Among the important accomplishments of the Parliament was the extension ofsuffrage to women, making Azerbaijan one of the first countries in the world, and the first majority-Muslim nation, to grant women equal political rights with men.[11] Another important accomplishment of the ADR was the establishment ofBaku State University, which was the first modern-type university founded in Azerbaijan.
From 1813 to 1828, as a result ofQajar Iran's forced cession through theTreaty of Gulistan (1813) and theTreaty of Turkmenchay (1828), the territory of modern-day Azerbaijan, and in turn what was the short-lived ADR, had become part of theRussian Empire.[26] By 1917, when both Russian revolutions took place the territory, Azerbaijan had been part of the empire'sCaucasus Viceroyalty for more than 100 years, alongside the rest of the Transcaucasus, ever since Iran's cession.[27] After theFebruary Revolution, theSpecial Transcaucasian Committee was established to fill the administrative gap following theabdication of the Tsar. The members of the committee were the members of the State Council and representatives of the Armenian, Georgian and Azerbaijan political elite.[28] The committee announced that in the following months the most important issues were to be solved by the Transcaucasian Constituent Assembly.
In the course of April and May 1917, several Muslim Assemblies took place. Like many ethnic minorities of Transcaucasia, Azeris aimed at secession from Russia after the February Revolution. Two general opinions were expressed by the representatives of the Muslim community (Mammad Hasan Hajinski,Mammad Amin Rasulzade,Alimardan Topchubashov,Fatali Khan Khoyski, and other founders of the future Azerbaijan Democratic Republic): pan-Turkish, meaning joining with Turkey, and federalization (expressed by M. Rasulzade). The Transcaucasian region decided on federalization. In accordance with the new structure, the Transcaucasian region was to have a fully independent internal policy, leaving only foreign policy, defense, and custom to the new Russian government.
After the October revolution of 1917, the Transcaucasian government had to change its policy as Russia was now involved in the Civil War. The Transcaucasians did not accept the Bolshevik revolution. In February 1918, the Transcaucasian Council ("Sejm") started its work in Tbilisi, and this was the first serious step towards complete independence of the Caucasian nations. The "Sejm" consisted of 125 deputies and represented 3 leading parties: Georgian mensheviks (32 deputies), Azerbaijan Muslims ("Mussavat", 30 deputies), and Armenian "dashnaks" (27 deputies). Bolsheviks refused to join the Sejm and established their own government of the localSoviet in Baku: the so-called Baku Commune (November 1917 – 31 July 1918). The Commune was formed by 85Social Revolutionaries andLeft Social Revolutionaries, 48Bolsheviks, 36Dashnaks, 18Musavatists and 13Mensheviks.Stepan Shaumyan, a Bolshevik, andProkopius Dzhaparidze, a leftist SR, were elected Chairmen of the Council of People's Commissioners of the Commune of Baku.[citation needed]
TheRussian Caucasus Army was degrading after the collapse of the Russian Empire. The Russian forces were substituted by new Armenian bodies, which were not prepared for the war. Given the circumstances, the Transcaucasian Sejm signed theArmistice of Erzincan with theOttoman Empire on December 5, 1917. On March 3, 1918, the Bolshevik government in Russia signed the Brest-Litovsk Treaty with Germany. One of the terms was the loss of the regions ofKars,Batumi, andArdahan to the Ottoman Empire. The terms of the Treaty revealed a deep conflict between Georgians and Armenians on one side and the Muslims on another. The peace talks between the Sejm and Turkey started in March 1918, in Trapezond did not have any results. The Ottoman Empire delivered an ultimatum to the Sejm with requirements to accept the terms of the Brest-Litovsk Treaty and initiated an attack to occupy the territories ofKars,Batumi, andArdahan.
