you can t call sources hardly academic if they contradict iranica as iranica is not the only but one of the academic sources and it has also some biases as every academic source has and coming to the claim that baku was mentioned before tukic tribes arrived in caucausus it is simple untrue because i can provide at least three russian sources which mention turkic tribes in baku area in the same time of possibly centuries of Baku s foundation According to Artomonov istoriya khazar published in leningrad in 1962 in page 53 turkic tribes first appear in caucasus in 395 AD another scholar yeremeyev in his book etnogenez turok published in 1970 in moscow writes Beginning from III IV centuries turkic tribes became permanent neighbours of people of Asia minor and caucasus and balkans and were influxing into this areas actively and Pletneva in her book xazari published in moscow in 1976 writes that in 586 turkic tribes of suvars were defeated by another turkic tribe avars after this suvars settled moved to caucasian albania