March Days

This article is about 1918 massacres of Azeris. For Polish student and intellectual protests of 1968, see 1968 Polish political crisis.

March Days
Part of Russian Civil War
Azerbaijani victims in Baku
Date 30 March 1918 – 2 April 1918 Location Baku Result Bolshevik-ARF victory Between 3,000 to 12,000 Azerbaijanis massacred
Belligerents
Bolshevik Party File:Arf logo.jpg Armenian Revolutionary Federation	Musavat Party Savage Division
Strength
Bolsheviks 6,000 regular troops, Russian Fleet gunboats ARF 4,000 militiamen	Musavat and Savage Division 10,000 troops and militiamen
Casualties and losses
?	From 12,000 to 30,000 including civilians

The March Days, or March Events, refer to an inter-ethnic strife and massacres of up to 12,000 Azerbaijanis and other Muslims that took place between March 30 and April 2, 1918 in the city of Baku and adjacent parts of Baku Governorate of Russian Empire.

Facilitated by a political power struggle between Bolsheviks with support of Armenian Revolutionary Federation (Dashnaktsutiun) militia on one side and Azerbaijani Musavat Party on another, the events led to a suppression of Muslim revolt by Bolshevik and Dashnak forces and establishment of Bolshevik Baku Commune in April 1918.

Azerbaijan officially refers to March Days as soyqırım ('genocide'). Few other sources interpret the March events in the context of civil war unrest.

In 31st December 2010, state of Nevada led by governor Jim Gibbons proclaimed as the first-ever official US government recognition, designation as Remembrance Day of the 1918 massacres of Azerbaijani civilians.

Background

See also: Caucasus Campaign

Following the abdication of the Tsar, on March 9, 1917, a Special Transcaucasian Committee was established to administer the areas under the control of the Russian Provisional Government in South Caucasus. After the 1917 October Revolution, on November 11, 1917, this committee, which included Armenian, Azerbaijani and Georgian representatives, was replaced by the Transcaucasian Commissariat (Sejm) with headquarters in Tiflis. The Sejm was against Bolsheviks in its political goals and, thus, sought the separation of South Caucasus from the Bolshevik Russia.

On November 13, 1917, a group of Bolsheviks and Left Socialist Revolutionaries (SR), known as 26 Baku Commissars, proclaimed a Baku Soviet (Commune), assuming the power in the city under the leadership of Stepan Shahumyan. At the same time, the two powerful nationalist groups in the city, the Musavat and the Armenian Revolutionary Federation (ARF Dashnaktsutiun), who were members of the Transcaucasian Commissariat, refused to fully recognize the authority of Baku Soviet.

ARF assigned its establishing member Stepan Zorian among the 27 Armenian members of the Sejm members. Mr Zorian was in Baku during the events. Musavat committee center was in Baku. Beside the Musavat, Baku also had the Azerbaijani Temporary Executive Committee for the MNCs. Mammad Hasan Hajinski was the head of this committee, which also included Mammed Amin Rasulzade, Alimardan Topchubashev, Fatali Khan Khoyski, and other founders of the future Azerbaijan Democratic Republic. However, it should be noted for the Azerbaijanis which were included and represented in Shahumyan's coalition: "although calling itself the Baku Soviet, it included Muslims and others who were neither Bolsheviks nor necessarily sympathetic to their aims".

After the collapse of the Russian empire the Russian army ceased to exist as an effective fighting force. Russian soldiers who were driven by the desire to return home, often terrorized the local population, forcing it to flee. Transcaucasian Commissariat (Sejm) had to take measures to prevent the sacking of cities and the fall of their regime. Sejm organized a "Military Council of Nationalities" in which Armenians, Georgians, and Azerbaijanis were represented. In January, 1918, when a particularly large and militant group of Russian soldiers began to move along the railroad away from the front, the Military Council of Nationalities decided to disarm them. Noe Ramishvili, a Georgian Menshevik, later a member of the Cabinet of independent Georgia (28 May), ordered the operation. The soldiers were stopped near the village of Shamkhor, and, having refused to surrender their weapons, were attacked by Azerbaijani forces. It is impossible to determine who fired the first shot, but as result of the incident several hundred soldiers (1000 according to other sources) were killed. Thousands of Russian soldiers were disarmed and sent on their way. The hostility between Azerbaijanis and settlers from Russia in the Mughan steppe erupted in violence, and the Russians turned for help to the Baku Soviet.

