Azerbaijan People's Republic آذربایجان خلق جمهوریتی Azərbaycan Xalq Cümhuriyyəti | |||||||||
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1918–1920 | |||||||||
Anthem: Azərbaycan marşı "March of Azerbaijan" | |||||||||
![]() Map of the Azerbaijan Democratic Republic with territorial claims and disputed areas | |||||||||
Capital | |||||||||
Common languages | Turkic[a][1][2] | ||||||||
Demonym(s) | Azerbaijani | ||||||||
Government | Unitary 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 | ||||||||
Legislature | Azerbaijani National Council | ||||||||
Historical era | Interwar 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 | ||||||||
Currency | Azerbaijani ruble | ||||||||
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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.
History of Azerbaijan |
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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.
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.
... 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.
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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.
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.