Mammed Amin Rasulzade

Mammed Amin Rasulzade ( _az. Məhəmməd Əmin Axund Hacı Molla Ələkbər oğlu Rəsulzadə, _tr. Mehmed Emin Resulzade; January 31, 1884, Novkhana, near Baku—March 6, 1955, Ankara) was an Azerbaijani statesman, scholar, public figure and one of the founding political leaders of Azerbaijan Republic (1918-1920). His expression "Bir kere yukselen bayraq, bir daha enmez!" ("The flag once raised will never fall!") has become the motto of the independence movement in Azerbaijan in the 20th century.

Early life

Mammad Amin Rasulzade received his education at the Russian-Muslim Secondary School and then at the Technical College in Baku. In his years of study he created "Muslim Youth Organisation Musavat","cite web | url = http://www.kultur.gov.tr/TR/Tempdosyalar/109864__memmedeminresulzade.pdf | format = PDF | title = Memmed Emin Resûlzâde (Bakû/Novhanı, 31 Ocak 1884 - Ankara, 6 Mart 1955) | work = Ministry of Culture and Tourism, Turkey | accessdate = 2007-04-02] first secret organisation in Azerbaijan's contemporary history, and beginning from 1903 Rasulzade began writing articles in various opposition newspapers and magazines. At that time, his anti-monarchist platform and his demands for the national autonomy of Azerbaijan, aligned him with Social Democrats and future Communists. In 1904 he founded the first Muslim social-democrat organisation "Hummet" and became editor-in-chief of its newspapers, "Tekamül"(1906-1907) and "Yoldaş"(1907). Rasulzade also published many articles in non-partisan newspapers such as "Hayat"," "Irshad" and also "Fuyuzat" journal^{OCLC|50542738}. His dramatic play entitled "The Lights in the Darkness" was staged in Baku in 1908.

Rasulzade and his co-workers were representatives of the Azerbaijani bourgeois intelligentsia. Most of them, including Rasulzade himself, had been members of the Baku organization of the Russian Social-Democratic Workers' Party (Bolsheviks) in 1905. [cite book | author = Firuz Kazemzadeh | title = The Struggle for Transcaucasia | publisher = New York Philosophical Library | year = 1951 | pages = p. 21 | id = OCLC|1943521 | isbn = 0830500766] A photograph is extant in Soviet archives, showing Rasulzade with Prokopius Dzhaparidze and Meshadi Azizbekov, Bolsheviks who later became famous as two of the 26 Baku Commissars shot during the civil war. [M.D. Guseinov. "Тюркская Демократическая Партия Федералистов "Мусават" в прошлом и настоящем." Baku, 1927, p. 9] During the First Russian Revolution (1905-1907), Rasulzade actively participated in revolutionary developments. As the story goes, it was Rasulzade who saved young Joseph Stalin in 1905 in Baku, when police were searching for the latter as an active instigator of riots.

In 1909, under the persecution from Tsarist authorities, Rasulzade fled Baku to participate in the Constitutional Revolution of 1905-1911. While in Persia, Rasulzade edited "Iran-e Azad" newspaper [cite journal |last=Castagne |first=J. |authorlink= |coauthors= |year= |month= |title= Le Bolshevisme et l'Islam |journal=Revue du Monde Mussulman |volume=51 |issue=1 |pages=245–246 |id= |url= |location=Paris |accessdate= |quote= ] , became one of the founders of Democratic Party of Iran and began publishing its newspaper "Iran-e Nou" [cite book |title=Works, Volume I |last=Rasulzade |first=Mammed Emin |authorlink= |coauthors= |year=1992 |publisher= |location=Baku |isbn= |pages= |quote=Rasulzade’s letter to "Tereqqi" newspaper’s 16 August 1909 issue] . In 1911, Rasulzade also published his book "Saadet-e bashar" ("Happiness of Mankind") in defense of the revolution.