Armenian Soviet leader Stepan Shahumyan

In 1918, British invited Caucasian Armenians to hold out on the Allied side (British, Russian, French) and picked officers and non-commissioned officers organized them under the command of Lionel Dunsterville at Baghdad. British planned to organize an army to be recruited from the Armenians and other pro-Ally elements that still existed in the Caucuses. The leader of the Bolsheviks in the region Shahumyan was an Armenian, and there were concerns that Armenian nationalists and Bolsheviks in Baku had reached an accommodation clearly directed against the Azerbaijanis. This success could be partly attributed to millions in gold roubles paid to the Armenians by the British government. The Armenians have received from the Allies only 6,500,000 rubles ($3,250,000 of 1918 value) as financial assistance.

On February 10, 1918, the Sejm passed the decision to proclaim independence. On February 24, 1918, The Sejm proclaimed the Transcaucasia as independent Transcaucasian Democratic Federative Republic.

In early March, 1918, a group of Armenian officers reached Baku. General Bagradouni accompanied by the well known Armenian Mr Rostom with 200 Armenian officers left for the Caucasus to assume the duties of the newly formed Armenian army. As a reminder; beginning with 1917, Armenian National Organization of the Caucasus, Armenian National Council, asked the Armenian soldiers and officers scattered throughout Russia to gradually brought together. The plan was to mobilized Armenians on the Caucasian front. With that purpose in view an Armenian Military Committee was formed with General Bagradouni as its president [commander]. However, this group of officers wait at Baku, stating Baku-Tiflis railroad line was cut. During that same month of March from many parts of Russia a large number of Armenians gathered at Baku and waited to go to Erivan and Tiflis in response to the call issued by the Armenian National Council.

About the same time, the soldiers of the Savage Division disarmed the pro-Bolshevik garrison in Lenkoran, while Dagestani insurgents under Imam Najm ul-din Gotsinski drove the Bolsheviks out of Petrovsk, severing Baku's land communications with Russia.

On March 3, 1918, the armistice of Erzincan followed up with the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk marking Russia's (signed by Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic) exit from World War I. Between March 14 - April 1918 the Trabzon peace conference held among the Ottoman Empire and the delegation of the Transcaucasian Commissariat (Sejm). There was a secret clause in Treaty of Brest-Litovsk which obligated the Russians to demobilize Armenians forces (Armenian militia). Treaty of Brest-Litovsk exposed weakness of this coalition which hold on an uneasy truce between different factions. At Trabzon peace conference, Ottoman delegation expressed the wish that ‘Transcaucasia should proclaim its independence and announce its form of government before the negotiations then under way were completed.' The Baku Soviet was at odds with emergent Transcaucasian Federation, and supportive of Bolshevik governments in most areas against the power of Sejm, however not except this treaty with Ottoman Empire.

In the situation that existed in Baku, the Soviet could not have won against two strong opponents, ARF and Musavat, at the same time, or even against one of them without the assistance of the other. Thus the Soviet was drawn into the nationalistic struggle between the Azerbaijanis and the Armenians, trying to utilize one people against the other.

Oil factor

Baku was on the sight of major powers of the time. Baku produced yearly 7 million tons of oil during WWI, which constituted 15% of world production at the time. The Caucasian fields were practically wholly in the hands of the Azerbaijanis and less than 5 per cent of them are in the hands of Armenians. The mineral rights were owned by Azerbaijanis, though the production/distribution was based on foreigners which British were the major investors.

The three main petroleum regions of Russia were Baku, Grozny, and Emba. In 1918 conditions changed radically. At the end of 1917 the Grozny region was lost by the Bolsheviks. At the same time the scarcity of food, and the financial crisis in the Baku region resulted in the transportation of only 74,000,000 ponds of petroleum products. The loss of the oil brought to the Bolsheviki the possibility of an oil famine. The Baku-Tiflis and Baku-Petrovsk railroad lines was crucial for oil. Lenin kept a watchful eye and wanted to gain control. "Soviet Russia can't survive without Baku oil." Lenin said repeatedly. However, the Bolsheviks in Baku were not the owners of the Baku oil fields. They first needed to capture the power structure of the city.

