British Foreign Policy in Azerbaijan, 1918-1920 Afgan Akhmedov A
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British Foreign Policy in Azerbaijan, 1918-1920 Afgan Akhmedov A thesis Submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy Department of History University of Lancaster March 2018 Afgan Akhmedov 2018 2 Abstract This thesis examines Anglo-Russian rivalry in Transcaucasia in general - and Azerbaijan in particular - focusing on the years 1918-1920. The first part of the thesis provides a general review of the history of the Great Game - the geopolitical rivalry between the British and Russian Empires fought in the remote areas of central Asia - before going on to examine the growing investment by British firms in the oil industry of Baku. It also discusses how the Anglo-Russian Entente of 1907 changed the texture of Anglo- Russian relations without resolving the tensions altogether, which lasted until the February Revolution of 1917, despite the wartime alliance between Britain and Russia. The thesis then goes on to examine British policy towards Transcaucasia after the Bolshevik Revolution of 1917. The thesis argues that the political turmoil in Russia provided the British government with an opportunity to exert greater political control over the south of the country, securing its access to oil and control of the Caspian Sea region, thereby reducing any potential threat to India. The allied victory in the First World War, and the weakening of Turkey in particular, meant that British policy in central Asia after November 1918 increasingly focused on advancing British economic and strategic interests in the area. Although the British government did not seek to exert direct long-term political control over Azerbaijan, its policy in 1919 was designed both to support the local government in Baku against possible Bolshevik attack, whilst simultaneously exerting control over Baku oil. The thesis shows that the British military authorities who controlled Azerbaijan in the first part of 1919 typically acted as an occupying force, manipulating the local government, and behaving in ways that alienated large sections of the local population. This pattern of quasi-imperial rule, which was designed to secure the economic benefits of controlling Baku oil while avoiding the costs of large-scale military occupation, eventually proved fruitless. The final part of the thesis then examines how the British sought to defend their economic interests in Azerbaijan even as they removed their military forces. The government in London supported the local Musavat government in its attempt to gain international recognition, hoping that this would bolster its position both abroad and at home. Yet this policy failed to recognise the radical mood on the ‘streets’ of Baku and the appeal of Bolshevism to the many of the local population. When the Bolsheviks finally took control of Azerbaijan in 1920 they did so with the support of significant sections of the population. This thesis suggests that developments in Azerbaijan during this period can be analysed by using a Marxist framework that emphasises how imperialism creates divisions between imperial powers - divisions that endure over time even as they take new forms. It also examines how British policy towards Azerbaijan can be seen as an attempt to establish a form of colonial control that promoted the economic and political interests of key economic and political groups in Britain at the cost of the local Azeri population. In order to develop this argument and avoid the dangers of over-simplification, the thesis draws on a massive array of archive and published sources in English, Russian, Azeri and Turkish. In doing this it offers perspectives and arguments that are absent from the existing scholarly literature whilst introducing the reader to new material unfamiliar to most English-language readers. 3 CONTENTS Abstract 2 Acknowledgements 5 Abbreviations 6 Introduction 7 Chapter 1 Great Game and its consequences 1.1. The reasons of British-Russian geopolitical confrontation in Central Asia in 1860-1907 37 1.2. The penetration of British capital in the Baku oil-producing area in the late 19th and early 20th centuries 42 Chapter 2 2.1. The fall of the Russian Monarchy and Britain's foreign policy 50 2.2. The international situation and the new orientation of British policy 56 2.3. The first period of relations between Azerbaijan Republic and Britain 65 Chapter 3 The military-political and financial-economic aspects of British intervention in Azerbaijan 3.1. Baku under Turkish occupation 78 3.2. The British arrival in Azerbaijan 81 3.3. British troops in Azerbaijan and mutual relations between the military command and the local government 85 3.4. The position of the urban workers in Baku 90 3.5. The Opening of Parliament and changing of British policy in the region 94 3.6. British attitudes towards relations between the Azerbaijani government, Soviet Russia and White Guards 3.6.1. White Guards 99 4 3.6.2 Soviet Russia 103 3.7. Britain's position in the Armenian-Azerbaijani conflict 105 3.8. The British withdrawal from Baku 