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tic republic adr mammad hasan hajinski chaired the temporary executive committee for the mncs while mammed amin rasulzade alimardan topchubashev fatali khan khoyski and other prominent political figures were among the 44 azerbaijani delegates to the sejm meanwhile the arf which was established in tbilisi formed a 27 member armenian delegation to the sejm the leader of the baku soviet shahumyan kept contacts with arf and viewed it as a source of support for eliminating musavat influence in baku 26 stepan shahumyan an ethnic armenian leader of the bolshevik baku soviet after the october revolution the russian army fell apart and its units fled the front lines en masse often harassing local residents concerned with the situation the sejm established a military council of nationalities with armenian azerbaijani and georgian representatives which had troops at its disposal 27 when a large group of russian soldiers withdrew from the ottoman front line in january 1918 the head of the council georgian menshevik noe ramishvili ordered their disarmament the russian soldiers were stopped near shamkhor station and upon a refusal to surrender were attacked by azerbaijani bands in what became known as the shamkhor massacre 27 the baku soviet played out this incident into its favor against the sejm notes 1 on 10 24 february 1918 the sejm adopted a declaration of independence in the meantime to support armenian resistance against the ottoman empire the british government attempted to re organize and train a group of armenians from the caucasus under the leadership of general lionel dunsterville in baghdad 28 the allies had also provided armenians with 6 500 000 rubles 3 250 000 of 1918 value in financial assistance 18 in addition the armenian national organization of the caucasus formed an armenian military committee in petrograd under general bagradouni and called upon all armenian military personnel scattered throughout russia to mobilize on the caucasus front 29 in response to this call by early march 1918 a large number of armenians had gathered in baku joining a group of 200 trained officers accompanied by general bagradouni and the arf co founder stepan zorian mr rostom 29 the azerbaijanis grew increasingly suspicious that shahumyan who was an ethnic armenian was conspiring with the dashnaks against them the units of the caucasian native cavalry division composed of caucasian muslims who had served in the imperial russian army thus nicknamed the savage division disarmed a pro bolshevik garrison in lankaran and dagestani insurgents under imam najmuddin of gotzo drove the bolsheviks out of petrovsk severing baku s land communications with bolshevik russia 30 the armistice of erzincan followed by the treaty of brest litovsk signed on 3 march 1918 formalized russia s exit from world war i according to richard g hovannisian a secret annex to the treaty of brest litovsk obligated the bolsheviks to demobilize and dissolve ethnic armenian bands on territories previously under russian control 31 at the subsequent trabzon peace conference the ottoman delegation called for a unified position of the sejm before the negotiations could be completed the bolsheviks grew increasingly concerned about the emerging transcaucasian federation and in the given situation had to choose between musavat and arf in the struggle to dominate transcaucasia s largest city thus the baku soviet was drawn into the nationalistic struggle between the azerbaijanis and the armenians trying to utilize one people against the other 32 as baku produced 7 million tons of oil per year about 15 of global oil production during world war i the city remained in the sights of the major warring powers even though most of the oil fields were owned by azerbaijanis and less than 5 per cent by armenians most of the production distribution rights in baku were owned by foreign investors primarily the british at the beginning of 1918 germany transferred general friedrich freiherr kress von kressenstein from the sinai and palestine campaign to establish the german caucasus expedition with the aim of capturing baku in response in february 1918 the british dispatched general lionel dunsterville with troops to baku through enzeli in order to block the german move and to protect the british investments 33 demographics and armed groups edit postcard from iran iranian consul m s vezare maragai near muslim victims in baku after march days before world war i the population of baku including the bailoff promontory the white town the oil fields and the neighboring villages amounted to over 200 000 distributed as follows 74 000 temporary migrants from various parts of russia 56 000 azerbaijani natives of the town and district 25 000 armenians 18 000 persians 6 000 jews 4 000 volga tatars 3 800 lezgins 2 600 georgians 5 000 germans 1 500 poles and many other nationalities numbering less than 1 000 each azerbaijanis formed the majority among natives and owned the greater