Iğdır Province is a province in eastern Turkey, located along the borders with Armenia, Azerbaijan, and Iran. Its adjacent provinces are Kars to the northwest and Ağrı to the west and south. Its area is 3,664 km2, and its population is 203,594 (2022). Its population was 168,634 in 2000 and 142,601 in 1990. The province is considered part of Turkish Kurdistan and has a Kurdish majority with a pretty close Azerbaijani minority.
Kalbajar District is one of the 66 districts of Azerbaijan. It is located in the west of the country and belongs to the East Zangezur Economic Region. The district borders the districts of Lachin, Khojaly, Agdam, Tartar, Goranboy, Goygol and Dashkasan districts of Azerbaijan, as well as the Gegharkunik and Vayots Dzor provinces of Armenia. Its capital and largest city is Kalbajar. As of 2020, the district had a nominal population of 94,100.
Qubadli District is one of the 66 districts of Azerbaijan. It is located in the south-west of the country and belongs to the East Zangezur Economic Region. The district borders the Lachin, Khojavend, Jabrayil and Zangilan districts, and the Syunik Province of Armenia.
The Kurdish population is estimated to be between 30 and 45 million. Most Kurdish people live in Kurdistan, which today is split between Iranian Kurdistan, Iraqi Kurdistan, Turkish Kurdistan, and Syrian Kurdistan.
The Kurds in Armenia, also referred to as the Kurds of Rewan, form a major part of the historically significant Kurdish population in the post-Soviet space, and live mainly in the western parts of Armenia.
Sheylanli tribe is a Kurdish tribe who lived in the Sheylanli village, Lachin, until it was occupied by Armenian troops. Due to the war, the Sheylanlis fled to Aghjabadi Rayon, Azerbaijan. They speak the Kurmanji dialect of the Kurdish Language.
Lachin District is one of the 66 districts of Azerbaijan. It is located in the west of the country, belonging to the East Zangezur Economic Region. The district borders the districts of Kalbajar, Khojaly, Shusha, Khojavend, Qubadli, and the Syunik Province of Armenia. Its capital and largest city is Lachin. As of 2020, the district had a nominal population of 78,600.
The Kurds in Azerbaijan form a part of the historically significant Kurdish population in the post-Soviet space. Kurds established a presence in the Caucasus with the establishment of the Kurdish Shaddadid dynasty in the 10th and 11th centuries. Some Kurdish tribes were recorded in Karabakh by the end of the sixteenth century. However, virtually the entire contemporary Kurdish population in the modern Azerbaijan descends from migrants from 19th-century Qajar Iran.
The Republic of Mahabad, also referred to as the Republic of Kurdistan, was a short-lived Kurdish self-governing unrecognized state in present-day Iran, from 22 January to 15 December 1946. The Republic of Mahabad, a puppet state of the Soviet Union, arose alongside the Azerbaijan People's Government, a similarly short-lived unrecognized Soviet puppet state.
The Aresh uezd, later known as the Agdash uezd, was a county (uezd) of the Elizavetpol Governorate of the Russian Empire and later of the Azerbaijan Democratic Republic with its center in Aresh from 1874 until its formal abolition in 1929 by Soviet authorities.
The Erivan uezd was a county (uezd) of the Erivan Governorate of the Caucasus Viceroyalty of the Russian Empire. The uezd bordered the Etchmiadzin and Surmalu uezds to the west, the Nor Bayazet uezd to the east, the Sharur-Daralayaz uezd to the south, and Iran to the southwest. It included most of the Ararat Province and southern parts of the Kotayk Province of central Armenia, the Sadarak District of the Nakhchivan exclave of Azerbaijan, and the Aras corridor of the Aralık District of the Iğdır Province of Turkey. The administrative centre of the county was the city of Erivan.
Kurds in Russia form a major part of the historically significant Kurdish population in the post-Soviet space, with close ties to the Kurdish communities in the Caucasus and Central Asia.
The Kurds in Kazakhstan form a part of the historically significant Kurdish population in the post-Soviet space, and encompass people born in or residing in Kazakhstan who are of Kurdish origin. According to the most recent Kazakh census in 2011, the Kurdish population is 38,325 or 0.2% of the population, but Vice President of the Kurdish Association of Kazakhstan, Malikshah Gasanov numbers the population up to 46,000, because many Kurds list themselves as Turks and Azeris. Other sources predict this number to be higher, counting up to 60,000 Kurds in Kazakhstan. During the Soviet era, most of the Kurdish population in the Kazakh SSR were deported there by Joseph Stalin from the Armenian, Azerbaijan and Georgian Soviet republics. Years later, Kurds immigrated to Kazakhstan from the neighbouring countries, Uzbekistan and Kyrgyzstan.
Mamed Iskenderov was the chairman of the Council of Ministers of the Azerbaijan Soviet Socialist Republic from 10 July 1959 to 29 December 1961. He was a member of the Communist Party.
The Javad uezd, known after 1921 as the Salyan uezd, was a county (uezd) within the Baku Governorate of the Russian Empire and then of the Azerbaijan Democratic Republic and Azerbaijan SSR until its formal abolishment in 1929 by the Soviet authorities. The uezd was located in the central part of the governorate, bordering the Geokchay, Shemakha, and Baku uezds to the north, Caspian Sea to the east, Lenkoran uezd to the south and Iran to the west. The administrative center of the uezd was the city of Salyan.
The Lenkoran uezd or Talysh uezd was a county (uezd) within the Baku Governorate of the Russian Empire, and then of the Azerbaijan Democratic Republic and the Azerbaijan SSR until its formal abolishment in 1929. The county was located on the southern part of the governorate, bordering Caspian Sea to the east, Javad uezd to the north, and Iran to the southwest. The administrative centre of the county was the city of Lenkoran.
Yekbûn is a Kurdish political organization established by Kurds in the Soviet Union that sought to make Kurdish culture autonomous and establish an autonomous Kurdistan there.
The Kurdish Republic of Lachin ) was a short-lived unrecognized state declared by Kurdish nationalists on the territory of the former Kurdistan Uezd in 1992, during the First Nagorno-Karabakh War, and dissolved in the same year.
Caucasian Kurds are ethnic Kurds which come from or live in the region of the Caucasus. The first Kurdish presence in the Caucasus region can be traced back to the middle of the 10th Century. Some groups of Caucasian Kurds were deported to Central Asia in 1937, 1938, and 1944 by the Soviet Union under Joseph Stalin, with most of their descendants now residing in Kazakhstan. The total number of Caucasian Kurds inside and outside the Caucasus region is unknown.
Azerbaijan has had a deliberate policy of forced assimilation of ethnic minorities since Soviet times and up to the present. Non-Turkic peoples, such as Talyshis, Lezgins, Tats and others have been subjected to forced Azerbaijanization (Turkification).
