Claim: Azerbaijan declared independence.

The Azerbaijan Democratic Republic -LRB- ADR ; Azərbaycan Demokratik Respublikası -RRB- also known as Azerbaijan People 's Republic -LRB- Azərbaycan Xalq Cümhuriyyəti -RRB- was the first democratic republic in the Turkic world and -LSB- -LSB- Muslim world -RSB- . The ADR was founded by the Azerbaijani National Council in Tiflis on 28 May 1918 after the collapse of the Russian Empire . Its established borders were with Russia to the north , the Democratic Republic of Georgia to the north-west , the First Republic of Armenia to the west , and Iran to the south . It had a population of 2.86 million . Ganja was the temporary capital of the Republic as Baku was under Bolshevik control . The name of `` Azerbaijan '' which the leading Musavat party adopted , for political reasons , was , prior to the establishment of the Azerbaijan Democratic Republic in 1918 , exclusively used to identify the adjacent region of contemporary northwestern Iran .   Under the ADR , a government system was developed in which a Parliament elected on the basis of universal , free , and proportionate representation was the supreme organ of state authority ; the Council of Ministers was held responsible before it . Fatali Khan Khoyski became its first prime minister . Besides the Musavat majority , Ahrar , Ittihad , Muslim Social Democrats as well as representatives of Armenian -LRB- 21 out of 120 seats -RRB- , Russian , Polish , Jewish and German minorities gained seats in the parliament . Some members supported Pan-Islamist and Pan-Turkist ideas .   Among the important accomplishments of the Parliament was the extension of suffrage to women , making Azerbaijan one of the first countries in the world , and the very first majority-Muslim nation , to grant women equal political rights with men . Another important accomplishment of the ADR was the establishment of Baku State University , which was the first modern-type university founded in Azerbaijan .