Azerbaijan Democratic Republic - Establishment

Establishment

In 1917, the Russian Caucasus Front collapsed following the abdication of the Tsar. On March 9, 1917, Special Transcaucasian Committee Ozakom (short for Osobyi Zakavkazskii Komitet, Особый Закавказский Комитет) was established to fill the administrative gap in areas occupied in the course of the war on the Caucasian front in the Transcaucasia by the Russian Provisional Government. The Viceroyalty of the Caucasus was abolished by the Russian Provisional Government on March 18, 1917, and all authority, except in the zone of the active army, was entrusted to the civil administrative body Special Transcaucasian Committee. This administration, which included representatives of Armenian, Azerbaijani and Georgians did not last long.

Like many ethnic minorities of Transcaucasia, Azeris aimed at secession from Russia after the February Revolution In the provinces and districts where Azeris constituted considerable population local Muslim National Councils (MNC) were formed. On March 27, 1917 delegates of MNCs gathered and elected a central committee Mammad Hasan Hajinski, Mammed Amin Rasulzade, Alimardan Topchubashov, Fatali Khan Khoyski, and other founders of the future Azerbaijan Democratic Republic. On November 11, the first government of the independent Transcaucasia was created in Tbilisi named as "Transcaucasian Commissariat (Sejm)". Azeri's gave 37 representatives to Transcaucasian Commissariat. The Transcaucasian Commissariat was anti-Bolshevik in its political goals and sought the separation of Transcaucasia from Bolshevik Russia. Following the October Revolution, a government of the local Soviet was established in Baku: the so-called Baku Commune (November 1917 – 31 July 1918). The Commune was formed by 85 Social Revolutionaries and Left Social Revolutionaries, 48 Bolsheviks, 36 Dashnaks, 18 Musavatists and 13 Mensheviks. Stepan Shaumyan, a Bolshevik, and Prokopius Dzhaparidze, a leftist SR, were elected Chairmen of the Council of People's Commissioners of the Commune of Baku. The Baku Soviet was at odds with emergent Transcaucasian Federation and was supportive of Bolshevik governments in most areas, except peace treaty with Ottoman Empire. Uneasy truce existed between different faction, until Treaty of Brest-Litovsk exposed weakness of the coalition. The Russian Caucasus Army was degrading After the collapse of the Russian Empire and on November 7, 1917, signed Armistice of Erzincan with the Ottoman Empire. On February 24, 1918, The Sejm proclaimed the Transcaucasia as the independent Transcaucasian Democratic Federative Republic. On March 3, 1918, the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk marked Russia's (signed by Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic) exit from World War I. Treaty of Brest-Litovsk exposed the weakness of this coalition, which hold on an uneasy truce between different factions. On March 14, the Trabzon peace conference began between the Ottoman Empire and the delegation of the Transcaucasian Commissariat (Sejm).

In March 1918, ethnic and religious tension grew and the Armenian-Azeri conflict in Baku began. Musavat and Ittihad parties were accused of Pan-Turkism by Bolsheviks and their allies. Armenian and Muslim militia engaged in 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-bolshevik Kadets 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 the Armenian Genocide in the Ottoman Empire. As a result, between 3,000 and 12,000 Muslims were killed in what is known as the March Days. 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.

The Bolshevik account of the events of March 1918 in Baku is presented by Victor Serge in Year 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 Soviet, 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 (the ambal) either remained neutral or supported the Reds. The contest was won by the Soviets."

On 26 May 1918, after the Transcaucasian Democratic Federative Republic fell and its bodies were dissolved. The Azerbaijani faction of constituted itself into the Azerbaijani National Council (NC). 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 following:

1. Azerbaijan is fully sovereign nation; it consists of the southern and eastern parts of Transcaucasia under the authority of the Azerbaijani people.
2. It is resolved that the form of government of the independent Azerbaijani state is a democratic republic.
3. The Azerbaijani Democratic Republic is determined to establish friendly relations with all, especially with the neighboring nations and states.
4. 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.
5. The Azerbaijani Democratic Republic encourages the free development of all nationalities inhabiting its territory.
6. Until the Azerbaijani Constituent Assembly is convened, the supreme authority over Azerbaijan is vested in a universally elected National Council and the provisional government 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.