State of education of the Azerbaijani Population in Western Azerbaijan in the Context of Demographic and Ethnic Changes (Late 19th – Early 20th Century)
Saida Guliyeva1 
, Hikmat Ahmadov1* , Elshad Baghirov1
Abstract. In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, as a result of the Russian Empire's resettlement policy, the Azerbaijani population of the Erivan Governorate, the indigenous inhabitants of the region, gradually lost its ethnic predominance, while the number of resettled Armenians increased. Based on statistical data from the Russian imperial period, the article traces changes in the population's ethnic composition and examines how educational opportunities for the Azerbaijani population took shape against this background. It analyzes the activity of traditional educational institutions (maktab, madrasa) and secular (gymnasium, teachers' seminary, new-type schools). Using historical-demographic and comparative-statistical methods of analysis, the article shows that, in response to demographic pressure, Western Azerbaijani society developed a dual educational model: the parallel functioning of a religious network of maktab’s and madrasa’s and a secular network of gymnasiums and seminaries. This situation ensured the preservation of language, religion, and cultural identity, and at the same time laid the groundwork for the formation of a national intelligentsia.
Keywords: Western Azerbaijan, Erivan Governorate, historical demography, history of education, maktab and madrasa, national intelligentsia