THE FIRST REPUBLIC: ON THE EVE OF INDEPENDENCE

The Azerbaijani deputies of the Seim were concerned not just about the policy of deportation and ethnic cleansing against the peaceful Muslim population of the Transcaucasia, but also about the Dashnaktsakan claims to Baku after the bloody military coup of March 1918 in this key city of the region, which Azerbaijani politicians regarded as their national centre. Addressing a session of all Muslim factions of the Seim on 6 May, Xoyski said that the Dashnaktsutyun party was demanding that "the future authorities in Baku should not be purely Muslim, but should comprise different ethnic groups and that the Armenian units should remain in Baku". The deputies rejected this proposal, while the member of the Seim, Xasmammadov, said in this regard that "all power in Baku and in the whole of the Eastern Transcaucasia should belong to Muslims, and if we have lost this power temporarily, it is only because we want to reclaim it in full and forever". "The conditions proposed by the Dashnaktsakans are unacceptable to us as a disgraceful capitulation to them. The Baku issue has been an 'all or nothing' issue since it emerged," he said.

Until the very proclamation of the independence of the ADR, the Azerbaijani deputies supported confederative rule in the Transcaucasia. The 3 May session of the Muslim factions, which discussed the principles of administrative-political rule in the region, made a decision to give "comprehensive support to the idea of a confederation of Georgia, Armenia and Azerbaijan together with the North Caucasus". It said that "Azerbaijan and the North Caucasus formed a federation between themselves". The efforts of the Azerbaijani politicians to form a confederation stemmed from their lack of ideological-political and organizational readiness to proclaim Azerbaijan's independence. Moreover, they also oriented themselves to the position of the young Turks (although we should not exaggerate this orientation as do some foreign and first of all, Russian researchers) who were not interested in the fragmentation of the region. A united Transcaucasia confederation with a common Seim in close unity with (or under the influence of) Turkey met the interests of Enver Pasa, one of the three leaders of the young Turks' regime and its military emissaries in the region. The fractional configuration of the regional structure which consisted of three independent states oriented to different foreign forces hostile to Turkey was seen by the Turkish military and politicians as a threat to their plans to implement the provisions of the Peace of Brest-Litovsk and strengthen their political influence in the region.

The further evolution of the "Transcaucasia's independence" developed as dictated by the Turkish army. Batum was taken in the middle of April and Kars on 25 April, and on 22 April the Seim proclaimed the region as an independent Transcaucasian Federal Republic (TFR) for fear of the Turkish army advancing on the Transcaucasia. The TFR was recognized by Turkey on 28 April. Against this background, a peace conference began in Batum on 11 May which was attended by a representative Transcaucasia delegation - about 50 people. It was in Batum where the true essence of the Turks' efforts to secure the independence of the Transcaucasia from Soviet Russia was revealed - after the head of the TFR delegation, the prime minister and foreign minister of the Transcaucasia government, M. Chkhenkeli, expressed his agreement with the terms of the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk, the Turks let it be known that this treaty did not apply to the TFR which was no longer part of Soviet Russia, and demanded additional territorial concessions. In parallel, in order to persuade the uncompromising Transcaucasia delegates, the Turkish army continued to advance on the region and seized its important transport hub - Alexandropol - on 15 May. Control over this town opened a direct road for the Turkish army to advance in three important directions: Erivan-Naxcivan (by railway), Tiflis-Ganca-Baku (by railway) and Qazax-Ganca-Baku and Akhalkalaki.

The presence of deep disagreements between the national factions of the Seim on the issue of war and peace with Turkey and the recognition of the terms of Brest-Litovsk amid the advance of the Turkish army on the region made the work of the government and Seim impossible. This resulted in increasing centrifugal tendencies in the policy of its leading parties. At the session of the Central Muslim Council which was held on 16 May, the issue of Azerbaijan's independence was specifically considered for the first time. Addressing the session, the member of the Seim, N. Usubbayov, pointed out that the Armenian politicians intended to put up resistance to the Turkish army. This decision will result in a crisis of power and the Seim, and as a logical consequence, Georgia and Azerbaijan will be declared independent, he said. The member of the Seim, Xasmammadov, said that the Georgian national council was already taking preparatory steps in this direction and that "we should also be working in this direction". In this regard, he urged the deputies "to prepare all formal conditions in order to have an opportunity to speak on behalf of independent Azerbaijan if need be".

