Sheylanli tribe () is a Kurdish tribe who lived in the Sheylanli village, Lachin, until it was occupied by Armenian troops. Due to the war, the Sheylanlis fled to Aghjabadi Rayon, Azerbaijan. They speak the Kurmanji dialect of the Kurdish Language.
This tribe is considered to be one of the 24 Kurdish tribes those were moved from Iran to Karabakh and Zangezur by Shah Abbas I of Iran in the 16th century to fortify the borders of the Safavid Empire. Tatiana Fyodorovna Aristova gives some Sheylanli Kurdish family names such as Asadlar, Ismaillar, Nabilar, and Khudular in the book Kurdy Zakavkazia. The author mentions Sheylanli, Zerty, and Minkend among the poorest Kurdish communities of Azerbaijan in Lachin.
Tribal Kurdish population in Lachin region
In the 1920s, the Kurdish community in Azerbaijan was considerably diminished, when many of them moved to Armenia where Kurdish villages were created.Encyclopedia of World Cultures, David Levinson, G.K. Hall & Co. (1991), p.225 About the same time Azerbaijan's Kurds had their own region called Red Kurdistan in the Lachin region, which was to the West of Karabakh. In fact, Lachin with the principal towns Kalbajar, Kubatli and Zangelan and the administrative sub-divisions of Karakushlak, Koturli, Murad-Khanli and Kurd-Haji were mostly inhabited by Kurds.The Kurds: A Contemporary Overview, Philip G. Kreyenbroek, Stefan Sperl, Routledge, (1992), , p.201
In 1930 it was abolished and most remaining Kurds were deported to Central Asia.Black Garden: Armenia and Azerbaijan Through Peace and War, Thomas De Waal, NYU Press, , p.133 Official Azerbaijani records claim 6,000+ Kurds, while Kurdish leaders estimate as much as 150,000 (including those living in Central Asia and Russia). The problem is that the historical record of the Kurds in Azerbaijan is filled with lacunae.An Ethnohistorical Dictionary of the Russian and Soviet Empires, James Stuart Olson, Lee Brigance Pappas, Nicholas Charles Pappas, Greenwood Publishing Group, (1994), , p.409 For instance, in 1979 there was according to the census no Kurds recorded.The Kurds: A Contemporary Overview, Philip G. Kreyenbroek, Stefan Sperl, Routledge, , (1992), p.204
Not only did Turkey and Azerbaijan pursue an identical policy against the Kurds, they even employed identical techniques like forced assimilation, manipulation of population figures, settlement of non-Kurds in areas predominantly Kurdish, suppression of publications and abolition of Kurdish as a medium of instruction in schools. Kurdish historical figures such as Sharaf Khan of Bitlis and Ahmad Khani and the Shaddadid dynasty as a whole were described as Azeris. Kurds who retained 'Kurdish' as their nationality on their internal passports as opposed to 'Azeri' were unable to find employment.
In the past, in what is currently West of Azerbaijan (which includes Lachin), Kurds lived with an uneasy rivalry with the Azeri Turks.Iran Under the Ayatollahs, Dilip Hiro, Routledge, (1987), , p.111 In modern time they harbor some animosity toward them who they associate with the Turks,Political Culture and Civil Society in Russia and the New States of Eurasia, Vladimir Tismaneanu, M.E. Sharpe, (1995), , p.355 which is not made easier because of Azerbaijan's prevailing policy of forceful assimilation.Linguistic Minorities in Central and Eastern Europe, Christina Bratt Paulston, Donald Peckham, Multilingual Matters, (1998), , p.106
See also
Kurds in Azerbaijan
References