Just turn of 1918, before March Days, Germany transferred General Friedrich Freiherr Kress von Kressenstein from Sinai and Palestine Campaign and established German Caucasus Expedition in order to enter Baku. In February 1918, Britain urgently sent General Lionel Dunsterville with troops to Baku through Anzali to block the German troops and control of the city. The use of vast resources of the Azerbaijanis was the ultimate aim of England and millions and millions of pounds of sterling were invested in the oil industry of Baku and Transcaspia.

Demographics

Poscard from Iran. Iranian consul M.S. Vezare-Maragai near muslim (Azerbaijani) victims in Baku after March days

Before the World War I, the whole population of Baku including the Bailoff promontory the White Town the oil fields and the neighboring villages amounted to over 200,000. It was a mixed population and is divided as follows: 74,000 Russians immigrants from all parts of Russia who only stay a short time at Baku. 56,000 Azerbaijani natives of the town and district, 25,000 Armenians natives and immigrants from all parts of the Armenian world, 18,000 Persians mostly immigrants for a short time, 6,000 Jews, 4,000 Kazan Tatars, 3,800 Lezgins, 2,600 Georgians, 5,000 Germans, 1,500 Poles and many other nationalities numbering less than 1,000 each. The permanent Azerbaijani form the great majority, they own by far the greater part of the land and house property including the soil where several of the oil properties are situated whence they derive large incomes in royalties and ground rents. They constitute the bulk of the laboring and small trading class of the immunity the Russians are next in number and fill the official positions as well as some of the commercial and financial posts. The petroleum industry was largely in the hands of very small number of foreign capitalists at the time.

Forces

In the Baku, at the onset of March Days, these forces were existed under the defined authority and/or control of the groups.

After the collapse of Russian Caucasus Front following the abdication of the Tsar. The Russian Caucasus Army transferred hand from Viceroyalty of the Caucasus. This force was degrading and already signed Armistice of Erzincan with its major enemy. Due to the efforts of both the local Soviet and the Military-revolutionary committee of the Caucasus Army, which moved some forces to Baku (from Tiflis and Sarikamish) about 6,000 strong.

ARF had Armenian Fedayee (Armenian: Ֆէտայի) which were civilian forces generally organized around famous ARF leaders, and generally refereed as Armenian partisian guerrilla detachments. According to Stepan Shahumyan these were to 3,000 - 4,000 strong national forces.

Musavat had forces composed of Azeri people. These were refereed as Azerbaijani masses led by Musavat or militia man.

In the Russian Army there were Savage Divisions. ‘Muslim Savage Division’ was in Baku. This division had already demonstrated its immunity to revolutionary appeals, for it had broken discipline (see the background section), these men were returning their home with their mounts, a sign of normalcy.

Events of March Days (Armed conflict)

Bazarnaya street (modern day Husi Hajiyev street) during the March days in 1918.

On 9 March 1918, the staff of the Muslim corps arrived to Baku. Its Commander, General Talyshinski, was immediately arrested by the Soviet, which led to protests from the Azerbaijani population. Meetings were held in the mosques, in which orators called on the people to offer armed resistance to the Soviet. In the opinion of Kazemzadeh, Shahumyan could have prevented much bloodshed, had he been less impulsive and stubborn. Only a few days before Shahumyan received a telegram from Lenin, in which he was advised "to learn diplomacy", but this advise was ignored.

The March events were triggered by the incident with the steamship "Evelina", on which the soldiers and officers of the Azerbaijani cavalry regiment numbering about 50 persons arrived in Baku from Lenkaran on March 15 (27) to attend the funeral of their fellow-soldier Mamed Tagiyev, the son of the famous Azerbaijani oil magnate and philanthropist Haji Zeynalabdin Taghiyev, who was killed in a skirmish with the Russian-Armenian forces in Lenkoran. His body was brought to Baku for the funeral scheduled on March 27, 1918.

When on 18 (30) March 1918, after attending the funeral the soldiers got aboard "Evelina" to sail back, the Soviet received information that the Muslim crew of the ship was armed and waiting for a signal to revolt against the Soviet. The report lacked foundation in fact, but the Soviet acted on it and disarmed the crew, which tried to resist.

However, according to Peter Hopkirk the Baku Muslims were alarmed by the growing military strength of the Armenians, and called for help the Savage division units in Lenkoran. Their arrival, caused great consternation 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 however, the newcomers were disarmed by a stronger Bolshevik force.