110 3.9. Epilogue 120 Chapter 4 The fate of the Transcaucasian Republics at the Paris Peace Treaty 4.1. The Establishment of the Paris Peace Conference 124 4.2. The Azerbaijani delegation at the Paris Peace Conference 132 4.3. The Italian mission in Transcaucasia 137 4.4. In the search of a new protectorate 145 4.5. Defeat of the both Kolchak and Denikin governments 151 4.6. British policy towards Azerbaijan during the final months before Bolshevik occupation 161 Chapter 5 5.1. Anglo-Azerbaijani relations in the socio-economic sphere 172 5.2. British occupation and developments in the oil industry 174 5.3. The oil factor in the Musavat government’s foreign policy 186 5.4 Economic monopoly and the impact of the economic crisis on the working class and peasantry in Azerbaijan 189 Conclusion 195 Bibliography 201 5 Acknowledgement I owe a great debt of gratitude to many people for their help in the process of completing this study. First of all, I would like to thank my PhD Supervisor at the University of Lancaster, Professor Michael Hughes who has provided invaluable help and guidance. It would have been difficult to accomplish this task without his help. I would also like to thank the staff at all the libraries and archives that I used for their help; especially Lancaster University Library, the British Library and the United Kingdom National Archives. 6 LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS APR Azerbaijani People’s Republic (also known as Azerbaijan Democratic Republic - ADR) AzCP Azerbaijan Communist Party BMM British Military Mission CAB Cabinet Office Papers FO Foreign Office GAAR Gosudarstvennyy Arkhiv Azerbaydzhanskoy Respubliki (The State Archive of Azerbaijan Republic) GAPPODAR Gosudarstvennyy Arkhiv Politicheskikh Partiy i Obshchestvennykh Dvizheniy Azerbaydzhanskoy Respubliki (State Archive of Political Parties and Social Movements of the Republic of Azerbaijan) GARF Gosudarstvenniy Arkhiv Rossiiskoi Federatsii, Moscow, (The State Archive of the Russian Federation) Musavat Party Party of equality Pood Unit of mass equal approximately 16.3807 kilograms (36.121 pounds) PPC Paris Peace Conference RGASPI: Rossiiskii Gosudarstvennyi Arkhiv Sotsial’Po-politicheskoi Istorii, Moscow, Russia RSFSR Russian Soviet Federal Socialist Republic Sovnarkom: Soviet of People’s Commissars TSGAOR Tsentral'nyy Gosudarstvennyy Arkhiv Oktyabr'skoy Revolyutsii [Azerb SSR] (Central State Archive of the October Revolution of Azerbaijan) TSFSR Transcaucasian Soviet Federated Socialist Republics WO War Office 76 INTRODUCTION 1. Research Questions A huge amount has been written by historians about British policy in the Middle East during the period following the end of the First World War. The collapse of the Ottoman Empire created a vacuum which was only filled as part of a complex political process, driven in large part by interaction between British and French imperial power with fragmented local societies, which possessed their own aspirations for greater autonomy and self-rule. The collapse of Tsarist Russia after February 1917 effectively extended this arc of uncertainty into Transcaucasia, which as part of the former Russian Empire had not constituted a site of direct contestation for the great powers in the years before 1914, at least since Batumi (Batum) was ceded to St Petersburg in 1878.1 The future of the region had been opened up after the start of the First World War, as Ottoman forces sought to extend their presence in the area, while Russian forces for their part periodically advanced into the territories to the south-east of the Black Sea. The disintegration of Tsarist rule opened up the possibility of both Ottoman and German forces advancing into Transcaucasia in order to gain both territory and access to the area’s oil resources. Policy-makers back in London responded both defensively - debating how to secure the region against enemy forces - as well as considering whether Britain might itself seek to advance its own influence and interests in the region. The October Revolution provided an added layer of complexity to an already muddled situation. The Bolshevik government was committed to maintaining control over Transcaucasia. Local non-Bolshevik movements in Armenia, Georgia and Azerbaijan saw the turmoil in Russia as a chance to push for independence. By 1918 Transcaucasia had become a site in which local tensions intersected with imperial ambitions, whilst conflicts of ideology gave added spice to great power confrontations, turning the region into a site of contestation in the first Cold War and an outlying theatre of the Russian civil war. 1. Batumi is the city in Georgia, and was officially known as Batum until 1936; then was renamed Batumi. 8 British policy had long sought to establish control of the areas around the Caspian Sea in order to help secure the Indian frontier. The Anglo-Russian Entente of 1907, which gave Russia predominance in the north of Persia, made it harder for the British to secure this objective.2 The turmoil of 1917-18, and the apparent weakening of Russian power, opened up the future of a whole swathe of central Asia.