The Ittihad Party was a radical Islamist party in the Azerbaijan Democratic Republic

Azerbaijan Democratic Republic

The Azerbaijan Democratic Republic was the first successful attempt to establish a democratic and secular republic in the Muslim world . The ADR was founded on May 28, 1918 after the collapse of the Russian Empire that began with the Russian Revolution of 1917 by Azerbaijani National Council in...

 in 1917–1920. It was formed in September 1917 in opposition to the secular Musavat Party and proposed political unity of all the Muslim

Muslim

A Muslim, also spelled Moslem, is an adherent of Islam, a monotheistic, Abrahamic religion based on the Quran, which Muslims consider the verbatim word of God as revealed to prophet Muhammad. "Muslim" is the Arabic term for "submitter" .Muslims believe that God is one and incomparable...

s of the Russian Empire

Russian Empire

The Russian Empire was a state that existed from 1721 until the Russian Revolution of 1917. It was the successor to the Tsardom of Russia and the predecessor of the Soviet Union...

 (ittihad in Arabic

Arabic language

Arabic is a name applied to the descendants of the Classical Arabic language of the 6th century AD, used most prominently in the Quran, the Islamic Holy Book...

 means "union"). In addition to propagating the legalization of the Sharia

Sharia

Sharia law, is the moral code and religious law of Islam. Sharia is derived from two primary sources of Islamic law: the precepts set forth in the Quran, and the example set by the Islamic prophet Muhammad in the Sunnah. Fiqh jurisprudence interprets and extends the application of sharia to...

 law within the Muslim communities, the goal of the Ittihadists was to prevent the formation of independent nation-state

Nation-state

The nation state is a state that self-identifies as deriving its political legitimacy from serving as a sovereign entity for a nation as a sovereign territorial unit. The state is a political and geopolitical entity; the nation is a cultural and/or ethnic entity...

s on the Muslim-populated territories of the Russian Empire. In 1918, Ittihad with 11 members became the second largest party in Azerbaijan's parliament. The Ittihadists' vehement opposition to Musavat, which formed the minority government in Azerbaijan in 1918–1920, led to their collaboration with the White Russians

White movement

The White movement and its military arm the White Army - known as the White Guard or the Whites - was a loose confederation of Anti-Communist forces.The movement comprised one of the politico-military Russian forces who fought...

 under Anton Denikin. Upon the defeat of the latter, Ittihad started leaning politically towards the approaching Bolsheviks who eventually Sovietized Azerbaijan on 28 April 1920. By that time, the Ittihad leaders had made a statement declaring the fulfillment of their goals and urging their members to join the newly-formed Azerbaijan Communist Party

Azerbaijan Communist Party

The Azerbaijan Communist Party was the ruling political party in the Azerbaijan SSR, making it effectively a branch of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union...

. The leader of the party, Dr. Gara Garabeyov, eventually émigrated to Turkey

Turkey

Turkey , known officially as the Republic of Turkey , is a Eurasian country located in Western Asia and in East Thrace in Southeastern Europe...

.