Fatali Khan Khoyski - One of the Founders of the Azerbaijan Democratic Republic
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Azerbaijan Democratic Republic-100 Firdovsiya AHMADOVA Doctor of Philosophy in History, Associate Professor Fatali Khan Khoyski - one of the founders of the Azerbaijan Democratic Republic he end of the 19th and the beginning of the 20th In general, Khoyski’s political biography can be divid- century were marked by processes of national ed into two stages: before the national liberation move- Tawakening of the Azerbaijani people. Most of ment and the period of the movement. In the first stage, the public figures and intellectuals who contributed to an important place is occupied by years of activity in this process were graduates of the leading universities the Duma. Khoyski was not a deputy for a long time, but of Russia and Europe, and already during the period of this period is very important as a kind of foundation for study, they were engaged in active public activities - his subsequent career as a politician. In turn, his quali- from the establishment of communities to the publica- fication and experience as a lawyer proved very useful tion of newspapers, theatrical productions, etc. On the on the deputy bench. Sharply speaking out against the other hand, many of them received primary education government’s resettlement and discriminatory policies, in theological schools, and as a result, Western higher Khoyski, two weeks after receiving the deputy mandate, education overlapped with oriental primary education was given the authority to make statements on behalf in some way, forming a fruitful synthesis of national of the Muslim faction (1, p. 79). On 2 April 1907, in his consciousness and European thinking. first extensive speech before the Duma deputies, he One of the brightest representatives of this galaxy of noted that Muslims “amounting to more than 20 million public and political figures – Fatali Khan Khoyski (1875- of the total population of the Russian state”, were also 1920) graduated from the first classical gymnasium, and eagerly awaiting a solution to the agrarian question. In then the law faculty of Moscow University. An impor- revealing the essence of the government’s resettlement tant role in shaping his political views was played by policy, he said that it served the purposes of Russifica- the social environment of his native Ganja at the time tion of non-Russian peoples, demanded on behalf of with its traditions of enlightenment and charity and the Muslim faction that the resettlement be suspended adherence to national ideals, and by the discriminatory until the final settlement of the agrarian question, char- attitude of the authorities towards non-Christian and acterized the vital importance of the water problem non-Russian peoples, which he regularly faced in his “in the east of the Transcaucasus and in Turkestan” and professional work, including in the courts of Ganja (at stressed the importance of expanding land plots for that time Yelizavetpol), Kutaisi, Tiflis and Yekaterinodar. cattle breeders (1, pp. 81-85). But, of course, a special place in his biography is occu- On 29 May of the same year, four days before the dis- pied by his activity as a deputy of the State Duma of the solution of the Second State Duma, Khoyski sharply crit- second convocation. icized the bill on the reorganization of local courts and 10 www.irs-az.com 2(30), SPRING 2017 Fatali Khan Khoyski www.irs-az.com 11 Azerbaijan Democratic Republic-100 Fatali Khan Khoyski among the deputies of the Muslim faction of the State Duma of Russia came up with reasoned arguments against the point Baku City Duma from the Muslim bloc with more than about the impossibility of holding magistrates’ elections 10 thousand votes. Under him, the Baku City Duma was on the outskirts of the empire due to the lack of self- the only counterweight to the Baku Council, which, be- government bodies. He was among the 173 deputies ing a Bolshevik-Dashnak den, managed to seize power who signed the draft law submitted to the Duma on the through mass bloody pogroms of peaceful Azerbaijanis. abolition of laws restricting political and civil rights on An eloquent testimony to the political weight and high ethnic and religious grounds (2, p. 2, p. 24). authority of Fatali Khan Khoyski is the telegram from the After the dissolution of the State Duma, Khoyski chairman of the Baku Soviet People’s Commissariat, Ste- worked as a lawyer. He first worked in the Yelizavetpol pan Shaumyan, to Vladimir Lenin sent in March 1918. District Court and then was elected as a juror to the Ti- The telegram expressed the intention to conduct an flis Court Chamber. In 1913, he became a juror of the armed struggle “against traitors like Khoyski” (3, p. 79). Baku City Court and due to his clear civil position, as well Another notable page of Khoyski’s political biogra- as active participation in the public life of the city, he phy is his activity as a member