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This group was attentively observing the course of events in Russia and in parallel 
with that they established the ‘North Caucasian Association’ (‘Şimali Kafkas 
Cemiyeti’) in the spring of 1918.
229
 The chairman of this Association, Hüseyin 
Tosun (Şhaplı)
230
 Bey, was director of the Ottoman National Agency, the 
government’s press agency, and one of the prominent names of the political life in 
İstanbul. In this period, the leaders of the Association and the Ottoman government 
believed in the same cause of liberating the Caucasus, so there was no inherent 
conflict between the Turkish aims and the North Caucasians. For this reason, 
Hüseyin Tosun Bey and the North Caucasian Association played the roles of 
intermediary and conduit for the Mountaineers in the North Caucasus and the 
Ottoman government. And the Trabzon Conference, the first meeting place of these 
three groups became the intersection.
231
 
 
                                                 
229
 For the North Caucasian Association see Berat Bir, 1988. “Şimali Kafkas Cemiyeti ve Şubelerine 
Gönderdiği 1919 Tarihli Bir Talimname,” Kuzey Kafkasya Kültür Dergisi (İstanbul), 68/70: 12-14. 
Sefer E. Berzeg, 1991 “Şimali Kafkas Cemiyeti Nizamnamesi Hakkında Bazı Notlar ve Şimali 
Kafkas Cemiyeti,” Kafkasya Gerçeği, (Samsun), 3: 28-32. Mustafa Butbay, 1990. Kafkasya 
Hatıraları, Ankara: TTK Yayınları. 
230
 Hüseyin Tosun Şhapli, his birth date was unknown. He was an interesting personality. Because 
of his revolutionary activities, he exiled to Tripoli in 1896. But he escaped to Europe and took part 
in the First Congress of Ottoman Liberals held in Paris in 1902. He was among the founding 
members of the ‘Teşebbüs-ü  Şahsi ve Adem-i Merkeziyet Cemiyeti,’ which was headed by Prince 
Sebahattin. He was involved in publishing the Association’s organ Terakki. In 1907 he travelled to 
Russia but arrested there. Then he returned to İstanbul and in 1908 was elected representative for 
Erzurum. Died in 1930. 
231
 Later on after the collapse of the Union and Progress government, this Association changed its 
name to the Association of Relief for the North Caucasian Emigrants and closed on 21 June 1919 by 
the British and its leaders were exiled to Malta. The other names were as follows: Dr. Mehmed 
Reşid Bey, Bekir Sami Kundukh, İsmail Canbulat, Yusuf İzzet Paşa, Aziz Meker, Hüseyin Kadri 
Şhaplı, and Hayriye Melek Hanım 

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3- Independence: April 1918- November 1918: 
A-The Conference of Trabzon: 
It is important to note that the isolation of the Transcaucasian Republics 
was among the Ottoman war aims. The conference in Trabzon was organized to 
negotiate a separate treaty between the Turks and the Transcaucasian Commissariat 
(Zakavkazskii Komissariat)
232
. During the negotiations in Trabzon, Turkish 
delegates, in line with this policy and with the help of the Azeris, insisted on the 
Transcaucasians’ declaration of independence and declared that, if the 
Transcaucasians do not declare independence they would support the Brest-Litovsk 
Treaty was null and void.
233
 
While the negotiations were going on, the North Caucasian delegation 
consisted of Abdulmejid Chermoev, Muhammed Kadı Dibirov and Haydar 
Bammat,
234
 who were chosen by the Provisional Government in Temir Khan 
Shura.
235
 
In Trabzon, the North Caucasian delegation made a statement in which it 
pointed out that: 
                                                 
232
 The Transcaucasian Commissariat, or the Transcaucasian temporary government was established 
on 11 November 1917 in order to replace the already defunct Special Transcaucasian Committee or 
Ozakom  (Osobyi Zakavkazskii Komitet) which had established in March 1917, following the 
abdication of the Tsar, in order to take all the civil authority in the region. The task of this 
temporary government was to maintain order until the time when the All-Russian Constituent 
Assembly had established a new government for the entire Russian State
. 
For a detailed work on 
Azerbaijan and the Transcaucasian government see Tadeusz Swietochowski, 1985. Russian 
Azerbaidzhan 1905-1920: The Shaping of National Identity in a Muslim Community, Cambridge: 
Cambridge Un. Press, and Pipes, Formation, 193-5. 
233
 For the course of Conference and the Turkish side’s attitudes see Kurat, 480-484 and W. E. D. 
Allen and P. Muratoff, 460-466. 
234
 Haidar Bammate, Le Caucase, 39-40 and “The Caucasus,” 15. Şerafettin Erel, (1961), added the 
names of Ali Khan Kantemir and Zübeyr Temirhanov in Dağıstan ve Dağıstanlılar, İstanbul. 
235
 According to the statement that was given to the newspaper Ati on 27 April 1918, the 
representatives of the North Caucasus stressed that they left Vladikavkaz on 2 April. The route that 
they were followed was Temir Khan Shura-Baku-Gence-Tiflis-Batum-Trabzon. See A. Hazer Hızal, 
1961. Kuzey Kafkasya: Hürriyet ve İstiklâl Davası, Ankara: Orkun Yayınları. 

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“Transcaucasia cannot exist as an independent state without links with the 
territory of the peoples of Daghestan and the North Caucasus. The creation 
of a unified Caucasian state is dictated by geographical, economic, strategic 
and political considerations. …[W]e would like to believe that all the 
peoples of the Caucasus are motivated by the same burning desire to create 
the conditions favourable to peace, friendship and unity within the 
Caucasus, and to act as a unit in drawing up our foreign policies.”
236
 
 
It is apparent that the mountaineers, on their way to Trabzon, had contact 
with the Dagestani and Azeri groups of the Transcaucasian Government. Bammat 
stressed that “in March …the delegation of the government of the North 
Caucasus,… stopped in Baku and Tiflis to deliberate with the national councils, the 
different political parties and the government of the Transcaucasian Diet.”
237
 There 
it is possible that, against Georgian-German relations, the Azeris and the North 
Caucasians pro-Turkish stance was reiterated. 
In Trabzon the parties could not reached any agreement. While the 
Transcaucasian delegation was turning to Tiflis to clarify their policy against 
Ottoman demands, the Mountaineers turned their faces decisively towards the 
Sublime Porte. They had a chance to meet with Enver Pasha in Batum
238
 and then, 
in order to establish some close contacts with the Ottoman government, they 
moved to İstanbul together with him and stayed in Perapalas.
239
 
Following the arrival of the delegation, the Turkish media, with the 
initiative of the North Caucasian Association started to publish several articles and 
                                                 
236
 Bammat, “The Caucasus,” 15 and Jabagi, “Revolution,” 124. 
237
 Kurtatag, 3 May 1927. “Istoricheskie Zadachi Gortsev Kavkaza II,” Vol’nye Gortsy, (Prague), 2: 
3-4. Hereafter “Zadachi II”. Bammat, “The Caucasus,” 15. 
238
 At that time Enver Pasha, in order to appease the Ottoman-German dispute, had been making 
talks with a German General Hans von Seeckt. Kurat, 485. 
239
 Tanin, 26 April 1918, see Hızal, Hürriyet ve İstiklâl. 

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