. These measures were to be partially relaxed only at times of national catastrophe or political crisis. Following the Allied occupation of Iran and the abdication of Riza Shah Pahlavi in 1940, this oppression temporarily disappeared along with its chief instigators. The Soviet forces occupying Iranian Azerbaijan made use of the native people's yearning for their mother tongue to win that people to their own political cause. Exploiting the Azerbaijanis' native but hitherto inhibited urge to express themselves in their own language, the Soviets tolerated and even encouraged publication in Turkish. Since the people of northern Azerbaijan (then a part of the USSR) speak the same Turkish dialect as those of the southern, Iranian, part, theatrical works by famous playwrights from the north, along with other cultural performances, could be staged and fully appreciated. Meanwhile in the political arena the Azerbaijani Democratic Party won control over the local government of the province in 1945 and Turkish became the language of all official transactions. The contents of publications permitted by the Soviet military authorities could naturally not be allowed to contradict the occupying forces' ideology and policy. Under these conditions, leftist tendencies were understandably predominant in Turkish-language writing and poetry. This peculiarity later served as an excuse for re-establishing the old ethno-linguistic suppression. The USSR finally evacuated Iranian Azerbaijan in 1946. In the wake of their withdrawal, the Tehran government staged a punitive expedition. Both during and after this professedly anti-communist witch-hunt, the Turkish language was incriminated as the essential instrument of the 'red devil'.

Azeri and Persian Literary Works in Twentieth Century Iranian Azerbaijan

Azeri and Persian Literary Works in Twentieth Century Iranian Azerbaijan

The End of the Cold War and the Middle East

The Middle East was arguably the first theater of the Cold War, which manifested itself in a number of dramatic regional developments in the four decades after 1946. In that year, Joseph Stalin's delay in removing Soviet troops on schedule from Iranian Azerbaijan and Kurdistan, where pro-Soviet autonomist regimes had been set up, brought U.S. counterpressure and a crisis that ended only with an Iranian-Soviet agreement that included the withdrawal of Soviet troops. The 1947 Truman Doctrine, arming Turkey and Greece, was the first of several U.S. military doctrines covering the Middle East and aimed at the Soviets. Regional nationalizers of British assets, especially Mohammad Mosaddeq in Iran and Gamal Abdel Nasser in Egypt in the 1950s, were treated as dangerous and pro-Communist, and, in Mosaddeq's case, overthrown at U.S. instigation. From the early 1950s on, U.S. backing for Israel was matched by Soviet backing for the Arab position and arming of favored Arab regimes, first Nasser's Egypt, and, more recently, Baathist Syria and Iraq. With the withdrawal of the British east of Suez, Saudi Arabia and especially Iran became the pillars and guardians of U.S. policy. These and other oil-rich states could afford to buy large quantities of advanced arms from the United States, while the strategic nonoil countries, Turkey, Israel, and Egypt, became three of the five largest recipients of U.S. aid, mostly military in nature. After the Soviet invasion of 1979, Afghanistan became a center for U.S.-Soviet military conflict.

David B. Nissman. The Soviet Union and Iranian Azerbaijan: The Use of Nationalism for Political Penetration. Boulder, Colo.: Westview Press, 1987. ix, 123 pp. $18.95 (paper).

David B. Nissman. The Soviet Union and Iranian Azerbaijan: The Use of Nationalism for Political Penetration. Boulder, Colo.: Westview Press, 1987. ix, 123 pp. $18.95 (paper).

The Uruk Expansion: Cross-cultural Exchange in Early Mesopotamian Civilization [with Comments and Reply

The Uruk Expansion: Cross-cultural Exchange in Early Mesopotamian Civilization [with Comments and Reply

Bastam, an Urartian Citadel Complex of the Seventh Century B. C.