The Muslim population of the city took the disarming of the soldiers who arrived at the funeral as an insult to grieving Taghiyev, and a huge crowd gathered in the yard of one of the Baku mosques and adopted a resolution demanding the release of the rifles confiscated by the Soviet.

The Azerbaijani Bolshevik Nariman Narimanov offered mediation, and a deputation of Azerbaijani politicians visited one of the Bolshevik leaders, Prokopius Dzhaparidze, who promised to satisfy their demands. However the talks broke off abruptly after the Soviet's soldiers were fired upon. Bolsheviks accused the Muslims in 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 Tiflis and Sarikamish) we already had armed forces - about 6,000 strong. ARF (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.

Ismailiyye building

On 30 March 1918, at 6 p.m, Baku was filled with fighting. Trenches were being dug, barricades erected, and preparations made for warfare. 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 Baku Mensheviks, S.R.'s, and the Kadets (right-wing liberals), which promised support the Bolsheviks as the champions of the "Russian Cause."

However the crucial issue in the outcome of the confrontation between some ten thousand Azerbaijanis and six thousand Baku Soviet troops was the attitude of ARF and their 4,000 well armed men. At first the ARF declared their neutrality, but joined the Soviet forces after the start of hostilities. Overwhelmed by the joint Bolshevik-ARF forces, Azerbaijanis sued for a cease-fire the next day.

On 31 March 1918, the ultimatum was issued by the Baku Soviet to Musavat, with the term of compliance set at 3 p.m. on 1 April 1918. The terms of the ultimatum contained the unequivocal recognition of the authority of the Baku Soviet and complete subordination to its orders, the withdrawal of the Savage Division and other Muslim units, to be accompanied by the withdrawal of the Armenian forces and the reopening of the Baku-Tiflis and Baku-Petrovsk railroad lines. These conditions were accepted by the Musavat leaders, but the ARF forces took to looting, burning, and killing in the Muslim sections of the city. According to Peter Hopkirk: "Armenians, seeing that at last they had their ancient foes on the run, were now out for vengeance". The fighting thus continued, until virtually the entire Muslim population had either been driven from the city or been slaughtered. The attack was directed just as much against the civilian population as against the military detachments of Musavat. Every Azerbaijani whom the ARF bands could catch was killed, and many Persians lost their lives too. During the massacre artillery was used against Azerbaijani residential quarters

On April 2, 1918, The fighting did not subside until the night, and thousands of Muslims left 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.

On April 3, 1918, the armed conflict between Musavat and the joint Soviet-ARF forces ended with the victory of the latter. Many of the Muslims who survived the ‘March Days’ fled to Elisavetpol in central Azerbaijan.

The Muslim parties removed as a political force in Baku. Their national council and political organizations disbanded, and their leaders sought refuge in Ganja and Tiflis. When the Azeri Temporary Executive Committee was crushed, its factual leader Alimardan Topchubashev was arrested. Tbilisi became the headquarters of the Azerbaijani National Movement.

• City of Baku
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  Ruins of the editorial office of the Kaspi newspaper on Nikolayevskaya Street (present-day Istiglaliyyat Street)
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  Gubernskaya Street (present-day Nizami Street)
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  Bazarnaya Street (present-day Azerbaijan Avenue)
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  Pochtovaya Street (present-day Taghizadeh Street)

Atrocities

In the shadow of armed conflicts, the March events touched off a series of massacres all over Azerbaijan. On the streets of Baku or/and its environs, number of killed reached the highest number compared to: "fighting in Petrograd in February 1917." It is stated that "based on the number of victims [the ratio of Muslims in this society to number of their dead], the March events were one of the most horrific scenes. Micheal Smith in his work regarding "The memory of loss and the Azerbaijani society" reached a conclusion that the catastrophe was so big "..."Musavat" blaming not only the Bolsheviks and ARF but also at the time themselves ..."

No quarter was given by either side: neither age nor sex was respected. Enormous crowds roamed the streets, burning houses, killing every passer-by who was identified as an enemy, many innocent persons suffering death at the hands of both the Armenians and Azerbaijanis. The struggle which had begun as a political contest between the Musavat and the Soviet assumed the characters of a gigantic race riot".

The Armenian archbishop, Bagrat claimed that the Armenians gave shelter to some 20,000 Muslims during the struggle. Persian Armenians in Baku tried to and saved many lives of their fellow citizens, which may have been the basis for Bagrat's exaggerated assertion that some 20,000 Muslims were saved by Armenians.

