The Sangilo district, bordering Georgia and Russia, lies in the northwestern corner of Azerbaijan in the Sheki region of the country.
Once forming the easternmost reaches of neighbouring Georgia, it was incorporated into the Azerbaijan Socialist Soviet Republic in 1921 under the auspices of Moscow, and is home to a number of differing ethnic minorities including Lezgins, Khakurs, Avars, Mugals and a small Georgian population known as Ingilos.
However, since the 1960’s and 70’s, there has been an increasing influx of ethnic Azerbaijanis resulting in the gradual disappearance of Ingilo settlements, way of life and representation in local government.
Further to the increasing settlement of ethnic Azerbaijanis in the region, the encouragement of national identities in former Soviet republics also contributed to the erosion of the Ingilos identity. In Azerbaijan, which technically did not exist before Soviet rule, Azeri historians, poets and intellectuals created visions of the country that advocated a perception in which their own ethnic group was the legitimate heir of a long and rich civilisation, developing an autochthonous status for itself and language. As a result, once independence came in 1991, other ethnic groups in the country, including the Ingilo, did not enjoy similar recognition; their history negated and their status downgraded to that of newcomers, whether they arrived a century, three centuries or ten centuries ago.
‘The Ingilo: Azerbaijan’s Forgotten Georgians’ attempts to shed light on a hitherto unknown facet of the Caucasus and capture a community whose increasing isolation is resulting in a steady migration from their own homelands to Georgia in search of a better life.
