Rayons of Azerbaijan (with Accents)

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Updates: 

Andrew Leonard writes that someone on Wikipedia has asserted that there is a new rayon in the Naxçıvan exclave named Kəngərli. It was formed from parts of Babək and Şərur on 2004-03-14.

The Azerbaijan postal authority has a Web page for postal codes . It has a slightly different list of rayons from any of the other sources. In those cases where a rayon and a city have the same name, it only lists the rayon. That may only mean that they're combined for postal purposes. The postal site also lists the autonomous republic (MR) of Naxçıvan as being divided up into seven rayons, one of which is also named Naxçıvan. I think this is probably more accurate than ISO, which lists the MR but not the rayon of that name.

The postal site indexes schwa (Ə, ə) between D and F, so I have changed the sort order of the rayons below to treat schwa as equivalent to E.

Based on this new information, I have added a new rayon, Culfa, to the list, and changed the type of Naxçıvan from autonomous republic to rayon. I also found that I had Ordubad misspelled, so I fixed it.

ISO 3166-2 Newsletter Number I-2 was published on 2002-05-21. It changes the ISO code for Naxçıvan from MM to NX. It also corrects the diacritical marks on four district names. Finally, it identifies the rayons that are part of Naxçıvan, namely Babək, Culfa, Ordubad, Sədərək, Şahbuz, and Şərur.

International standard ISO 3166-2 was published on December 15, 1998. It superseded ISO/DIS 3166-2 (draft international standard), which came out in fall 1996. Change Notice 1 for FIPS PUB 10-4 is dated December 1, 1998. All three of these documents show Azerbaijan divided into units of three kinds: one autonomous republic, ten or eleven cities, and sixty-some rayons, or districts. They differ on the exact numbers.

After the end of Soviet rule, Azerbaijan chose a new alphabet based on the Roman alphabet. Many browsers are unable to display some of its special characters and diacritics. The table below uses Unicode. If you see unreadable characters, you may prefer the plain page.

Country overview: 

Modern Azerbaijan corresponds quite closely to the Russian districts of Baku, Elizabethpol, and Zakataly at the beginning of the 20th century. The Democratic Republic of Azerbaijan declared its independence on 1918-05-28. It was reconquered and incorporated into the Soviet Union on 1922-12-30, becoming part of the Transcaucasian Soviet Socialist Republic. Under the Soviets, the territory of Zangezur (27,400 km.²) was transferred from Azerbaijan to Armenia, separating Nakhichevan from the rest of Azerbaijan. In 1936, Azerbaijan became a separate republic within the U.S.S.R. Azerbaijan declared its independence from the U.S.S.R. on 1991-08-30. Later that year, it abolished the Nagorno-Karabakh Autonomous Region as a separate entity.

Other names of country: 

1. Azeri: Azarbaijchan Respublikasy, Azarbaycan Respublikasi (formal)
2. Danish: Aserbajdsjan
3. Dutch: Azerbaidzjan, Azerbeidzjan, Republiek Azerbeidzjan (formal)
4. English: Azerbaijani Republic (formal)
5. Finnish: Azerbaidžan
6. French: Azerbaïdjan f
7. German: Aserbaidschan n
8. Icelandic: Aserbaídsjan
9. Italian: Azerbaigian
10. Norwegian: Aserbajdsjan, Republikken Aserbajdsjan (formal)
11. Portuguese: Azerbaidjão (Brazil), Azerbaijão (Portugal), República f do Azerbaijão m (formal)
12. Russian: Azerbaydzhan
13. Spanish: Azerbaiyán, República f Azerbaiyana (formal)
14. Swedish: Azerbajdzjan
15. Turkish: Azerbaycan, Azerbaycan Cumhuriyeti (formal)

Origin of name: 

Named for Atropates, one of Alexander the Great's generals

Primary subdivisions: 

Azerbaijan is divided into 66 rayons (districts) and 11 cities, according to this list.

Note: The Azerbaijani postal site has some rayon names spelled differently from the ISO directory. It uses Göranboy instead of Goranboy, Səlyan instead of Salyan, and Tər-Tər instead of Tərtər. The postal site identifies Cəbrayıl, Füzuli, Kəlbəcər, Laçın, Qubadlı, Şuşa, Xankəndi, Xocalı, Xocavənd, and Zəngilan as RRQ. Dominic Heaney, of Europa Publications , suggests that RRQ may designate areas not under the control of the central government.

Territorial extent: 

Nakhichevan is separated from the rest of Azerbaijan by a strip of Armenian territory. Nakhichevan includes a tiny exclave inside Armenia, near Ararat. The chief village in this exclave is Kiarki (Tigranashen). Azerbaijan also has two small exclaves inside Armenia, north of Idzhevan. They contain the Azerbaijani villages of Yukhari Askipara and Barkhudali (Sofulu), respectively. There are also two even tinier exclaves in Armenia belonging to Tatly, Azerbaijan.

Under the Soviet Union, Nagorno-Karabakh was an autonomous region (avtonomnaya oblast') within Azerbaijan, formed on 1923-07-07. It is now treated as an integral part of Azerbaijan. It has a substantial Armenian population which would like to unite with Armenia. Armenia and Nagorno-Karabakh have no common border, but are only a few kilometers apart.

Origins of names: 

Nakhichevan: = City of Nakhich (man's name)

Change history: 

Under the Soviet Union, Azerbaijan was the Azerbaijan Soviet Socialist Republic (Azerbaydzhanskaya Sovyetskaya Sotsialisticheskaya Respublika). Nakhichevan was an Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic (Nakhichevanskaya Avtonomnaya Sovyetskaya Sotsialisticheskaya Respublika). Nagorno-Karabakh was an autonomous oblast (Nagorno-Karabakhskaya Avtonomnaya Oblast') with Stepanakert as its capital.

Other names of subdivisions: 

1. Bakı: Baku (English, Russian), Bakü (Turkish)
2. Nagorno-Karabakh: Artsakh, Arzach (Armenian)
3. Naxçıvan: Nahcivan (Turkish), Nakhichevan' (Russian)
4. Xankəndi: Stepanakert (obsolete, Armenian)