Azerbaijani people
Azerbaijanis (proper name: Azərbaycanlılar ) are a Turkic ethnic group in West Asia. Their settlement area extends from northwestern Iran to the Republic of Azerbaijan.
Alternative designations
The Azerbaijanis identify themselves on the basis of close linguistic relationship to the Turks often as Azerbaijani Turks ( Azərbaycan türkləri ) and are referred to in Iran as آذری / Azari / Azəri.
Language
The language of the Azerbaijanis, the Azerbaijani is expected to (West) Oghuz branch of the Turkic languages . Thus, it is closely related to Turkish and Gagauz and more distantly to the Turkmen.
Religion
The majority of Azeris are followers of Twelver Shi'ism. Religious minorities include Sunni Muslims (mostly Hanafitisch ), Zoroastrians, Christians and Baha'is. Part of the Azerbaijanis in the Republic of Azerbaijan without religion, many describe themselves as culturally Muslim. Among Muslims, there are a small number of Naqshbandi ( Sufi Order a ). The approximately 5,000 Christian Azeris in Azerbaijan mostly consist of people who have converted recently. Some Azerbaijanis in rural areas still show elements of pre-Islamic animistic religion, such as the belief in sacred places and the worship of trees and rocks. In Azerbaijan, other religious days such as Christmas and Nowruz celebrated alongside the Muslim festivals traditionally. After the collapse of the Soviet Union, many young Azerbaijanis returned propagated back to their Muslim faith. A recent study shows that radical Islam is growing in Azerbaijan.
Number
Worldwide there are about 25 million Azerbaijanis. Approximately 8.1 million Azeris live in Azerbaijan and 12-15 million in neighboring Iran ( around 16% of the total population according to the CIA World Factbook (2012 ) ). Bilingualism - Russian in Azerbaijan and Persian in Iran - is widespread.
Nearly 300,000 Azerbaijanis living in Georgia and 622,000 in Russia, which are referred to in Dagestan as " Derbent Turkmen ". In Armenia, 20,000 Azeris and 45,200 live in Ukraine. Over 700,000 Azerbaijanis living in other Turkic states, 535,000 in Turkey, 78,300 in Kazakhstan, 62,000 in Uzbekistan and 52,000 in Turkmenistan. In Turkey, the Azerbaijanis live predominantly in the provinces of Kars and Iğdır. 4,000 Azerbaijanis live in Jordan and 30,000 in Syria, which are, however, referred to there as Syrian Turkmen. Even today approximately 340,000 people comprehensive ethnic group of the Iraqi Turkoman language is attributable to the Azerbaijanis.