First flag of the Azerbaijan Democratic Republic adopted on June 21, 1918, with reference number 144[29] (until November 9, 1918)
In March 1918, ethnic and religious tension grew and the Armenian-Azeri conflict in Baku began. The Musavat and Ittihad parties were accused ofPan-Turkism by the Bolsheviks and their allies. The Armenian and Muslim militias engaged in an 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-BolshevikKadets 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 theArmenian genocide in theOttoman Empire.[30][31] As a result, between 3,000 and 12,000 Muslims were killed in what is known as theMarch Days.[11][32][33][34] 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.[citation needed]
The Bolshevik account of the events of March 1918 in Baku is presented by Victor Serge inYear 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 Soviets, 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 (theambal) either remained neutral or supported the Reds. The contest was won by the Soviets."
Memorial plaque on the wall of the hall ofthe building in Tbilisi, where on May 28, 1918, the Azerbaijani National Assembly declared the first independent Azerbaijan Democratic Republic
On 26 May 1918, the Transcaucasian Democratic Federative Republic fell and its bodies were dissolved. The Azerbaijani faction constituted itself into the Azerbaijani National Council (NC). The Azerbaijani National Council immediately undertook parliamentary functions and proclaimed the foundation of the "Azerbaijani Democratic Republic" on 28 May 1918 and declared the National Charter, which read as follows:[35]
Azerbaijan is a fully sovereign nation; it consists of the southern and eastern parts of Transcaucasia under the authority of the Azerbaijani people.
It is resolved that the form of government of the independent Azerbaijani state is a democratic republic.
The Azerbaijani Democratic Republic is determined to establish friendly relations with all, especially with the neighboring nations and states.
The Azerbaijani Democratic Republic guarantees to all its citizens within its borders full civil and political rights, regardless of ethnic origin, religion, class, profession, or sex.
The Azerbaijani Democratic Republic encourages the free development of all nationalities inhabiting its territory.
Until the Azerbaijani Constituent Assembly is convened, the supreme authority over Azerbaijan is vested in a universally elected National Council and the provisional government is responsible to this council.
The council was opposed by ultra-nationalists who accused it of being too left-wing. The council was abolished after the opening of the Parliament on 7 December 1918. This was the first democratic Parliament in the Eastern Muslim world.Alimardan Topchubashov became the chairman of the Parliament whileHasan bey Aghayev was assigned as the deputy chairman.[36] In total, the Parliament held 145 sessions in which more than 270 draft laws were discussed, and 230 of them were adopted. The last emergency meeting of the Parliament was convened on 27 April 1920 after the ultimatum of the Communist Party of Azerbaijan and Baku bureau of the Caucasian Committee of the Russian Communist Party about the surrender of the government to Bolsheviks. Despite the objections ofMammad Amin Rasulzadeh, Shafi bey Rustambayli, and others, the Parliament decided to surrender the government in order not to cause bloodshed. Although they stipulated 7 terms that would guarantee the independence of Azerbaijan, Bolsheviks did not keep their promises, and the Azerbaijan Democratic Republic was occupied on 28 April 1920 by the11th Army (Russian Empire).[37]
Despite existing for only two years, the multiparty Azerbaijani Parliamentary republic and the coalition governments managed to achieve a number of measures on the nation and state-building, education, creation of an army, independent financial and economic systems, international recognition of the ADR as ade facto state pendingde jure recognition, official recognition and diplomatic relations with a number of states, preparing of a Constitution and equal rights for all. This laid an important foundation for the re-establishment of independence in 1991. However, Parliament was in complicated circumstance, education, the enlightenment of the population was crucial factors in its policy. New schools for girls, hospitals in villages, libraries, courses for teachers were founded in different parts of the country by the Azerbaijan Democratic Republic. The foundation of Baku State University on September 1, 1919,[38] demonstrates that education was an essential factor in the policy of the Azerbaijan Democratic Republic. Although the Azerbaijan Democratic Republic collapsed, Baku State University played great in gaining freedom again in the future. Parliament started to create an opportunity for a young generation to study abroad in order to increase the number of educated people. 100 students were sent abroad with the help of state fund.[citation needed]
Political life in the ADR was dominated by theMusavat Party, the local winner of theConstituent Assembly elections of 1917. Thefirst parliament of the republic opened on December 5, 1918. Musavat had 38 members in parliament, which consisted of 96 deputies, and with some independent MPs formed the biggest faction. The republic was governed byfive cabinets (the 6th was being in the process when Azerbaijan was occupied by the Bolsheviks):
All cabinets were formed by a coalition of Musavat and other parties including theMuslim Socialist Bloc, the Independents,Ehrar, and theMuslim Social Democratic Party. The conservativeIttihad party was the major opposition force and didn't participate in the cabinet formations, except its member was StateInspector General in the last Cabinet. The premier in the first three cabinets wasFatali Khan Khoyski; in the last two,Nasib Yusifbeyli. The formation of the next cabinet was assigned toMammad Hasan Hajinski, but he was unable to form it, due to lack of time and majority backing in the parliament, and also theBolshevik 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.
