Ethnic groups in the Caucasus

Azerbaijanis (; , ), Azeris or Azerbaijani Turks (, ) are a Turkic ethnic group living mainly in the Azerbaijan region of northwestern Iran and the Republic of Azerbaijan. They are the largest ethnic group in the Republic of Azerbaijan and the second-largest ethnic group in neighboring Iran and Georgia. They speak the Azerbaijani language, belonging to the Oghuz branch of the Turkic languages, and predominantly practice Shia Islam.

Turkic ethnic group

Turkmens (, , , ) are a Turkic ethnic group native to Central Asia, living mainly in Turkmenistan, northern and northeastern regions of Iran and north-western Afghanistan. Sizeable groups of Turkmens are found also in Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, and the North Caucasus (Stavropol Krai). They speak the Turkmen language, which is classified as a part of the Eastern Oghuz branch of the Turkic languages.

thumb|300px|Sarmatian cataphracts depicted on [[Trajan's Column, 2nd century CE.]]

The Alans () were an ancient and medieval Iranic nomadic pastoral people who migrated to what is today the North Caucasus; some continued on to Europe and later North Africa. They are generally regarded as part of the Sarmatians, and possibly related to the Massagetae. Modern historians have connected the Alans with the Central Asian Yancai of Chinese sources and with the Aorsi of Roman sources. Having migrated westwards and becoming dominant among the Sarmatians on the Pontic–Caspian steppe, the Alans are mentioned by Roman sources in the . At that time they had settled in the region north of

The Cimmerians were an ancient Eastern Iranic equestrian nomadic people originating in the Pontic–Caspian steppe, part of whom subsequently migrated into West Asia. Although the Cimmerians were culturally Scythian, they were ethnically distinct from the Scythians proper, to whom the Cimmerians were related and who displaced and replaced the Cimmerians.

descendants of the local Jewish populations of North Africa and the Middle East

ethnic group

diverse group comprising more than 50 ethnic groups

ethnic group

Urums (, ; , Urúm; Turkish and Crimean Tatar: Urum, ) are several groups of Turkic-speaking Greek Orthodox people native to Crimea, northeastern Turkey and Transcaucasia. The emergence and development of the Urum identity took place from 13th to the 17th centuries. Bringing together the Crimean Greeks along with Greek-speaking Crimean Alans and Crimean Goths, with other indigenous groups that had long inhabited the region, resulting in a gradual transformation of their collective identity.

cossack host

ethnic group

The Dandarii or Dandaridae were an ancient people dwelling along the Palus Maeotis in antiquity. Strabo describes them as living among the Maeotae, Sindi, Toreatae, Agri, Arrechi, Tarpetes, Obidiaceni, Sittaceni, Dosci, and Aspurgiani, among others. The Dandarii were one of the Maeotae tribes, who lived in the 1st millennium BC on the east and the south-eastern coast of the Azov sea. In the Great Soviet Encyclopedia, they were concluded to have been one of the ancestors to the Circassians. Maeotae were engaged in farming and fishing. In the 4th–3rd centuries BC many of the Maeotae tribes were

thumb|Durdzuks (Цурцукы) on Prince Vakhushti of Kartli|Vakhushti's map in 1745 located between the Kisti (Кисты) and [[Gligvi (Глигвы).]] thumb|"Dourdsoukethi" (Mitcheghi). Atlas of the Caucasus. Dubois de Montpereux F., 1843 The Durdzuks (), also known as Dzurdzuks, was a medieval exonym of the 9th-18th centuries used mainly in Georgian, Arabic, but also Armenian sources in reference to the Vainakh peoples (Chechens and Ingush).