The 'Azerbaijan Democratic Republic' ('ADR';
Azerbaijani: Azərbaycan Xalq Cümhuriyyəti) was the first
democratic and
secular republic in the
Muslim world (pre-dating the
Republic of Turkey). It was founded on
May 28 1918 by
Azerbaijani National Council in
Tiflis [1]. Because
Baku was under
Bolshevik control,
Ganja was chosen as the temporary capital of the Republic, and
Fatali Khan Khoyski became its first prime-minister
[2].
Under the ADR, a government system was developed in which a Parliament elected on the basis of universal, free, secret, and proportionate representation, was the supreme organ of state authority and Council of Ministers held responsible before it. Besides the Azerbaijani nationalist
Musavat party majority, which supported some Pan-Islamist and Pan-Turkist ideas
[3][4][5][6][7][8], the Parliament included independent MPs and MPs from other Muslim parties (such as
Ehrar,
Ittihad,
Muslim Social-democrats) as well as representatives of
Armenian,
Russian,
Polish,
Jewish and
German minorities
[9]. The Armenians held 21 out of 120 seats
[10]. The office of the Chairman of the Parliament was the highest office of the Republic. The Parliament also appointed the prime minister, who then formed the cabinet subject to the approval of the Parliament
[11].
Among the important accomplishments of the Parliament was the extension of suffrage to women, making
Azerbaijan the first Muslim state in the world to give women equal political rights with men
10. In this accomplishment, Azerbaijan preceded even such developed countries as the
United Kingdom and the
United States. Another important accomplishment of ADR was the establishment of
Baku State University, which was the first modern-type university founded in Azerbaijan.
Etymology and usage
Main articles: History of the name Azerbaijan
The territory of the Azerbaijan Democratic Republic roughly corresponds to the region historically known as ''Aghvania'' to its natives, ''Alvan-k''
[12][13] in
Armenian, 'Ardhan'' in
Parthian, ''
Arran''
in
Middle Persian, ''
Caucasus Albania''
in the
Greco-Roman world, and ''Al-ran''
(Arabized form of ''Arran'') in
Arabic. From the 1740s until the Russian conquest of the Caucasus, the region was split up into separate
khanates, and from the mid 19th century up until 1917, the South Caucasus was divided into Russian provinces, such as
Baku Governorate and
Elisabethpol Governorate, among others.
The name Azerbaijan was chosen as the name for this country in 1918 by the
Musavats[14] for political reasons, hoping to annex north western Iran.
[15][14] The name Azerbaijan itself is thought to be derived from ''
Atropates'', an
Iranian Median satrap (governor), who ruled a region found in modern
Iranian Azarbaijan called ''
Atropatene''.
[17] Atropates name is believed to be derived from the
Old Persian roots meaning "protected by fire."
[18] The name is also mentioned in the
Avestan Frawardin Yasht: ''âterepâtahe ashaonô fravashîm ýazamaide'' which translates literally to: We worship the Fravashi of the holy Atare-pata.
[19]
Recognition
The Azerbaijani delegation attended the
Paris Peace Conference, 1919. Upon its arrival in Paris, the Azerbaijani delegation addressed a note to
U.S. President Woodrow Wilson, making the following requests:
::1. That the independence of Azerbaijan be recognized,
::2. That Wilsonian principles be applied to Azerbaijan,
::3. That the Azerbaijani delegation be admitted to the Paris Peace Conference,
::4. That Azerbaijan be admitted to the League of Nations,
::5. That the United States War Department extend military help to Azerbaijan, and
::6. That diplomatic relations be established between the United States of America and the Republic of Azerbaijan
[20].
President Wilson granted the Azerbaijani delegation an audience, at which he displayed a cold and rather unsympathetic attitude. As the Azerbaijani delegation reported to its Government, Wilson had stated that the Conference did not want to partition the world into small pieces. Wilson advised the Azerbaijanis that it would be better for them to develop a spirit of confederation, and that such a confederation of all peoples of Transcaucasia could receive the protection of some Power on the basis of a mandate granted by the League of Nations. The Azerbaijani question, Wilson concluded, could not be solved prior to the general settlement of the Russian question
[21]
However, despite Wilson's attitude, on January 12, 1920, the
Allied Supreme Council extended ''de facto'' recognition to Azerbaijan, along with Georgia, and ahead of Armenia.