The main direction of Azerbaijan diplomacy was based on friendly relations with the neighbouring countries regardless of their nationalities and religious beliefs. On the wider world stage, the foreign policy of the ADR can be divided into three periods: the period of Turkish orientation (May to October 1918); Western Orientation Period (November 1918, January 1920); the period of struggle for access to a broader and multilateral worldwide cooperation (January–April, 1920).[40] ADR government remainedneutral on the issue of theRussian Civil War and never sided with theRed orWhite Army. Throughout its existence from 1918 to 1920, the Republic of Azerbaijan had diplomatic relations with a number of states. The first peace and friendship treaty of the Republic –Treaty of Batum was signed with theOttoman Empire. Thus, the Ottoman Empire became the first foreign country to recognize the independence of ADR.[41] Among the representation of the ADR abroad were the Azerbaijani Peace Delegation inParis, consisting of the chair Alimardan Topchubashev, A.A. Sheykh Ul-Islamov, M. Maharramov, M. Mir-Mehdiyev and advisor B. Hajibayov; Diplomatic Representative to Georgia, Farist Bey Vekilov, toArmenia – Abdurahman Bey Akhverdiyev, advisor Agha Salah Musayev; to Persia – Agha-khan Khiatkhan and his assistant Alakpar Bey Sadikhov; inConstantinople –Yusif Bey Vezirov, his financial advisor, Jangir Bey Gayibov;General Consul inBatumi, Mahmud Bey Efendiyev; Consul to Ukraine, Jamal Sadikhov and Consul inCrimea, Sheykh Ali Useynov.[4] Agreements on the principles of mutual relations were signed with some of them; sixteen states established their missions in Baku.[42]
List of the foreign diplomatic missions in Azerbaijan[4]
Office of the Ukrainian Mission and Ukrainian National Council in the House of Mirzabeyov brothers onNikolayevskaya Str, 8
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
6. That diplomatic relations be established between the United States of America and the Republic of Azerbaijan.[5]
President Wilson granted the 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 did not want to partition the world into small pieces. Wilson advised Azerbaijan that it would be better for them to develop a spirit of confederation and that such a confederation of all the 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, could not be solved prior to the general settlement of the Russian question.[43]
However, despite Wilson's attitude, on January 12, 1920, theAllied Supreme Council extendedde facto recognition to Azerbaijan, along with Georgia, and Armenia.[44]Bulletin d'information de l'Azerbaidjan wrote: "The Supreme Council at one of its last sessions recognized thede 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".[45]
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",[11] Mr. Greenwood replied:
Instructions were sent to the British Chief Commissioner for the Georgian and Azerbaijani Governments that the Allied Powers represented on the Supreme Council had decided to grantde facto recognition of Georgia and Azerbaijan, but that this decision did not prejudge the question of the respective boundaries... There has been no change in representation as a result of recognition; as before, His Majesty's Government have a British Chief Commissioner for the Caucasus with Headquarters at Tiflis, and the three Republics have their accredited representatives in London...[6]
The Allies recognized the Transcaucasian Republics partly because of their fear of Bolshevism, but their activities directed against Bolshevism, at least in Transcaucasia, did not go much beyond words, the strongest of which wasstatus quo, recognition,demarche, and a list of standard diplomatic remonstrances.[11] After the Azerbaijani delegation successfully completed its mission at the Paris Peace Conference, the parliament adopted a law on the establishment of diplomatic missions in France, Great Britain, Italy, the United States, and Poland. In addition, the consulates of Azerbaijan started operating in Tabriz, Khoy, Anzali, Rasht, Ahar, Mashhad, Batumi, Kiev, Crimea, Ashgabat, and elsewhere. Baku, Georgia, Armenia, Iran, Belgium, the Netherlands, Greece, Denmark, Italy, France, Sweden, Switzerland, England, USA, Ukraine, Lithuania, Poland, Finland, Japan, and other countries have official representations at different levels.
