Formation of modern Turkic nations and the problem of self-designation

In the late 19th – first half of the 20th centuries, many Turkic peoples, including the Crimean Tatars, were in the process of developing modern national identity. The legacy of Middle Ages, when a person`s belonging to a certain religion, region, tribe or clan was of primary importance, was gradually becoming a thing of past. Gradually, a secular national identity and a single literary language emerged. The historical past was rethought. In many cases, disputes about a self-designation of a nation could be one of the markers of the processes. To better understand the social and political processes that took place in Crimea at that time, one should also take into account the historical experience of other Turkic countries and peoples. Moreover, in the 19th – early 20th centuries, most of the Turkic peoples were united under the rule of the Russian Empire and, accordingly were in more or less the same socio-political and economic conditions. Having similar interests and common problems, the elites of many Turkic peoples sought to establish interaction with each other. This article examines the process of formation of national self-conciousness in Azerbaijan, which was accompanied by disputes of how to call the population of the country – Azerbaijani Turks or Azerbaijanis. It also tells about some aspects of the interaction of the Crimean Tatar and Azerbaijani national movement.