Akinchi

Akinchi (, ), also transliterated as Ekinchi ("The Cultivator"), was the first Azerbaijani-language newspaper, published in Baku (then part of the Russian Empire, now the capital of the Republic of Azerbaijan) between 1875 and 1877. It was the first newspaper fully printed in Azerbaijani, as well as the first private newspaper in Russia printed in a Turkic language.

==History== Founded by a journalist, teacher, and scientist, and a Moscow University alumnus Hasan bey Zardabi, Akinchi was regarded almost as revolutionary not only as the first periodical published in Azeri, but for being also the means of reaching the masses. In order to make media accessible to lower classes, Zardabi propagated reforms in the literal Azeri language aimed at making it more vernacular by excluding bulky expressions and loanwords from Persian and Arabic used mostly in religious texts and classical poetry. Akinchi hence would often be subject to criticism by the literati who found its written style too colloquial. In fact, it was deliberately chosen to be written and published using simple, colloquial language so the lower, mainly uneducated (back then) masses would find it easier to grasp the main idea behind all those satirical poems and articles