Andrew Andersen

AZERBAIJAN: SHORT HISTORY OF THE FIRST REPUBLIC: 1918 – 1920

The first attempt of Azerbaijani nation-building occurred as a result of World War I and the disintegration of Russian Empire which had been dominating the territory of modern Azerbaijan Since early 19^th century.

INTRODUCTION

On October 29 of 1914, Turkey entered the World War by naval bombardment of Russian Black Sea ports. Three days later, Russia declared war on Turkey, and South Caucasus became a battleground. Most of the Azerbaijanis as well as other Muslim communities of the area, exempt from military service, remained passive, quietly hoping for the defeat of Russia and possible establishment of a "Greater Turan" from the Balkans to China.

In November of 1914 the Turks, under Enver Pasha, penetrated South Caucasus but were quickly defeated, and in 1915 and 1916 Russian troops under Count Vorontsov-Dashkov (later, under Grand Duke Nicholas), pushed southwest into Eastern Turkey and Northern Iran, which had also been invaded by the Turks. The period between January and August, 1916 was marked by the series of Russian victories. By the beginning of 1917, Russians conquered vast territory in Eastern Turkey. However the revolution of February 1917 and the abdication of Czar Nicholas II drastically changed the situation at the fronts. The first half of 1917 was marked by stagnation of all military operations and rapid demoralization of Russian troops.

On November 7, 1917, the Bolsheviks seized power in Russia. The following day they declared the withdrawal of their country from the war and announced total demobilization of the old army. Demoralized by these events, Russian troops left the Turkish front while, on the 12th of February, 1918, the Turks began their re-conquest of all the lost territories.

In the vacuum that remained as a result of the Bolshevik coup, the leading political parties of the South Caucasus formed a provisional government (the Transcaucasian Seim) in a desperate attempt to prevent anarchy and protect the area from the menace of Turkey. The advancing Turkish troops (50,000) under Vehip Pasha, were opposed by only10,000 inexperienced Georgian volunteers under General Odishelidze and a 25,000-man Armenian army under General Nazarbekov and the field-commanders Andronik and Dro. These forces were also repeatedly attacked from the rear by thousands of Mmuslm guerrillas supporting the advancing Turks.

THE BIRTH OF MODERN AZERBAIJAN

On March 3, 1918, the Bolsheviks signed the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk with the Central Powers, according to which the Ottoman Turkey regained not only all the territories it had lost by January 1916, but also the Kars territory and the district of Batum which had been parts of Russia before the war started. The Transcaucasian Seim rejected the Treaty of Brest-Litowsk, and on April 22, proclaimed an independent Democratic Federal Republic of Transcaucasia. By that time the Turks had already won back all the territories they claimed according to the treaty and threatened Tiflis and Erivan (Yerevan). The new-born Transcaucasian Federation however, was doomed due to the different orientations of its three main ethnic communities. The Georgian leaders turned towards Germany to prevent the Turkish aggression; the move also resulted from Georgians' traditional perception of Germany as the center of European culture. The Azerbaijanis collaborated with the Turks, whom they regarded as their triumphant MUslIm brethren. Only the Armenians, united by the danger posed by the territorial ambitions of the Ottoman Turks and the Azerbaijanis, kept fighting for the Allied Powers.

On May 26, 1918, Georgia declared its independence under the protection of Germany. The same day an independent Armenian Republic was proclaimed in Yerevan. During the next week the Turkish troops were defeated by Georgian volunteers on the river of Cholock to the North of Batum and by the Armenian army and militia at Sardapat. The same week Georgia was occupied by German troops (5,000) under General Kress von-Kressenstein. On June 4, 1918, a peace-treaty was signed in Batum, according to which most of Georgia remained under German protectorate and the Armenian Republic was cut down to a tiny enclave around the cities of Yerevan and Echmiadzin. Turkey was also given carte blanche to act in Azerbaijan. Regardless of the Batum treaty some Armenian troops under Andronik continued to conduct guerrilla operations against the Turks from the mountain areas of Karabakh-Zanghezur, where another Armenian republic had been proclaimed.