part of land including the oil fields they also constituted most of the labor force and small trading class as well as some commercial and financial posts the petroleum industry was largely owned by a small number of foreign capitalists 34 prior to the 1918 march events the major armed groups in baku consisted of 6 000 men from the remnants of the russian caucasus army which had withdrawn from the ottoman front line about 4 000 men of the armenian militia organized under the arf dashnaktsutiun 35 and an undefined number of soldiers of the caucasian native cavalry division disbanded in january 1918 36 events of 30 march 2 april 1918 edit bazarnaya street modern day azerbaijan avenue during the march days in 1918 when the staff of the disbanded caucasian native cavalry division arrived in baku on 9 march 1918 the soviet immediately arrested its commander general talyshinski the move sparked protests from the azerbaijani population with occasional calls to offer armed resistance to the soviet according to the historian firuz kazemzadeh shahumyan could have prevented bloodshed had he been less impulsive and stubborn only a few days earlier shahumyan had received a telegram from lenin in which he was advised to learn diplomacy but this advice was ignored notes 2 the march 1918 confrontation was triggered by an incident with the steamship evelina on 27 march 1918 fifty former caucasian native cavalry division servicemen arrived in baku on this ship to attend the funeral of their colleague mamed tagiyev son of a famous azerbaijani oil magnate and philanthropist haji zeynalabdin taghiyev m tagiyev had been killed in a skirmish by russian armenian forces in lankaran 6 37 when the soldiers got back on board the evelina to sail out of baku on 30 march 1918 the soviet received information that the muslim crew of the ship was armed and waiting for a signal to revolt against the soviet while the report lacked foundation the soviet acted on it disarming the crew which tried to resist 38 39 3 other sources claim that notes 3 azerbaijanis were alarmed by the growing military strength of the armenians in baku and called for the help of the caucasian native cavalry division units in lenkoran their arrival caused great concern among both bolsheviks and armenians and when officials were sent down to the dockside to try to discover what their intentions were they were driven back by gunfire a number of them being killed eventually these newcomers were disarmed by a stronger bolshevik force but when more units of the caucasian native cavalry division arrived on 1 april in macdonell s words the baku cauldron boiled over no one really knows who fired the first shot but very soon baku became a battlefield with trenches and barricades being hastily prepared throughout the city 1 ismailiyya building by 6 p m on 30 march 1918 baku was filled with fighting 40 the soviet side led by shahumyan realized that full civil war was starting and its own forces were insufficient against azerbaijani masses led by musavat allies were found among the mensheviks srs and the kadets right wing liberals which promised to support the bolsheviks as the champions of the russian cause 41 in response to these musavat s achiq söz newspaper noted that while bolsheviks and mensheviks were fighting all year both were uniting against musavat even with the kadets and the dashnaks the paper attributed such alliance to national factors and concluded that the soviet s attempt to provoke one nationality against another instead of fighting a class war was a tragic capitulation of democracy 42 on the morning of 31 march azerbaijanis opposed to the bolshevik disarming of the caucasian native cavalry division held protests in baku demanding to arm the muslims the azerbaijani bolshevik organization hümmet attempted to mediate the dispute proposing that the arms taken from the caucasian native cavalry division be transferred to the custody of the hümmet shahumyan agreed to this proposal but on the afternoon of 31 march when muslim representatives appeared before the baku soviet leadership to take the arms shots were already being heard in the city and the soviet commissar prokofy dzhaparidze refused to provide the arms he informed the hümmet leadership that musavat had launched a political war 3 19 the talks broke off abruptly when the soviet s soldiers were fired upon the bolsheviks accused the muslims of responsibility for the incident stopped negotiations and opened hostilities later shahumyan admitted that the bolsheviks deliberately used a pretext to attack their political opponents we needed to give a rebuff and we exploited the opportunity of the first attempt at an armed assault on our cavalry unit and began an attack on the whole front due to the efforts of both the local soviet and the military revolutionary committee of the caucasus army which moved here from tbilisi and sarikamish we already had armed forces about 6 000 strong dashnaktsutiun also had 3 000 4 000 strong national forces which were