Alimardan Topchibashi's book 'The Paris archive’ (1919-1940) was presented yesterday during the plenary session titled 'Russian Revolution and History of the Azerbaijan Democratic Republic: a look back a century later,' which took place at the History Faculty of the Moscow State University.
The book was published by the Moscow publishing house ‘Khudozhestvennaya Literatura’ with the support of the Heydar Aliyev Foundation.
The third volume contains documents and materials concerning the activities of Topchibashi as the head of the Azerbaijani diplomatic delegation in France and other Azerbaijani organizations during the immigration in 1924-1930. Of particular interest is the draft of the League of Liberation of Azerbaijan, prepared by Alimardan Topchibashi in 1924 and partially implemented in 1927-1928, by analogy with which Topchibashi developed in 1930 the draft of the League of Liberation of the Caucasus.
Special attention devoted to documents and materials, reflecting on both: the international context of the era and the diplomatic relations between the Azerbaijani delegation and official and unofficial representatives of the European states.
The vast majority of archival sources were published for the first time, providing an opportunity to get acquainted with the new pages of the Azerbaijan Democratic Republic, as well as with the national liberation struggle of the peoples of Azerbaijan and the Caucasus in 1921-1923.
Alimardan Topchibashi was the Speaker of the Parliament of Azerbaijan Democratic Republic, the first deputy of the Russian State Duma, an Azerbaijani politician and diplomat. After the February Revolution of 1917 he led the Azerbaijan National Committee.
After the Azerbaijan Democratic Republic was proclaimed, he became the ambassador to Armenia, Georgia and the Ottoman Empire, and later became the minister of foreign affairs. He headed the delegation of the Republic at the Paris Peace Conference. But after the Bolshevik takeover of Azerbaijan Democratic Republic he decide to stay in Paris, where he died on November 8, 1934.
The fourth volume, which is scheduled for release, will be devoted to Topchibashi's activities in 1930-1940.
The compilers, the authors of foreword and notes, translators are Georgi Mamulia and Ramiz Abutalybov, science editor - professor Ismail Agakishiev. The authors expressed their gratitude to Solmaz Rustamova-Togidi, Adalat Tagirzade, Pavel Libere, Eldar Ismayilov and Omer Ozcan for valuable consultations and provided information.