Earlier, on the 25th of March 1918, a Marxist republic was declared in Eastern Azerbaijan by groups of Baku Bolsheviks who were mainly Russian and Armenian. In their turn Azerbaijani panturkists declared the establishment of the Azerbaijani People's Democratic Republic in Ganca (Elisavetpoli) in May of the same year. With the help of the Turkish army, the "Army of Islam" was formed to defeat the Bolsheviks and Armenians in Baku. In September 1918, meeting some resistance from the scanty Bolshevik forces and local Armenian militia, the Army of Islam and the Turks marched into Baku . After the massacre of at least 25,000 Armenians still residing in the city, the new Azerbaijani government moved into their new capital. In October 1918 the Turks, backed by the Moslem-dominated Confederation of Caucasian Mountaneers attempted an expedition to Dagestan but were thrust back by Russian anti-bolshevik forces. Most of Azerbaijan remained occupied by Ottoman Turkish troops until the end of World War I in November 1918. Only in the district of Mughan, did Russian settlers declare the Mughan Republic and continue fighting for the Allies until the withdrawal of the Turks from the area.

Created in May of 1918 under Turkish protectorate, the Republic of Azerbaijan claimed but never controlled all areas of South Caucasus with significant percentage of Muslim population. The defeat of the Central powers in November of the same year and evacuation of Turkish troops marked the beginning of real nation-building of Azerbaijan and its conflict with Armenia which still remains unresolved.

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The Republic of Azerbaijan claimed all of the former Baku and Elisavetpol provinces (guberniji) of the dissolved Russian Empire, as well as the eastern half of Erivan province and the distict of Zakatala. At the same time, the Republic of Armenia claimed not only all of the Erivan province including Naxcivan and Ordubad districts but also eastern and southern parts of Elisavetpol (Ganca) province with high percentage of ethnic Armenian population.

The compromise proposal of Lord Wardrop for Azerbaijan to give up all its territorial ambitions in Erivan under the condition that Armenia drops any claims in Karabakh (Elisavetpol prov.) seemed unacceptable to both conflicting parties. According to Azeri nationalists, all the former provinces of Baku, Elisavetpol and Erivan were indisputably Azerbaijan due to the fact that during some 2-3 centuries prior to the expansion of the imperial Russia, they we ruled by Turcic-speaking Khans and Sultans. However, from Armenian perspective, these territories were historical Armenian provinces of Kazakh-Shamshadin, Artsakh (Karabakh), and Syuniq (Zanghezur). That point of view went back to the ancient and early mediaeval periods of Armenian history when the above-mentioned territories were incorporated in various Armenian states. It was also supported by numerous examples of ancient Armenian architecture (mostly churches and their ruins) scattered all over the area.

The above made absolutely no sense to the nationalists and pan-turkists of Azerbaijan. According to their views, there was absolutely no territory in the Caucasus to which Armenian people had any historical right. The politicians and the majority of the intellectual elite of Azerbaijan based their opinions on the fact that Armenian statehood in South Caucasus ceased to exist in 1081 when it was overrun by the Seljuk Turks coming from Central Asia. The mass migrations of population and numerous massacres that followed left most of the historical Armenian lands populated by Turcic-speaking and/or Muslim majority and run by Muslim/Turcic rulers. The Armenians became minority in the land they claimed theirs and could boast only “significant Armenian presence” in some areas of South Caucasus and eastern Turkey. Azeri nationalists also considered “extreme generosity” the fact that Turkey and Azerbaijan agreed to “tolerate” Armenian national homeland in Yerevan and Echmiadzin districts of the former Yerevan province.

As a result of the above conflicting views, neither Armenia nor Azerbaijan was satisfied with the border proposal made in late November 1918, by John Oliver Wardrop, British Chief Commissioner in South Caucasus. According to Sir Oliver Wardrop, Armenian claims against Azerbaijan should not go beyond the administrative borders of the former Yerevan province, while Azerbaijan was to be limited to the provinces of Baku and Ganca (Elisavetpol). Armenia was not prepared to drop her claims to Kazakh-Shamshadin, Zanghezur and Karabakh while Azerbaijan was not accepting the idea of Armenian control over Naxcivan and Ordubad. The fragile peace with an unresolved territorial dispute a its background did not last long and the series of Azeri-Armenian wars broke out at the very end of 1918.

THE ARAXI WAR: 05/1919 - 08/1919.

In December 1918 Japhar-Kouli khan of Naxcivan declared an ”independent Araxi republic” in Naxcivan and Ordubad districts of the former Yervan province assigned to Armenia by the British Chief Commissioner in the South Caucasus. The government of Armenia did not recognize that new state formation and sent its troops to the breakaway area. By the middle if June 1919 Naxcivan was put under Armenian control together with the whole territory of the self-proclaimed republic. The fall of the Araxi republic triggered the invasion of regular Azerbaijani army trained and commanded by Turkish officers. By the end of July, Armenian troops were forced to leave the city of Naxcivan to the Azeris. After the series of skirmishes all over the Naxcivan district, the cease-fire agreement was concluded and lasted until March 1920.

