158
Germany, and Kemalizm in Turkey is still functioning with great support in all
fields of social and political life. The achievements they realized forced other world
governments to revise and modify their own policies. Thus, in the light of these
developments, the peoples of the Caucasus were also to revise their own situation
and arrange themselves.
406
In this framework, Haydar Bammat and his Kavkaz group openly
repudiated the essential principles of international democracy and sympathized
with national socialism and fascism. They defined themselves as nationalist and
anti-Marxist and, openly preferred to act in line with Germany, Italy, and, Japan.
Therefore, from the beginning, Bammat started to criticise the ‘Brussels
Pact’ in the pages of Kavkaz. According to Bammat, the Brussels Pact was an
arrangement of Georgian Mensheviks who controlled the Prométhée and it was just
a Marxist set up
407
. Therefore, the Kavkaz group targeted Georgian socialists at
first. Then, because of their close connections, they opposed Resulzade and his
‘Musavat Party’ and, Said Shamil and his North Caucasian group. At last, although
they were not active in Prométhée, their ideological proximity made the Armenian
Dashnaks their rivals.
408
With the help of these groups or so-called parties, which were converted
into a kind of ‘benefit fund’ and willing to make every kind of compromise for its
survival, the peoples of the Caucasus could not achieve anything. They could not
vote for the feelings of the younger generations, and their opportunity had passed
406
“Yeni Yollar,” Almanak, 8-10.
407
Haydar Bammat, “Lehistan ve Kafkasya II,” (translated from the Kavkaz, No.8), Almanak, 26-
32.
159
them by. The Caucasians were in need of new direction.
409
“The overwhelming
majority of our emigres who were doomed to survive under extremely severe
conditions, lost their confidence and faith.” These emigres, because of a lack of
genuine leadership and ideal, began to refuse to join any kind of political activity.
They are aware that the existing so-called leaders were in pursuit of their ‘comfort’
and ‘unimportant party works’.
410
But on the other hand those ‘loyal and idealist’ Caucasian emigres
vehemently requesting the establishment of a new organisation. Accordingly, the
aim of the Kavkaz, was to assist Caucasian emigres to set up a genuine united
political organisation. This organisation, he pointed out, had to have a program
based on the historical realities of the Caucasus and which avoided imitating
implicitly alien examples. He admitted that the only way to accomplish this aim
was to establish a comprehensive union or confederation of the Caucasus. Logic, he
pointed out, necessitates that. On each and every occasion from 1917, he stressed
that sincere nationalist leaders of the North Caucasian Republic proposed it to the
leaders of the Transcaucasian republics, but they never took these proposals
seriously. Therefore, the idea of Confederation that was proposed by the Pact
signed in Brussels was not a new phenomenon, but just a product of opportunist
minds.
411
According to Bammat these groups were not trustworthy. They were mainly
directed by the internationalist minds of the 1917 revolution and had no patriotic
408
Muhlen, Gamalıhaç ile Kızılyıldız Arasında, 23. Muhlen quoting from Kantemir’s hand-written
note titled “Caucasian Problem” in Federal Archive in Koblenz. (Die Kaukasische Frage, (BA), R.
6/65).
409
“Yeni Yollar,” Almanak, 10.
410
Haydar Bammat, ‘Lehistan ve Kafkasya II,’ Almanak, p 31.
160
feelings at all. However, the basic needs of the Caucasians were nationalism and
patriotism. Thus the Kavkaz group did not respect the proposals of Brussels
Pact.
412
7- The Turn of Events:
1934 was in fact a turning point for the Caucasians. For the last time they
tried to establish a Confederation, at least on a paper. The contracting committee,
however, was dissolved in 1935 and a Caucasian Confederation Council replaced it
with no concrete contribution. Beyond that, the Armenians and Georgians
separated themselves and began to work together, excluding the North Caucasians
and Azerbaijanis.
The first substantial initiative was the Armenian-Georgian League of 24
May 1936. The foundation of the League was announced following the religious
ceremony to sanctify the souls of the martyrs of the independence war in Armenian
Church at Paris. The leading names who prepared the document were Arshak
Jamalyan, the ex-foreign minister of Armenian Republic and Georgian Prince
Vachnadze. The Declaration was signed by the representatives of Armenian
Dashnaks and Georgian Mensheviks and published in the Armenian periodical
Usaber.
413
The League was religious in content and aimed to establish a union on the
basis of religion, excluding Muslims of the region. Nevertheless, it only served to
411
Haydar Bammat, ‘Lehistan ve Kafkasya II,’ Almanak, p 31.
412
It is clear from the position taken by Bammat’s group that they were very anti-socialist, seeing
the Second International in the work of the Ukrainian and Georgian socialists in the Promethean
front. That they were inclined towards the fascist powers of the day as an antidote to communism.
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