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The March Days or March events refers to a period during the Russian Civil War from March to early April 1918 when ethnic Azerbaijanis were massacred by Dashnak and Bolshevik forces in the city of Baku (present-day Azerbaijan). Equating the Azeris with the Ottoman Turks, the Dashnaks began the massacre in revenge for the Armenian Genocide.

Preceding events

On March 9th, 1918, the staff of Azerbaijani Savage Division arrived in Baku. Its Commander, General Talyshinski was immediately arrested by the Baku Soviet, which resulted in calls for armed resistance to the Soviet among the Azerbaijanis in the city. Stepan Shaumyan, the leader of Baku Soviet, could have prevented much bloodshed, had he been less impulsive and stubborn . Only a few days before the arrival of General Talyshinski and his staff, Shaumyan had received a telegram from Lenin which read:

Dear Comrade Shaumyan:

Many thanks for the letter. We are delighted by your firm and decisive policy; do unite with it a most cautious diplomacy, which is doubtlessly made necessary by the present most difficult situation, and we shall win.

The difficulties are unfathomable; up to now we have been saved by the contradictions and conflicts and the struggle among imperialists. Be able to use these conflicts; now it is necessary to learn diplomacy.

Best wishes and greetings to all the friends

V. Ulyanov (Lenin)

The telegram shows that Lenin, with his genius for appreciating people, felt the rashness of Shaumyan. Lenin's advice about diplomacy was nothing but a warning to be more careful and less provoking .

The release of Talyshinski might have have closed the incident, but on 30th March the Soviet received information that the Muslim crew of the ship Evelina was armed and ready to revolt against the Soviet. The report lacked foundation in fact, but the Soviet acted on it and disarmed the crew which, it seems, tried to resist . In response, a huge crowd gathered in the yard of one of the Baku mosques and adopted a resolution, demanding the release of the rifles confiscated by the Soviet from the crew of the Evelina. On the next day a delegation of Muslims asked the Soviet to restore the arms. One of the Bolshevik leaders, Japaridze, promised to satisfy this demand, but in the meantime shooting started in the streets .

Massacre on 30th-31st March, 1918

It's immaterial who fired the first shot. The fact counts that by 6 p.m, 30th March, 1918, Baku was a regular battlefield. Trenches were being dug, barricades erected, and preparations made for real warfare The Soviet, led by Shaumyan, realized that full civil war was starting and its own forced were insufficient against Azerbaijani masses led by Musavat. Allies were found among Baku Mensheviks, S.R.'s, and the Kadets (right-wing liberals), which promised support the Bolsheviks as the champions of the "Russian Cause" .

Musavat quickly noticed the nationalist nature of the conflict perpetrated by the Shauyman-led Soviet. Musavat's newspaper Achiq Söz wrote the Bolsheviks, who had fought the Mensheviks for a whole year, were now uniting even with Kadets and the Dashnaks, and that such cooperation could only be explained by policy of provoking one nationality against the other. It further stated that instead of fighting a class war, Soviet was involved in a tragic capitulation of democracy .

But it was neither the Kadets, nor the Mensheviks, nor the S.R.'s who saved the Soviet during the March Days. It was the Dashnaktsutiun with its military organization that tipped the scaled in its favor. At first the Armenian National Council proclaimed its neutrality in the quarrel between the Musavat and the Soviet. It has even been suggested that the Armenians told the Musavat that the latter might expect their help against the Bolsheviks. If this was the case, then the Armenians were largely responsible for proviking the massacre that ensued, because the Musavat plunged into the armed conflict, thinking that it had only one enemy to face . In fact, Suren Shaumyan, the brother of Stepan Shaumyan wrote that "the Muslim National Council would not have taken up arms, had it not confidence in its ally "

On 31st March 1918, the ultimatium was issued by the Baku Soviet to Musavat, with the term of compliance set at 3 p.m. on 1st April, 1918 Although Musavat at last moment accepted the ultimatum, the fighting was uncontrollable on the streets of Baku, and the Armenians who had loudly proclaimed their neutrality suddenly swung towards the Soviet and joined the attack against the Musavat:

In that bloodthirsty episode, which had such fatal effects upon the Muslims, the principal part was played by the Armenians, who were then in Baku, clustering as elsewhere around their nationalist party ... The truth is that the Armenians under the guise of Bolshevism, rushed on the Muslims and massacred during a few frightful days more than 12,000 people, many of whom were old men, women, and children.

An Azerbaijani Boshevik, Effendiev, wrote:

The Dashnaks, who for handsome pay protected the capitalists, Taghiev, Naghiev, and others, massacred to a man, in the name of the Soviet, the population of entire blocks and sections inhabitted by the Muslim poor. The Dashnaks under the command of such millionaires as Lalaiev and others, were now destroying not only the Musavatists but Muslims in general... The course of events led to a situation in which the comrades who stood at the head of the Soviet, Shaumyan, Japaridze, and others, became themselves prisonsers of Dashnaks.

