Azerbaijani Diasporas Exist in More than 20 Federal Subjects of the Russian Federation

Paul Goble

            Staunton, June 2 – The violent arrest of two ethnic Azerbaijanis in Yekaterinburg that has triggered a diplomat spat between Baku and Moscow has also called attention to the issue of how many and how large Azerbaijani diasporas are in the federal subjects of Russia and of how they relate to regional governments and the surrounding population.

            According to a survey conducted by the URA news agency, there are Azerbaijani diasporas of sufficient size in more than 20 federal subjects of the Russian Federation to have their own organizations, most of which promote Azerbaijani identity but cooperate closely and well with officials (ura.news/news/1052957832).

            The 20 largest are from west to east in St. Petersburg, Leningrad Oblast, Moscow Oblast, Moscow, Rostov Oblast, Krasnodar Kray, Nizhny-Novgorod Oblast, Astrakhan Oblast, Saratov Oblast, Dagestan, Tatarstan, Samara Oblast, Orenburg Oblast, Khanty-Mansiisk AD, Sverdlovsk Oblast, Chelyabinsk Oblast, Tyumen Kray, Novosibirsk Oblast, Krasnoyarsk Kray, and Kemerovo Oblast.

            Despite this dispersal, the ethnic Azerbaijani population of the Russian Federation has been in decline. In 2002, there were 602,000. That figure fell to 603,000 in 2010 and 475,00o in 2020/2021. Like many diaspora populations, it has been disproportionately male and urban, with Azerbaijani women forming fewer than half the number of men among Azerbaijanis in cities.