Azerbaijan

Azerbaijan is a former Soviet republic. Networks include family, clan, region, ethnic group, religion, and republic levels, with a remnant of Soviet influence. The population is overwhelmingly Muslim, but the nation does not regard Islam as a major source of identity. Azerbaijan's principal identity is ethnic nationalism. This nationalism contains seeds of dislocation for those not sharing it, the Armenians.

In traditional society, the hoj, or clan, shared work and land, creating a tightly knit group of up to 40 members. Modern families are nuclear, sometimes including grandparents, but the family is still a unit that shares financial and emotional support. The man is still more likely to be the wage earner, while the woman tends to the home. Hierarchy still matters. Law is commonly second to tradition, family, and religion.

The loss of the Soviet state prompted traditional networks to resume state functions. Family networks and others have allowed for a relatively easy transition to the market economy and have provided a substitute for the social safety net the Soviets formerly provided. The family network has served as a contact between government and the larger public and reduced the amount of violence during the dislocations of political change. Family ties, which are often political ties as well, promote attachment to the state and to family members in neighboring states such as Iran; and in 1989, these ties even led Azerbaijanis to attempt to dissolve their border between their ethnic brothers in Iran.

Children in Yeni Karki, Nakhchivan, Azerbaijan, peek into a local health clinic in anticipation of receiving vaccinations. Azerbaijan family and kinship networks have suffered through a post-Soviet economic downturn, an Armenian conflict, and a refugee crisis.

[Page 65]The primacy of family reduces the attraction of other potential ties such as Islam, but that does not eliminate religion as an influence. In conjunction with the Azeri preference for local culture and customs, it does keep Islamic nationalism and radicalism from becoming strong in Azerbaijan and other family-dominated countries. The Shi'i-Sunni split is insignificant when religion is not a major driver of politics. However, it does influence morality and mores, defining birth, marriage, death, and other passages. Officially, Azerbaijan practices church-state separation as a secular state, a legacy of its Soviet-era removal of most power from the Muslim hierarchy. This allows for greater toleration in its conflict with Christian Armenia and also allows for lax-to-nonexistent observance of the dietary laws and other Islamic rules. Conservative practices are more a product of tradition and habit than of religious belief.

Family ties weaken state building and national identity, potentially destabilizing the state. The president of Azerbaijan may call on the agh sakkal, or white beards (the heads of families), to resolve problems.