Mahammad Amin Rasulzade | |
|---|---|
Məhəmməd Əmin Rəsulzadə | |
 Rasulzadec. 1950 | |
| President ofAzerbaijani National Council | |
| In office 27 May 1918 – 7 December 1918 | |
| Personal details | |
| Born | (1884-01-31)31 January 1884 |
| Died | 6 March 1955(1955-03-06) (aged 71) Ankara, Turkey |
| Resting place | Cebeci Asri Cemetery |
| Political party | Musavat Party Democrat Party[1] |
| Spouse | Umbulbanu Rasulzade |
| Profession | The Leader of Azerbaijan |
| Signature | .png) |
 | |
Mahammad Amin Akhund Haji Molla Alakbar oghlu Rasulzade[a] (31 January 1884 – 6 March 1955) was anAzerbaijani politician, journalist and the head of theAzerbaijani National Council. He is mainly considered the founder ofAzerbaijan Democratic Republic in 1918 and the father of its statehood. His expression "Bir kərə yüksələn bayraq, bir daha enməz! [az]" ("The flag once raised shall never fall!") became the motto of the independence movement in Azerbaijan in the early 20th century.
Born on 31 January 1884 toAkhundHajiMolla Alakbar Rasulzadeh inNovkhany,[2] nearBaku, Mahammad Amin Rasulzade received his education at the Russian-Muslim Secondary School and then at theTechnical College in Baku. In his years of study he created"Muslim Youth Organisation Musavat",[3] the first secret organisation in Azerbaijan's contemporary history, and beginning from 1903 Rasulzade began writing articles in various opposition newspapers and magazines. At that time, hisanti-monarchist platform and his demands for the national autonomy ofAzerbaijan, aligned him withSocial Democrats and futureCommunists. In 1904 he founded the first Muslim social-democrat organisation "Hummet" and became editor-in-chief of its newspapers,Takamul (1906–1907) andYoldash (1907). Rasulzade also published many articles in non-partisan newspapers such asHayat,Irshad, and the journalFuyuzat. His dramatic play titledThe Lights in the Darkness was staged inBaku in 1908.
Rasulzade and his co-workers were representatives of the Azerbaijani intelligentsia. Most of them, including Rasulzade himself, had been members of the Baku organization of theRussian Social-Democratic Workers' Party (Bolsheviks) in 1905.[4] A photograph is extant in Soviet archives, showing Rasulzade withProkopius Dzhaparidze andMeshadi Azizbekov, Bolsheviks who later became famous as two of the26 Baku Commissars shot during the civil war.[5] During theFirst Russian Revolution (1905–1907), Rasulzade actively participated in revolutionary developments. As the story goes, it was Rasulzade who saved youngJoseph Stalin in 1905 inBaku, when police were searching for the latter as an active instigator of riots.[6]
In 1909, under the persecution fromTsarist authorities, Rasulzade fledBaku to participate in theIranian Constitutional Revolution of 1905–1911. While inIran, Rasulzade editedIran-e Azad, or "Independent Iran", newspaper,[7] became one of the founders ofDemocrat Party of Persia and began publishing its newspaperIran-e Now[8] which means "New Iran" and which has been described as "the greatest, most important and best known of the Persian newspapers, and the first to appear in the large size usual in Europe".[9] In 1911, Rasulzade also published his book "Saadet-e bashar" ("Happiness of Mankind") in defense of the revolution. Rasulzade was fluent inPersian.[10]
AfterRussian troops enteredIran in 1911 and, in cooperation withBritish, assisted Qajar Court to put an end to Iranian Constitutional Revolution, Rasulzade fled toIstanbul, then capital ofOttoman Empire. Here, in the wake ofYoung Turk Revolution, Rasulzade founded a journal calledTürk Yurdu (The Land of Turks), in which he published his famous article "İran Türkleri" about theIranian Turks.[11]
After theAmnesty Act of 1913, dedicated to the300th anniversary of the Romanov dynasty, Rasulzade returned toBaku, left the Hummet party he was previously member of, and joined the then secretMusavat (Equality) party in 1913, established in 1911, which initially promoted pan-Islamist,pan-Turkist and Socialist ideas,[12][13][14][15][16] or more preciselyPan-Islamism yet with affinity for greater cultural bonds with the Turkic world,[17] and which eventually became Azerbaijani nationalist party, and quickly became its chief. In 1915 he started to publish the party's newspaper "Açıq Söz" (Open word) which lasted until 1918. When theFebruary Revolution happened, Musavat together with other secret political parties in the Russian Empire, were quickly legalized and became a leading party of Caucasian Muslims after it merged withParty of Turkic Federalists headed byNasib Yusifbeyli. TheOctober Revolution in 1917 lead to the secession ofTranscaucasia from Russia and Rasulzade became head of Muslim faction in the Seym, the parliament of theTranscaucasian Federation. After the dissolution of theTranscaucasian Federation, the Muslim faction re-organized into theAzerbaijani National Council, whose head Rasulzade was unanimously elected in May 1918.
