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Whole Azerbaijan (Azerbaijani: Bütöv Azərbaycan) is an irredentist concept of uniting presumed historically Azerbaijani-inhabited territories into the Republic of Azerbaijan.
The idea of "Whole Azerbaijan" was formulated by Piruz Dilanchi in 1991[2] and defined in 1992 by Azerbaijani president Abulfaz Elchibey (s. 1992-93). In 1991, Dilanchi founded the SANLM nationalist organization and in 1997 Elchibey founded the "Whole Azerbaijan Union" (Bütöv Azərbaycan Birliyi) organization.[3][4] Elchibey published his book on the idea, Bütöv Azərbaycan yolunda, in Turkey in 1998. It claimed that the borders of Azerbaijan should extend from Derbent to the Persian Gulf.[5][dubious – discuss] Elchibey claimed that this was a territory of Azerbaijani historical ethnic presence.[6][verification needed] He proposed that Azerbaijan had right to rule it, under a proposed system of governance called "United Azerbaijani Lands" (Birləşmiş Azərbaycan Yurdları).[5] After his death in 2002, it was published postmortem. He opposed the idea of a separate and independent South Azerbaijan.[7][dubious – discuss][verification needed] Azerbaijani historiography portrays the early to mid 1800s as the "ideal" and "normative" situation with Azeri sovereignty over Karabakh and Southern Azerbaijan (Iran), despite that a "united Azerbaijan" was never, in fact, independent but always part of the Persian empires.[8]
The concept of Whole Azerbaijan has been Azerbaijani state policy since the September 2022 Armenia–Azerbaijan clashes.[9]
The term Whole Azerbaijan continued in political initiatives including the SANLM (CAMAH) [10] and Whole Azerbaijan Popular Front Party.[citation needed]
Although the boundaries of Whole Azerbaijan are not strictly defined, some proponents portray them as encompassing the following areas:[11][12][13][14]
provinces of East Azerbaijan, West Azerbaijan, Ardabil and Zanjan
all[15][16][17][18][19] of the territory of Armenia
Derbentsky district, Republic of Dagestan
part of the Kvemo Kartli province of Georgia