Capital Baku Government Dictatorship Established July 26, 1918 Founded 1918 | Languages Russian Historical era World War I Fall of Baku September 15, 1918 Date dissolved September 15, 1918 | |
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The Central-Caspian Dictatorship (Russian: Диктатура Центрокаспия, Diktatura Tsentrokaspiya) (Azerbaijani: Sentrokaspi Diktaturası), or the Centro-Caspian Dictatorship, was a short-lived anti-Soviet administration proclaimed in the city of Baku during World War I. Created from an alliance of Russian Socialist-Revolutionaries, Mensheviks and the Dashnaks, it replaced the Bolshevik Baku Commune in a bloodless coup d'état on July 26, 1918, and fell on September 15, 1918, when Ottoman-Azerbaijani forces captured Baku.
Background
The Central-Caspian Dictatorship asked for British help in order to stop the advancing Ottoman Army of Islam that was marching towards Baku. A small British force under General Lionel Dunsterville was sent to Baku and helped the mainly Dashnak-Armenian forces to defend the capital during the Battle of Baku. However, Baku fell on September 15, 1918 and an Azerbaijani-Ottoman army entered the capital, causing British forces to evacuate and much of the Armenian population to flee. After the Ottoman Empire signed the Armistice of Mudros on October 30, 1918, a British occupational force re-entered Baku.