Between Tsarism and Ottomans: Russian/ Caucasian Muslims in the Writings of M. E. Resulzade During the First World War

This article explores the war-time writings of Mehmet Emin Resulzade (18841955), a famous Azerbaijani journalist/intellectual and politician. Participating before in the Russian (1905) and Iranian (1906) revolutions as well as the Young Turk Movement and being a highly experienced journalist, Resulzade was especially influential in the media during the Great War in Baku, and later he became one of the principal founders of Azerbaijani Democratic Republic (19181920). In this sense, it is important to analyse Resulzade's writings to understand the concerns and feelings of Muslim intellectuals in the Caucasus and the issues that they discussed during WWI. Humanitarian aid to the desperate Muslim people in Elviye-i Selase (Kars, Ardahan and Batum), fund-raising campaigns organised by the local Muslim charity organisations for the Ottoman war prisoners, Tsarist authorities' suspicious approaches towards the Muslim minorities, discussions about the future of Russia or the status of the Straits were some of issues that Resulzade discussed in his writings. This article argues that Resulzade's writings reveal the latent oscillation among Muslim minorities between Tsarism and the Ottomans and their implied orientation/sympathy towards the latter.