at our disposal the participation of the latter lent the civil war to some extent the character of an ethnic massacre however it was impossible to avoid it we were going for it deliberately the muslim poor suffered severely however they are now rallying around the bolsheviks and the soviet 35 armenians initially remained neutral as the muslim rebellion against the soviet began the musavat party proposed an alliance with the dashnaks but was given a rebuff the armenian leadership withdrew its forces to the armenian areas of baku and limited its action to self defense on the evening of 31 march machine gun and rifle fire in baku intensified into a full fledged battle 19 on the morning of 1 april 1918 the committee of revolutionary defense of baku s soviet issued a leaflet which said in view of the fact that the counterrevolutionary musavat party declared war on the soviet of workers soldiers and sailors deputies in the city of baku and thus threatened the existence of the government of the revolutionary democracy baku is declared to be in a state of siege 19 forced to seek support from either muslim musavat or armenian dashnaktsutyun shahumyan himself an armenian chose the latter following initial skirmishes in the streets the dashnaks proceeded to initiate a massacre wildly killing musavat military elements and muslim civilians alike without mercy or discrimination in both baku and the surrounding countryside 43 there were descriptions of dashnak forces taking to looting burning and killing in the muslim sections of the city 44 according to peter hopkirk armenians seeing that at last they had their ancient foes on the run were now out for vengeance 1 in balakhany and ramany districts of baku the majority of muslim workers stayed at their places and avoided the battles while the peasants were not moved to join the anti soviet rebels the persian workers remained passive during all of the fighting refusing to take sides 19 left wing muslim leaders including those of srs and hümmet party such as narimanov azizbekov bunyat sardarov and kazi magomed aghasiyev supported the soviet forces 45 during the battles bolsheviks decided to use artillery against the azerbaijani residential quarters in the city 3 on the afternoon on 1 april a muslim delegation arrived at the hotel astoria the committee of revolutionary defense presented them with an ultimatum notes 4 and demanded that representatives of all muslim parties sign the document before the shelling stopped early in the evening the agreements were signed and the bombardment stopped 19 the fighting did not subside however until the night of 2 april 1918 when thousands of muslims started leaving the city in a mass exodus by the fifth day although much of the city was still ablaze all resistance had ceased leaving the streets strewn with dead and wounded nearly all of them muslims 1 ruins of the editorial office of the kaspi newspaper on nikolayevskaya street present day istiglaliyyat street gubernskaya street present day nizami street bazarnaya street present day azerbaijan avenue pochtovaya street present day taghizadeh street casualties edit removing the dead from the streets the may 1918 dispatch of the new york times stated that 2 000 were killed and 3 000 were wounded in the struggle between russians and mussulmans 46 a later 1919 publication by the new york times reported presumably citing azerbaijani officials that 12 000 people were killed during the events 47 the same publication wrote that according to azerbaijani representatives the bolsheviks crushed muslims with assistance from armenians who wanted to wipe out old enemies and seize their lands 47 the 1920 new york times current history edition used the same figure of 12 000 victims 5 the azerbaijani delegation to the 1919 paris peace conference provided the following interpretation of the march days in that bloodthirsty episode which had such fatal effects upon the muslims the principal part was played by the armenians who were then in baku clustering as elsewhere around their nationalist party arf the truth is that the armenians under the guise of bolshevism rushed on the muslims and massacred during a few frightful days more than 12 000 people many of whom were old men women and children 48 the leader of baku soviet stepan shahumyan claimed that more than 3 000 killed in two days from both sides 17 3 49 50 51 however in his october 1918 article for the armenian herald a publication of the boston based armenian national union of america prominent arf leader karekin pastermadjian asserted that over 10 000 azerbaijanis and nearly 2 500 armenians were killed notes 5 according to firuz kazemzadeh the brutalities continued for weeks no quarter was given by either side neither age nor sex was respected enormous crowds roamed the streets burning houses killing every pass by who was identified as an enemy many innocent persons suffering death at the hands of both the armenians and the azerbaij...
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