[22] ''Bulletin d'information de l'Azerbaidjan'' wrote: "The Supreme Council at one of its last sessions recognized the ''de facto'' independence of the Caucasian Republics: Azerbaijan, Georgia, and Armenia. The delegation of Azerbaijan and Georgia had been notified of this decision by M. Jules Cambon at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs on 15th January, 1920"
[23].
Furthermore, in the House of Commons the [British] Under Secretary for Foreign Affairs,
Mr. Greenwood, was asked on what date recognition had been extended to Georgia, Azerbaijan, and Armenia, and whether "in accordance with such recognition, official representatives have been exchanged, and the boundaries of the Transcaucasian Republics defined"
[24], Mr. Greenwood replied:
The Allies recognized the Transcaucasian Republics partly because of their fear of Bolshevism, but their activities directed against Bolshevism, at least in Transcaucasia, did not go much beyond words, the strongest of which were ''status quo'', recognition, ''demarche'', and a list of standard diplomatic remonstrances.
[25]
Due to occupation and cessation of the existence of ADR on 27-28 April 1920, the application for ''de jure'' recognition and membership in the
League of Nations, made on 1 November 1920, was turned down on 24 November 1920 .
Politics of the ADR
Political life in ADR was dominated by
Musavat Party, the local winner of the
Constituent Assembly elections of 1917. First parliament of the republic opened on December 5, 1918. Musavat had 38 of its members in the parliament that consisted of 125 deputies, and with the some independent MPs formed the biggest faction. The republic was governed by five cabinets, all formed by a coalition of the Musavat and other parties including
Muslim Socialist Bloc, the Independents,
Ehrar, the
Muslim Social Democratic Party. Conservative
Ittihad party was the major opposition force and didn't participate in the cabinet formations, except its member was State
Inspector General in the last Cabinet. The premier in the first three cabinets was
Fatali Khan Khoyski; in the last two,
Nasibbek Usubbekov. The formation of the next cabinet was assigned to
Mammed Hasan Hajinski, but he was unable to form it, due to lack of time and majority backing in the parliament, and also
Bolshevik invasion. The Chairman of the Parliament,
Alimardan Topchubashev, was recognized as the head of state. In this capacity he represented Azerbaijan at the Versailles Paris Peace Conference in 1919.
Policy
Despite existing for only two short years, the multi party Azerbaijani Parliamentary republic and the coalition governments managed to achieve a number of measures on national and state building, education, creation of an army, independent financial and economic systems, international recognition of the ADR as a de facto state pending de jure recognition, official recognitions and diplomatic relations with a number of states, preparing of a Constitution, equal rights for all, etc. This has laid an important foundation for the re-establishment of independence in 1991.
Foreign policy
Between 1918-1920, the Republic of Azerbaijan had diplomatic relations with a number of states. Agreements on the principles of mutual relations were signed with some of them; sixteen states established their missions in Baku
[26]. The ADR government always remained
neutral on the issue of
Russian Civil War and never sided with the
Red or
White Army.
Azerbaijan and Persia
The decision to use
the name Azerbaijan, drew some protests from Iran. According to Tadeusz Swietochowski
[27]:
On 16th of July, 1919, the Council of Ministers [of ADR] appointed Adil Khan Ziatkhan, who had up to that time served as Assistant Minister of Foreign Affairs, diplomatic representative of Azerbaijan to the court of the Persian King of Kings
[28]. A Persian delegation headed by Seyed Ziaed-Din Tabatai came to Baku, to negotiate transit, tarriff, mail, customs, and other such agreements. Speeches were made in which the common bonds between Caucasian Azerbaijan and Iran were stressed
[29].
Territorial disputes
Much like its other counterparts in the
Caucasus, the ADR's early years of existence were plagued with territorial disputes. In particular, these included disputes with the
Democratic Republic of Armenia (
Nakhchivan,
Nagorno-Karabakh, Zangezur (today the Armenian province of
Syunik), and
Qazakh) and the
Democratic Republic of Georgia (
Balakan,
Zaqatala, and
Qakh). The ADR also claimed territories of the
Mountainous Republic of the Northern Caucasus (
Derbent), but they were not as persistent about these claims as they were about the territories they disputed between Armenia and Georgia.
The fight for Baku
Main articles: Armenian-Azerbaijani war (1918 - 1920)
The city of
Baku became the capital of the ADR only in September, 1918 (until that time the Azeri National Government was first in
Tblisi, then in
Ganja); previously, the city was in many different hands. Following the
October Revolution, a government of the local
Soviet was established in Baku: the so-called Baku Commune (November 1917 - 31 July 1918). The Commune was formed by 85
Social Revolutionaries and
Left Social Revolutionaries, 48
Bolsheviks, 36
Dashnaks, 18
Musavatists and 13
Mensheviks.
