The Peace of Brest and Transcaucasia: The Military Situation and the Beginning of the Formation of the Azerbaijani Armed Forces in the Spring of 1918

The article examines the events of February-April 1918 in the Transcaucasian region, during the discussion of the terms of the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk between Soviet Russia and the Central Powers, which resulted in Russia’s withdrawal from World War I and the occupation of the national outskirts of the former Russian Empire. The national territories of the Transcaucasian region, which did not recognize the Bolshevik coup, faced the challenges of Bolshevization of the Caucasian Army, the weak military training of the Transcaucasian population, especially the Muslim population, and the ongoing World War. The Bolsheviks’ own military construction also faced internal ethnic conflicts in the Transcaucasian Sejm, which weakened the foreign policy position of the Transcaucasian region, which was hesitant to separate from Russia. The terms of the Bolsheviks’ Treaty of Brest-Litovsk further divided the Transcaucasian democracies and their representatives, but the military and political successes of the Young Turk Ottoman Empire accelerated the organization of the Azerbaijani Muslim armed forces and the subsequent dissolution of the Transcaucasian Federation and the declaration of an independent Azerbaijan Democratic Republic.