From the time when the first test trench was dug in 1968 in the Urartian ruins near the village of Bastam in Iranian Azerbaijan, 54 km. northwest of Khoy, regular excavations were carried out by the German Archaeological Institute until the beginning of the Iranian revolution. The last two seasons in particular have led to important discoveries regarding the architectural history of Bastam; these and the associated finds will be presented here. In the eighth century B.C. a fortified way station of small proportions, the name of which is not known, was established on a rocky projection overhanging the valley of the River Aq Chai (in English, the White Water). This elongated fort, 172 m. long and 38 m. wide at its broadest point, protected an important Urartian thoroughfare connecting the capital of Van (Tuspa) and the eastern part of the kingdom. The fortress was founded on bedrock near an occupation mound of the third and second millennia B.C., which lies at the foot of the acropolis of Bastam. After years of research, the remains of the fort, which lie beneath the constructions of Rusa II, were finally traced in 1978, at least in their general outlines. The history of Bastam begins with the Bronze Age mound, since the Urartians mined it for fill to use behind their walls. The modern village of Bastam lies over a large part of the mound. The painted pottery and the small finds belong to the prehistoric periods of northwest Azerbaijan and the Araxes valley. Rusa II, the founder and patron of Rusa-i URU. TUR, ruled from 685 to 645 B.C. Events dating to his reign are mentioned in II Kings 19-36-37: And the sons of Sennacherib after the murder of their father fled to the land of Ararat. This land of Ararat, around Mount Ararat, is to be identified with Urartu. Sennacherib of Assyria was murdered in 681 B.C. Rusa II of Urartu probably began construction at Bastam very soon after he came into power. In the approximately 90 years until the end of the Urartian hegemony, between 595 and 585 B.C., the acropolis and the lower town of Bastam were the scene of lively building activity. A subsidiary royal residence was built here in stages; it must have functioned as the administrative, military and religious center of the province, as well as the seat of a governor, and sometimes as the seat of a king. The Urartian establishment in Bastam (ill. i) covered an area 16oo m. long by 850 m. wide, 1.36 km' in all, and was composed of different elements. The Aq Chai, which floods in spring and after heavy summer rainfall, was held in check by strong walls, 6oo m. of which are still recognizable today. At the same time these walls secured the base of a canal embankment against erosion. The canal watered fields as far as ii km. away, and branched off from the Aq Chai under the protection of the Bastam fortress. In Urartian times, just as today, the artificially watered fields of the plain of Qara Zia Eddin began at the foot of the Citadel. Bastam then lay protecting and controlling the entrance of the cultivated plain which largely supported the citadel and settlement in Urartian times. The existence of a burial tumulus created a special problem for the excavations. This tumulus was made of alternate layers of river gravel and of material from the Bronze Age mound. It was laid out in the dry river bed and its base is surrounded by a natural accumulation of gravel almost 5 m. in height. The gravel makes excavation difficult, especially since it is unclear whether the burial lay in the center of the mound or off to one side. However, it seems likely that the grave mound was built no earlier than the Urartian period. In the plain, 365 m. to the east of the citadel, is the so-called East building, oriented N-S. It is a

The Assyrians of Iran: Reunification of a “Millat,” 1906–1914

Until the beginning of the nineteenth century, the Assyrians—Syriac-speaking Middle Easterners belonging throughout the medieval period to either of the two branches of Eastern Christianity (Jacobite and Nestorian)—remained a little-known community scattered throughout Ottoman and Persian territory. The Assyrian community examined here was concentrated in Iranian Azerbaijan, mainly around the town of Urumiyah (Rizaiyah). Together with tribal Assyrians, who remained in their ancestral mountain villages on either side of the Perso-Ottoman border, Urumiyan Assyrians formed the nucleus of the Nestorian community until World War I. They were united by the same language, modern Eastern Syriac (henceforth referred to as Assyrian), and owed ecclesiastical allegiance to the Church of the East under the hereditary Patriarch, the Mar Shamūn.

The Azerbaijani ˓Āshiq and His Performance of a Dāstān

In cities, towns, and villages throughout Iranian Azerbaijan ˓āshiqs (professional poet-musicians) entertain audiences in coffee houses and at weddings. ˓Āshiqs compose and perform songs in a variety of poetic forms. The longest of these forms is the oral narrative poem called the dāstān in the Azeri dialect of Turkish. In his presentation of these tales, the ˓āshiq observes a standard protocol, yet within this established format, he has room to improvise, to stretch some segments of his entertainment or to cut other parts short. It is this flexibility within the framework of an established presentation format that keeps these oral narrative poems from growing stale in the mind of the performer and in the perception of the audience.This paper will briefly describe the ˓āshiq, his training and performance. Then, one segment of a dāstān will be analyzed to show what its components are, and how they can be manipulated by the performer.