As a result, the proclamation of the independence of the Transcaucasia republics became a matter of time. The factor that accelerated this process was the landing of a 3,000-strong contingent of German troops in Poti on 25 May. This landing operation became one of the direct military results of the Peace of Brest-Litovsk. The actual liquidation of the Black Sea fleet was not envisaged by the treaty. But since the Russian fleet had to return from Novorossiyks to Sevastopol at the demand of the German side, i.e. be handed over to Germany, the Russians sank their vessels. After that, the German troops invaded Poti without hindrance and established a bridgehead to advance on Georgia and support its anti-Russian Menshevik government. The Georgian deputies of the Seim, who were inspired by German military support and had put up German flags throughout Tiflis, could no longer be held within the "independent" Transcaucasia Republic. The German military persuaded the Georgian government that if Georgia quits the TFR, Berlin will guarantee its security within the borders determined in Brest-Litovsk. Thus, after pro-Russian Baksovet and Turkey, Germany became the third foreign force, which interfered, though for a short time and only within Georgia, in "the great Transcaucasia game". The fourth force - the British - was only preparing to join the struggle for influence in the region and control over Baku oil. At the end of 1917, the British command started working on an operation to seize Baku. To this end, a special detachment under the command of the commander of the British forces in Persia, Maj-Gen Dunsterville, was formed in Northern Persia.

On 25 May, the morning session of the Muslim factions of the Seim decided that if Georgia declares its independence, Azerbaijan will also declare its independence. This decision was confirmed by the evening session of Muslim factions which was attended by 18 Muslim deputies. Addressing the session, Xasmammadov admitted that "there had never been close and friendly unity between the elements that formed the Transcaucasia Republic" and that "the lack of unity was especially noticeable at cabinet meetings that looked more like conferences of representatives of different states who did not trust each other rather than a single state family". This session was also addressed by Chkheidze (chairman of the Seim), Tsereteli and Gegechkori (leaders of the Social Democratic faction) who had been invited from the Georgian faction of the Seim. Tsereteli said that "the Social Democratic faction and the Georgian sector of the Seim as a whole had drawn the conclusion that it was impossible to unite the Transcaucasia peoples around the slogan of independence and that the Transcaucasia had clearly disintegrated". Speaking after the Georgian deputies, Xoyski said that "if this is the will of the Georgian people, we have no right to prevent it, and the Azerbaijani Turks can only make a relevant decision depending on this new event". After the discussions on this issue, the session made the following decision: "If Georgia declares its independence, then we should declare Azerbaijan's independence".

As a result of uncompromising and obvious contradictions, the Seim stopped working. At the last session of the Seim, which was held on 26 May 1918, the Seim made a decision to dissolve itself: "Since there are fundamental differences on the issue of war and peace between the peoples that formed the independent Transcaucasia republic and since it is impossible for one autonomous government to speak on behalf of the Transcaucasia, the Seim acknowledges the split of the Transcaucasia and resigns." At their emergency session in Tiflis on 27 May, the former Muslim deputies of the Seim declared themselves a provisional national council of Muslims of the Transcaucasia and took charge of the Eastern Transcaucasia. The next day, 28 May, after lengthy discussions the Muslim national council spoke out in favour of the immediate proclamation of Azerbaijan as "an independent democratic republic in the Eastern and Southern Transcaucasia" with 24 votes for and two abstentions. It is curious that the member of the council, Xoyski, who received the highest post of chairman of the Council of Ministers and interior minister in the first Azerbaijani government, took an extremely careful position on the issue of independence during the session. He suggested "refraining from declaring independence until some issues are clarified" and "forming a full Azerbaijani government to hold peace talks with world powers". This proposal was not supported, of course.

Immediately after the proclamation of the independence of Azerbaijan and Armenia, the delegations of the Armenian and Azerbaijani national councils started negotiations in order to define the borders of the two republics. At the same time, the issue of the capital of the Armenian state was raised as well. The protocol of the session of the Azerbaijani national council which was held in Tiflis on 29 May, where Xoyski reported the results of these negotiations, contains the following note on this issue: "Xoyski finished his report by saying that in order to form an Armenian federation, they need a political centre, and this centre can only be Erivan since Alexandropol has been taken by Turkey, which is why ceding Erivan is inevitable," Xoyski said. Representatives of other parties also touched on this issue, saying that "ceding Erivan to Armenians was a historical inevitability and an inevitable evil". While voting on this issue, 16 people voted for and one person against ceding Erivan, while three people abstained. It must be noted that some Azerbaijani politicians of that period had quite a light-minded attitude towards issues of independence. After "ceding Erivan", they started considering the issue of forming a confederation with the Armenians, and according to the protocol, "after a short exchange of opinions, this issue was put to a vote, and what is more, such a future structure of Azerbaijan and Armenia was approved by the council unanimously".

