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Mahammad Amin Rasulzade

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Mammed Amin Rasulzade (Template:Lang-az; January 31, 1884, Novkhana, near Baku—March 6, 1955, Ankara) was an Azerbaijani statesman, scholar, public figure and one of the founding political leaders of Azerbaijan Republic (1918-1920).

Life

Mammad Amin Rasulzade received his education at the Russian-Muslim Secondary School and then at the Technical College (now Petroleum College) in Baku. In his years of study he created "Muslim Youth Organisation Musavat", first secret organisation in Azerbaijan's contemporary history, and beginning from 1903 Rasulzade began writing articles in various opposition magazines.At that time, his anti-monarchist platform and his demands for the national autonomy of Azerbaijan, aligned him with Social Democrats and future communists. In 1904 he founded the first muslim social-democrat organisation "Hummet" and became editor-in-chief of its newspapers, "Tekamül"(1906-1907) and "Yoldaş"(1907). Rasulzade and his co-workers were representatives of the Azerbaijani bourgeois intelligentsia. Most of them, including Rasulzade himself, had been members of the Baku organization of the Russian Social-Democratic Workers' Party (Bolsheviks) in 1905. A photograph is extant in Soviet archives, showing Rasulzade with Japaridze and Azizbekov, Bolsheviks who later became famous as two of the twenty-six Baku Commissars shot during the civil war . Rasulzade also published many articles in non-partisan newspapers such as "Hayat", "Irshad" and also "Fuyuzat" journal. During the First Russian Revolution (1905-1907), Rasulzade actively participated in revolutionary developments. As the story goes, it was Rasulzade who saved young Joseph Stalin in 1905 in Baku, when police were searching for the latter as an active instigator of riots.Even after the First Revolution, Rasulzade continued journalistic activities. His first dramatic play entitled "The Lights in the Darkness," was staged in Baku in 1908.

In 1909, persecuted by Russian Administration, Rasulzade left for Persia to participate in the Constitutional Revolution of 1905-1911 against Muhammad Ali Shah. While in Persia, Rasulzade edited the newspaper "Iran-e-Azad" . Rasulzade became one of the founders of the Democratic Party of Iran and began publishing its newspaper called "Iran-e Nou", which was the first modern-type newspaper in Iran's history . In 1911 he also published his book "Saadet-e bashar"(Happiness of mankind) in defense of revolution .

After Russian troops entered Iran in 1911 and put and end to Constitutional Revolution in a cooperation with British and Royal Court of Iran, Rasulzade fled to Istanbul, where he founded journal "Türk yurdu"(Land of turks), where published his famous article "Iranian Turks".

The Musavat Party

After the Amnesty Act of 1913, dedicated to the 300th anniversary of the Royal Romanov Dynasty. Rasulzade returned to Baku, left the Hummet party he was previously member of, and joined the then secret Musavat (Equality) party in 1913, which was according to some a pan-Islamist and pan-Turkist, whilst more precisely Pan-Islamist yet with affinity for greater cultural bonds with the Turkic world, established in 1911 and quickly became its chief. In 1915 he started to publish party's newspaper "Açıq Söz" (Open word) which lasted till 1918. When February Revolution happened, Musavat together with other secret political parties in Russian Empire quickly legalized and became a leading party of Caucasian Muslims after it merged with Party of Turkish Federalists headed by Nasibbey Usubbeyli. October revolution in 1917 lead to secession of Transcaucasia from Russia and Rasulzade became head of Muslim faction in the Seym, parliament of Transcaucasian Federation. After the dissolution of the Transcaucasian Federation Muslim faction re-organized into Azerbaijani National Councill and Rasulzade was elected unanimously the Head of the Azerbaijani National Council(Milli Shura) in May 1918.

Azerbaijan Democratic Republic

On May 28 1918, the Azerbaijani National Council, headed by Rasulzade, declared an independent Azerbaijan Republic. And even though Rasulzade never held any governmental post in either of the Cabinets of Ministers, as an active member of the Parliament he remained a kind of ideological leader of the newly-formed state until its collapse in May 1920. Rasulzade was also involved in the establishment of the State University in Baku in 1919.

After the collapse of Azerbaijan Democratic Republic in April 1920, Rasulzade left Baku and went into hiding in the mountainous village of Lahij to direct the resistance to Sovietization, but in August 1920, after soviet army crashed the rebellions of Ganja, Karabakh, Zagatala and Lankaran, lead by ex-officers of Azerbaijani army, Rasulzade was arrested and brought to Baku. It was only due to his earlier rescue of Joseph Stalin in 1905 that Rasulzade was released and taken from Baku. For the next two years, Rasulzade worked as the press representative at the Commissariat on Nations in Moscow. He was seconded to St.Petersburg in 1922 from where escaped to Finland and never returned.