After Russian troops entered Iran in 1911 and, in cooperation with British, assisted Qajar Court to put an end to Iranian Constitutional Revolution, Rasulzade fled to Istanbul, then capital of Ottoman Empire. Here, in the wake of Young Turk Revolution, Rasulzade founded a journal called "Türk yurdu" ("The Land of Turks"), in which he published his famous article "İran Türkleri" ("The Iranian Turks") [Azerbaijan Democratic Republic. Azerbaijan Government 1918-1920. Baku, "Youth", 1990. page 25 lines 3-11 from above] .

The Musavat Party and Azerbaijan Democratic Republic

After the Amnesty Act of 1913, dedicated to the 300th anniversary of the Royal Romanov Dynasty, Rasulzade returned to Baku, left the Hummet party he was previously member of, and joined the then secret Musavat (Equality) party in 1913, established in 1911, which initially promoted pan-Islamist, pan-Turkist and Socialist ideas, [Pan-Turkism: From Irrendentism to Cooperation by Jacob M. Landau P.55] [On the Religious Frontier: Tsarist Russia and Islam in the Caucasus by Firouzeh Mostashari P. 144] ["Ethnic Nationalism and the Fall of Empires" by Aviel Roshwald, page 100] [Disaster and Development: The politics of Humanitarian Aid by Neil Middleton and Phil O'keefe P. 132] [The Armenian-Azerbaijan Conflict: Causes and Implications by Michael P. Croissant P. 14] or more precisely Pan-Islamism yet with affinity for greater cultural bonds with the Turkic world, ["Prof. Tadeusz Swietochowski", Russian and Azerbaijan: A Borderland in Transition, Columbia University Press, 1995, p. 52.] and which eventually became Azerbaijani nationalist party, and quickly became its chief. In 1915 he started to publish party's newspaper "Açıq Söz" (Open word) which lasted till 1918. When February Revolution happened, Musavat together with other secret political parties in Russian Empire quickly legalized and became a leading party of Caucasian Muslims after it merged with Party of Turkic Federalists headed by Nasibbey Usubbeyli. October revolution in 1917 lead to secession of Transcaucasia from Russia and Rasulzade became head of Muslim faction in the Seym, parliament of Transcaucasian Federation. After the dissolution of the Transcaucasian Federation Muslim faction re-organized into Azerbaijani National Council, whose head Rasulzade was unanimously elected in May 1918.

On May 28, 1918, the Azerbaijani National Council, headed by Rasulzade, declared an independent Azerbaijan Republic. And even though Rasulzade never held any governmental post in either of the Cabinets of Ministers, as an active member of the Parliament he remained a kind of ideological leader of the newly-formed state until its collapse in May 1920. Rasulzade also initiated the establishment of Baku State University together with Rashid khan Kaplanov, minister of education with the funding of oil baron Haji Zeynalabdin Taghiyev in 1919. Rasulzade taught Ottoman literature at the University.

After the collapse of Azerbaijan Democratic Republic in April 1920, Rasulzade left Baku and went into hiding in the mountainous village of Lahij to direct the resistance to Sovietization, but in August 1920, after Soviet Russian army crashed the rebellions of Ganja, Karabakh, Zagatala and Lankaran, lead by ex-officers of the Azerbaijani National Army, Rasulzade was arrested and brought to Baku. It was only due to his earlier rescue of Joseph Stalin in 1905, that Rasulzade was released and transferred from Azerbaijan to Russia. For the next two years, Rasulzade worked as the press representative at the Commissariat on Nations in Moscow. He was seconded to Saint Petersburg in 1922 from where he escaped to Finland.

