The First Republic of Azerbaijan: A State without a Nation

Abstract

The process of forming modern nation-states is the nationalization of belief and consciousness through secularization. Azerbaijan has experienced modernity under Tsarist colonialism. Due to colonialism, the modernization process started without national policy. This article aims to shed light on the research related to the first Republic of Azerbaijan. In this respect, first, a theoretical background was formed, then modernization was addressed in the colonial context, focusing on the formation of modern secular belief in Azerbaijan. Moreover, Turkism was addressed as the basis for the formation of national/political consciousness. The study was built on the problem of why the republic was an incomplete state. The main point of the study is the problem of why the first Republic of Azerbaijan, being the first modern state, is not or cannot institutionally become a competent nation-state. Failure in the adoption of the constitution was used to support the hypothesis of noncompletion of national sovereignty’s construction.