How Soviet Russia Brought Down Azerbaijan in a Few Days

Source: League of Nations Archives (archives.ungeneva.org), Assembly Document No. 108, 25 November 1920, "Memorandum on the Application of the Republic of Azerbaijan for Admission to the League of Nations," submitted by the Secretary-General of the League of Nations. The document was published in French and English; the translation has been made from the English original.

LEAGUE OF NATIONS

MEMORANDUM CONCERNING THE APPLICATION OF THE REPUBLIC OF AZERBAIJAN FOR ADMISSION TO THE LEAGUE OF NATIONS

Memorandum submitted by the Secretary-General

By letter of 1 November 1920, the Secretary-General of the League of Nations was requested to submit to the League's Assembly the application of the Republic of Azerbaijan for membership in the League of Nations. This letter emanates from the Azerbaijani delegation, which is taking part in the Peace Conference and has been operating in Paris for more than a year already. The members of the delegation, now in Geneva, have declared that they act under the mandate of the government that was in power in Baku until April of this year.

It is worth briefly recalling the events that preceded the formation of this government.

The Formation of the State of Azerbaijan

The Transcaucasian territory from which the Republic of Azerbaijan arose appears to be the territory that formerly constituted the Russian provinces of Baku and Elizavetpol. It lies on the shore of the Caspian Sea, which forms its eastern boundary. Its northern boundary separates it from the province of Daghestan; on the north-east it borders on the region called the North Caucasus, on the west on Georgia and Armenia, and on the south on Persia. Its population, according to the latest Russian statistics, is estimated at 4,615,000 inhabitants, including 3,482,000 Muslim Tatars, 795,000 Armenians, 20,580 Georgians, and scattered minorities of Russians, Germans, and Jews.

It is interesting to note that this country, with a territory of 40,000 square miles, seems never before to have constituted a separate state, but has always been part of larger entities, such as the Mongol or the Persian Empire, and since 1813, the Russian Empire. The name "Azerbaijan," which was chosen for the new republic, is likewise the name of a neighboring Persian province.

First — the federal district

In October 1917, during the collapse of Russian power in the Caucasus, the peoples of the region — the Tatars of Azerbaijan, the Georgians and the Armenians — united into a kind of federal republic with a common government and a federal chamber of representatives.

Due to serious disagreements, this Transcaucasian federation was dissolved on May 26, 1918, in Tiflis, where its parliament was seated.

The Second Period: An Independent Republic

The next day, on 28 May, the Republic of Azerbaijan was proclaimed in Tiflis. Fatali Khan Khoyski was appointed head of the government, and there seemed to be an understanding that the Muslim members of the former federal chamber, supplemented by members of the Muslim Council, would constitute the provisional parliament. With this composition, the government of the new republic moved from Tiflis to its own territory, but it managed to take possession of its capital, Baku, only on 14 September 1918, after the city had been abandoned by the retreating Bolshevik forces in the face of the German-Turkish invasion. Subsequently, a parliament consisting of 120 members was elected by universal suffrage, and executive power was handed over to a responsible ministry composed of authoritative figures from the Baku region.

On 17 November 1918, General Thomson, at the head of the British troops representing the Allied and Associated Powers, entered Baku and apparently regarded the government then functioning in the city as no more than a local authority. He solemnly declared that he was occupying the territory exclusively in full agreement with the new Russian government and without prejudice to Russia's rights in that region. However, on 28 December 1918, General Thomson announced that the government of the Republic of Azerbaijan would henceforth constitute the sole lawful local authority, to which the Allies would guarantee their support. Nevertheless, the international status of the Republic appears to have remained rather unclear both during the British occupation and after it.

The government of Azerbaijan was represented in Paris during the Peace Conference and, on 12 January 1920, simultaneously with the republics of Georgia and Armenia, obtained de facto recognition from the Supreme Council. It should be noted, however, that the government of the United States did not join in this recognition.

The Third Phase: The Dissolution of the Government

On 25 April 1920, Bolshevik disturbances broke out in Baku, forcing the authorities of the Republic of Azerbaijan to flee. Some members of the government, falling into the hands of the revolutionary forces, were killed. The Republic's army was dispersed. According to information provided by the delegation in Geneva, the part of the territory traversed by the railways still remains in the hands of Bolshevik elements, with the exception of the region lying between Elizavetpol and the Georgian border. Nevertheless, a considerable part of the unoccupied territory apparently still remains under the administration of the government of the Republic of Azerbaijan, some of whose bodies are located in Elizavetpol, while others have been transferred to Tiflis. The army apparently remains fragmented: some units are in the northern part of the country, others in the south.

With the exception of its link with Georgia, the Republic's communication with its other neighbors — Persia and Armenia — has apparently been severed as a result of the occupation of the Caspian coast, as well as the recent Kemalist incursion.

Thus, the Republic of Azerbaijan is now deprived of all those resources it received from oil extraction, Caspian Sea fishing, and transit trade. Its administration can operate only by unreliable means, and its executive and supervisory bodies barely maintain contact with the central authority, which itself is currently dispersed.