Exile

For the rest of his life, Rasulzade settled as an exile first in Turkey. However, the 1931 suppression of the emigre publicationsFact|date=March 2007 coincided with Rasulzade's expulsion from Turkey, and some saw it as the result of caving in to Soviet pressure. In reality, the reason went deep into the complex relationship between Turkey and Azerbaijan. Tensions had been growing toward the end of the decade, and by 1930, they had reached a boiling point. In reply to Turkish criticism that the Musavat was neglecting the cause of Turkic unity, Rasulzade published a pamphlet titled "O Pantiurkizme v sviazi s kavkazskoi problemoi" (Pan-Turkism with regard to the caucasian problem), in which he firmly stated his view: Pan-Turkism was a cultural movement rather than a political program. [cite book | authorlink = Tadeusz Swietochowski | author = Swietochowski, Tadeusz | title = Russian and Azerbaijan: A Borderland in Transition | publisher = Columbia University Press | year = 1995 | pages = p. 130 | isbn = 0231070683] Thus, he went to Poland in 1938, where he met his wife, Vanda, niece of Polish statesman Józef Piłsudski,cite journal | url = http://azer.com/aiweb/categories/magazine/73_folder/73_articles/73_rasulzade.html | title = Mammad Amin Rasulzade, Founding Father of the First Republic | author = Rais Rasulzade, grandson | journal = Azerbaijan International | issn = 1075-086X] then to Romania in 1940. During World War II he went to Berlin and met with Azeri POWs in attempt to encourage them to help Nazi Germany, although the mission proved insuccessful [Swietochowski, Tadeusz(1995) "Russia and Azerbaijan: A Borderland in Transition, Columbia University", p. 133] . Finally, after World War II, he went back to Ankara, Turkey in 1947, where he participated in the politics of the marginal Pan Turkic movement.cite book | title = Azerbaijan diary : a rogue reporter's adventures in an oil-rich, war-torn, post-Soviet republic | author = Goltz, Thomas | authorlink = Thomas Goltz | pages = page 18 | publisher = M.E. Sharpe | year = 1998| isbn = 0765602431] Due to sensitivity of his presence in either Turkey or Iran, and being often exiled, Rasulzade "cherished bad memories of both Iran and Turkey". ["Charles van der Leeuw, Azerbaijan: A Quest for Identity, Palgrave Macmillan, 2000, p. 121.] In his appeal to Azerbaijani people in 1953 through Voice of America, he stressed his hope that one day it will become independent again. [http://www.resulzade.org/ME_Rasulzade_nin_Amerikanin_Sesinde_chixishi.mp3] He died in 1955, a broken man according to Thomas Goltz, and was buried in Cebeci Asri cemetery in Ankara.

Major works

Rasulzades works include [cite web | url = http://resulzade.org/kitab.html | title = Məhəmməd Əmin Rəsulzadə (1884 Bakı - 1955 Ankara) | accessdate = 2007-04-02] :
* The lights in a darkness. (play, 1908, not published)
* The critic of the party of Etidaliyyun. Teheran, 1910 (in Persian)
* The happiness of the mankind (Saadet-e basher). Ardebil, 1911 (in Persian)
* An unhappy life (Aci bir hayat). Baku, 1912
* Two views on the form of government (together with Akhmet Salikov). Moscow, 1917
* Role of Musavat in the formation of Azerbaijan. Baku, 1920
* Azerbaijan Republic: characteristics, formation and contemporary state. Istanbul, 1923
* Sayavush of our century. Istanbul, 1925
* Caucasian Turks. Istanbul, 1928
* Panturanism in regard with the Caucasian problem. Paris, 1930 (in Russian), reprinted with an English introduction in 1985 in Oxford
* About Azerbaijani Republic. Berlin, 1933 (in German)
* Azerbaijan problem. Berlin, 1938 (in German)
* Azerbaijan’s struggle for independence. Warsaw, 1939 (in Polish)
* Azerbaijan’s cultural traditions. Ankara, 1949
* Contemporary Azerbaijani literature. Ankara, 1950
* Contemporary Azerbaijani history. Ankara, 1951
* Great Azerbaijani poet Nizami. Ankara, 1951
* National Awareness. Ankara, 1978

References

20. http://www.resulzade.org/MEResulzade.mp3

External links

* [http://www.azer.com/aiweb/categories/magazine/61_folder/61_articles/61_rasulzade.html M. A. Rasulzade from Azerbaijan International]
* [http://www.resulzade.org Leader's Page]