It's possible to state that the Soviet provoked the "March Events" in the hope of breaking the power of its most formidable rival, the Musavat. However, once the Soviet had called upon the Dashnaktsutiun to lend its assistance in the struggle against the Azerbaijani nationalists in Baku, the "civil war" degenerated into massacre, the Armenians killing the Muslims irrespective of their political affiliations or social and economic position. That the attack was directed just as much against the civilian population as against the military detachments of Musavat there can be no doubt. Every Azerbaijani whom the Dashnak bands could catch was killed. Many Persians lost their lives too.. According to various sources a total of between 3,000 to 12,000 Muslims were killed during the violence.

Aftermath

The March events touched off a series of massacres all over Azerbaijan. The brutalities continued on for weeks. Enormous crowds roamed the streets, burning houses, killing every passer-by who was identified as an enemy. The Armenian archbishop Bagrat wrote a letter to the Armenian mission in Baku, explaining the March Events. The letter began with the usual accusations that the Azerbaijanis, being the disciples of the Turks and the Germans, could not be trusted. Having thus disposed of the Azerbaijani version of the events, Bagrat stated that the battle was waged by the Musavat and the Soviet, while the Armenians remained neutral. It's true, he continued, that some Armenian soldiers took part in the fighting, but those were only isolated individuals for whom the Armenian National Council could not be held responsible. The Archbishop placed the entire guilt upon the Musavat, calling it the helper of Turks. As far as massacred of civilians was concerned, Archbishop Bagrat denied that the Armenians had anything to do with it. He claimed that on the contrary, the Armenians gave shelter to some 20,000 Muslims during the struggle.

Although not an isolated incident, given the participation of the Azerbaijanis during the Ottoman offensive on Armenia in early 1918 , the March Days played a significant role in bringing pre-existing inter-ethnic tensions to the forefront of Armenian-Azeri relations. Less than six months later, in September 1918, in a period called September Days , Enver Pasha's Army of Islam supported by local Azeri forces recaptured Baku and subsequently killed an estimated 10,000 to 20,000 ethnic Armenians in retaliation.

See also

• September Days

References

1. ^ Template:Ru icon Michael Smith. Azerbaijan and Russia: Society and State: Traumatic Loss and Azerbaijani National Memory
2. ^ Michael P. Croissant. The Armenia-Azerbaijan Conflict: Causes and Implications, p. 14. ISBN 0-275-96241-5
3. Firuz Kazemzadeh, Struggle For Transcaucasia (1917 - 1921), New York Philosophical Library, 1951, p. 69.
4. Stepan Shaumyan, Статьи и речи, Baku, p. 224
5. Firuz Kazemzadeh, Struggle For Transcaucasia (1917 - 1921), New York Philosophical Library, 1951, p. 70.
6. Документы об истории гражданской войны в С.С.С.Р., Vol. 1, pp. 282-283.
7. Claims of the Peace Delegation of the Republic of Caucasian Azerbaijan presented to the Peace Conference in Paris, Paris, 1919, pp. 18-19.
8. Tchalkhouchian, Gr. Le livre rouge, Paris, Veradzenout, 1919, pp. 85-86
9. B. Baikov. Воспоминания о революции в Закавказии, Memoirs of Russian Kadet in Baku 1917 - 1920, p. 122.
10. Achiq Söz, No. 627, 1918.
11. Firuz Kazemzadeh. Struggle For Transcaucasia (1917 - 1921), New York Philosophical Library, 1951, p. 71.
12. Suren Shaumyan. "Бакинская Коммуна 1918-го года", Пролетарская Революция, No. 12 (59), 1926, p. 78.
13. Tchalkhouchian, Gr., open citation, pp. 85-86
14. Claims of the Peace Delegation of the Republic of Caucasian Azerbaijan Presented to the Peace Conference in Paris, Paris, 1919, pp. 18-19.
15. Жизнь Национальностей, No. 25 (33), 6th July, 1919
16. Firuz Kazemzadeh. Struggle For Transcaucasia (1917 - 1921), New York Philosophical Library, 1951, p. 75.
17. Известия, No. 90, Moscow, 9th May, 1918.
18. Firuz Kazemzadeh. Struggle for Transcaucasia (1917 - 1921), New York Philosophical Library, 1951, p. 73.
19. Jean Loris-Melikof. La revolution russe et les nouvelles Republiques Transcaucasiennes, Paris, Felix Alcan, 1920, pp. 115-117.
20. Human Rights Watch. "Playing the 'Communal Card': Communal Violence and Human Rights"
21. Croissant. Armenia-Azerbaijan Conflict, p. 15.

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