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By Gorkhmaz Asgarov

On May 28, 1918 the first democratic republic was established in the Oriental World. Azerbaijan, a small nation in the South Caucasus, which gained its independence from Russia after the collapse of an empire, declared its independence and announced the establishment of Azerbaijan Democratic Republic. The first republic in the Muslim world, a republic, which gave full civil and political liberties to its citizens, appeared on the map of the world. Azerbaijan Democratic Republic gave certain freedoms to its citizens ahead of the established Western democracies. Azerbaijan gave the full suffrage rights to women in 1919, ahead of USA and Great Britain. It established a parliamentary democracy with a full representation to all the people, including the national minorities (notably, Armenians were represented with seven seats in the Azeri parliament, while Azerbaijan and Armenia were in a full state of war with each other).

The republic did not live long. Only 23 months. On April 27, 1920 the Bolveshik Russia invaded and annexed Azerbaijan. The founder of the republic Mahammad Amin Rasulzadeh and many of the cabinet members of Azerbaijan Democratic Republic were either arrested and shot by the Bolsheviks, or escaped to emigration. Many years later, the leader of the Azerbaijan Democratic Republic Mahammad Amin Rasulzadeh was asked: So, what? You established an independent republic, which lived for only 23 months. How significant were the achievements of this short-lived creation? Rasulzadeh’s response was short: “Not much. But we gave the people the taste of freedom.”

The short sentence of the founder of the Azerbaijan Democratic Republic captures the essence of the significance of the democratic republic in the history of the country. Azeri people, for the first time, had an experience to relate to – the experience of living in a free society. Even if that experience was very short, it established a benchmark for the future achievements of the Azeri nation. It was this experience, which led the national-democratic movement of Azerbaijan to fight for the establishment of an independent democratic republic in 1988-1993. And it is the two previous experiences, which give hope to the modern-day Azerbaijan that it is possible to achieve democracy in Azerbaijan, no matter what do some Azeri politicians say about the national specifics and different mentality.

Abulfaz Elchibey, the leader of the Popular Front Movement of Azerbaijan, in a way, was the follower of the ideals set by the founders of the Azerbaijan Democratic Republic. In a short period of existence of the second republic, the government of Elchibey held the first and so far the only free and fair elections, recognized as such by the OSCE observers. It carried out successful reforms in economy, education and the civic sphere. Kicked out the Russian troops out of Azerbaijan and… in one year it was overthrown. Heydar Aliyev, the former KGB general came to power and established a dictatorship (1993-2003), which he then passed to his son Ilham Aliyev (2003-????).

Today we live in a country, which is not a republic in anything but its name. We have a president, which inherited the presidency from his father. We have amended the constitution once in order to let that happen. Then we have amended the constitution twice in order to abolish the term limits to the presidency and allow the current president to run for the presidency endlessly.
We live in a country, where the former KGB general Heydar Aliyev is declared an all-national leader, his statues spread all over Azerbaijan, while there is no place for a single statue of Mahammad Amin Rasulzadeh, the founder of the INDEPENDENT REPUBLIC of Azerbaijan. During one of the following monetary reforms, the Azeri government even wiped the picture of Rasulzadeh from the national currency of the country, replacing it with the picture of the oil-rigs (I guess, the new value foundation of the modern Azeri society). But there is something, which is difficult to wipe out. It is something, which the 70-year Soviet regime could not wipe out. That is the idea that we did it once, that we had it once and the hope that we can do it again and that we shall have it again.

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