Azerbaijani–ottoman Relations: Historical Development, Main Directions, and Political-Military Cooperation

Azerbaijani–Ottoman relations constitute an important component of a long-term historical process. Throughout different historical periods, these relations developed under the influence of political, diplomatic, military, economic, religious, and cultural factors. While the main content of relations in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries was shaped by the Safavid–Ottoman rivalry over the territories of Azerbaijan, from the second half of the nineteenth century onward, the strengthening of the Russian Empire in the South Caucasus created conditions for new tendencies of political and cultural rapprochement between Azerbaijani and Ottoman societies. At the beginning of the twentieth century, the development of the national idea, the emergence of the Azerbaijani political elite, and the geopolitical circumstances created by the First World Following the Russian revolutions of 1917, the power vacuum that emerged in the South Caucasus intensified political and military contacts between Azerbaijani political forces and the Ottoman Empire. The treaty signed in Batum on 4 June 1918 constituted one of the legal foundations of these relations. Article 4 of the treaty provided for Ottoman military assistance to the Azerbaijani government when necessary. Within this framework, the activities of the Islamic Army of the Caucasus, the liberation of Baku on 15 September 1918, and military-political developments in Nakhchivan, Karabakh, and Zangezur became among the most important events in Azerbaijani–Ottoman relations (Musa, 2000, pp. 512–516). This article examines the historical stages of Azerbaijani–Ottoman relations and analyzes their political-diplomatic, military-strategic, economic, transport-communication, cultural-humanitarian, and state-building dimensions. Particular attention is paid to Ottoman military assistance to the Azerbaijan Democratic Republic in 1918 and to the withdrawal of Ottoman troops from Azerbaijan following the Armistice of Mudros.