Intellectual foundations of national identity in Azerbaijan: 1840-1920

Over the last two centuries, the geography of Azerbaijan has been wanted to be swallowed up by great empires that have been exposed to wars and occupations. After the Tsarist Russia landed in the South Caucasus, the North Azerbaijan Turks, who were under its colony, were eventually exposed to the occupation of the Tsarist. As it is understood, at a time when nationalism was on the rise, North Azerbaijan was under the occupation of Tsarist Russia. Therefore, the North Azerbaijan Turks, who started the nationalization process under Tsarist Russia, faced the past and sought self-identity in this process. Of course, this search for the self-identity did not receive mass support at first and started among a group of intellectuals and later formed the basis for a social consciousness. In this context, Azerbaijani intellectuals, who benefited from the environment provided by Tsarist Russia, started a period of academic interest for their own society gradually, created a background and prepared a ground for the intellectuals who came after them. Therefore, in this thesis, the path of Northern Azerbaijan, which started the nationalization process as a colony, was discussed within the framework of the intellectual foundations of the period's intellectuals and social-political events of the period, as well as in the context of nationalism theories.