Establishment of the Transcaucasian Commissariat

At the beginning of the 20th century, political changes led to the emergence of new forms of government in Transcaucasia. In November 1917, the Transcaucasian Commissariat was established in Tiflis – a provisional government formed to govern the region during that period. Its creation was, on the one hand, a consequence of the political vacuum caused by the collapse of the Russian Empire and, on the other hand, a manifestation of the strengthening of national consciousness among the peoples of the region.

On 11 November 1917, at a meeting of political organisations operating in Transcaucasia, Georgian Menshevik Noe Jordania proposed the creation of an independent local government. Before the Constituent Assembly began its work, it was decided to create the Transcaucasian Commissariat to govern the region. The government, announced on 14 November, included: E.P. Gegechkori (Chairman and Minister of Foreign Affairs), D. Donskoy (Minister of War and of Internal Affairs), Fatali Khan Khoyski (Minister of Public Education), Sh. Alekseyev-Meskhiyev (Minister of Justice), Mammad Yusif Jafarov (Minister of Trade and Industry), Khudadat bey Malik-Aslanov (Minister of Transport), Khalil bey Hasmammadov (Commissioner of Control), A.B. Neruchev (Commissioner of Agriculture, State Property and Religious Affairs), Kh. Korchikyan (Minister of Finance), A. Okhanjanyan (Commissar of Public Charity), A. Ter-Gazarov (Minister of Food). On 15 November 1917, the government began its official activities.

The creation of the Commissariat, compared to the Special Transcaucasian Committee, was a step forward on the path to independence. However, the new body did not have sufficient authority to stabilise the complex situation in the region. Since all peoples and political parties were represented in the Commissariat, national factions soon began to form. In November 1917, under the leadership of Mahammad Amin Rasulzadeh, the Azerbaijani national faction was founded. The decisions of the Commissariat were usually first discussed in the factions and then finally adopted. This made it difficult to form a unified state position.

Prior to the Constituent Assembly, this government, which proclaimed itself a temporary authority in the South Caucasus, set itself the task of preserving the territorial integrity of the region as the main goal of foreign policy amid the conditions of World War I and internal contradictions. Two weeks after the creation of the Commissariat, elections to the Constituent Assembly were held. As a result, the Georgian Mensheviks won 11 seats, the Musavatists 10, the Dashnaks 9, the Muslim Socialist Bloc 2, and the Bolsheviks, Socialist Revolutionaries and Ittihadists 1 seat each. The election results showed that the overwhelming majority of Azerbaijani Turks supported the idea of national-territorial autonomy put forward by the Musavat party. However, from the very beginning, there were disagreements between the national factions on the foreign policy of the Commissariat, and these only intensified in the future. The Muslim faction considered it necessary to adopt a declaration proclaiming the complete independence of the government in matters of establishing relations with individual states.

The first important step taken by the Transcaucasian Commissariat in foreign policy was the signing of a peace agreement with Türkiye on 5 (18) December 1917 in Erzincan. Following this agreement, Russian troops began to withdraw from the Caucasian front. On 19 December 1917, the Commissariat issued an order to disband the Russian army in the Caucasus, allowing only national corps to remain. The formation of Armenian and Georgian military units went more smoothly, while conditions for arming the Azerbaijanis were not created. This inequality soon led to serious consequences: 17,000 Armenian troops began to commit acts of violence against Azerbaijani villages. In Azerbaijani society, the question of creating a national army became an urgent necessity. Aslan bey Safikurdski, a member of the Transcaucasian Seimas, later rightly noted: “At a time when our younger brothers, the Armenians and Georgians, were armed, the older brother of Transcaucasia, the Muslims, did not receive weapons”.

Such double standards in the Transcaucasian Commissariat were evident not only in the formation of the armed forces, but also in other matters.

Finally, on February 10, 1918, the Transcaucasian Seim was established. It included all the parties whose representatives had been elected from the South Caucasus to the Russian Constituent Assembly. With the formation of the Seim, the political center of governance in the region shifted from the Commissariat to the Seim. On March 26, 1918, the Seim dissolved the Transcaucasian Commissariat.

Thus, the Transcaucasian Commissariat (1917–1918) became a short-lived but important transitional stage in the history of statehood of the peoples of the South Caucasus. Its activities revealed the depth of contradictions between national factions, the difficulties of common regional governance, and the inevitability of the path to independent statehood.

Recommended literature:

1. Rüstəmov, Rəşad Həsən oğlu. Azərbaycan Cənubi Qafqaz dövlətçiliyi sistemində: ferval 1917 - may 1918: monoqrafiya / R. H. Rüstəmov; red. N. Məmmədzadə.- Bakı: Afpoliqraf, 2024.- 152 s.
2. Balayev, Aydın Hüseynağa oğlu. Azərbaycan Cümhuriyyətinin doğuşu: 1917-1918-ci illər milli mücadiləsi / A. H. Balayev.- Bakı: JekoPrint, 2022.- 368 s.
3. Qafqazda ilk respublikalar: 1918-1921: monoqrafiya / İ. Bağırova, Ş. Rəhmanzadə, İ. Bağırova [et al.]; elmi red. İ. Bağırova; AMEA A.A. Bakıxanov adına Tarix İnstitutu.- Bakı: İdeal-Print, 2021.- 420 s.
4. İstiqlal: Azərbaycan Xalq Cümhuriyyətinin elan edilməsinin bir illiyi münasibəti ilə 1919-cu ildə nəşr olunan toplu / Sosial Tədqiqatlar Mərkəzi; ideya müəl., tərt.-red. Ə. Vəliyev; ərəb əlifbasından çevir. Ə. Şükrü.- Bakı: Zərdabi Nəşr MMC, 2020.- 248 s.