Stepan Shaumyan, a Bolshevik, and
Prokopius Dzhaparidze, a leftist SR, were elected Chairmen of the Council of People's Commissioners of the Commune of Baku. The Baku Soviet was at odds with emergent Transcaucasian Federation and was supportive of Bolshevik governments in most areas, except peace treaty with Ottoman Empire. Uneasy truce existed between different faction, until Treaty of Brest-Litovsk exposed weakness of the coalition.
In March 1918, ethnic and religious tension grew and the Armenian-Azeri conflict in Baku began. Musavat and Ittihad parties were accused of
Pan-Turkism by Bolsheviks and their allies. Armenian and Muslim militia engaged in armed confrontation, with the formally neutral Bolsheviks tacitly supporting the Armenian side. All the non-Azeri political groups of the city joined the Bolsheviks against the Muslims: Bolsheviks,
Dashnaks, Social Revolutionaries, Mensheviks and even the anti-bolshevik
Kadets found themselves for the first time on the same side of the barricade because they were all fighting "for the Russian cause". Equating the Azeris with the Ottoman Turks, the Dashnaks launched a massacre on the city's Azeris in revenge for the
Armenian Genocide in the
Ottoman Empire.
[30] [31] As a result, between 3,000 and 12,000 Muslims were killed in what is known as the
March Days.
[32][33][34][35] Muslims were expelled from Baku, or went underground. At the same time the Baku Commune was involved in heavy fighting with the advancing Ottoman Caucasian Army of Islam in and around Ganja. Major battles occurred in Yevlakh and Agdash, where the Turks routed and defeated Dashnak and Russian forces.
In the summer of 1918, the Dashnaks, together with the SRs and the Mensheviks, expelled the
Bolsheviks, who refused to ask for British support, and founded the
Centro Caspian Dictatorship (1 August 1918 - 15 September 1918). The CCD was supported by the
British who sent an expeditionary force to Baku to help the Armenians and the
Mensheviks. Fleeing the coup, the
26 Baku Commissars of the Soviet Commune were captured by British troops in
Turkmenistan and executed by a
firing squad. The purpose of the British forces (led by
Major General Lionel Dunsterville, who arrived from
Persia's
Enzeli at the head of a 1,000-strong elite force) was to seize the oil fields in Baku ahead of
Enver Pasha's advancing Turkish troops (
Army of Islam) or the
Kaiser's
German troops (who were in neighboring Georgia) and to block a Bolshevik consolidation in the
Caucasus and
Central Asia.
Unable to resist advancing Turkish troops during the
Battle of Baku, Dunsterville ordered the evacuation of the city on
September 14, after six weeks of occupation, and withdrew to Iran; most of the Armenian population escaped with British forces. The Ottoman
Army of Islam and its Azeri allies, led by
Nuri Pasha, entered Baku on
September 15 and slaughtered between 10,000 - 20,000 Armenians in retaliation for the March massacre of Muslims.
The capital of the ADR was finally moved from Ganja to Baku. However, after the
Armistice of Mudros between Great Britain and Turkey on October 30, Turkish troops were substituted by the
Allies of World War I. Headed by British general W. Thomson, who had declared himself the military governor of Baku, 5,000
Commonwealth soldiers arrived in Baku on
November 17, 1918. By General Thomson's order,
martial law was implemented in Baku.
Fight for survival
The ADR found itself in a difficult position, hemmed in from the north by advancing
Denikin forces, unfriendly Iran in the south; the British administration was not hostile but indifferent to the plight of Muslims. General Thomson initially did not recognize the Republic but tacitly cooperated with it. On
April 25,
1919, a violent protest organized by
talysh workers of pro-Bolshevik orientation exploded in
Lankaran and deposed the
Mughan Territorial Administration, a military dictatorship led by russian colonel V.T. Sukhorukov. On
May 15, the Extraordinary Congress of the "Councils of Workers' and Peasants' Deputies" of Lankaran district proclaimed the ''
Mughan Soviet Republic''. By mid-1919 the situation in Azerbaijan had more or less stabilized, and British forces left in August 19, 1919.
