View source for Azerbaijan Democratic Republic

{{complex}}
{{Infobox Former Country
|conventional_long_name = Azerbaijan Democratic Republic
|native_name =  آذربایجان خلق جومهوریتی <br> ''Azərbaycan Demokratik Respublikası''
|common_name = Azerbaijan
|region = Caucasus
|p1 = Transcaucasian Democratic Federative Republic
|flag_p1 = Flag of the Transcaucasian Federation.svg
|s1 = Azerbaijani SSR
|flag_s1 = Flag of Azerbaijan SSR (1920-1921).svg
|image_coat = Coat of arms of Azerbaijan.svg
|image_flag = Flag of Azerbaijan 1918.svg
|national_motto = <small>Bir kərə yüksələn bayraq bir daha enməz!<br />The flag once raised will never fall!</small>
|national_anthem = ''[[National Anthem of the Republic of Azerbaijan|Azərbaycan Marşı]]''<br /><small>March of Azerbaijan</small><center>[[file: Azerbaijan national anthem (vocal version).ogg]]</center>
|image_map = Azerbaijan Democratic Republic 1918 20.png
|image_map_caption = Map of Azerbaijan including disputed territories with Armenia and Georgia issued in Baku for [[Paris Peace Conference, 1919|Paris Peace Conference]] in 1919.
|capital = [[Ganja (city)|Ganja]] <small>(until Sep 1918)</small><br />[[Baku]] 
|common_languages = [[Azerbaijani language|Azerbaijani]]
|government_type = [[Parliamentary system|Parliamentary republic]]
|title_leader = [[Prime Minister of Azerbaijan|Prime Minister]]
|leader1 = Fatali Khan Khoyski
|year_leader1 = 1918–1919
|leader2 = Nasib Yusifbeyli
|year_leader2 = 1919–1920
|leader3 = Mammad Hasan Hajinski
|year_leader3 = 1920
|title_deputy = [[Speaker of the National Assembly of Azerbaijan|Speaker]]
|deputy1 = Mammed Amin Rasulzade
|year_deputy1 = 1918
|deputy2 = Alimardan Topchubashev
|year_deputy2 = 1918–1920
|era = Interwar period
|event_start = Independence
|date_start = 28 May
|year_start = 1918
|event_end = [[Red Army invasion of Azerbaijan|Soviet invasion]]
|date_end = 28 April
|year_end = 1920
|stat_year1 = 1918<ref name="Isgenderli">{{cite book |last = Isgenderli |first = Anar |title = Realities of Azerbaijan 1917-1920 |publisher = Xlibris Corporation |year=2011 |location= |ISBN = 1-4568-7953-7 |page = 196}}</ref>
|stat_pop1 = 2862000
|stat_year3 = 1918<ref>{{cite web |last= |first= |authorlink= |title = 93 years pass since establishment of first democratic republic in the east – Azerbaijan Democratic Republic |work= |publisher = Azerbaijan Press Agency |date= |url = http://en.apa.az/news.php?id=148210 |doi= |accessdate=May 28, 2011}}</ref><ref name="Balayev">{{cite book |title = Азербайджанское национально-демократическое движение. 1917-1920 гг. |trans-title=Azerbaijani National Democratic Movement |last1=Balayev |first1=Aydin |authorlink= |author2=Aliyarov, Suleiman|author3= Jafarov, Jafar |year=1990 |publisher=Elm |location= |ISBN = 5-8066-0422-5 |page = 92 |url = |accessdate=2011-10-11}}</ref>
|stat_area3 = 99908.87
|currency = [[Azerbaijani manat]]
|today = {{flag|Armenia}}<br>{{flag|Azerbaijan}}<br>{{flag|Georgia}}
}}

