on the term azeri see that section of my full article on this overall the formation of azerbaijani turkish ethnic group is from the th th century but the ussr usage of azerbaijani was not clear the ethnonym azerbaijani though is very recently and dates back to the early th or late th 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 up until that point azerbaijan had been a purely geographical area before 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 s to refer to the inhabitants of the soviet republic of azerbaijan azerbaijan seven years of conflict nagorno karabagh human rights watch helsinki december 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 volumes v east during the middle ages chapter v isbn 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 arya wasserman notes aryeh wasserman a year of rule by the popular front of azerbaijan in yaacov roi muslim eurasia routeldge pp 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