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AZERBAIJAN AT THE VERSAILLES CONFERENCE Firuz KAZEMZADEH Excerpt
from Chapter XVII from the book “STRUGGLE FOR TRANSCAUCASIA” / Oxford, 1951 Maps: Richard G. Hovannisian and Robert H. Hewsen
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The Claims of
Azerbaijan Upon its arrival in Paris the
Azerbaijani delegation addressd a note to President Wilson, making the
following requests: 1. That
the independence of Azerbaijan be recognized, 2. That
Wilsonian principles be applied to Azerbaijan, 3. That
the Azerbaijani delegation be admitted to the Peace Conference, 4. That
Azerbaijan be admitted to the League of Nations, 5. That
the United States War Department extend military help to Azerbaijan, and 6. That
diplomatic relations be established between the USA and Azerbaijan[1]. President Wilson granted the
Azerbaijani delegation an audience, at which he displayed a cold and rather
unsympathetic attitude. As the Azerbaijani delegation reported to its Government,
Wilson had stilted that the Conference did not want to partition the world
into small pieces. Wilson advised the Azerbaijanis that it would be better for
them to develop a spirit of confederation, and that such a confederation of
all peoples of Transcaucasia could receive the protection of some Power on
the basis of a mandate granted by the League of Nations. The Azerbaijani
question, Wilson concluded, could not be solved prior to the general settlement
of the Russian question[2]. The Claims of Persia The work of the Azerbaijani
delegation was considerably hampered by the efforts of the hostile remnants of
the Russian Tsarist diplomatic apparatus, who left no stone unturned to
discredit the Transcaucasian delegations and the very idea of an independent
Azerbaijan, Armenia and Georgia. Moreover, Persia presented to the Conference
her claims to a part of the Russian territory. Ali Qoli Khan Moshaver'ol’Mamalek,
the Persian representative, handed the Conference a memorandum, which
included the following claims: “In the
North, the cities and provinces wrested from Persia after the Russian wars.
We will cite Bacou, Derbent, Chakki, Chemakha, Guendja (Elizabethpol),
Karabagh, Nakhdjevan, Erivan. These provinces must be returned to Persia, for
they had already formed part of Persia. The large majority of their
inhabitants are Musulmans, and the generality of them are Persians in origin
and race. In fact, from every point of view, historic, geographic economic, commercial,
religious, cultural, they are attached to Persia. Furthermore, a large
portion of the inhabitants of these provinces have lately appealed to the
Government of Teheran, to protect them, and they have expressed the wish to
be restored to Persia”.[3] The claims of the Persian delegation
were fantastic. They showed a complete lack of understanding of the historical
forces which were shaping the destinies of the world. Poverty-stricken
Persia, whose own existence was threatened every day, the corruption of whose
Government and the weakness of whose army made her an easy prey to the
internal as well as the foreign plunderer, was certainly in no position to
enter the struggle for Transcaucasia. The efforts of the Persian delegation
did not end with the presentation of an official memorandum to the
Conference. They tried to mobilize public opinion in their favor by holding
meetings and distributing literature. But the conference dealt unkindly with
them. They were not even admitted In its work.[4] Fortunately for Azerbaijan, Persian
claims were not taken seriously. The cold reception accorded to the
Azerbaijan delegation by Wilson did not discourage them. Having failed to win
the heart of the American President, they presented the Conference with their
official claims: I The Peace
Conference approves the separation of the Caucasian Azerbaijan from the
former Russian Empire. Azerbaijan shall form an absolutely independent State
under the name of the Demo¬cratic Republic of Azerbaijan . . . II The
representatives of the Republic of Azerbaijan shall be admitted to the work
of the Peace Conference and its Committees. III The Republic of Azerbaijan shall be admitted among the members of the
"League of Nations", under the high protection of which this
Republic wishes to be placed like other States”[5]. Azerbaijan failed to gain
recognition in 1919. The issue was complicated by the presence of the
Volunteer Army in the Northern Caucasus, by the plans to place Transcaucasia
under Italian protection, by the uncertainty of the position of the Russian
Soviet Federative Socialist Republic, and finally by the constant quarrels of
the Azerbaijani and the Armenian delegations, in Paris, quarrels which
reflected the state of affairs in Transcaucasia. A sharp conflict developed at Paris
over the Nakhjavan district, thr Azerbaijani delegation trying to prove that
this area, claimed by Armenia, should really belong to Azerbaijan.[6]