Although the proclamation restricted its claim to the territory north of the Araz River, the use of the name Azerbaijan would soon bring objections from Iran. In Teheran, suspicions were aroused that the Republic of Azerbaijan served as an Ottoman device for detaching the Tabriz province from Iran. Likewise, thenational revolutionary Jangali movement in Gilan, while welcoming the independence of every Muslim land as a "source of joy," asked in its newspaper if the choice of the name Azerbaijan implied the new republic's desire to join Iran. If so, they said, it should be stated clearly, otherwise, Iranians would be opposed to calling that republic Azerbaijan. Consequently, to allay Iranian fears, the Azerbaijani government would accommodatingly use the term Caucasian Azerbaijan in its documents for circulation abroad.
Though the weakIranian state was in a transitional period, struggling with foreign domination, the Iranian political and intellectual elites inTehran andTabriz, the capital ofIranian Azerbaijan, soon protested against such naming. For almost a year, the printed media in Tehran, Tabriz, and other big Iranian cities on the one side, and the media in Baku, the capital of the newly independent Republic of Azerbaijan, on the other side, presented their arguments to prove that such naming was wrong or right. Iranians were generally suspicious of Baku's choice and regarded confiscating the historical name of Iran's north-western province as apan-Turkist conspiracy planned by the OttomanYoung Turks, then active in Baku, for their ultimate goal of establishing a pan-Turk entity (Turan) fromCentral Asia to Europe. By calling the real historical Azerbaijan located in Iran "southern Azerbaijan", the pan-Turkists could claim the necessity of unifying the Republic of Azerbaijan and "southern Azerbaijan" in their future "Turan." Fearing such threats, ShaikhMohammad Khiabani, a popular member of the political elite in Iranian Azerbaijan and the leader of theDemocratic Party (Firqhe Democrat), changed the name of the province toAzadistan (land of freedom). According toAhmad Kasravi, Khiabani's deputy at the time, the main reason for such a change was to prevent any future claim by the pan-Turkist Ottomans to Iranian Azerbaijan on the basis of the similarity of the names.
On 16 July 1919, the Council of Ministers [of ADR] appointed Adil Khan Ziatkhan, who had up to that time served as Assistant Minister of Foreign Affairs, diplomatic representative of Azerbaijan to the court of the Persian King of Kings.[48] A Persian delegation headed by Seyed Ziaed-Din Tabatai came to Baku, to negotiate transit, tariff, mail, customs, and other such agreements. Speeches were made in which the common bonds between Caucasian Azerbaijan and Iran were stressed.[11]
The ADR military was formed through the work of then actingMinister of DefenseKhosrov bey Sultanov. By the fall of the ADR by the invasion of the Red Army, the military had grown to consist of the following units.