This made the ADR pursue a neutral policy with regards to the Russian Civil War. On
June 16,
1919, the ADR and Georgia signed a defensive treaty against the White troops of General
Anton Denikin's
Volunteer Army who were threatening to start an offensive on their borders. Denikin concluded a secret military pact with Armenia. The Republic of Armenia with its forces formed the 7th corps of Denikin's army and gained military support from the White Movement. This fact increased the tension between the ADR and Armenia. However, the war never materialized as by January 1920, Denikin's army was completely defeated by the
XI Red Army, that later started to concentrate its troops on Azerbaijan's borders.
Armenia and Azerbaijan were engaged in
fighting over Karabakh for some part of 1919. The fighting increased in intensity by February 1920 and martial law was introduced in Karabakh, which was enforced by the newly formed National Army, led by general
Samedbey Mehmandarov.
Sovietization of Azerbaijan, April 1920
Flag of the Azerbaijan Soviet Socialist Republic from 1920 to 1921
By March 1920, it was obvious that Soviet Russia would attack the much-needed Baku.
Vladimir Lenin said that the invasion was justified by the fact that
Soviet Russia couldn't survive without Baku oil. According to prevailing opinion in Moscow, Russian
Bolsheviks were to assist Baku
proletariat in overthrowing the "counter-revolutionary nationalists."
After major political crisis, the Fifth Cabinet of Ministers of the Azerbaijan Democratic Republic gave its resignations on
April 1,
1920. On
April 25, 1920, the
Russian
XI Red Army crossed into Azerbaijan and entered Baku on
April 27. They demanded the dissolution of Azerbaijani Parliament (Majlis) and set up their own Bolshevik government headed by
Nariman Narimanov. The deputies obliged to do so to avoid bloodshed, and on
April 28, 1920, the ADR officially ceased to exist. The Red Army met very little resistance from Azerbaijani forces in Baku, which were tied up on Karabakh front. At Narimanov's initiative, the first
Communist government of Azerbaijan consisted almost entirely of native Azerbaijanis from the left factions of ''Hummat'' and ''Adalat'' parties.
[37]
In May 1920, there was a major uprising against the occupying Russian XI Army in
Ganja, intent on restoring
Musavatists in power. The uprising was crushed by government troops by May 31. Leaders of the ADR either fled to
Menshevik Georgia, Turkey and Iran, or were captured by Bolsheviks, like
Mammed Amin Rasulzade (who was later allowed to emigrate) and executed (like Gen. Selimov, Gen. Sulkevich, Gen. Agalarov, a total of over 20 generals)
[38], or assassinated by Armenian militants like
Fatali Khan Khoyski and Behbudagha Javanshir.
[39] Most students and citizens travelling abroad remained in those countries never to return again to their country. Other prominent ADR military figures like the former Minister of Defense General
Samedbey Mehmandarov and deputy defense minister General
Ali-Agha Shikhlinski (who was called "the God of Artillery" ) were at first arrested, but then released two months later thanks to efforts of
Nariman Narimanov. Gen. Mehmandarov and Gen. Shikhlinsky spent their last years teaching in the
Azerbaijan SSR military school.
In the end, "[t]he Azeris did not surrender their brief independence of 1918-20 quickly or easily. As many as 20,000 died resisting what was effectively a Russian reconquest."
[40] However, it has to be noticed that the installation of the Azerbaijan Soviet Socialist Republic was made easier by the fact that there was a certain popular support for Bolshevik ideology in Azerbaijan, in particular among the industrial workers in Baku.
[41]
Footnotes
1. Kazemzadeh, Firuz. "The Struggle For Transcaucasia: 1917-1921", ''The New York Philosophical Library'', 1951, p. 124.
2. La Chesnais, P.G. ''Les peuples de la Transcaucasie pendant la guerre et devant la paix'', Paris, 1921, pp. 108-110.
3. Musavat Party (Azerbaijan)
4. Pan-Turkism: From Irrendentism to Coopersation by Jacob M. Landau P.55
5. On the Religious Frontier: Tsarist Russia and Islam in the Caucasus by Firouzeh Mostashari P. 144
6. ''Ethnic Nationalism and the Fall of Empires'' by Aviel Roshwald, page 100
7. Disaster and Development: The politics of Humanitarian Aid by Neil Middleton and Phil O'keefe P. 132
8. The Armenian-Azerbaijan Conflict: Causes and Implications by Michael P. Croissant P. 14
9. http://www.cac-biodiversity.org/aze/aze_history.htm
10. Kazemzadeh, Firuz, ''open citation'', p. 222.
11. ''Claims of the peace delegation of the Republic of Caucasian Azerbaijan presented to the Paris Peace Conference'', Paris, 1919, pp. 25-26.
