[4] On 23 February 1918, the first meeting of the Seim was held in Tiflis, but almost all representatives of Musavat were absent, as they were carrying out preparatory work to annex the Elizavetpol Governorate to Turkey.

Journalist Solomon Kheifetz noted:[5] The Musavat Party consisted of large Muslim landowners, khans, beks, mullahs, prominent doctors and nationalist lawyers.

By the time of the opening of the Seim, the Musavat deputies were busy on the ground with work on preparing Azerbaijan's accession to Turkey and could not come to Tiflis.In the government, however, there was no agreement between the parties.

[4] By the time the Transcaucasian Seim was formed, the most acute in the region were two issues that required immediate government intervention – national and agrarian.

According to the Russian researcher Vadim Mukhanov, this was strongly influenced by the fact that the representatives of the large parties of Transcaucasia themselves, directly or indirectly, fueled the situation.

According to Mukhanov, the Musavatists were interested in this in order to attract Turkish troops to the region under the guise of protecting the Muslim population, and the Dashnak leaders did not interfere with the reprisals of Armenian units against local Muslims, justifying themselves by the fact that the latter were blocking the movement of military echelons and the Armenian units had to fight their way through.

[7] The meeting of the national councils of Armenians and Muslims held in Tiflis did not produce meaningful results; tension continued to grow.

On 12 February, two weeks before the convocation of the Transcaucasian Seim, Turkish troops, taking advantage of the collapse of the front and violating the conditions of the December 1917 Armistice, launched a large–scale offensive in the Erzurum, Van and Primorsky (Black Sea littoral) directions.

The Dashnak faction proposed leaving Transcaucasia as part of Russia on the rights of autonomy, divided into national cantons, and in relations with Turkey – to insist on self–determination of Western Armenia.

The Azerbaijani delegation, for its part, stated that Transcaucasia should decide its fate independently of Russia, concluding peace with Turkey on the basis of refusal to interfere in its internal affairs.

As for the position of Transcaucasia in future negotiations with Turkey on a separate peace, after a long discussion, the Seim adopted the following resolution: 1.

The delegation should try to acquire for the peoples of Eastern Anatolia the right to self–determination, in particular – to autonomy for the Armenians within Turkey.While the positions were being coordinated in the Seim, on 6 March the Turks captured Ardagan.

In connection with the deteriorating state of affairs at the front, the Transcaucasian Seim proposed to Turkey to hold peace talks in Trebizond.

The Russian Socialist Federative Soviet Republic pledged not to interfere "in the new organization of state–legal and international legal relations of these districts", to restore the border "in the form it existed before the Russian–Turkish War of 1877–78" and to dissolve on its territory and in the "occupied Turkish provinces" (that is, in Western Armenia) all the Armenian volunteer squads.

The Transcaucasian delegation, claiming independence and rejecting the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk, hoped to conclude a separate peace with Turkey on more favorable terms – the restoration of the state borders of 1914 and self–determination for Eastern Anatolia within the framework of Turkish statehood.

On 22 April, at a meeting of the Transcaucasian Seim, after a stormy debate, despite the opposition of the Armenian delegation, it was decided to satisfy the demands of Turkey and proclaim the Transcaucasia "an independent, democratic and federal republic".

Despite the fact that the Transcaucasian Government fulfilled all the requirements of the Turkish side, the Turks continued their offensive, and the Armenian division, under their onslaught, retreated to Alexandropol.

Thus, Georgia was losing areas closely connected with the former Tiflis Governorate, and for Armenia the new border meant almost complete physical destruction.

[13] As Zurab Avalov notes, the adoption of these requirements dealt a blow to Transcaucasia as a union of three peoples, since after such a disengagement from Armenia there was nothing left.

German representatives advised Georgia to immediately declare independence and officially ask Germany for patronage in order to avoid Turkish invasion and destruction.

Member of the Seimas Doctor Sultanov in a Turkish officer's uniform openly traveled and campaigned in favor of the annexation of Azerbaijan.

Representatives of the Musavat in Tiflis, in the palace itself, a stone's throw from the meeting room of the Seim, in their factional room received disguised Turkish emissaries.During negotiations in Trebizond (Trebizond Conference) and in Batum (Batum Conference), the Musavat Party proposed to the Turkish side to annex the Muslim part of the South Caucasus to Turkey, but the proposal was rejected, since Turkey's big policy in the region required the preservation of a certain independence of Azerbaijan in the confederation peoples of the South Caucasus.

The letter of the Azerbaijani delegation to Enver Pasha notes:[16] Despite our request for the complete annexation of the Muslim part of Transcaucasia to Turkey, we were motivated to explain that the big politics of Turkey requires that we be independent and strong for the time being... We have accepted these instructions, knowingly agreeing with them.On 26 May 1918, the Transcaucasian Seim announced its self-dissolution.

The decision of the Seim stated: In view of the fact that, on the issue of war and peace, fundamental differences were revealed between the peoples who created the Transcaucasian Independent Republic, and therefore it became impossible for one authoritative government to speak on behalf of the Transcaucasia, the Seim states the fact of the disintegration of Transcaucasia and resigns its powers.