AZERBAIJAN IN THE SPEECHES AND STATEMENTS OF ATATURK

We thought over the matter what principle we should approach at first in our article “Azerbaijan in the speeches and statements of Ataturk”. Since the essence of our article was Ataturk and his speeches and statements, themes and issues related to Azerbaijan we were able to touch some issues associated with it. Because of the favorable strategic-geographical location and rich natural resources throughout the history Azerbaijan has become the fighting arena for great powers. Tsarist Russia that tried to gain Azerbaijan, From the end of the 18th century began its purposeful strifes. And beginnig from the early 19th century applied his force. Under the Gulustan treaty of the 1813, Turkmenchay treaty of 1828, Iran and under the Edirne peace treaty the Ottoman were obliged to recordnize Russia’s authority in this region. Tsarist Russia preferring its imperial interests and aiming to break rasial and cultural ties of Azerbaijani Turks with Turkey pursued planned and purposeful policy in the region. In such an imperial period and then at the beginning of the 20th century Azerbaijan and Azerbaijani Turks were always in the spotlight of Ataturk and therefore Azerbaijan was always in the main place in speeches and statements of Ataturk. In this regard, we tried to investigate this matter in our research “Azerbaijan with the eyes of Ataturk”