March Days:The 'Azerbaijani Genocide'

An event that would be ring through the minds of Azerbaijanis for decades to come, the so called 'Azerbaijani Genocide' was an event that would eventually help spark a war more than half a century after it ended between two bitter rivals. The Armenians characterized their Turkish-speaking Azeri neighbors as murders, rapists, and a menace to society. The Azeris characterized the Armenians in the exact same light. Before the Soviets took complete control over Azerbaijan and Armenia, new, democratic states rose from the ashes of the Tsar's defeated empire. These states rose from the ashes of hate for one another, and the Azerbaijani Genocide was the exact cause for the declaration of independence by the Azerbaijani people, independent of the Tsar, the Armenians, Ottomans, and Communists.

After the Tsar's abdication and eventual execution, war broke out between loyalist whites and the Bolshevik Reds in Russia proper in 1917. Outside of Russia proper however, other former territories of Tsarist Russia were for the first time in hundreds of years free. Many of these territories had various alliances and rivalries with other former territories. Specifically, Azerbaijan, and Armenia, long-time rivals, began to compete for power in the newly declared republic of Transcaucasia.

Azerbaijanis, a Turkic people who speak a language mutually intelligible with Turkmen and Turkish, were not trusted by either their Armenian neighbors, Russian and Persian masters, and mighty Bolsheviks. The Armenians believed the Azerbaijanis to be just like the Turks of Turkey to the West who they had been fighting with since 1916. Hundreds of thousands of Armenians and Turks had died in fighting within the Ottoman empire. However, Azerbaijanis lived under Russian and Persian rule. Southern Azerbaijan was part of Persia (Tabriz). Any attempt at autonomy under the name Azerbaijan in Russia would inevitably pose a threat to Persia - they wanted to keep the oil rich lands of southern Azerbaijan. The situation with the Russians though was even more complex.

Baku, the claimed capital of autonomous Azerbaijan, was inhabited by about 200,000 people. Only a quarter of the population was actually made up of Azerbaijanis; about 75,000 of the people who lived there were actually Russian, though most only lived their to work and returned to Russia proper when possible. Armenians also outnumbered Azerbaijanis. However, Azerbaijanis owned 95% of oil fields in Baku ;oil production in Baku accounted for 15% of the world's oil before the war. That number had been dramatically reduced by 1918. Regardless, the Soviet Union recognized early on it's need for Baku's oil. Lenin is quoted as having said "Soviet Russia can not survive without Baku oil". Thus, an invasion of Baku by Soviet forces was inevitable.

Seeing the need to force Azerbaijanis out of Baku and takeover their oil companies/fields, all but the Islamist Pan-Turkic Musavat party, the party of Azerbaijanis, decided unilaterally that the Azerbaijanis had to go. Armenian forces from the Armenian Revolutionary Front (ARF) had been engaged in heavy combat with Azerbaijani forces for some by march of 1918. Though many Azerbaijanis at the time supported Russian imperialism and some even Bolshevism, the Bolshevik Russians threw their support behind the Armenians, fearing that the Pan-Turkic and Islamist elements of the Musavat party of the Azerbaijanis would eventually side with the Ottoman empire. Competition in the newly formed republic for power left the Azerbaijanis outmanned and put them on the run. Azerbaijan for the first time was on the losing side of a looming conflict with Armenia.

The Armenians had begun mobilizing troops a year in advance. By comparison, Azerbaijani forces were scattered throughout Russia and the rest of the former empire. What was left of the Muslim Azerbaijani forces in Baku began planning to revolt against Soviet occupiers in Baku in the middle of March. The confiscatory measures of taking over the possessions - including oil fields - of Azerbaijanis left Azerbaijanis upset and left to depend on the Ottoman empire for support.

The main massacres occurred only because of a misunderstanding by Bolshevik forces. A detachment of 50 Azerbaijani sailors who were attending a funeral in Baku were mistakenly believed to be planning a revolt against Bolshevik forces. The Bolsheviks stood no chance against Azerbaijani forces alone; only with the help of the Armenians, Kadets, and even their rival Mensheviks were they able to overpower the Azerbaijanis. The Muslim Azerbaijanis called upon the Savage division, composed mostly of Muslims, of the former Imperial Russian Army. Though they posed a threat to the Armenian/Bolsheviks and gun fighting broke out between the two opposing forces, they eventually were forced to disarm when forced to disarm when confronted by a large Bolshevik force. The fighting between the two sides left an estimated 70,000 Azerbaijanis in a matter of just a few days dead. Thirty-thousand Azerbaijani civilians, mostly woman, children, and the elderly died in the fighting. By comparison, very few Bolsheviks and Armenian civilians died. To this day, March 31st is commemorated in Azerbaijan for this atrocity known there as the 'Azerbaijani Genocide' because it wiped out and forced out all Azerbaijanis from Baku.

Despite the departure of Azerbaijanis from Baku, they returned in later years during Soviet rule and claimed their city as their capital upon independence in 1991. After the massacre, Azerbaijanis saw the need now to either join the Ottoman empire as a part of pan-Turkism or become an independent state. Less than two months after the blood bath that was March days, Azerbaijan declared independence (though Baku was still under Bolshevik control) on May 18th, 1918. The oil companies were nationalized in Baku and the Bolsheviks didn't manage to take complete control over the rest of Azerbaijan until 1920. Though an independent Azerbaijan didn't last long, it was the first predominantly Muslim secular republic. The events of March days would be etched into the minds of Azerbaijanis for generations to come and would lead partly to an overall increase of distrust between Russian/Armenians and Azerbaijanis. Ethnic cleansing is hard to forget.

References

"Azerbaijanis remember victims of the crimes against humanity." Azerbaijani-American Council (AAC). 09 June 2009.

"By Adil Baguirov." BakuTODAY.net. 09 June 2009.

"March Days -." Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. 09 June 2009.

"Memorable days in Azerbaijani history, March. Azerbaijan Internet Links." Azerbaijan Internet Links - Catalogue of Information Resources. 09 June 2009.