The '''Azerbaijan Democratic Republic''' ('''ADR'''; {{lang-az|Azərbaycan Demokratik Respublikası}}) also known as '''Azerbaijan People's Republic''' ({{lang-az|Azərbaycan Xalq Cümhuriyyəti}}) was the first successful attempt to establish a [[democratic]] and [[secular]] [[republic]] in the [[Muslim world]] (before the [[Turkey|Republic of Turkey]]).<ref>Tadeusz Swietochowski. Russia and Azerbaijan: A Borderland in Transition. Columbia University Press, 1995. {{ISBN|0231070683}}, 9780231070683 and Reinhard Schulze. A Modern History of the Islamic World. I.B.Tauris, 2000. {{ISBN|1860648223}}, 9781860648229. Citations are at [[Talk:Azerbaijan Democratic Republic#First or second]].</ref> The ADR was founded on May 28, 1918 after the collapse of the [[Russian Empire]] that began with the [[Russian Revolution of 1917]] by the [[Azerbaijani National Council]] in [[Tiflis]], [[Georgia (country)|Georgia]].<ref name="kazemzadeh">{{cite book
  | last = Kazemzadeh
  | first = Firuz
  | title = The Struggle for Transcaucasia: 1917-1921
  | publisher = The New York Philosophical Library
  | year= 1951
  | location =
  | isbn = 0-8305-0076-6
  | pages = 124, 222, 229, 269–270 }}</ref> Its [[border]]s were with [[Russia]] in the north, [[Democratic Republic of Georgia]] in the north-west, [[Democratic Republic of Armenia]] in the west, and [[Qajar dynasty|Persian Empire]] ([[Iran]]) in the south. It had a population of 2.86 million.<ref>Tadeusz Swietochowski. ''[https://books.google.com/books?pg=PA129&dq=Azerbaijan+Democratic+Republic&id=cozSOSsv7ZsC&output=html Russian Azerbaijan, 1905-1920: The Shaping of a National Identity in a Muslim Community]. Cambridge University Press, 2004, p. 129. {{ISBN|0521522455}}''</ref> [[Ganja (city)|Ganja]] was the [[temporary]] [[capital (city)|capital]] of the Republic as [[Baku]], which is the [[de jure]] capital, was under [[Bolshevik]] control.

Under the ADR, a the [[government]] was a [[parliamentary system]] in which a [[parliament]], called the Milli Majlis ([[National Assembly of Azerbaijan]]) [[election|elected]] on the basis of [[universal suffrage|universal]], free, and [[proportional representation]], was the highest political [[institution]] of [[state]] [[authority]] and the [[Cabinet|Council of Ministers]] was responsible before it. [[Fatali Khan Khoyski]] became its first [[prime minister]].<ref name="chesnais">{{cite book |title=Les peuples de la Transcaucasie pendant la guerre et devant la paix |last=La Chesnais |first=Pierre Georget |authorlink= |coauthors= |year=1921 |publisher=Éditions Bossard |location= |isbn= |page= |pages=108–110 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=VV-lGAAACAAJ |accessdate=}}</ref> Besides the [[political party]] [[Musavat]] who had the majority in parliament, other political parties were [[Ahrar Party (Azerbaijan)|Ehrar]], [[Ittihad]], [[Muslim Social Democratic Party|Muslim Social-democrats]] as well as [[representative]]s of [[Armenians|Armenian]] (21 out of 120 seats<ref name="kazemzadeh" />), [[Russians|Russian]], [[Poles|Polish]], [[Jewish]] and [[Germans|German]] [[minorities]]<ref>[http://www.cac-biodiversity.org/aze/aze_history.htm Azerbaijan:History<!-- Bot generated title -->]</ref> gained seats in the parliament. Some members supported [[Pan-Islamist]] and [[Pan-Turkist]] [[ideology|ideologies]].<ref>[http://www.crwflags.com/fotw/flags/az%7Dmus.html Musavat Party (Azerbaijan)]<br />Pan-Turkism: From Irrendentism to Coopersation by Jacob M. Landau P.55<br />On the Religious Frontier: Tsarist Russia and Islam in the Caucasus by Firouzeh Mostashari P. 144<br />''Ethnic Nationalism and the Fall of Empires'' by [[Aviel Roshwald]], page 100<br />Disaster and Development: The politics of Humanitarian Aid by Neil Middleton and Phil O'keefe P. 132<br />The Armenian-Azerbaijan Conflict: Causes and Implications by Michael P. Croissant P. 14</ref>

Among the important accomplishments of the parliament was to give women the right to [[women's suffrage|vote]], making [[Azerbaijan]] the first Muslim nation to give women [[equality|equal]] political [[rights]] with men.<ref name="kazemzadeh" />  Apart from this accomplishment, Azerbaijan made these [[reform]]s earlier than the [[United Kingdom]] and the [[United States]]. Another important accomplishment of ADR was the establishment of [[Baku State University]], which was the first modern-type [[university]] founded in Azerbaijan.

