March Days
1918 inter-ethnic clashes and Bolshevik takeover attempt in Baku / From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The March Days or March Events (Azerbaijani: Mart hadisələri) was a period of inter-ethnic strife and clashes which took place between 30 March – 2 April 1918 in the city of Baku and adjacent areas of the Baku Governorate of the Transcaucasian Commissariat.[5][6]
March Days | |||||||
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Part of the Armenian-Azerbaijani War and the Southern Front of the Russian Civil War | |||||||
Azerbaijani victims in Baku | |||||||
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Belligerents | |||||||
Bolsheviks Armenian Revolutionary Federation |
Musavat Party Caucasian Native Cavalry Division | ||||||
Commanders and leaders | |||||||
Stepan Shahumyan | Mahammad Amin Rasulzade | ||||||
Strength | |||||||
Bolsheviks 6,000 regular troops, Russian Fleet gunboats[1] Dashnaks 4,000 militiamen[1] | 10,000 troops and militiamen[1] | ||||||
Casualties and losses | |||||||
2,500 Armenians[2] | 3,000[3]-12,000 Azerbaijanis and other Muslims[4][lower-alpha 1] |
Facilitated by a political power struggle between Bolsheviks with the support of the Armenian Revolutionary Federation (Dashnaktsutiun)[7][8][9] on one side and the Azerbaijani Musavat Party on another, the events led to rumours of a possible Muslim revolt[10][11][12][13] on the part of Bolshevik and Dashnak forces[14][15] and the establishment of the short-lived Baku Commune in April 1918.[16]
Most historic sources and accounts interpret the March events in the context of civil war unrest,[17][18][7][19][20] while contemporary Azerbaijani sources officially refers to the March Days as a genocide.[21][22] These were followed by the September days where 10,000 ethnic Armenians were massacred by Army of Islam and their local Azerbaijani allies upon capturing Baku.[23][24]