In any case, the ceding of Erivan and the decision on the confederation had only a declarative nature. The ADR, which did not have military forces, was unable to defend the administrative centre of the predominantly Azerbaijani-populated Erivan region. The call to form a confederation did not meet the foreign policy priorities of the new Armenian state which did everything possible after the proclamation of its independence to fall under the protection of influential powers, first of all, the USA. Moreover, Xoyski himself looked on the Erivan issue as small change in the negotiations with Armenians on territorial issues. In a letter to the head of the Azerbaijani delegation in Istanbul, Mammad Amin Rasulzada, on 31 July, the chairman of the Council of Ministers, Xoyski, issued the following instruction for the negotiations with the Armenians: "…If the Armenians claim Karabakh, then refuse to cede Erivan and part of Qazax District to them; if the Armenians insist on the verbal agreement that was reached, then we may even cede the part of Erivan district that is marked with a dotted line on the map." We do not have that map, which is why it is difficult to identify which territories Xoyski was ready to cede. But there is a different obvious thing here - the fate of Erivan as the future capital of the Armenian state was determined not by concessions from the ADR, but by the fact that this region was controlled by Armenian military units under the command of General Nazarbekov. He had a military contingent of 5,000 people. Moreover, Armenians mobilized during the war were coming to Erivan Region. We should take into account that during WWI about 300,000 Armenians fought Germany, Austria-Hungary and Turkey in the Russian army. The number of Armenian conscripts was even higher at the Caucasus front. According to Armenian historian A. Arutyunyan, 304,164 people fit for military service had passed through Tiflis local brigades as a result of mobilization by 1 January 1917. There were 121,921 Armenians and only 1,314 Azerbaijanis among them. This high mobilization potential significantly facilitated the establishment and strengthening of the Armenian and Georgian national corps in the Caucasus at the end of 1917. In this situation, under pressure from the leaders of the Trancaucasia Muslims who realized the dangerous consequences of such a military imbalance, a decision was made to form a Muslim corps. A relevant order was signed on 19 December 1917 by the commander of the Caucasus front, and the well-known artilleryman of the tsarist army, Lt-Gen Aliaga Sixlinski, was appointed commander of the corps. However, unlike the Armenian and Georgian corps, the Muslim corps did not actually exist. Russian military historian A. I. Deryabin admits that "at the beginning of 1918, the corps existed only on paper - it only had small units comprised mainly of officers and had almost no soldiers and lacked weapons and munitions. Such a situation was in place until the proclamation of Azerbaijan's independence and the establishment of the ADR, and only "the Turks who had entered Azerbaijani territory helped the local authorities to form armed forces".

The existence of an efficient army in the newly-created Armenian Republic exacerbated the problem of ensuring the security of the peaceful Azerbaijani population in Erivan Region. Unfortunately, the leaders of the ADR did not have enough will and consistency here and only discussed with the Armenian national council the issue of opening the road to Erivan and "ensuring safe travel along this line on the Muslim-populated territory". It is no accident that at the session of the Azerbaijani national council on 7 June, the representative of Erivan Region, Rzayev, said: "I am sure that none of you will go to Erivan Region, but we, residents of Erivan, will go there, and we ask you for one thing: after establishing your own independent Azerbaijan, do not forget about us - those who will remain on the territory of the Armenian Republic."

The Batum talks initiated by the delegation of the TFR were continued by the three independent republics with each of which Turkey signed agreements on peace and friendship on 4 June, confirming not just the terms of Brest-Litovsk, but also new territorial concessions to Turkey. Having signed a peace with Turkey, the first government of the ADR started solving the most important tasks of national state building. One of its most important tasks was the fight against the Bolsheviks in order to restore its authority on the whole territory of Azerbaijan and first of all, in the future capital of the First Republic - Baku.