==End of the Democratic Republic of Azerbaijan, 1920==
By March 1920, it became clear that [[Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic|Soviet Russia]] would attack and [[invasion|invade]] Azerbaijan. The [[Soviet]] Bolshevik leader [[Vladimir Lenin]] said that the invasion was justified by the [[fact]] that Soviet Russia could not survive without the Baku [[oil field]]s, which was at that time the largest oil field in the world with more than half of the world's oil reserves.<ref>[http://www.globalrus.ru/print_this/134413/ Lenin and Caucasus oil] on GlobalRus.ru {{ru icon}}</ref><ref>[http://www.window2baku.com/001history_3.htm Deliveries of Baku oil to Russia in April-May 1920] "History of the City of Baku" {{ru icon}}</ref> According to the common [[opinion]] in [[Moscow]], Russian [[Bolsheviks]] were to "help" the Baku [[proletariat]] ([[worker]]s) in overthrowing the "counter-revolutionary [[nationalism|nationalists]]", meaning the government and the state of the Azerbaijan Democratic Republic.

After a major [[political]] [[crisis]], the Fifth Cabinet of Ministers of the Azerbaijan Democratic Republic [[resignation|resigned]] on April 1, 1920. On April 25, 1920, the Soviet [[Russia]]n 11th [[Red Army]] crossed into Azerbaijan, entering Baku on April 27. They demanded the closing of the Azerbaijani parliament and set up their own Bolshevik government headed by [[Nariman Narimanov]]. To avoid bloodshed, the members of parliament had to agree with the demand and the ADR officially ended on April 28, 1920, giving way to the [[Azerbaijan Soviet Socialist Republic]] (Azerbaijan SSR) as its successor state. The Red Army met very little [[resistance]] in Baku from the Azerbaijani [[army]], which was tied up on the [[Nagorno-Karabakh|Karabakh]] front. The first [[Communist]] government of Azerbaijan consisted almost entirely of native Azerbaijanis from the [[left-wing]] [[political faction]]s of the ''Hummat'' and ''Adalat'' political parties.<ref name="Pipes">Richard Pipes. ''The Formation of the Soviet Union: Communism and Nationalism 1917-1923'', pp 218-220, 229 (Cambridge, Massachusetts, 1997).</ref>

In [[May]] 1920, there was a major [[rebellion]] against the occupying Soviet Russian 11th Red Army in [[1920 Ganja Revolt|Ganja]], who wanted to restore the [[Musavat]]ists to [[power]]. The rebellion was crushed by government troops by May 31. Leaders of the ADR either fled to the [[Democratic Republic of Georgia]], which was the last [[independent]] [[Caucasus|Caucasian]] country that was invaded in 1921 by Soviet Russia, then to [[Turkey]] and Iran, or were captured by Bolsheviks, like [[Mammed Amin Rasulzade]], who was later allowed to [[emigrate]] (leave the country), or were [[execution|executed]] ([[kill]]ed) like Gen. Selimov, Gen. Sulkevich, Gen. Agalarov, a total of over 20 [[General officer|generals]],<ref>[http://www.zerbaijan.com/azgenerals.htm List of Azerbaijani Generals and Admirals, Military Leaders and Heroes, May 2006]</ref> or [[assassinated]] by Armenian [[terrorists]] like [[Fatali Khan Khoyski]] and Behbudagha Javanshir.<ref>[http://www.azer.com/aiweb/categories/magazine/73_folder/73_articles/73_parliamentfate.htm "The Fate of some of the ADR Parliament Members", Azerbaijan International (7.3) Autumn 1999]</ref> Most [[student]]s and [[citizen]]s travelling abroad remained in those countries never to return again to their country. Other important ADR [[military]] leaders like the former Minister of Defense General [[Samedbey Mehmandarov]] and deputy defense minister General [[Ali-Agha Shikhlinski]] (who was called "the God of Artillery" ) were at first [[arrest]]ed, but then released two months later thanks to efforts of [[Nariman 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."<ref>
Hugh Pope, "Sons of the conquerors: the rise of the Turkic world", New York: The Overlook Press, 2006, p. 116, {{ISBN|1-58567-804-X}}</ref> However, the founding of the Azerbaijan Soviet Socialist Republic was made easier by the fact that there was a certain popular support for Bolshevik ideology in Azerbaijan, among the [[industrial]] workers in Baku.<ref>[http://www.zerbaijan.com/azeri/svante_cornell.html Svante Cornell. "Undeclared War-The Nagorno-Karabakh Conflict Reconsidered", ''Journal of South Asian and Middle Eastern Studies'', vol. 20, no. 4, Fall 1997]</ref>

==Related pages==
* [[Azerbaijan]]
* [[Azerbaijan Soviet Socialist Republic]]

== References ==
{{reflist}}

[[Category:20th century in Azerbaijan]]
[[Category:Political history of Azerbaijan]]
[[Category:Azerbaijani republics]]
[[Category:1918 establishments]]
[[Category:1920 disestablishments]]