On 28 May 1918 theAzerbaijani National Council, headed by Rasulzade, declared an independent Azerbaijan Republic. Rasulzade also initiated the establishment ofBaku State University together withRashid Khan Gaplanov, minister of education with the funding of oil baronHaji Zeynalabdin Taghiyev in 1919. Rasulzade taughtOttoman literature at the university.
Bir kərə yüksələn bayraq, bir daha enməz!The flag once raised will never fall!
— Mahammad Amin Rasulzade
After the collapse ofAzerbaijan Democratic Republic in April 1920, Rasulzade left Baku and went into hiding in the mountainous village ofLahıc, Ismailli to direct the resistance to Sovietization. But in August 1920, after the Soviet Russian army crushed the rebellions ofGanja,Karabakh,Zagatala andLankaran, led by ex-officers of the Azerbaijani National Army, Rasulzade was arrested and brought to Baku. It was only due to an earlier rescue of Joseph Stalin, as Rasulzade hid Stalin from the police, that Rasulzade was released and transferred from Azerbaijan to Russia.[18] For the next two years, Rasulzade worked as the press representative at the Commissariat on Nations in Moscow. He was seconded toSaint Petersburg in 1922 from where he escaped toFinland.
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For the rest of his life, Rasulzade lived in exile first in Turkey. Between 1923 and 1927, he was an editor-in-chief of the magazine calledYeni Kafkasya (Turkish:New Caucasus)[19] which was suspended by the Kemalist government by the request of Moscow. Rasulzade continued to publish various articles, newspapers, and magazines from 1928 until 1931 in Turkey.[20] However, the 1931 suppression of the emigre publications[citation needed] coincided with Rasulzade's expulsion from Turkey, and some saw it as the result of caving in to Soviet pressure.[citation needed] In exile Rasulzade published a pamphlet titledO Pantiurkizme v sviazi s kavkazskoi problemoi (О Пантюркизме в связи с кавказской проблемой, Pan-Turkism with regard to the Caucasian problem), in which he firmly stated his view: Pan-Turkism was a cultural movement rather than a political program.[21] Thus, he went toPoland in 1938, where he met his wife, Wanda, niece of Polish statesmanJózef Piłsudski, then to Romania in 1940.[citation needed]
During his exile in 1942, Rasulzade was contacted by the leadership ofNazi Germany, who, when forming national legions from representatives of the peoples of the Soviet Union, relied on well-known and authoritative representatives, such as Rasulzade and other leaders of the 1918 Caucasian republics.[22]Hitler tried to recruit Rasulzade as a leader of a German-occupied Caucasus.[23] Rasulzade was convinced of the close connection betweenMusavatism andNazism. He noted that the social program of the Musavat party was of a national socialist nature.[24] During a meeting with the German leadership in May 1942, Rasulzade attempted to form a strategic alliance with Nazi Germany in order to restore Azerbaijan's independence.[25] Rasulzade demanded that Nazi Germany announce its absolute commitment to the restoration of the Transcaucasian states, however, due to the evasive nature of the Reich in the conversation, he left Berlin.[26]
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Finally, afterWorld War II, he went back toAnkara, Turkey in 1947, where he participated in the politics of the marginal Pan Turkic movement.[27] Due to sensitivity of his presence in either Turkey or Iran, and being often exiled, Rasulzade "cherished bad memories of both Iran and Turkey".[28] In his appeal to Azerbaijani people in 1953 throughVoice of America, he stressed his hope that one day it will become independent again.[29] He died in 1955, a broken man according toThomas Goltz,[27] and was buried inCebeci Asri cemetery in Ankara.[18]
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Rasulzade was commemorated by many memorials throughout Azerbaijan, such asBaku State University, which was named after his honor. Rasulzade was depicted on theobverse of the Azerbaijani 1000manat banknote of 1993–2006.[30]
The Mehmet Emin Resulzade Anatolian High School was named after him and is a public high school at Ankara, Turkey.[31]
Rasulzade's works include:[3][32]
Mehmed Emin Resulzâde 31 Ocak 1884'de Bakü'nün Novhanı köyünde dünyaya gelmiştir. Babası Ahund Hacı Molla Alekber Resulzâde, annesi Zal kızı Ziynet'tir.
{{cite book}}:ISBN / Date incompatibility (help){{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)where Hitler tried to recruit him as a leader of a German-sponsored Caucasus
Rasulzade was later exiled when the Soviet Union took over Azerbaijan, and during World War II briefly tried to enlist Nazi Germany in a tactical alliance to restore Azerbaijan's independence
| Leadership |  | |
|---|---|---|
| Conflicts | ||
| Military | ||
| Government | ||
| Territories | ||
| Other | ||
| Azerbaijan Democratic Republic | Heads of Parliament (1918–1920) |  |
|---|---|---|
| Azerbaijan Soviet Socialist Republic (1920–1991) | First secretaries of the Central Committee of theAzerbaijan Communist Party (1920–1991)
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| Republic of Azerbaijan (1991–present) | Presidents of Azerbaijan Republic (1991–present) | |
(a) Denotes acting | ||
