Origin of The Azeris - Caucasian Substrate

Caucasian Substrate

The Caucasian origin of the Azeris defines a link between Azeris and their pre-Turkification Caucasian past and mostly applies to the Azeris of the Caucasus, most of whom are now inhabitants of what is now the Republic of Azerbaijan. There is evidence that, despite repeated invasions and migrations, aboriginal Caucasians may have been culturally assimilated, first by Iranians, such as the Alans, and later by the Oghuz Turks. Considerable information has been learned about the Caucasian Albanians including their language, history, early conversion to Christianity, and close ties to the Armenians. Many academics believe that the Udi language, still spoken in Azerbaijan, is a remnant of the Albanians' language.

This Caucasian influence extended further south into Iranian Azarbaijan. During the 1st millennium BCE, another Caucasian people, the Mannaeans (Mannai) populated much of this area. This ancient country was in northwestern Iran, south of Lake Urmia. During the period of its existence in the early 1st millennium bc, Mannai was surrounded by three major powers: Assyria, Urartu, and Media. With the intrusion of the Scythians and the rise of the Medes in the 7th century, the Manneans lost their identity and were subsumed under the term Medes.

The Azerbaijanian ethnos of today formed largely on a basis of shared religion, incorporating Turkic-speaking, tribes, Islamicized Armenians and Georgians, as well as Kurds, Tats, and Talyshins, and some already partially Iranized, Armenicized and Georgianized Albanians.