Two infantry divisions consisting of eight regiments, a cavalry division consisting of three regiments and two artillery brigades. In addition to these, there were a number of auxiliary detachments, sections and enterprises in the army.[49]
Ali-Agha Shikhlinski was a Lieutenant-General of theImperial Russian Army and the Deputy Minister of Defense and General of the Artillery of the Azerbaijan Democratic Republic.
Samad bey Mehmandarov was a General of the Artillery in Imperial Russian Army before becoming the Azerbaijan Democratic Republic's Minister of Defense.
In the summer of 1918, the Dashnaks, together with the SRs and the Mensheviks, expelled theBolsheviks, who refused to ask for British support, and founded theCentro Caspian Dictatorship (1 August 1918 – 15 September 1918). The CCD was supported by theBritish who sent an expeditionary force to Baku to help the Armenians and theMensheviks. The purpose of the British forces (led byMajor GeneralLionel Dunsterville, who arrived fromPersia'sEnzeli at the head of a 1,000-strong elite force) was to seize the oil fields in Baku ahead ofEnver Pasha's advancing Turkish troops (Army of Islam) or theKaiser'sGerman troops (who were in neighboring Georgia) and to block a Bolshevik consolidation in theCaucasus andCentral Asia.
The city ofBaku only became the capital of the Republic in September 1918.
Unable to resist advancing Turkish troops during theBattle 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 the British forces. The Ottoman Army of Islam and its Azeri allies, led byNuri Pasha, entered Baku on September 15 and slaughtered between 10,000 – 20,000 Armenians in retaliation for the March massacre of Muslims.[31][33][50] The capital of the ADR was finally moved from Ganja to Baku. However, after theArmistice of Mudros between Great Britain and Turkey on October 30, Turkish troops were replaced by theAllies of World War I. Headed by British generalWilliam Montgomery Thomson, who had declared himself the military governor of Baku, 5,000Commonwealth soldiers arrived in Baku on November 17, 1918. By General Thomson's order,martial law was implemented in Baku.
Memorial to Turkish soldiers killed in the Battle of BakuRemains of the editorial offices of theKaspi newspaper onBaku's Nikolayevskaya Street (modern-day Istiqlaliyyet Street), ruined during theMarch Days in 1918
The ADR found itself in a difficult position, hemmed in from the north by advancingDenikin 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. On April 25, 1919, a violent protest organized byTalysh workers of pro-Bolshevik orientation exploded inLankaran and deposed theMughan Territorial Administration, a military dictatorship led by Russian colonel T. P. Sukhorukov. On May 15, the Extraordinary Congress of the "Councils of Workers' and Peasants' Deputies" of Lankaran district proclaimed theMughan Soviet Republic. By mid-1919 the situation in Azerbaijan had more or less stabilized, and British forces left on August 19, 1919.
This made the ADR pursue a neutral policy with regard to the Russian Civil War. On June 16, 1919, the ADR and Georgia signed a defensive treaty against the White troops of GeneralAnton Denikin'sVolunteer 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 theXI Red Army, which later started to concentrate its troops on Azerbaijan's borders.
Armenia and Azerbaijan were engaged infighting 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 generalSamedbey Mehmandarov.
Fall of the Azerbaijan Democratic Republic (April 1920)
The Baku secession in 1918 was a sensitive strike for Soviet Russia, and it caused heavy consequences during economic warfare. Moscow's intention to regain control of the vitally necessary region was strong and coherent, and on its way, the Soviet government was ready to accept any concession.
In 1918 and 1919 Soviet Russia rejected all attempts made by the ADR to establish diplomatic relations between the two. 1920 was marked by a diplomatic dispatch which started with a radiogram sent by Minister of Foreign AffairsGeorgy Chicherin, which said: "The government of the Russian Socialist Federative Republic reverts to Azerbaijan with an initiative to immediately launch talks with the Soviet government aiming at acceleration and finishing of the White army bodies in the South of Russia". In his response,Fatali Khan Khoyski, the head of the Azerbaijan government, insisted on non-interference in the internal affairs of the country. The Soviets considered this position as support rendered by Azerbaijan to the White army led by Denikin, and lobby of the British interests on the Caspian Sea.
