Azerbaijan Democratic Republic

Azerbaijan People's Republic
آذربایجان خلق جمهوریتی
Azərbaycan Xalq Cümhuriyyəti
1918–1920
Coat of arms of Azerbaijan Democratic Republic
Coat of arms
Anthem: Azərbaycan marşı
"March of Azerbaijan"
Map of the Azerbaijan Democratic Republic with territorial claims and disputed areas
Map of the Azerbaijan Democratic Republic with territorial claims and disputed areas
Capital
Common languagesTurkic[a][1][2]
Demonym(s)Azerbaijani
GovernmentUnitary provisional parliamentary republic with an executive presidency
Prime Minister 
• 1918–1919
Fatali Khan Khoyski
• 1919–1920
Nasib bey Yusifbeyli
• 1920
Mammad Hasan Hajinski
Speaker 
• 1918
Mammad Amin Rasulzade
• 1918–1920
Alimardan bey Topchubashov
LegislatureAzerbaijani National Council
Historical eraInterwar period
• Independence declared
28 May 1918
28 April 1920
18 October 1991
Area
1918[3][4]99,908.87 km2 (38,575.03 sq mi)
Population
• 1919 estimate
4,617,671
GDP (nominal)1919 estimate
• Total
665 million
CurrencyAzerbaijani ruble
Preceded by
Succeeded by
Transcaucasian Democratic Federative Republic
Azerbaijan Soviet Socialist Republic
Today part of

The Azerbaijan Democratic Republic,[b][c] also known as the Azerbaijan People's Republic,[d] was the first secular democratic republic in the Turkic and Muslim worlds.[10] The ADR was founded by the Azerbaijani National Council in Tiflis on 28 May 1918 after the collapse of the Transcaucasian Democratic Federative Republic, and ceased to exist on April 28, 1920.[11] Its established borders were with Russia to the north, the Democratic Republic of Georgia to the north-west, the Republic of Armenia to the west, and Iran to the south. It had a population of around 3 million.[12] Ganja was the temporary capital of the Republic as Baku was under Bolshevik control. The name of "Azerbaijan" which the leading Musavat party adopted, for political reasons,[13][14] was, prior to the establishment of the Azerbaijan Democratic Republic in 1918, exclusively used to identify the adjacent region of contemporary northwestern Iran.[15][16][17]

Under the ADR, a government system was developed in which a Parliament elected on the basis of universal, free, and proportionate representation was the supreme organ of state authority; the Council of Ministers was held responsible before it. Fatali Khan Khoyski became its first prime minister.[18] Besides the Musavat majority, Ahrar, Ittihad, Muslim Social Democrats as well as representatives of Armenian (21 out of 120 seats[11]), Russian, Polish, German, and Jewish minorities[19] gained seats in the parliament. Many members supported Pan-Islamist and Pan-Turkist ideas.[20][21][22][23][24][25]

Among the important accomplishments of the Parliament was the extension of suffrage 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 of Baku State University, which was the first modern-type university founded in Azerbaijan.


Cite error: There are <ref group=lower-alpha> tags or {{efn}} templates on this page, but the references will not show without a {{reflist|group=lower-alpha}} template or {{notelist}} template (see the help page).

  1. ^ Фарид Алекберли. История государственного языка в Азербайджане.. Elm History & Heritage Website. Archived from the original on 2023-01-29. Retrieved 2020-06-22.
  2. ^ Азербайджанская Демократическая Республика(1918–1920) / Н. Агамалиева. — Баку: «Элм», 1998. — 5-8066-0897-2
  3. ^ "93 years pass since establishment of first democratic republic in the east – Azerbaijan Democratic Republic". Azerbaijan Press Agency. Archived from the original on November 21, 2011. Retrieved May 28, 2011.
  4. ^ Balayev, Aydin; Aliyarov, Suleiman; Jafarov, Jafar (1990). Азербайджанское национально-демократическое движение. 1917-1920 гг [Azerbaijani National Democratic Movement]. Elm. p. 92. ISBN 978-5-8066-0422-5.
  5. ^ Bulletin d'Information de l'Azerbaidjan, No. I, September 1, 1919, pp. 6–7
  6. ^ 125 H.C.Debs., 58., February 24, 1920, p. 1467.
  7. ^ "AZERBAIJAN". Encyclopaedia Iranica, Vol. III, Fasc. 2-3. 1987. pp. 205–257. Archived from the original on 23 January 2013. Retrieved 18 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.
  8. ^ Luke, Harry (1935). More Moves on an Eastern Chequerboard. L. Dickson & Thompson. p. 265.
  9. ^ Mowat, Robert Balmain (1927). A History of European Diplomacy, 1914-1925. Longmans, Green & Company. p. 203.
  10. ^
  11. ^ a b c Kazemzadeh, Firuz (1951). The Struggle for Transcaucasia: 1917–1921. The New York Philosophical Library. pp. 124, 222, 229, 269–270. ISBN 978-0-8305-0076-5.
  12. ^ Swietochowski, Tadeusz. Russian Azerbaijan, 1905-1920: The Shaping of a National Identity in a Muslim Community. Cambridge University Press, 2004, p. 129. ISBN 0521522455
  13. ^ Yilmaz, Harun (2015). National Identities in Soviet Historiography: The Rise of Nations Under Stalin. Routledge. p. 21. ISBN 978-1317596646. 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.
  14. ^ Barthold, 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, name Arran can be chosen. But the term Azerbaijan was chosen because when the Azerbaijan republic was created, it was assumed that this and the Persian 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)
  15. ^ Atabaki, Touraj (2000). Azerbaijan: Ethnicity and the Struggle for Power in Iran. I.B.Tauris. p. 25. ISBN 9781860645549.
  16. ^ Dekmejian, R. Hrair; Simonian, Hovann H. (2003). Troubled Waters: The Geopolitics of the Caspian Region. I.B. Tauris. p. 60. ISBN 978-1860649226. Archived from the original on 2021-01-19. Retrieved 2020-11-08. Until 1918, when the Musavat regime decided to name the newly independent state Azerbaijan, this designation had been used exclusively to identify the Iranian province of Azerbaijan.
  17. ^ Rezvani, Babak (2014). Ethno-territorial conflict and coexistence in the caucasus, Central Asia and Fereydan: academisch proefschrift. Amsterdam: Amsterdam University Press. p. 356. ISBN 978-9048519286. 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.
  18. ^ La Chesnais, Pierre Georget (1921). Les peuples de la Transcaucasie pendant la guerre et devant la paix. Éditions Bossard. pp. 108–110. Archived from the original on 2016-06-11. Retrieved 2015-10-29.
  19. ^ "Azerbaijan:History". Archived from the original on 15 March 2007.
  20. ^ "Musavat Party (Azerbaijan)". Archived 2020-06-22 at the Wayback Machine
  21. ^ Landau, Jacob M. Pan-Turkism: From Irrendentism to Coopersation. p.55
  22. ^ Mostashari, Firouzeh. On the Religious Frontier: Tsarist Russia and Islam in the Caucasus. p. 144.
  23. ^ Roshwald, Aviel. Ethnic Nationalism and the Fall of Empires. p. 100.
  24. ^ Middleton, Neil and O'Keefe, Phil. Disaster and Development: The Politics of Humanitarian Aid. p. 132.
  25. ^ Croissant, Michael P. The Armenian-Azerbaijan Conflict: Causes and Implications. p. 14.