THE SECOND AZERI-ARMENIAN WAR: 03/1920 – 04/1920

In early March of 1920, regular troops of Azerbaijan attempted to suppress the Armenian-controlled enclaves in Karabakh. That triggered the outbreak of armed clashes all over Karabakh, as well as Naxcivan and Ordubad districts. In the middle of March, Armenian troops launched offensive in all the areas disputed with Azerbaijan.

By the end of March heavy fighting was going on in Karabakh for the towns of Shusha, Xankendy, Terter, Askeran. Zanghezur and Naxcivan were put under stable Armenian control. Skirmishes in Kazakh-Shamshadin reached western outskirts of Ganca. During the war both sides reportedly committed numerous crimes and performed ethnic cleansing in the areas with mixed Armenian-Azeri population. That added to already existing prejudice and planted seeds of the future conflicts between the two peoples.

COLLAPSE OF THE FIRST REPUBLIC: 25/04 – 29/ 04/1920

In April 1920, Soviet Russian 11^th Army invaded Azerbaijan. By the end of April, Azerbaijani People's Democratic Republic collapsed. Facing little resistance on behalf of disorganized Azerbaijani army Armenian troops and guerillas took over all of the disputed territories. On April 29, Soviet occupants and local communists proclaimed Azerbaijani Soviet Socialist Republic in Baku.

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THE FATE OF THE DISPUTED TERRITORIES: 05 - 07/1920

In early May following orders from Moscow, the Soviets launched offensive against Armenia aiming at the expansion of Soviet Azerbaijan through the conquest of disputed territories. Former Azerbaijani army was fighting alongside the 11^th Army of Soviet Russia. In order to weaken Armenian resistance, the communists of Armenia subordinate to Moscow, were ordered to start an uprising and overthrow the government of Armenian Republic. The attempted communist coup was unsuccessful. In spite of the fact that Armenian communists managed to take over the towns of Alexandropol, Kars, Sarakykamysh, as well as several villages in disputed Kazakh-Shamshadin area, the uprising was put down by the government troops and police in less than a month. However, it undermined the efforts of Armenia to withstand Soviet invasion and led to the series of military defeats in Kazakh-Shamshadin and Karabakh.

In late May 1920, the Soviet Russia offered Armenia to solve territorial disputes through negotiations. Armenia accepted the Soviet proposal and Soviet-Armenian negotiations started in Moscow immediately. They lasted several weeks and did not seem to be productive.

While the delegations were arguing about the future borders, the Soviet troops kept forcing Armenians out of Karabakh. On June 15 they took over Shusha and two weeks later all organized Armenian resistance in that disputed area was crushed. After June 15, only few isolated groups of Armenian fighters subordinate to general Drastamat Kanayan (Dro) kept conducting guerilla operations in the mountains of Karabakh.

In spite of the fact that Soviet representatives at Moscow negotiations Chicherin and Karakhan agreed to leave Zanghezur, Sharur (Naxcivan and Ordubad districts) and most of Kazakh-Shamshadin under Armenian control providing Armenia gives up Karabakh, the Soviet troops also invaded Zanghezur and on July 1 took its major towns of Tatev and Goris. Simultaneously, the Turkish regular troops crossed the Iranian border and started concentrating in Maku area of North-Western Iran preparing to invade Sharur and take Naxcivan. In the middle of July, 1920 Turkish and Soviet command agreed to start joint military action in Sharur against their common enemy. Both the Soviets and the Turks launched offensive against Naxcivan. On July 28, attacked from the two sides and outnumbered by the enemy, Armenian defenders of Naxcivan left the town and retreated towards Ordubad. The next day “Soviet Socialist Republic of Naxcivan” was proclaimed, and its “Revolutionary Committee” offered Yerevan to recognize independence of a new “independent state”. In early August, Armenian troops made one more attempt to take over Naxcivan but were defeated at Shakh-Takhty by joint Soviet-Turkish corps.

On August 10 1920, the cease-fire agreement was signed in Yerevan by the representatives of Soviet and Armenian governments leaving Armenia without most of the disputed territories but ending the hostilities along Soviet-Armenian front-lines for more than three months. Sporadic fighting continued in Karabakh and Zanghezur districts where several Armenian warlords refused to stop guerilla war.

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