Following the adoption of the name of "Azerbaijan" by the Azerbaijan Democratic Republic, a naming dispute arose withQajar Iran, with the latter protesting this decision.[47] In tandem with this naming controversy however, the young Azerbaijan Republic also faced a threat from the nascentSoviets in Moscow and the Armenians.[47] In order to escape the possibility of a Soviet invasion and an even greater imminent threat of an Armenian invasion, Muslim Nakhchivan proposed annexing to Iran.[47] The then pro-British government in Tehran led byVossug ed Dowleh made endeavours amongst Baku's leadership to join Iran.[47] In order to promote this idea, Vosugh ed Dowleh dispatched two separate Iranian delegations; one to Baku and one to theParis Peace Conference in 1919.[47]
In 1919 Azerbaijan left parties including the Baku organization of the Russian communist party, "Gummet" and "Adalet", started consolidating and by the end of the year, the Azerbaijan Communist Party (ACP) was created. The ACP held an active agitation campaign in Baku and its region and was supported by Russia.
In 1920 the Soviet government established a strong relationship with the new Turkish government headed by Mustafa Kemal. The Soviets were ready to supply Turkey with armaments in exchange for Turkish military support in Azerbaijan. Turkey particularly suggested using military bodies formed in Dagestan to occupy Baku and to avoid exploding its petrol storage reservoirs. Turkish support played an important role and attracted the Bolsheviks the sympathies of the Muslim population in Azerbaijan.
By March 1920, it was obvious that the economic and political situation in the ADR had reached a crucial point. In accordance with the analysis made by the Bolsheviks, the ADR government received weak support from the people and this should have provided success to the operation.Vladimir Lenin said that the invasion was justified by the fact thatSoviet Russia could not survive without Baku oil.[51][52]
The Iranian delegation at Baku, at the behest ofZia ol Din Tabatabaee, held intensive negotiations with the leadership of the Musavat party during the increasing chaos and instability in the city.[47] During the closing stages, an accord was reached between them; however, before the idea was presented to Vossug ed Dowleh in Tehran, the Communists took over Baku and terminated the Musavat-Ottoman rule.[47] The Iranian delegation at Paris, which was headed by foreign ministerFirouz Nosrat-ed-Dowleh III, reached a unity negotiation with the delegation from Baku and signed a confederation agreement,[53] which, in the end, would prove to be of no avail.
After a major political crisis, the Fifth Cabinet of Ministers of the Azerbaijan Democratic Republic resigned on April 1, 1920. At the beginning of April 1920, theRussianXI Red Army reached the border of Azerbaijan and prepared to attack. The official date of the operation is considered April 25, 1920, when the Azerbaijan Communist Party transformed the party's cells into military bodies, which were to take part in the attack. On April 27, 1920, the Provisional Revolutionary Committee withNariman Narimanov as chairman was established and issued the ADR Government an ultimatum. The labor military detachments managed to occupy oilfields, state offices, post offices. Police regiments defected to the rebels. To avoid bloodshed, the deputies complied with the demand and the ADR officially ceased to exist on April 28, 1920, giving way to theAzerbaijan Soviet Socialist Republic (Azerbaijan SSR) as its successor state although the ADR would be legally succeeded by the restored contemporaryRepublic of Azerbaijan on 18 October 1991.[54]
The Red Army, which entered Baku by April 30, 1920, met very little resistance in Baku from Azerbaijani forces, which were tied up on the Karabakh front. The firstCommunist government of Azerbaijan consisted almost entirely of native Azerbaijanis from the left factions of theHummat andAdalat parties.[55]
In May 1920, there was a major uprising against the occupying Russian XI Army inGanja, intent on restoringMusavatists in power. The uprising was crushed by government troops by May 31. Leaders of the ADR either fled to theDemocratic Republic of Georgia, Turkey and Iran, or were captured by the Bolsheviks and executed, including Gen. Selimov, Gen. Sulkevich, Gen. Agalarov: a total of over 20 generals (Mammed Amin Rasulzade was later allowed to emigrate),[56] or assassinated by Armenian militants likeFatali Khan Khoyski and Behbudagha Javanshir.[57] Most students and citizens traveling abroad remained in those countries, never to return. Other prominent ADR military figures like former Minister of Defense GeneralSamedbey Mehmandarov and deputy defense minister GeneralAli-Agha Shikhlinski (who was called "the God of Artillery" ) were at first arrested, but then released two months later thanks to efforts ofNariman Narimanov. Gen. Mehmandarov and Gen. Shikhlinsky spent their last years teaching in the Azerbaijan SSR military school.