Azeri position

Azeri sources say that the "Greater Armenia" was used in order to "justify" the attempts to create this artificial state on Azerbaijani land

Azeri sources refer to the event as part of a larger "genocide". These events were depicted as "The genocide of the Azerbaijanis was carried out with particular cruelty in Baku, Shemakha and Guba districts" Regarding cause of Bolshevism they say: "Armenians began to pursue the implementation of their plans under the banner of Bolshevism".

The real issue behind the conflicts were depicted as: "Under the watchword of combating counter-revolutionary elements, in March 1918 the Baku commune began to implement a criminal plan aimed at eliminating Azerbaijanis from the whole of Baku province."

Other positions

The Baku Soviet's Committee of Revolutionary Defense issued a proclamation early in April explaining the events and their causes. The statement focuses on the anti-Soviet character of the rebellion and blames the events on the Musavat Party and its leadership. The statement asserted that there was a carefully laid out conspiracy by the Musavatists to overthrow the Baku Soviet Government and establish its own regime:

"The enemies of Soviet power in the city of Baku have raised their head. The malice and hatred with which they viewed the revolutionary organ of the workers and soldiers began recently to overflow into open counterrevolutionary activities. The appearance of the staff of the Savage Division, headed by the unmasked Talyshkhanov, the events in Lenkoran, in Mugan, and at Shemakh, the capture of Petrovsk by the Daghestan regiment and the withholding of grain shipments from Baku, the threats of Elisavetpol, and in the last few days of Tiflis, to march on Baku, against soviet power, the aggressive movements of hte armored train of the Transcaucasian Commissariat in Adzhikabul, and, finally, the outrageous behavior of the Savage Division on the steamship Evelina in shooting comrades--all this speaks of the criminal plans of the counterrevolutionaries grouped mainly around the Bek party Musavat and having as its goal the overthrow of Soviet power."

Armenians had been inflamed by the sight and pitiful stories of several hundred thousand refugees who had succeeded in reaching Transcaucasia, fleeing before the Ottoman Army. Consequently, when the Russian Army broke up, the Armenians preserved their discipline against all attempts of the Bolshevists, and were the only force upon which the Allies could count in southwestern Asia during the last year of the war. The two million Armenians of Transcaucasia, increased by several hundred thousand refugees from Ottoman Empire, persisted in their loyalty to Russia until the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk delivered them to the Ottoman Empire. Then they moved to form their own state, which succeeded in maintaining itself during the period of anarchy and famine that Bolshevism brought upon the Russian Empire. At the Peace Conference, speaking before the Council of Ten, M. Aharonian, delegate of the Armenian Republic of the Caucasus, stated that the two and a half million Armenians in Transcaucasia wanted to cast in their fortunes with the Armenians of Ottoman Empire to form a Greater Armenia. According to Michael P. Croissant, the ARF set out to take revenge for the persecution and genocide suffered by Armenians at the hands of the Ottomans, while Tadeusz Swietochowski states that "Armenian historians do not offer an explanation for the political calculations behind this move, which was bound to entail terrible retribution, and they hint rather at an uncontrollable emotional outburst".

The Armenian archbishop, Bagrat, wrote a letter to the Armenian mission in Baku, explaining the March Events. The letter began with the accusation that the Azerbaijanis, being the disciples of the Turks and the Germans, could not be trusted. Having thus disposed of the Azerbaijani version of the events, Bagrat stated that the battle was waged by the Musavat and the Soviet, while the Armenians remained neutral. He continued by saying that some Armenian soldiers took part in the fighting, but that those were only isolated individuals for whom the Armenian National Council could not be held responsible. The Archbishop placed the entire guilt upon the Musavat, calling it the helper of Turks.

In the opinion of Firuz Kazemzadeh, the Soviet provoked the "civil war" in the hope of breaking the power of its most formidable rival - the Musavat. However, once the Soviet had called upon the ARF to lend its assistance in the struggle against the Azerbaijani nationalists, the "civil war" degenerated into a massacre, the Armenians killing the Muslims irrespective of their political affiliations or social and economic position.

