Who are the Azerbaijanis?
The Azerbaijanis are a Turkic people group located in the Caucasus Mountains to the west of the Caspian Sea, in Northern Iraq and down through the Iranian plateau.
There are approximately 40 million Azerbaijanis worldwide, and they are mostly found in the countries of:
- Iran
- Azerbaijan
- Iraq
- Turkey
- Russia
- Georgia
- United States
More About the Azerbaijanis
The Azerbaijanis have a rich history. People from the lands of the Azerbaijanis were present at the day of Pentecost in Acts 2:9, though they were named the Parthians, Medes, and Elamites then. These returning new believers formed the foundation of the historic first churches in what is now modern day Azerbaijan.
The majority of Azerbaijanis, however, still remain in Persia, or modern day Iran and sharing the Gospel with them is still a great need. The Azerbaijanis, wherever they are found, share a common language, history, and culture, even though in recent centuries various influences have created differing mentalities and worldviews between Azerbaijanis living in their different host countries . This factor is one of the things that makes them such a strategic people and a significant gateway people to the other Muslim people groups they share their host countries with.
Currently only about 10,000-20,000, or 0.02%, of the nearly forty million Azerbaijanis are known believers. God has been at work amongst them in wonderful ways, but they remain one of the largest unreached people groups in the world and reaching out to them remains a high priority, not only for their sake, but for the sake of the nations around them.
NAM was created to see Azerbaijanis reached with the gospel of Jesus Christ, and to enable them as a gateway people to reach many others in the region. To learn more about NAM click here.
Since the 7th century, however, the early church was progressively swept away in successive invasions, both Arabic and Turkish. The years following the settling of these lands by the different Turkish groups were years when the Persian Empire encompassed much of the Azerbaijani population. The sharing of these lands by the different races in Persia, meant that several Azerbaijanis rose to positions of great power and authority in Persia, and even to this day this remains true. The supreme leader of Iran, Ali Khameini, is actually an Azerbaijani from Mashad.
As the strength of the Persian empire waned in the early 19th Century, the Russian Czar fought with Persia, and took a part of what was the North Western extent of the Persian Empire as their own. It is this piece of land that is now modern day Azerbaijan. It remained under the rule of the Czar till the end of the first world war when it enjoyed a brief period of independence as a republic. Following the fall of the Czarist Empire, the now Soviet Red Army took back control of what is now modern day Azerbaijan. By the early 90s however tensions in the Soviet Union meant that Azerbaijanis in the North once again gained their independence and this is what is known as Azerbaijan today. It is not however the country that is home to most Azerbaijanis. That distinction belongs to Iran.
Azerbaijanis speak a Turkic based language called Azerbaijani, but also speak the languages of their host countries as well. This makes them one of the most significant connecting people in the region both culturally and linguistically. Farsi, Russian, Arabic, Kurdish, Turkish, English and many other smaller languages are spoken fluently by Azerbaijanis in their host countries. For this reason NAM believes that Azerbaijanis could have a significant impact in bringing the gospel to the people of these lands.