East Azerbaijan province

East Azerbaijan Province (Persian: استان آذربایجان شرقی) is one of the 31 provinces of Iran. Its capital is the city of Tabriz.

The province borders Armenia, the Republic of Azerbaijan, Ardabil province, West Azerbaijan province, and Zanjan province. East Azerbaijan is in Region 3 of Iran, with its secretariat located in Tabriz.

East Azerbaijan is one of the most archaic territories in Iran. During the reign of Alexander III of Macedon in Iran (331 BCE), a warrior known as Attorpat led a revolt in this area, then a territory of the Medes, and thereafter it was called Attorpatkan. Since then this vicinity has been known as Azarabadegan, Azarbadgan and Azarbayjan.

Islamic researchers proclaim that the birth of the prophet Zoroaster was in this area, in the vicinity of Lake Orumieh (Chichesht), Konzak City. The area was subject to numerous political and economical upheavals, attracting the interest of foreigners; the Russians in particular have tried to exert a lasting influence in the region over the past 300 years, occupying the area on numerous occasions. The constitutionalist movement of Iran began here in the late 19th century.

Ethnic tensions in Azerbaijan can legally trace their origins back to the colonialist policies of Imperial Russia and later the Soviet Union. In a cable sent on 6 July 1945 by the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, the local Soviet commander in Russian (northern) held Azerbaijan was instructed as such:

Begin preparatory work to form a national autonomous Azerbaijan district with broad powers within the Iranian state and simultaneously develop separatist movements in the provinces of Gilan, Mazandaran, Gorgan, and Khorasan".

In 1945, the Soviet Union helped set up the Azerbaijan People's Government in what is now East Azerbaijan.

Most of the inhabitants are ethnic Azerbaijanis who speak a Turkic language related to Turkish.