In the end, "the Azeris did not surrender their brief independence of 1918-20 quickly or easily. As many as 20,000 died resisting what was effectively a Russian reconquest."[58] However, the installation of the Azerbaijan Soviet Socialist Republic was made easier by the fact that there was certain popular support for Bolshevik ideology in Azerbaijan, in particular among the industrial workers in Baku.[59]
Azerbaijan Democratic Republic was succeeded by theRepublic of Azerbaijan when the country regained independence in 1991 with collapse of the USSR. The Constitution of the Republic of Azerbaijan acknowledges the principles of the Constitutional Act on the State Independence of the Republic of Azerbaijan[60] which has declared that Azerbaijan is the heir of the Republic of Azerbaijan that existed from May 28, 1918, until April 28 of 1920 in its Article 2.[61] The Republic of Azerbaijan has adopted the national flag of the Azerbaijan Democratic Republic and some national holidays, including theRepublic Day (Azerbaijan),Day of the Armed Forces of Azerbaijan, Day of the National Security Service Officers etc. are linked with it as the current governmental bodies are considered heirs of the 1918-1920 Republic.
^Abbreviated as theADR;Azerbaijani:Azərbaycan Demokratik Cümhuriyyəti orAzərbaycan Demokratik Respublikası
^Map does not show the disputed territories of Azerbaijan Democratic Republic, so it's important to note that not everything included in the map was under Azerbaijani control
^abcBalayev, Aydin; Aliyarov, Suleiman; Jafarov, Jafar (1990).Азербайджанское национально-демократическое движение. 1917-1920 гг [Azerbaijani National Democratic Movement]. Elm. p. 92.ISBN978-5-8066-0422-5.
^abBulletin d'Information de l'Azerbaidjan, No. I, September 1, 1919, pp. 6–7
^ab125 H.C.Debs., 58., February 24, 1920, p. 1467.
^"AZERBAIJAN".Encyclopaedia Iranica, Vol. III, Fasc. 2-3. 1987. pp. 205–257.Archived from the original on 23 January 2013. Retrieved18 March 2020.The name Azerbaijan was also adopted for Arrān, historically an Iranian region, by anti-Russian separatist forces of the area when, on 26 May 1918, they declared its independence and called it the Democratic Republic of Azerbaijan. To allay Iranian concerns, the Azerbaijan government used the term 'Caucasian Azerbaijan' in the documents for circulation abroad.
^Luke, Harry (1935).More Moves on an Eastern Chequerboard. L. Dickson & Thompson. p. 265.
^Mowat, Robert Balmain (1927).A History of European Diplomacy, 1914-1925. Longmans, Green & Company. p. 203.
^abYilmaz, Harun (2015).National Identities in Soviet Historiography: The Rise of Nations Under Stalin. Routledge. p. 21.ISBN978-1317596646.On May 27, the Democratic Republic of Azerbaijan (DRA) was declared with Ottoman military support. The rulers of the DRA refused to identify themselves as [Transcaucasian] Tatar, which they rightfully considered to be a Russian colonial definition. ... Neighboring Iran did not welcome did not welcome the DRA's adoptation of the name of 'Azerbaijan' for the country because it could also refer to Iranian Azerbaijan and implied a territorial claim.
