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Old Musavat
The Musavat (Equality) Party is the oldest political party in Azerbaijan. It was established in 1911 by a group of Azerbaijani socialist intellectuals, who had been previously closely associated with the Russian Social-Democratic Workers' Party. Their leader was Mammed Amin Rasulzade, a journalist .
Early (Old) Musavat (1911 - 1917) and Perceptions of It
In its early years before the first world war, Musavat was a relatively small, secret underground organization, much like its counterparts throughout the Middle East, working for the prosperity and political unity of the Mulsim and Turkic-speaking world . During this time, the Musavat party used populist pan-Islamist and pan-Turkist slogans to attract the attention of Muslim audience in Baku.
As M. G. Smith notes, Russia's social democrats received the foundation of the Musavat Party in these imperial, orientalist terms, governed by the long-standing ideological categories of Muslims "backwardness", "threachery" and religious "fanaticism" . To the Bolsheviks, the creation of Musavat was a betrayal of historica proportions. In the words of one Soviet analyst, Rasulzade and the Muslim social democrats of Baku had "made a 180 degree turnaround straight from Bolshevism to pan-Islamism" . This was a potent and tenacious charge, targeting the Muslims as deviant and disloyal minority within the empire, manipulated by the traitorous Musavat. .
The Menshevik and Social Revolutionary parties of Baku, both largely dependent upon the support of selected Georgian, Armenian and Jewish cadrees, as well as upon the ethnic Russian workers, had long villified the Muslims as "inert" and "unconscious". For them as well as for Bolsheviks, Constitutional Democracts and Denikinists, the Musavat, by default, was the false friend of social democracy, just a party of feudal "beks and khans". These accusations, centerpieces of a paranoid style in social-democratic politics, have endured in the historical literature far beyond their origins . Indeed, Musavat's shifting politics and populist slogans tolerated few sympathizers outside the Muslim community. Its leaders were largely well-educated professionals from the upper class echelons of Azerbaijani Turkish society; its mass membership, most recruited between 1917 and 1919, comprised the poorly-educated Muslims underclass of Baku .
(Old) Musavat During Revolution (1917 - 1918)
The Baku Committee of Muslim Social Organizations, as well as the Musavat, were quite radical during the early days of the revolution. They wanted a democratic republic, which would guarantee the rights of Muslims. The Soviet historian, A. L. Popov, writes that the Musavat cannot be a priori classified as a reactionary party of Khans and Beks, because in the early revolutionary period the Musavat stood on the positions of democracy and even socialism. "Until a certain time the Baku Committee of Muslim Social Organizations and the Musavat party successfully fulfilled the mission not only of representing the general national interests but also of guiding the Azerbaijani workers' democracy".
The Musavat's programme, which appealed to the Azerbaijani masses and assured the party of the sympathy of the Muslims abroad, announced the following aims:
- 1. The unity of all Muslim peoples without regard to nationality or sect.
- 2. Restoration of the independence of all Muslim nations.
- 3. Extension of material and moral aid to all Muslim nations which fight for their independence.
- 4. Help to all Muslim peoples and states in offence and in defence.
- 5. The destruction of the barriers which prevent the spread of teh above-mentioned ideas.
- 6. The establishment of contact with parties striving for the progress of the Muslims.
- 7. The establishment, as need might arise, of contact and exchange of opinion with foreign parties which have the well being of humanity as their aim.
- 8. The intensification of the struggle for the existence of all Muslims and the development of their commerce, trade and economic life in general
Musavat during the First Independence of Azerbaijan
With the Russian Revolution of February 1917, followed by Bolshevik Revolution in October 1917, disintegration of Russian Empire and the following civil war (1917 - 1921), Musavat became the leading party of the first independent Azerbaijan Republic (1918 - 1920) and its first elected parliament. Under the Musavat's leadership, Azerbaijan in 1918 became the first secular democracy in the Muslim world. It was at this time, when Azerbaijani women were granted the right to vote, several years before the U.S. and some European countries.
After the fall of the first Republic in April 1920 as a result of the Bolshevik invasion, most of the prominent Müsavat members were either exiled, killed or became victims of the Bolshevik purge. The party officially ceased its activity in Azerbaijan in 1923, after the establishment of the Soviet Union.
New Musavat
The resurrection of Musavat's name came in 1992, during the second independence of Azerbaijan. One of the leaders of the Popular Front of Azerbaijan (PFA), Isa Qambar, established a party under this name and claiming the legacy of Old Musavat. The party structure consists of "Başqan" (Leader), "Divan" (Executive Board), and "Məclis" (Congress). Isa Qambar remains Musavat's elected leader up to date.
Since 1993, Musavat was in the opposition to the ruling New Azerbaijan Party. At the last elections (5 November 2000 and 7 January 2001), the party won 4.9 % of the popular vote and 2 out of 125 seats. As party's candidate, its leader Isa Qambar won 12.2 % of the popular vote in the 15 october 2003 presidential elections. At the parliamentary elections of 6 November 2005, it joined the Freedom alliance, and won inside the alliance 5 seats. Musavat is also known for its protests against the Azerbaijani government such as that took place on 16 October 2003, after Isa Qambar had lost the election.
References
- Firuz Kazemzadeh. Struggle for Transcaucasia (1917-1921), New York Philosophical Library, 1951, pp. 20-21
- Michael G. Smith. "Anatomy of a Rumour: Murder Scandal, the Musavat Party and Narratives of the Russian Revolution in Baku, 1917-1920", Journal of Contemporary History, Vol.36, No. 2, p. 216, April 2001.
- Pan-Turkism: From Irrendentism to Coopersation by Jacob M. Landau P.55
- On the Religious Frontier: Tsarist Russia and Islam in the Caucasus by Firouzeh Mostashari P. 144
- Daniel Brower, "Russian Roads to Mecca: Religious Toleration and Muslim Pilgrimage in the Russian Empire", Slavic Review, 55/3, Fall 1996, 571.
- Michael G. Smith, open citiation, p. 217.
- Mirza Davud Guseinov. Тюркская демократическая партия федералистов "Мусават" в прошлом и настоящем., vol. I, Программа и тактика, Baku 1927.
- Michael G. Smith, open citiation, p. 217.
- Michael G. Smith, open citiation, p. 218
- Firuz Kazemzadeh. Struggle for Trancaucasia (1917-1921), New York Philosophical Library, 1951, p. 51.
- A.L.Popov. "Из истории революции в Восточном Закавказье (1917-1918)", Пролетарская Революция, No. 7 (30), 1924, p. 118.
- Mirza Davud Guseinov, open citation, p. 73.
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