Post-Soviet Nation State as a Sponsor of Construction of the Ethno-National Diaspora: Azeri’s Case

The policy of constructing an Azeri ethno-national diaspora started to be intensively implemented in the early 21st century. However, the formation of this purposeful policy was preceded by various events that demonstrated a constantly increasing interest on the part of the state in ethnic Azeris living in various countries of the world. This paper presents the results of the research into the process of formation of diaspora politics in Azerbaijan and also analyses the aims and specifics of the mechanisms of its implementation. The first one, the discourse practice, refers to the discursive effect of truth within the context of which “diaspora” acquires the features of a true, large, joint and homogenous community united by common goals. The second is the bureaucratic practice of the production of a hierarchically structured and co-subordinated organization structure. The bureaucratization of social networks of Azeris in the world occurs in 2000-th years, as a result of which an organizational structure of diaspora is constructed. This structure is uniform from local organisation up to those which represent all ethnic communities with “a Minister for the Diaspora” at its head and subordinated directly to the pan-Azeri president.