Joseph Stalin, who was Bolshevik People's Commissar at the time, tried to justify the provoking of the March Days by the Baku Soviet in "Pravda" newspaper: "While the center of Muslims, Baku, the citadel of Soviet power in Transcaucasus, unified around itself the entire Eastern Transcaucasus, from Lenkoran and Kuba till Elizavetpol, with arms in hands is asserting the rights of people of Transcaucasus, who try by all forces to maintain a link with Soviet Russia". Victor Serge in Year One (First Year) Of the Russian Revolution: "The Soviet at Baku, led by Shaumyan, was meanwhile making itself the ruler of the area, discreetly but unmistakably. Following the Moslem rising of 18 (30) March, it had to introduce a dictatorship. This rising, instigated by the Mussavat, set the Tartar and Turkic population, led by their reactionary bourgeoisie, against the Soviet, which consisted of Russians with support from the Armenians. The races began to slaughter each other in the street. Most of the Turkic port-workers (the ambal) either remained neutral or supported the Reds. The contest was won by the Soviets."

Opinions of the sides

Shahumian considered the March events to be a triumph of the Soviet power in the Caucasus:

Transcaucasia has entered a period of active armed struggle for the Soviet power. For three days, 30th, 31 March and 1 April, a furious battle raged in the city of Baku. On one side were fighting the Soviet Red Guard; the Red International Army, recently organized by us; the Red Fleet, which we had succeeded in reorganizing in a short time; and Armenian national units. On the other side the Muslim Savage Division in which there were quite a few Russian officers, and bands of armed Muslims, led by the Musavat Party... For us the results of the battle were brilliant. The destruction of the enemy was complete. We dictated to them the conditions which were signed without reservation. More than three thousand were killed on both sides. The Soviet power in Baku has always been hanging by a thread, due to the resistance of Muslim nationalistic parties. These parties led by feudal intelligentsia (beks and khans), which settled in Elisavetpol and Tiflis thanks to the degraded and cowardly politics of the Mensheviks became very aggressive in Baku too. ... If they had taken the control of Baku, the city would have been declared the capital of Azerbaijan and all non-Muslim elements would have been disarmed and killed.

In the opinion of the American historian Tadeusz Swietochowski, "in his enthusiasm, Shahumyan might not have remembered that in 1905 he himself had accused the tsardom of reaping in benefits of the Muslim-Armenian massacres. It is doubtful that to him, as opposed to the Azerbaijanis, any similarity suggested itself."

The leader of Musavat Mammad Amin Rasulzadeh stated with regard to the March Days:

Musavat was blamed for the March events. It is absolutely baseless, because to declare a war one must possess at least some physical strength, which Musavat lacked. Others accuse Musavat that it provoked the March events by defending the idea of autonomy for Azerbaijan. This could resemble the truth to a certain extent. If we obediently bowed to the enemies of our freedom, these events might not have happened. But we could not have done that. We openly claimed the autonomy for Azerbaijan, and this increased the number of our enemies.

Casualties

Removing the dead from the streets

According to various sources, at least 12,000 Muslims were killed during the violence.

Shahumyan, the leader of Baku bolsheviks, claimed that more than 3,000 were killed on both sides.

The news dispatch of the same day; The New York Times, marked: "2000 killed and 3000 wounded in struggle between Russians and Mussulmans.

In 1919, the Peace Delegation of the Republic of Caucasian Azerbaijan presented to the Peace Conference in Paris: "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." The same information reflected in a collection from 1920 which also state "12,000 Azerbaijani's and other Muslims"

Recent publications; the tensions and fighting between the Azeris and the Armenians in the federation culminated in the massacre of some 12,000 Azeris in Baku by radical Armenians and Bolshevik troops. The results of the March events were immediate and total for the Musavat. Several hundreds of its members were killed in the fighting; up to 12,000 Muslim civilians perished; thousands of others fled Baku in a mass exodus. In the clashes and pogroms have killed at least 12 000 people.

Aftermath

The aftermath in the Azeri quarter

Inter-ethnic tensions

Further information: Armenian–Azerbaijani War and Battle of Baku

While before the "March Days" Azerbaijani leaders claimed autonomy within Russia, after these events they demanded only independence and placed their hopes no longer in the Russian Revolution, but in support from Ottoman Empire.

