Azerbaijani is a Turkic language spoken by about 31 million people mainly in Azerbaijani, Iran, Iraq, Georgia, Armenia, Turkey, Syria and Russia. There are two main varieties of the language: North Azerbaijani and South Azerbaijani. North Azerbaijani is spoken in Azerbaijan by about six million people, in Armenia by about 160,000 people, in Georgia by about 285,000 people and by about 112,000 people in Russian Dagestan. South Azerbaijani has about 23.5 million speakers in Iran, 530,000 in Turkey, 300,000 in Iraq, 30,000 in Syria and by small groups in Afghanistan. The language is also known as Azeri, Azari, Azeri Turkish, or Azerbaijani Turkish.