Turks in Azerbaijan, or Turkish Azerbaijanis, () refers to ethnic Turkish people who live in the Republic of Azerbaijan. The community is largely made of Ottoman Turkish descendants who have lived in Azerbaijan for centuries, as well as the Turkish Meskhetian community which arrived in large numbers during Soviet rule. More recently, there has been Turkish migration from the Republic of Turkey, as well as from other post-Ottoman modern nation-states (e.g. from the Balkans, Cyprus and the Levant) and from the Turkish diaspora (e.g. Germany and the Netherlands). History Ottoman migration Ottoman Turks began to settle in Azerbaijan when the region came under the rule of the Ottoman Empire between 1578 and 1603 and then again in the second Ottoman conquest of 1724 until the end of World War I in 1918. The First All-Union Census of the Soviet Union in 1926 recorded 8,570 Ottoman Turks living in the Soviet Union. The Ottoman Turks are no longer listed separately in the census; it is presumed that those who were living in Azerbaijan have either been assimilated into Azerbaijani society or have left the country. Approximately 19,000 descendants of the Ottoman Turks (not including the Meskhetian Turks) are estimated to be living in Azerbaijan. Meskhetian Turks migration The Meskhetian Turks first arrived in Azerbaijan at the end of the nineteenth century, and more followed in 1918-1920. However, migration to Azerbaijan increased dramatically after World War II when the Soviet Union was preparing to launch a pressure campaign against Turkey. Vyacheslav Molotov, then Minister of Foreign Affairs, demanded to the surrender of three Anatolian provinces (Kars, Ardahan and Artvin); thus, war against Turkey seemed possible, and Joseph Stalin wanted to clear the strategic Turkish population situated in Meskheti, located near the Turkish-Georgian border which were likely to be hostile to Soviet intentions. Thus, in 1944, the Meskhetian Turks were forcefully deported from the Meskheti region in Georgia and accused of smuggling, banditry and espionage in collaboration with their kin across the Turkish border. Nationalistic policies at the time encouraged the slogan: "Georgia for Georgians" and that the Meskhetian Turks should be sent to Turkey "where they belong". Joseph Stalin deported the Meskhetian Turks to Central Asia (especially to Uzbekistan), thousands dying en route in cattle-trucks, and were not permitted by the Georgian government of Zviad Gamsakhurdia to return to their homeland. Between the late 1950s and 1970s, about 25,000 to 30,000 Meskhetian