"

On the term Azeri

See that section of my full article on this.  Overall, the formation of Azerbaijani-Turkish ethnic group is from the 13th-16th century.  But the USSR usage of Azerbaijani was not clear.  The ethnonym ""Azerbaijani"" though is very recently and dates back to the early 20th or late 19th century.  In some sources, ""Azerbaijani"" is used to refef to any modern inhabitant of the republic while ""Azeri"" is the ethnic term meaning Azeri-Turk  

As noted by Oliver Roy:
“The concept of Azeri identity barely appears at all before 1920.  Up until that point Azerbaijan had been a purely geographical area.  Before 1924, the Russians called Azeri Tatars ""Turk"" or ""Muslims"".(Roy, Oliver. “The new Central Asia: The Creation of Nations”). 

According to Prof. Tadeusz Swietochovski: ""Azerbaijani"" was coined in the 1930s to refer to the inhabitants of the Soviet republic of Azerbaijan.(Azerbaijan Seven Years of Conflict Nagorno-Karabagh – Human Rights Watch / Helsinki– December 1994 by Human Rights Watch).

So a historical article should not have anachronistic terms.

According to the multi-volume book “History of the East” (“Transcaucasia in XI-XV centuries” in Rostislav Borisovich Rybakov (editor), History of the East. 6 volumes.  v. 2. “East during the Middle Ages: Chapter V., 2002. – ISBN 5-02-017711-3.  http://gumilevica.kulichki.com/HE2/he2510.htm )

What did the USSR mean by Azerbaijani?

Since the ethnonym Azerbaijani for an ethnic group was new, the USSR era did not provide a clear definition.  For example some considered Azerbaijanis to be Medes, others as Turks and others as Caucasian Albanians.  Then there was theories combining some or all of these.  This is another reason why calling Nezami Ganjavi as “Azerbaijani” in the politicized USSR sources lacks clarity.  Do they mean Medes(and the descendant of Iranic Medes like Talysh, Kurds?), or Caucasian Albanians or Turks and etc.

For  example  Bolukbashi mentions(Susha Bolukbashi,  ‘Nation building in Azerbaijan: The Soviet Legacy and the Impact of the Karabakh Conflict’ in Van Schendel, Willem(Editor) . Identity Politics in Central Asia and the Muslim World: Nationalism, Ethnicity and Labour in the Twentieth Century. London , GBR: I. B. Tauris & Company, Limited, 2001.):

Arya Wasserman notes(Aryeh Wasserman, “A Year of Rule by the Popular Front of Azerbaijan” in Yaacov Roi, “Muslim Eurasia”, Routeldge, 1995. pp 150-152.):
{{cquote|The growing interest in the nationalities problem and the rising influence of the ideology of Turkism revived the old controversy over the ethnogenesis of the Azerbaijani people, tha