28 January 1918

Azerbaijan, a Part of Iran

At least 50,000 Iranian migrants, mostly Persian speakers from Azerbaijan and Turkish speakers from Northern Iran, lived in Baku and its suburbs between 1910 and1920. Strong Pan-Turkist waves and the issue of independence for Iranian Azerbaijan created enormous tensions among the Iranian migrants in the Caucasus. On 28 January 1918 this led to the publication of the newspaper Azerbaijan Joz'-e La- Yanfak-e Iran, or Azerbaijan, an Inseparable Part of Iran, the first publication of Iranians residing in the Caucasus.
The newspaper was published by the Democratic Party of Iran (Baku Branch), mostly in the Azeri language but with some articles in Persian. Inside the Persian letter 'N' of the word Azerbaijan, located in the middle of the front page in Naskh calligraphy, stands the phrase 'inseparable part', which stresses the unity, solidarity, and integration among the Iranians of the Caucasus and the land of Iran.
The complete collection of this newspaper is available in the IISH.

See also:

•  Azerbaijan Joz'-e La- Yanfak-e Iran
•  Search IISH collections and databases for 'Azerbaijan'

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