Azerbaijanis in Georgia

Azerbaijanis in Georgia or Georgian Azerbaijanis (Gürcüstan azərbaycanlıları, ქართველი აზერბაიჯანელები) are Georgian citizens of ethnic Azerbaijani background. According to the 2014 census, there are 233,024 ethnic Azerbaijanis living in Georgia. Azerbaijanis comprise 6.5% of Georgia's population and are the country's largest ethnic minority, inhabiting mostly rural areas like Kvemo Kartli, Kakheti, Shida Kartli and Mtskheta-Mtianeti. There is also a historical Azerbaijani community in the capital city of Tbilisi (previously known as Tiflis) and smaller communities in other regions. There were some tensions in the late 1980s in the Azerbaijani-populated regions of Georgia; however, they never escalated to armed clashes. Historically, Azerbaijanis in Georgia have succeeded in preserving their ethnic identity and have not been touched by ethnic and/or linguistic assimilation processes observed among many other ethnic communities in the country. Natalia Volkova explained this by the large size of the community and its tendency to being restricted to a specific geographical area. The other reason was that unlike most of their neighbours, Azerbaijanis historically adhered to Islam, which weakened possibilities of intermarriage or any other type of close contact with people of other faiths. Finally, the fact that the Azerbaijani language for a long time enjoyed the status of the language of interethnic communication (see Language) reduced the need of knowing the languages of the neighbours, preventing eventual language shift. Volkova noted that as of 1976, cases of assimilation of Azerbaijanis even in the smallest communities were unheard of. Georgia's Azerbaijani population traces its roots to the events following the Seljuk invasion in the second half of the eleventh century, when Oghuz tribes settled in southern Georgia. To oppose being subjected to the Seljuk Empire, Georgians allied with the Cumans (a group of Kipchak tribes to the north of the Caucasus) thus allowing for more Turkic migration into the region.