Shaping National Identity in post-Soviet Azerbaijan

The breakup of the Soviet Union and the founding of the independent Republic of Azerbaijan presented to the new/old communist leaders of Azerbaijan a major challenge of reconstructing a new Azerbaijani national identity. The state education system and the textbooks were two of the main tools by which these leaders tried to meet with this challenge. This book examines how Azerbaijani national identity was shaped in the new textbooks during the post-Soviet Azerbaijan period. This book aims first and foremost to give a broad as possible picture on the way in which an Azerbaijani pupil is exposed to a system of concepts, symbols and ideas adopted by the leaders of the Republic of Azerbaijan, in order to build a new Azerbaijani national identity.