On 9 March 1917, the Special Transcaucasian Committee was established to fill the administrative gap in areas occupied in the course of the war on the Caucasian front by the Russian Provisional Government in the Transcaucasia.

In November 1917, the first government of the independent Transcaucasia was created in Tbilisi and named the Transcaucasian Commissariat following the Bolshevik seizure of power in St. Petersburg.

On 5 December 1917, this new "Transcaucasian Committee" endorsed the Armistice of Erzincan which was signed by the Russians with the command of the Ottoman Third Army.

[1] On 17 February, Dunsterforce arrived at Enzeli, where they were denied passage to Baku by local Bolsheviks, who cited the change in the political situation.

The Treaty of Brest-Litovsk stipulated that the border be pulled back to prewar levels and that the cities of Batum, Kars, and Ardahan be transferred to the Ottoman Empire.

[9][10] New York Times Current History mentions the number of victims as 12,000, citing the statements of Azerbaijan representatives that "the Bolsheviks were helped by Armenians, eager to annihilate their old enemies and to seize their property".

[11] As a consequence to these events Azerbaijani leaders, who before the "March Days" claimed autonomy within Russia, now demanded independence and placed their hopes no longer in the Russian Revolution, but in support from Ottoman Empire.

[1] The situation was especially dire in the Caucasus, where Enver Pasha had wanted to place Transcaucasia under Ottoman suzerainty as part of his Pan-Turanian plan.

[14] At this conference Ottomans extended their demands to include Tiflis as well as Alexandropol and Echmiadzin through which they wanted a railroad to be built to connect Kars and Julfa with Baku.

At the same time, Germany turned to negotiations with the Soviet Russia and offered to stop Turkish advances in return for guaranteed access to Baku's oil.

[1] Nuri Pasha's army occupied large parts of the Azerbaijani Democratic Republic without much opposition, influencing the fragile structure of the newly formed state.

[1] 30% of the newly formed army consisted of Ottoman soldiers, the rest being Azerbaijani forces and volunteers from the North Caucasus.

[16] The Baku forces were commanded by the former Tsarist General Georgy Dokuchaev,[17] with his Armenian Chief of Staff, Yakov Bagratuni.

On 6 June 1918, Grigory Korganov, People's Commissar of Military and Naval Affairs of the Baku Soviet, issued an order to the Red Army to begin offensive operations against Ganja.

[18] However many of the troops Shahumian requested from Moscow for the protection of Baku did not arrive because they were held up on the orders of Joseph Stalin in Tsaritsyn.

Also, on Stalin's orders, grain collected in Northern Caucasus to feed the starving people in Baku was directed to Tsaritsyn.

On reaching Anzali in late July, Dunsterville also arrested the local Bolsheviks who had sided with the Jangalis.

[1] The new body, the Central Caspian Dictatorship, wanted to arrest Stepan Shahumian, but he and his 1,200 Red Army troops seized the local arsenal and 13 ships, and began heading to Astrakhan.

By doing this, they planned to close the gap to the sea, and control a strongly defensible line from one end of the Apsheron Peninsula to the other.

[1][21] On 26 August, the Ottoman Islamic Army of the Caucasus launched its main attack against positions at the Wolf's Gate.

[1] Over the period 28–29 August, the Ottoman forces shelled the city heavily and attacked the Binagadi Hill position.

By this point, allied troops were pushed back to the saucer-like position that made up the heights surrounding Baku.

The Ottoman forces nearly overran the strategic Wolf's Gate (Azerbaijani: Qurd qapısı) west of Baku, from which the whole battlefield could be seen.

On 30 March, based on the unfounded report that the Azerbaijani (Muslim) crew of the ship Evelina was armed and ready to revolt against the Soviet, the Soviet disarmed the crew who tried to resist[18][23] The three days of inter-ethnic warfare referred to as the March Days, which resulted in the massacre of up to 12,000 Azerbaijanis by the Bolsheviks and armed Armenian units in the city of Baku and other locations in the Baku Governorate.

[24] In September 1918, a terrible panic in Baku ensued when the Ottoman Islamic Army of the Caucasus began to enter the city.

However, after the Armistice of Mudros between the United Kingdom and the Ottoman Empire on 30 October, Turkish troops were substituted by the Triple Entente.

Headed by General William Thomson, British troops of 5,000 soldiers, including parts of Dunsterforce, arrived in Baku on 17 November, and martial law was implemented on the capital of Azerbaijan Democratic Republic until "the civil power would be strong enough to release the forces from the responsibility to maintain the public order".

[1] By 16 November, Nuri and Mürsel Bey were ejected from Baku and a British general sailed into the city, headed by one of the ships that had evacuated on the night of 14 September.

The battle is considered by many Azerbaijani scholars to be the most significant event that took place in Azerbaijan's history before its incorporation into the Soviet Union.

[32] Azerbaijan and Turkey celebrated the centennial anniversary of the capture of the city (Azerbaijani: Bakının azad edilməsinin 100 illiyi; lit.