Azerbaijan Democratic Republic Totally Explained

Everything about The Azerbaijan Democratic Republic totally explained

The Azerbaijan Democratic Republic (ADR; ) was the first democratic and secular republic in the Muslim world (pre-dating the Republic of Turkey). The ADR was founded on May 28 1918 after the collapse of the Russian Empire that began with the Russian Revolution of 1917 by Azerbaijani National Council in Tiflis. Its established borders were with Russia in the north, Democratic Republic of Georgia in the north-west, Democratic Republic of Armenia in the west, and Persian Empire in the south. It had a total land area of roughly 120,000 km², and a population of 6 million. Ganja was the temporary capital of the Republic as Baku was under Bolshevik control.
Under the ADR, a government system was developed in which a Parliament elected on the basis of universal, free, and proportionate representation, was the supreme organ of state authority and Council of Ministers held responsible before it. Fatali Khan Khoyski became its first prime-minister . Besides the Azerbaijani nationalist Musavat party majority, Ehrar, Ittihad, Muslim Social-democrats as well as representatives of Armenian (21 out of 120 seats ), Russian, Polish, Jewish and German minorities. Some members supported Pan-Islamist and Pan-Turkist ideas.
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, who ruled over the region of present-day Iranian Azerbaijan. The original etymology of the name is thought to have its roots in ancient Zoroastrianism, namely, in Avestan Frawardin Yasht ("Hymn to the Guardian Angels"), there's a mentioning of: âterepâtahe ashaonô fravashîm ýazamaide, which literally translates from Old Persian as "we worship the Fravashi of the holy Atare-pata". The territory of present-day Republic of Azerbaijan roughly corresponded to the ancient state of Caucasian Albania.

Establishment 1917-1918

After the February Revolution like many ethnic minorities of Transcaucasia, Azeris aimed at seccession from Russia. In the provinces and districts where Azeris constituted considerable population local Muslim National Councils (MNC) were formed. The October Revolution brought the separation of South Caucasus, which dispossessed Tsar Nicholas II of the Russian crown, the Viceroyalty of the Caucasus was abolished by the Russian Provisional Government on March 18 1917, and all authority, except in the zone of the active army, was entrusted to the civil administrative body called the Special Transcaucasian Committee or Ozakom (short for Osobyi Zakavkazskii Komitet, Особый Закавказский Комитет). On March 27, 1917 delegates of MNCs gathered and elected a central committee Mammad Hasan Hajinski, Mammed Amin Rasulzade, Alimardan Topchubashev, Fatali Khan Khoyski, and other founders of the future Azerbaijan Democratic Republic.
The 31 March–2 April massacres took place in Baku and Tbilisi became the headquarters of the Azerbaijani National Movement. After the Transcaucasian Democratic Federative Republic fell on 26 May, 1918 and its bodies were dissolved, the Azerbaijani faction of the was renamed to Azerbaijani National Council (NC). It immediately undertook parliamentary functions and proclaimed the foundation of Azerbaijani Democratic Republic on 28 May, 1918. The Council met with resistance of ultra-nationalists who accused it of being too left-wing. The Council was completely abolished after the opening of the Parliament on 7 December, 1918.

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.

Domestic

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.

Foreign relations

Between 1918 and 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 . The ADR government always remained neutral on the issue of Russian Civil War and never sided with the Red or White Army.

Recognition by Allies

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 .
   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 didn't 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, couldn't be solved prior to the general settlement of the Russian question
   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. 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" .
   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", 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, didn't go much beyond words, the strongest of which were status quo, recognition, demarche, and a list of standard diplomatic remonstrances.

League of Nations

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 .

Persia

The decision to use the name Azerbaijan, drew some protests from Iran. According to Tadeusz Swietochowski:
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.

Armenian-Azerbaijani war

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. As a result, between 3,000 and 12,000 Muslims were killed in what is known as the March Days. 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.
The Bolshevik account of the events of March 1918 in Baku is presented by Victor Serge in Year One Of the Russian Revolution: "The Soviet at Baku, led by Shaumyan, was meanwhile making itself the ruler of the area, discreetly but unmistakably. Following the Moslem rising of 18 March, it had to introduce a dictatorship. This rising, instigated by the Mussavat, set the Tartar and Turkish population, led by their reactionary bourgeoisie, against the Soviet, which consisted of Russians with support from the Armenians. The races began to slaughter each other in the street. Most of the Turkish port-workers (the ambal) either remained neutral or supported the Reds. The contest was won by the Soviets."
   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.
   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), or assassinated by Armenian militants like Fatali Khan Khoyski and Behbudagha Javanshir. 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 didn't surrender their brief independence of 1918-20 quickly or easily. As many as 20,000 died resisting what was effectively a Russian reconquest." 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.

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