Exile

For the rest of his life, Rasulzade lived as an exile first in Turkey, then, after being exiled from it in (1931), in Poland (1938), where he met his wife, Romania (1940) and finally, after World War II, back to Ankara, Turkey in 1947. Due to sensitivity of his presence in either Turkey or Iran, and being often exiled, Rasulzade "cherished bad memories of both Iran and Turkey" . When returning to Turkey at the end of his life, according to one source, "he participated in the politics of the marginal Pan Turkic movement". However, like all in Rasulzade's life, it was more complex: "The 1931 suppression of the emigre publications coincided with Rasulzada's expulsion from Turkey, and some saw it all as the result of caving in to the Soviet pressure. In reality, the reason went deep into the complex relationship between Turkey and Azerbaijan, a love story with its ups and downs amidst stormy episodes. Tensions had been growing toward the end of the decade, and by 1930, they had reached a boiling point. In reply to Turkish criticism that the Musavat was neglecting the cause of Turkic unity, Rasulzada published a pamphlet titled O Pantiurkizme v sviazii s kavkazskoi problemoi (Pan-Turkism with regard to the caucasian problem). Among the references to the experience of the 1918 Ottoman occupation, he firmly stated his view: Pan-Turkism was a cultural movement rather than a political program." According to one scholar, it was in his exile that Rasulzade noted in a private letter to a fellow Azerbaijani intellectual in Iran, that Albania (referring to Caucasian Azerbaijan) was different than Azerbaijan (referring to Iranian Azerbaijan) and declared his eagerness to do "whatever is in his power to avoid any further discontent among Iranians". However, while being involved with ADR politics as the leader of Musavat Party in 1918-1920, the only concession he and his government made to the Iranian objections and territorial claims were using "the term Caucasian Azerbaijan in its documents for circulation abroad" Successful ADR diplomacy made Iran relinquish its territorial claims, and fully recognize the Musavat government of ADR . He died in 1955 and was buried in Esri cemetery in Ankara.

Major works

  • "The Lights in the Darkness"(play)
  • "Saadet-e Bashar"
  • "Iranian Turks"
  • "Caucasian Turks"
  • "Sayavush of Our Century"
  • "Political Situation in Russia"
  • "Azerbaijani Poet Nizami" (Ankara, 1951, re-published in Baku, 1991)
  • "Azerbaijan Republic: Formation, Past and Present"
  • "Azerbaijan Republic"

References

  1. Firuz Kazemzadeh. The Struggle for Transcaucasia, New York Philosophical Library, 1951, p. 21
  2. M.D. Guseinov. Тюркская Демократическая Партия Федералистов "Мусават" в прошлом и настоящем. Baku, 1927, p. 9
  3. J. Castagne. Le Bolshevisme et l'Islam, v. I, Revue du Monde Mussulman, V 51., Paris, 1922, pp. 245-246.
  4. Azerbaijan Democratic Republic. Azerbaijan Government 1918-1920. Baku, "Youth", 1990. page 25 lines 3-11 from above
  5. Pan-Turkism: From Irrendentism to Coopersation by Jacob M. Landau P.55
  6. On the Religious Frontier: Tsarist Russia and Islam in the Caucasus by Firouzeh Mostashari P. 144
  7. Tadeusz Swietochowski, Russian and Azerbaijan: A Borderland in Transition, Columbia University Press, 1995, p. 52.
  8. Charles van der Leeuw, Azerbaijan: A Quest for Identity, Palgrave Macmillan, 2000, p. 121.
  9. Azerbaijan Diary by Thomas Goltz, page 18
  10. Tadeusz Swietochowski, Russian and Azerbaijan: A Borderland in Transition, Columbia University Press, 1995, p. 130.
  11. Atabaki, Touraj. Azerbaijan: Ethnicity and the Struggle for Power in Iran, 2nd. edn, London: IB Tauris Publishers , 2000, pages 25-26
  12. Tadeusz Swietochowski, Russian and Azerbaijan: A Borderland in Transition, Columbia University Press, 1995, p. 69.
  13. Igrar Aliyev (ed.), “History of Azerbaijan”, Part IV “Azerbaijan in modern times”, Chapter XXIII, “Founding of Azerbaijan Democratic Republic”, sub-title: “Azerbaijan on international arena. Paris Peace Conference”, Baku: Elm Publishing House of the Azerbaijan Academy of Sciences, 1995 (in Russian). http://www.azerbembassy.org.cn/rus/historical23.html
  14. Азербайджанская Демократическая Республика (1918-1920), ГОСУДАРСТВЕННАЯ КОМИССИЯ ПО ПРОВЕДЕНИЮ 80-й ГОДОВЩИНЫ АЗЕРБАЙДЖАНСКОЙ ДЕМОКРАТИЧЕСКОЙ РЕСПУБЛИКИ ИНСТИТУТ ИСТОРИИ АН АЗЕРБАЙДЖАНА им. А. А. БАКИХАНОВА, http://www.karabakh-doc.azerall.info/ru/azerpeople/ap045-6.php
  15. http://resulzade.org/kitab.html

External links

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