Azerbaijan Democratic Republic

Azerbaijan, 1918–1920. Draft, not yet reviewed

The Republic of Azerbaijan, better known in historiography as the Azerbaijan Democratic Republic, was the first secular democratic republic in the Turkic and Muslim worlds. 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 28 April 1920. Ganja was the temporary capital of the Republic as Baku was under Bolshevik control. Fatali Khan Khoyski became its first prime minister.

Seat of power: Baku

No rulers documented for this era yet.

Culture

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.
Another important accomplishment of the ADR was the establishment of Baku State University, which was the first modern-type university founded in Azerbaijan.
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.
Besides the Musavat majority, Ahrar, Ittihad, Muslim Social Democrats as well as representatives of Armenian (21 out of 120 seats), Russian, Polish, German, and Jewish minorities gained seats in the parliament.

Picture

The flag of the Azerbaijan Democratic Republic, which existed from 28 May 1918 to 28 April 1920.

Image: Zscout370, CC BY-SA 3.0, file

Sources

Text adapted from the Wikipedia articles listed as sources, CC BY-SA 4.0.