Marking birthday of founder of Azerbaijan Democratic Republic - Mahammad Amin Rasulzadeh

Today is the birthday of Mahammad Amin Rasulzadeh, a state and public figure of Azerbaijan, politician, and publicist, one of the founders of the Azerbaijan Democratic Republic (1918-1920), and one of the leaders of the Azerbaijani political emigration, Azernews reports.

140 years have passed since the birth of Mahammad Amin Rasulzadeh.

Muhammad Amin Rasulzadeh was born on January 31, 1884, in Novkhani village, Baku. His father sent his son to the second Russian-Muslim school, headed by the famous teacher Sultan Majid Ganizade, and after graduating from this school, he continued his education in the Russian language at the Baku Technical School. The first years of our national independence movement and the revolutionary activities of Mohammad Amin Rasulzadeh, who laid the foundation stone of the Azerbaijan Democratic Republic, which was the first republican system not only in the Turkish lands but in the entire Eastern and Islamic world, also coincide with this period. In 1902, seventeen-year-old M.A. Rasulzade founded the Muslim Youth Organisation. It was the first political organisation that secretly fought against Russian colonial rule in Azerbaijan in the 20th century.

In the fall of 1917, M.A. Rasulzadeh was elected a deputy from Azerbaijan and Turkestan to the Russian parliament. On May 26, 1918, the Transcaucasia Seim was dissolved as a result of internal factional disputes. On the 27th of the same month, the National Council of Azerbaijan, consisting of members of various parties included in the Muslim faction, was established. M.A. Rasulzadeh was elected chairman of the National Council by a majority of votes.

On May 28, 1918, radio stations and newspapers of all countries announced Azerbaijan's independence to the world. This meant that the people of Azerbaijan communicated their existence and their existence as a nation to all mankind and fully declared that they had established their national state. The government of the Azerbaijan Democratic Republic was formed under the leadership of Fatali Khan Khoyski. Thus, the people of Azerbaijan established a republic not only among the Turkic peoples but also for the first time in the whole East.

However, the life of the Azerbaijan Democratic Republic lasted only 23 months. After the occupation of Azerbaijan by Soviet Russia on April 28, 1920, M.A. Rasulzade was forced to leave the homeland. M.A. Rasulzade fought for the freedom of Azerbaijan abroad for many years. Rasulzadeh died of diabetes on March 6, 1955, in Ankara.

On December 29, 1993, the President of Azerbaijan, Heydar Aliyev, signed a decree on the 110th anniversary of the birth of M.A. Rasulzadeh, an outstanding social and political figure of Azerbaijan.

President Ilham Aliyev signed the Decree on the celebration of the 140th anniversary of Muhammad Amin Rasulzade on December 30, 2023. According to the order, this year the Ministry of Culture, together with the Ministry of Science and Education and the Azerbaijan National Academy of Sciences, should prepare and implement a plan of events dedicated to the 140th anniversary of Mahammad Amin Rasulzadeh.