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Azerbaijan Democratic RepublicAzərbaycan Xalq Cümhuriyyəti
1918–1920
Flag Coat of arms
Motto: None
Anthem: Azərbaycan Respublikasının Dövlət Himni March of Azerbaijan
Map of the Azerbaijan Democratic Republic from 1919 to 1920. Consult the legend for further information.Map of the Azerbaijan Democratic Republic from 1919 to 1920. Consult the legend for further information.
Capital	Ganja (until September 1918); Baku (since 15 September 1918)
Common languages	Azerbaijani
Government	Republic
Prime Minister
Speaker
History
• Independence from the Transcaucasian Democratic Federative Republic	28 May 1918
• Soviet invasion of Baku	28 April 1920
Population
• 1918	c. 3,000,000 +
ISO 3166 code	AZ
Preceded by Succeeded by Transcaucasian Democratic Federative Republic Transcaucasian SFSR

Azerbaijan Democratic Republic (ADR; Azerbaijani : Azərbaycan Xalq Cümhuriyyəti) was the first modern establishment of an Azerbaijani republic. It was founded on May 28 1918, with Ganja as its capital. The ADR proclaimed itself a sovereign and independent country after the collapse of the Transcaucasian Democratic Federative Republic. It was the first democratic and secular state in the Islamic world (pre-dating the Republic of Turkey). Furthermore, it allowed for universal suffrage. In Azerbaijan, women voted for the first time during the Russian Constituent Assembly election on November 25, 1917. At the same time, in most western countries (including the United Kingdom and most of the United States), women had no right to vote.

On 12 January 1920 at the Paris Peace Conference, 1919 the Supreme Council of the Allied Powers de-facto recognized the independence of the Republic of Azerbaijan. 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.

Etymology

The name Azerbaijan itself is thought to be derived from Atropates, a Median satrap (governor), who ruled a region found in modern Azarbaijan called Atropatene. Atropates name means "protected by fire." 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.

Politics of the ADR

Political life in ADR was dominated by Musavat (Equality) 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. The republic was governed by five cabinets, all formed by a coalition of the Musavat and other parties including the Socialist Bloc, the Independents, the Liberals, the Social-Democratic Party Hummat (or Endeavor) Party and the Conservative Ittihadi-Muslumun. The premier in the first three cabinets was Fatali Khan Khoyski; in the last two, Nasib Yusufbayli. The president 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.

The parliament of ADR included Azerbaijani as well as Russian, Armenian, Jewish and Georgian parties .

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.

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

The first Prime Minister of ADR, Fatali Khan Khoyski established close ties with Turkey, Azerbaijan's traditional ally (during the period of the Transcaucasian Democratic Federative Republic, Ottoman Turkey supported Azerbaijan, Germany supported Georgia and Great Britain supported Armenia).

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 (Nakhichevan, 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 (significant portions of southern Dagestan including 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

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 Transcausian 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.

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History of Azerbaijan
Prehistory Stone Age  • Bronze Age  • Iron Age Shulaveri–Shomu culture c.6000–c.4000 BC Chalcolithic culture of Nakhchivan c.4945–c.3800 BC Leyla-Tepe culture c.4350–c.4000 BC Kura–Araxes culture c.3400–c.2000 BC Nakhchivan culture c.3000–c.2000 BC Talish–Mughan culture c.1400–c.700 BC Khojaly–Gadabay culture c.1300–c.700 BC
Antiquity Kingdom of Iškuza c.700 BC–c.590s BC Achaemenid Empire 550 BC–330 BC       • Satrapy of Media c.550 BC – 323 BC Seleucid Empire 312 BC – 63 BC Parthian Empire 247 BC – AD 224 Caucasian Albania c.200 BC – c.AD 800 Roman Empire 27 BC – AD 395
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Modern history Transcaucasian Commissariat 1917–1918       • March Days 1918 Transcaucasian Democratic Federative Republic 1918 Baku Commune 1918 Centrocaspian Dictatorship 1918 Republic of Aras 1918–1919 Mughan Soviet Republic 1919 Azerbaijan Democratic Republic 1918 - 1920       • Armenian–Azerbaijani War 1918–1920           • Battle of Baku 1918       • Red Army invasion of Azerbaijan 1920 Azerbaijan Socialist Soviet Republic 1920–1922       • Treaty of Kars 1921 Soviet Union 1922–1991       • Transcaucasian SFSR 1922–1936           • Azerbaijan SSR 1922–1936       • Azerbaijan SSR 1936–1991           • World War II 1941–1945           • Black January 1990       • Republic of Azerbaijan 1991
Contemporary history Republic of Azerbaijan 1991–present       • I Nagorno-Karabakh War 1988–1994           • Bishkek Protocol 1994       • II Nagorno-Karabakh War 2020           • Ceasefire Agreement 2020
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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. As a result, between 3,000 and 12,000 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.

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, 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. Qajar Iran objected to Azerbaijan's independence, and protested the chosen name for the republic. 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 Talysh-Mughan Socialist 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

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.

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 Samedbey Mehmandarov and general Ali-Agha Shikhlinski (who was called "the God of Artillery" ) were at first arrested but then released two months later thanks to Nariman Narimanov. Mehmandarov and Shikhlinsky spent their last years teaching in the Azerbaijan SSR military school.

Footnotes

1. Historical Dictionary of Azerbaijan by Tadeusz Swietochowski and Brian C. Collins, ISBN 0-8108-3550-9 (retrieved 07 June 2006).
2. The Azerbaijani Turks: Power and Identity under Russian Rule by Audrey Altstadt, ISBN 0-8179-9182-4 (retrieved 07 June 2006).
3. FRAWARDIN YASHT ("Hymn to the Guardian Angels"). Translated by James Darmesteter (From Sacred Books of the East, American Edition, 1898.).
4. Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Azerbaijan
5. Michael P. Croissant. The Armenia-Azerbaijan Conflict: Causes and Implications, p. 14. ISBN 0-275-96241-5
6. ^ Tadeusz Swietochowski. Russia and Azerbaijan: A Borderland in Transition. ISBN 0-231-07068-3
7. Firuz Kazemzadeh, Ph.D. The Struggle For Transcaucasia: 1917-1921. ISBN 0-8305-0076-6
8. Template:Ru icon Michael Smith. Azerbaijan and Russia: Society and State: Traumatic Loss and Azerbaijani National Memory
9. ^ Human Rights Watch. “Playing the "Communal Card": Communal Violence and Human Rights”
10. Croissant. Armenia-Azerbaijan Conflict, p. 15.
11. Richard Pipes. The Formation of the Soviet Union: Communism and Nationalism 1917-1923, pp 218-220, 229 (Cambridge, Massachusetts, 1997).

See also

• Gulistan Treaty
• Turkmanchai Treaty
• Kurekchay Treaty
• History of Azerbaijan
• Aftermath of World War I
• Azerbaijan People's Government
• Democratic Republic of Georgia
• Democratic Republic of Armenia

External links

• Account of British Force in Baku

• Former countries in Europe
• 1918 establishments
• 1920 disestablishments
• History of Azerbaijan
• Post-Russian Empire states
• Short-lived states