Although not an isolated incident, given the participation of the Azerbaijanis during the Ottoman offensive on Armenia in early 1918, the March Days played a significant role in bringing pre-existing inter-ethnic tensions to the forefront of Armenian-Azeri relations. Less than six months after the March Days, when up to 12,000 Azerbaijanis were massacred in Baku, in September 1918, Nuru Pasha's Army of Islam supported by Azerbaijani forces recaptured Baku massacring "an estimated 10,000 Armenians". A special commission formed by the Armenian National Council (ANC) reported a total of 8,988 ethnic Armenians massacred, among which were 5,248 Armenian inhabitants of Baku, 1,500 Armenian refugees from other parts of the Caucasus who were in Baku, and 2,240 Armenians whose corpses were found in the streets but whose identities were never established. It must be noted that these figures were gathered by the Armenian National Council, whom one can hardly expect to be objective in such a matter; yet, considering the general run of events, they cannot be much exaggerated.

• Genocide of Azerbaijanis in Quba city of Azerbaijan in 1918 committed by the armenians
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• File:Genocide of Azerbaijanis monument in Quba city of Azerbaijan .JPG
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Baku Commune

On 13 April, just short of couple days after the March Days, a new entity come to existence, Baku Commune. The Baku Commune made several social reforms, such as the nationalization of the Baku oil industry. The nationalization of these oil fields has proceeded smoothly and that it was not the Tartar population but the English who resisted the establishment of the Soviet regime in Azerbeijan. Established a poorly disciplined, poorly managed body, composed largely of Armenians, who were alien to the revolutionary spirit of the proletariat formed the state of the Red Army of Baku. The Baku Commune included 2 Azerbaijani revolutionaries - Meshadi Azizbekov and Mir Hasan Vazirov.

According to the official Soviet history, on the night of September 20, 1918, the fate of Baku Commissioners were sealed within short of a five months. Twenty-six of the commissars were executed by a firing squad between the stations of Pereval and Akhcha-Kuyma on the Trans-Caspian railway. Soviet officials later blamed the executions on British agents acting in the Baku area at the time. However, Lenin once said: To speak a truth is a petty-bourgeois prejudice. A lie justifies means. Funtikov put all blame for the executions onto Britain, and in particular Teague-Jones who, he claimed, had ordered him to have the commissars shot. This accusation caused a further souring of relations between Britain and the fledgling Soviet government and helped lead to the confrontational attitude of both sides in the coming years. According to alternative sources the members of the Commune weren't shot, but rather beheaded by a single person.

On August 1, 1918, The Centrocaspian Dictatorship was born of this rubble which was a British-backed anti-Soviet government founded in Baku. The Bolsheviks were outvoted and were forced out of power, same as five mouths ago Azeris forced out. The new government was composed of the Socialist-Revolutionary Party, and the Armenian national movement which majority was of ARF.

In the mind of Azerbaijani people, the Baku Commune became the bitter symbol of the Bolshevik - Armenian collusion born out of the March Days bloodbath

Culture & Art

File:SV100165-azer genocide memorial.jpg

A Memorial dedicated to all victims of March Days and Black January.

A Memorial dedicated to all victims of March Days and Black January.

See also

• Azerbaijan Democratic Republic
• Khojaly massacre

Bibliography

• Kazemzadeh, Firuz (1950). The Struggle for Transcaucasia (1917-1921). Anglo Caspian Press Lted. p. 360. ISBN 9780956000408.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: ref duplicates default (link)
• Alstatdt, Audrey L. (1992). The Azerbaijani Turks: power and identity under Russian rule. Hoover Press. ISBN 9780817991821.
• Swietochowski, Tadeusz (2004). Russian Azerbaijan, 1905-1920: The Shaping of a National Identity in a Muslim Community. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 9780521522458.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: ref duplicates default (link)
• Northcote, Dudley S. (1922). "Saving Forty Thousand Armenians". Current History. New York Times Co.,. Retrieved 12 December 2008.{{cite news}}: CS1 maint: extra punctuation (link) CS1 maint: ref duplicates default (link)
• Pasdermadjian, Garegin (1918). Why Armenia Should be Free: Armenia's Role in the Present War. Hairenik Pub. Co. {{cite book}}: Unknown parameter |coauthors= ignored (|author= suggested) (help)CS1 maint: ref duplicates default (link)
• Balayev, Aydin (2008). "A Defining Moment For Azerbaijan". Azerbaijan in the World. I (18). {{cite journal}}: Unknown parameter |month= ignored (help)