page_title: Baku
section_title: World War I
hierarchical_section_title: Baku / History / World War I
caption_attribution_description: English: Street scene. Baku.
context_page_description: Baku is the capital and largest city of Azerbaijan, as well as the largest city on the Caspian Sea and of the Caucasus region. Baku is located 28 metres below sea level, which makes it the lowest lying national capital in the world and also the largest city in the world located below sea level. Baku lies on the southern shore of the Absheron Peninsula, alongside the Bay of Baku. At the beginning of 2009, Baku's urban population was estimated at just over two million people. Officially, about 25% of all inhabitants of the country live in Baku's metropolitan area. Baku is the sole metropolis in Azerbaijan.
  Baku is divided into twelve administrative raions and 48 townships. Among these are the townships on the islands of the Baku Archipelago, and the town of Oil Rocks built on stilts in the Caspian Sea, 60 kilometres away from Baku. The Inner City of Baku, along with the Shirvanshah's Palace and Maiden Tower, were inscribed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 2000. According to the Lonely Planet's ranking, Baku is also among the world's top ten destinations for urban nightlife.
  The city is the scientific, cultural, and industrial centre of Azerbaijan.
context_section_description: In 1917, after the October Revolution and amidst the turmoil of World War I and the breakup of the Russian Empire, Baku came under the control of the Baku Commune, which was led by veteran Bolshevik Stepan Shahumyan. Seeking to capitalize on the existing ethnic conflicts, by spring 1918, Bolsheviks inspired and condoned civil warfare in and around Baku. During the famous March Days, Bolsheviks and Dashnaks seeking to establish control over Baku streets, were faced with armed Azerbaijani groups. The Azerbaijanis suffered defeat by the united forces of Baku Soviet and were massacred by Dashnak teams in what was called March Days. An estimated 3,000–12,000 Azerbaijanis were killed in their own capital. After the massacre, on 28 May 1918, the Azerbaijani faction of the Transcaucasian Sejm proclaimed the independence of the Azerbaijan Democratic Republic (ADR) in Ganja, thereby becoming the first Muslim-majority democratic and secular republic. The newly independent Azerbaijani republic, being unable to defend the independence of the country on their own, asked the Ottoman Empire for military support in accordance with clause 4 of the treaty between the two countries. Shortly after, Azerbaijani forces, with support of the Ottoman Army of Islam led by Nuru Pasha, started their advance onto Baku, eventually capturing the city from the loose coalition of Bolsheviks, Esers, Dashnaks, Mensheviks and British forces under the command of General Lionel Dunsterville on 15 September 1918.
  After the Battle of Baku, the Azerbaijani irregular troops, with the tacit support of the Turkish command, conducted four days of pillaging and killing of 10,000 to 30,000 of the Armenian residents of Baku. This pogrom was known as the September Days. Shortly after this, Baku was proclaimed the new capital of the Azerbaijan Democratic Republic.
  Turkey lost the war by October 1918, then conducted the Armistice of Mudros with the British, which meant Baku was to be evacuated. Headed by General William Thomson, British troops of 5,000 soldiers, including parts of Dunsterforce, arrived in Baku on 17 November. Thomson declared himself military governor of Baku and implemented martial law on the capital until "the civil power would be strong enough to release the forces from the responsibility to maintain the public order". British forces left before the end of 1919.
caption: Neftchiler Avenue in Baku, circa 1920.
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