Democratic Republic of Azerbaijan and the cession of Yerevan to Armenia: political and legal process of 1918

Abstract

The dissolution of the South Caucasus Sejm in May 1918 and the establishment of independence by Georgia, Armenia, and Azerbaijan marked a turning point in the geopolitical reconfiguration of the region. But in spite of the importance of these events, especially the establishment of the Azerbaijan Democratic Republic (ADR) as the first secular democratic Muslim state, there has been limited scholarly attention to the legal and political consequences of one of its most disputed decisions: the abandonment of Yerevan to the newly proclaimed Republic of Armenia. In this research it is examined the historical, legal, and political dimensions of the decision of the Azerbaijani National Council to cede Azerbaijani lands around Yerevan, highlighting the absence of duly signed bilateral agreements and the impact of external geopolitical pressures. The findings reveal that the transfer was carried out under coercion and in the absence of legal formalization, and that the conditions attached to the agreement—most significantly Armenia's renunciation of territorial claims on Azerbaijan—were later violated. Following these findings argue that the decision has lost its legal force and can be renegotiated according to international law. Correspondingly, the article emphasizes the importance of re-analyzing territorial agreements in the early twentieth-century South Caucasus in terms of contemporary legal norms and historic justice.