The Armenians were not to be outdone. They came back with stacks of
documents, accusing the Azerbaijanis of exaggerating the number of Muslims in
the Nakhjavan district and in Karabagh, and of harboring sinister designs
against innocent Armenia.[7]
In January, 1920, the Allied Supreme
Council suddenly extended its de facto recognition to Azerbaijan. Bulletin d'information de I' Azerbaidjan
wrote: "The Supreme Council at one of its last sessions recognized
the de facto independence of the Caucasian Republics: Azerbaijan, Georgia,
and Armenia. The delegations of Azerbaijan and Georgia have been notified of
this decision by M. Jules Cambon at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs on 15th
January, 1920."[8]
Behind the sudden recognition there was a weighty reason: the failure of
Denikin, Allied Concern over
the Threat of Bolshevism The defeat of the Volunteer Army
worried the Allies. A short article in the London Times revealed their
apprehension over the future: “As a
result of the Bolshevik occupation of Trans-Caspia, which may now be regarded
as practically complete, the situation in the Caucasus has become one of
considerable difficulty . , . Georgia and Azerbaijan are anti-Bolshevik, both
as regards their V Governments and the population, but their armed strength
is insufficient to resist invasion which now threatens them from the north,
where Denikin's right wing is being pressed back, and from the east across
the Caspian.”[9]
By recognizing the Transcaucasian
Republics the Allies hoped to itrengthen their position in regard to Soviet
Russia. In the House of Commons the Under
Secretary for Foreign Affairs, Mr. Greenwood, was asked on what date
recognition had been extended to Georgia, Azerbaijan, and Armenia, and
whether "in accordance With such recognition, official representatives
have been exchanged, and the boundaries of the Transcaucasian Republics
defined," Mr. Greenwood replied: “Instructions
were sent to the British Chief Commissioner for the Georgian and
Azerbaijanian Governments that the Allied Powers represented on the Supreme
Council had decided to grant de facto recognition to Georgia and Azerbaijan,
but that this decision did not prejudge the question of the respective
boundaries . . . There has been no change in representation as a result of
recognition; as before, His Majesty's Government have a British Chief
Commissioner for the Caucasus with Headquarters at Tiflis, and the three
Republics have their accredited representatives in London ...”[10] On 15th January, 1920, the London Times wrote that with the defeat of
Denikin the Transcaucasian republics would have to lean on Persia[11],
while a French radio station broadcast on 21st January, 1920, that the
British were ready to send ten thousand men to Baku in order » to prevent the
Bolsheviks from occupying that important city. The broadcast stated that
Lloyd George had forced the French Government j |o increase their army of
occupation in Germany so as to relieve the British who would be sent to the
Caucasus, and said bluntly that for once Lloyd George and Churchill were
agreed in their desire to stop the Bolshevik penetration which threatened
Persia, India, Turkey, and Mesopotamia.[12] The sensational announcement of the
Lyons radio is not to be taken seriously, but even this fantastic broadcast
indicates the general feeling which prevailed in Europe in 1920. "Stop
the Bolsheviks!" was the battle-cry, to which, however, only a few
responded. Europe had suffered too much in the war, the wounds were too
fresh, she would not concern herself with peoples whose very names were
unknown to I her masses. Soviet historians have exploited newspaper headlines
which called for a crusade against Bolshevism, and the statements of such
determined anti-Communists as Winston Churchill, to show that the entire
world had united against their young Republic. Facts tell a rather different
story. The Allies recognized the Transcaucasian Republics partly because of
their fear of Bolshevism, but their activities directed against Bolshevism,
at least in Transcaucasia, did not go much beyond words, the strongest of
which were status quo, recognition, demarche, and a list of standard
diplomatic remonstrances. No British troops arrived in
Azerbaijan. At the end of the winter of 1920, it looked from Paris as though
the situation in the Caucasus was beginning to stabilize. The Georgian and
Azerbaijain delegations addressed a joint note to the Ambassador of the
United States in Paris, pointing out that their countries had been granted de facto recognition by the Conference
and requesting the establishment of diplomatic relations between them and
America. The American Government ignored this request. There was little more
that the Azerbaijani delegation could accomplish. They could only wait for
events to take their course.
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