Azerbaijan and National Identity

"Race" has been a question in the minds of some Iranians specially the inhabitants of Azerbaijan; concerning the racial category, what is the racial category of Azerbaijan people? Turk or Azery? The importance of this matter comes to attention when discussion of Panturkism and Panturanism (noniranianism) emerges and highly discussed in Iran. This subject can be understood easily by the researchers and authors of contemporary history and political science researchers. The result of this reseach that has been done with analysis and correspoading method and using first hand sourcos, reveal this truth that the people of Azerbaijan are called Turk since they have a Turkic language/dialect on one hand; on the other hand, nowadays some authors, mostly foreigners and pro-Panturkism political and Panturanism groups try to fabricate a fake history and also try to inspire Turkic race and identity to the people of Azerbaijan. Meanwhile the works of many researchers from credible world scientific centers and even in Iran’s neighboring countries believe to the fundamental racial differences between Azerbaijan inhabitants and Turkic tribes and also the fundamental similarities between Azerbaijan inhabitants and the inhabitants of the Iranian plateau.