Whole Azerbaijan (Azerbaijani: Bütöv Azərbaycan) is an irredentist concept of uniting presumed historically Azerbaijani-inhabited territories into the Republic of Azerbaijan.

History

The idea of "Whole Azerbaijan" was formulated by Piruz Dilanchi in 1991^[2] and defined in 1992 by Azerbaijani president Abulfaz Elchibey (s. 1992-93). In 1991, Dilanchi founded the SANLM nationalist organization and in 1997 Elchibey founded the "Whole Azerbaijan Union" (Bütöv Azərbaycan Birliyi) organization.^[3][4] Elchibey published his book on the idea, Bütöv Azərbaycan yolunda, in Turkey in 1998. It claimed that the borders of Azerbaijan should extend from Derbent to the Persian Gulf.^{[5][dubious – discuss]} Elchibey claimed that this was a territory of Azerbaijani historical ethnic presence.^{[6][verification needed]} He proposed that Azerbaijan had right to rule it, under a proposed system of governance called "United Azerbaijani Lands" (Birləşmiş Azərbaycan Yurdları).^[5] After his death in 2002, it was published postmortem. He opposed the idea of a separate and independent South Azerbaijan.^{[7][dubious – discuss][verification needed]} Azerbaijani historiography portrays the early to mid 1800s as the "ideal" and "normative" situation with Azeri sovereignty over Karabakh and Southern Azerbaijan (Iran), despite that a "united Azerbaijan" was never, in fact, independent but always part of the Persian empires.^[8]

The concept of Whole Azerbaijan has been Azerbaijani state policy since the September 2022 Armenia–Azerbaijan clashes.^[9]

Political initiatives

The term Whole Azerbaijan continued in political initiatives including the SANLM (CAMAH)^[10] and Whole Azerbaijan Popular Front Party.^{[citation needed]}

Boundaries

Although the boundaries of Whole Azerbaijan are not strictly defined, some proponents portray them as encompassing the following areas:^{[11][12][13][14]}

• South Azerbaijan (Cənubi Azərbaycan) - provinces of East Azerbaijan, West Azerbaijan, Ardabil and Zanjan
• Western Azerbaijan (Qərbi Azərbaycan) - all^{[15][16][17][18][19]} of the territory of Armenia
• Derbent (Dərbənd) - Derbentsky district, Republic of Dagestan
• Borchali (Borçalı) - part of the Kvemo Kartli province of Georgia