of the Muslim faction gained broad authority in a very short time. It is no ac- of the Transcaucasian Seim. It is known that this body cident that in 1917 Fatali Khan, being nonpartisan, was was one of the transitional stages from the collapsed elected a member of the provisional executive commit- Russian empire to independent republics in the Cauca- tee of the Baku Muslim National Council and took an ac- sus. In his speech at the Seim during the debate on the tive part in the organization and work of the Baku Con- independence of the region, Khoyski analyzed the posi- gress of Muslims of the Caucasus. A bright milestone in tion of the Musavat faction and nonpartisan groups and Khoyski’s biography was his election as chairman of the then declared that proclaiming independence is the 12 www.irs-az.com 2(30), SPRING 2017 The mandate signed by Khoyski confirming the credentials of the Azerbaijani delegation at the Paris Conference only sure way out of the crisis situation (1, p. 97). When the Seim decided to form a special joint commission of Transcaucasian Muslims and North Caucasus mountain people, Khoyski became one of the three Azerbaijanis in its composition (4, p. 76). In April, the work of the Seim passed under the sign of massacres of the civilian Azeri population of Baku by the Dashnak-Bolshevik alliance. On 7 April, the Muslim factions called an urgent meeting in connection with a telegram about the defeat of Colonel Magalov’s de- tachment at the Hajigabul station. In his speech Khoyski proposed a number of concrete measures and raised the question of proclaiming the independence of the Eastern Caucasus (4, p. 91). In general, during his work as a deputy of the Transcaucasian Seim, Fatali Khan proved himself to be a resolute, flexible and realistic politician. Any hesitation and indecision were alien to him, and he detested the inconsistency and changeable position of the Mensheviks. On 26 April, the first government of the independent Transcaucasian Federative Republic was formed. Khoyski received the post of minister of national education in this cabinet. During his short time in this post, he put for- and made an extraordinary statement, calling the con- ward a proposal to open a European university in Baku. ditions about Baku put forward by representatives of The first rector of the Azerbaijani university, Professor V. the Dashnaktsutyun faction in the Seim “an impudent I. Razumovsky, later recalled: “The Caucasus separated offer”, and in turn, proposed setting the following con- from Russia as the Transcaucasian Republic, and a mixed ditions to the Dashnaks: “To hand over power in Baku government was organized from Georgians, Armenians to Muslims, bring Muslim military units into Baku to and Turks. The minister of national education was Khan protect this power and withdraw disarmed Armenian Khoyski from Baku. We proposed that this government units from there.” This proposal by Khoyski was adopted take advantage of our work on organizing the “Russian unanimously (4, p. 104). university” in Tiflis. The minister (Khan Khoyski) listened In the last week of May, meetings of the Muslim fac- to us and expressed his approval for the establishment tions of the Transcaucasian Seim and National Councils of the Russian university in the Caucasus, but added: were held, and Fatali Khan Khoyski stood out for his “Why in Tiflis? In Tiflis there is a polytechnic school, and activity, playing an important role in making decisions now the Georgian university. Maybe it will be more cor- that were crucial for the Azerbaijani people. He was rect to open a university in Baku?” He took our letter for entrusted to negotiate with the leadership of the Seim consideration and promised to inform the Council of on the adoption of these decisions. On 25 May, Khoyski Ministers about our goal” (2, pp. 1, pp. 200-201). presided over the evening session of the Muslim fac- However, the government of the Transcaucasian tion and was supposed to talk with the chairman of the Federation did not get a chance to address this issue. Seim, Chkheidze, on the agenda for next day’s meeting. On 6 May, a meeting of the Muslim faction discussed He told Chkheidze and other Georgian leaders that if the further aggravation of the situation in the Baku Georgia declared independence, the Azerbaijanis would and Yelizavetpol provinces. Khoyski participated in this take a similar step (4, p. 113). This was the last meeting meeting not so much as a member of the Seim as a of the Muslim faction of the Transcaucasian Seim. At the member of the Transcaucasian Central Muslim Council extraordinary session of the Seim on 27 May, Azerbaijani www.irs-az.com 13 Azerbaijan Democratic Republic-100 The adoption of the Declaration of Independence of the Azerbaijan Republic on May 28, 1918 deputies declared themselves to be the Provisional Na- to the main capitals of the world about the proclamation tional Muslim Council and unanimously elected Fatali of the independence of Azerbaijan.