AZERI

noun and adjective Sometimes written Azari (People and Society) noun: A member of a Turkic people of the USSR and Iran, living mainly in Azerbaijan, Armenia, and northern Iran; an Azerbaijani. Also, their language. adjective: Of or belonging to this people or their language. Etymology: The Turkish form (azerí) of what was originally a Persian word for fire; the place-name Azerbaijan is a compound meaning 'fire-temple'. Azeri is apparently the preferred form among those of Azeri ethnic origin, since it preserves a distinction between the Turkic people and anyone who lives in Azerbaijan (Azerbaijani can mean either). History and Usage: Although used in ethnographical and linguistic works since at least the last century, Azeri was not a word that the average reader of English newspapers would have recognized until the late eighties. Then ethnic unrest on the border between the Armenian and Azerbaijan Soviet Socialist Republics was widely reported in the newspapers. Since the trouble was partly caused by the fact that large numbers of ethnic Armenians lived within the borders of the Azerbaijan SSR and Azeris in the Armenian SSR, it was necessary for journalists to make the distinction between the inhabitant of Azerbaijan (an Azerbaijani) and the Azeri. At least two civilians, one Armenian and one Azeri, attacked Armenian homes...Azeri mobs had burned 60 houses...Three Azeris were shot and killed by troops. Observer 27 Nov. 1988, p. 23