12. V. Minorsky. Caucasica IV. Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London, Vol. 15, No. 3. (1953), p. 504
13. "Arran". ''Encyclopaeida Iranica''. By C.E Bosworth
14. The Paths of History – Igor M. Diakonoff, Contributor Geoffery Alan Hosking, Published in the year 1999, Cambridge University Press, pg 100
15. V. V. Bartold, "Collection of Works", Vol. II, Part I, Moscow, 1963, p. 703
16. The Paths of History – Igor M. Diakonoff, Contributor Geoffery Alan Hosking, Published in the year 1999, Cambridge University Press, pg 100
17. ''Historical Dictionary of Azerbaijan'' by Tadeusz Swietochowski and Brian C. Collins, ISBN 0-8108-3550-9 (retrieved 07 June 2006).
18. ''The Azerbaijani Turks: Power and Identity under Russian Rule'' by Audrey Altstadt, ISBN 0-8179-9182-4 (retrieved 07 June 2006).
19. FRAWARDIN YASHT ("Hymn to the Guardian Angels"). Translated by James Darmesteter (From Sacred Books of the East, American Edition, 1898.).
20. ''Bulletin d'Information de l'Azerbaidjan'', No. I, September 1, 1919, pp. 6-7
21. ''Report of the Delegation'', No. 7, June, 1919, Fund of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Dossier No. 3, p. 7, as cited in Raevskii, ''Английская интервенция и Мусаватское правительство'', p. 53
22. Prof. Avtandil Menteshashvili, "From the history of relations of Georgian democratic Republic with Soviet Russia and Entente". 1918-1921. Tbilisi State University: October 1989.
23. ''Bulletin d'information de l'Azerbaidjan'', No. 7, January, 1920, p. 1
24. Firuz Kazemzadeh. ''Struggle For Transcaucasia (1917-1921)'', New York Philosophical Library, 1951, p. 269
25. Firuz Kazemzadeh. ''Struggle For Transcaucasia (1917-1921)'', New York Philosophical Library, 1951, p. 270.
26. Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Azerbaijan.
27. Tadeusz Swietochowski, Russia and Azerbaijan: A Borderland in Transition (New York: Columbia University Press, 1995. pg 69
28. "Внешняя политика контрреволюционных правительств в начале 1919-го года", ''Красный Архив'', No. 6 (37), 1929, p. 94.
29. Kazemzadeh, Firuz. ''open citation'', p. 229.
30. Michael P. Croissant. ''The Armenia-Azerbaijan Conflict: Causes and Implications'', p. 14. ISBN 0-275-96241-5
31. Tadeusz Swietochowski. ''Russia and Azerbaijan: A Borderland in Transition''. ISBN 0-231-07068-3
32. Firuz Kazemzadeh, Ph.D. ''The Struggle For Transcaucasia: 1917-1921''. ISBN 0-8305-0076-6
33. Michael Smith. Azerbaijan and Russia: Society and State: Traumatic Loss and Azerbaijani National Memory
34. Human Rights Watch. “Playing the "Communal Card": Communal Violence and Human Rights”
35. Michael G. Smith. Anatomy of a Rumour: Murder Scandal, the Musavat Party and Narratives of the Russian Revolution in Baku, 1917-20. Journal of Contemporary History, Vol. 36, No. 2 (Apr., 2001), pp. 211-240
36. Croissant. ''Armenia-Azerbaijan Conflict'', p. 15.
37. Richard Pipes. ''The Formation of the Soviet Union: Communism and Nationalism 1917-1923'', pp 218-220, 229 (Cambridge, Massachusetts, 1997).
38. List of Azerbaijani Generals and Admirals, Military Leaders and Heroes, May 2006
39. "The Fate of some of the ADR Parliament Members", Azerbaijan International (7.3) Autumn 1999
40.
Hugh Pope, "Sons of the conquerors: the rise of the Turkic world", New York: The Overlook Press, 2006, p. 116, ISBN-10 1-58567-804-X
41. Svante Cornell. "Undeclared War-The Nagorno-Karabakh Conflict Reconsidered", ''Journal of South Asian and Middle Eastern Studies'', vol. 20, no. 4, Fall 1997
See also
★
Democratic Republic of Armenia
★
Democratic Republic of Georgia
External links
★
Account of British Force in Baku
العربية
中国
Français
Deutsch
Ελληνική
हिन्दी
Italiano
日本語
Português
Русский
Español![Cafe Havana, Guam\](images/articles/thumbs/cafehavanathumb.jpg "Cafe Havana, Guam\")