^abBarthold, Vasily (1963).Sochineniya, vol II/1. Moscow. p. 706.... whenever it is necessary to choose a name that will encompass all regions of the republic of Azerbaijan, nameArran can be chosen. But the term Azerbaijan was chosen because when the Azerbaijan republic was created, it was assumed that this and thePersian Azerbaijan will be one entity, because the population of both has a big similarity. On this basis, the word Azerbaijan was chosen. Of course right now when the word Azerbaijan is used, it has two meanings as Persian Azerbaijan and as a republic, its confusing and a question rises as to which Azerbaijan is talked about.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
^abAtabaki, Touraj (2000).Azerbaijan: Ethnicity and the Struggle for Power in Iran. I.B.Tauris. p. 25.ISBN9781860645549.
^abRezvani, Babak (2014).Ethno-territorial conflict and coexistence in the caucasus, Central Asia and Fereydan: academisch proefschrift. Amsterdam: Amsterdam University Press. p. 356.ISBN978-9048519286.The region to the north of the river Araxes was not called Azerbaijan prior to 1918, unlike the region in northwestern Iran that has been called since so long ago.
^Tsutsiev, Arthur (2014).Atlas of the Ethno-Political History of the Caucasus. Translated by Nora Seligman Favorov. New Haven: Yale University Press. p. 37.ISBN9780300153088.
^ab"GENERAL".www.hrw.org.Archived from the original on 3 March 2016. Retrieved3 January 2021.
^Michael G. Smith. Anatomy of a Rumour: Murder Scandal, the Musavat Party and Narratives of the Russian Revolution in Baku, 1917-20. Journal of Contemporary History, Vol. 36, No. 2 (Apr. 2001), pp. 211–240
^Swietochowski, Tadeusz (2004).Russian Azerbaijan, 1905-1920: The Shaping of a National Identity in a Muslim Community. Cambridge University Press. p. 129.ISBN978-0-521-52245-8.
^Report of the Delegation, No. 7, June, 1919, Fund of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Dossier No. 3, p. 7, as cited in Raevskii,Английская интервенция и Мусаватское правительство, p. 53
^Prof. Avtandil Menteshashvili, "From the history of relations of Georgian Democratic Republic with Soviet Russia and Entente". 1918–1921. Tbilisi State University: October 1989.
^Bulletin d'information de l'Azerbaidjan, No. 7, January, 1920, p. 1
^Tadeusz Swietochowski, Russia, and Azerbaijan: A Borderland in Transition (New York: Columbia University Press, 1995). pg 69
^abcdefghAhmadi, Hamid (2017). "The Clash of Nationalisms: Iranian response to Baku's irredentism". In Kamrava, Mehran (ed.).The Great Game in West Asia: Iran, Turkey and the South Caucasus. Oxford University Press. p. 108.ISBN978-0190869663.
^"Внешняя политика контрреволюционных правительств в начале 1919-го года",Красный Архив, No. 6 (37), 1929, p. 94.
^Ahmadi, Hamid (2017). "The Clash of Nationalisms: Iranian response to Baku's irredentism". In Kamrava, Mehran (ed.).The Great Game in West Asia: Iran, Turkey and the South Caucasus. Oxford University Press. pp. 108–109.ISBN978-0190869663.
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![A map showing comparative administrative divisions of the Azerbaijan Democratic Republic (1918–20) compared to modern Azerbaijan Republic[d]](/mt/?noimg=&dark=on&url=http%3a%2f%2fen.wikipedia.org%2fwiki%2fFile%3aAdministrative_divisions_of_Azerbaijan_Democratic_Republic_2.jpg)
