Nasib Yusif oglu Yusifbeyli or Usubbeyov ( ; 1881, Ganja

Ganja, Azerbaijan

Ganja is Azerbaijan's second-largest city with a population of around 313,300. It was named Yelizavetpol in the Russian Empire period. The city regained its original name—Ganja—from 1920–1935 during the first part of its incorporation into the Soviet Union. However, its name was changed again and...

 - 31 May 1920) - Azerbaijan

Azerbaijan

Azerbaijan , officially the Republic of Azerbaijan is the largest country in the Caucasus region of Eurasia. Located at the crossroads of Western Asia and Eastern Europe, it is bounded by the Caspian Sea to the east, Russia to the north, Georgia to the northwest, Armenia to the west, and Iran to...

i publicist, statesman and major political figure in 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...

.

Early years

Nasib Yusifbeyli was born in 1881 in Elisavetpol

Elisavetpol

Elisavetpol may refer to* Elisabethpol Governorate, one of the guberniyas of the Russian Empire* Ganja, Azerbaijan, Azerbaijan's second most populous city...

 (present-day Ganja, Azerbaijan

Ganja, Azerbaijan

Ganja is Azerbaijan's second-largest city with a population of around 313,300. It was named Yelizavetpol in the Russian Empire period. The city regained its original name—Ganja—from 1920–1935 during the first part of its incorporation into the Soviet Union. However, its name was changed again and...

). After graduating from a gymnasium

Gymnasium (school)

A gymnasium is a type of school providing secondary education in some parts of Europe, comparable to English grammar schools or sixth form colleges and U.S. college preparatory high schools. The word γυμνάσιον was used in Ancient Greece, meaning a locality for both physical and intellectual...

 (secondary school) in Ganja, he enrolled as a student at the Law Faculty of the Novorossiya University (now the Odessa University

Odessa University

The I. I. Mechnikov Odessa National University , located in Odessa, Ukraine, is one of the country's major universities. It was founded in 1865, by an edict of Czar Alexander II of Russia, reorganizing the Richelieu Lyceum of Odessa into the new Imperial Novorossiya University. In the Soviet...

) in 1902. When the university was temporarily shut down by the Tsarist Russian authorities due to revolutionary student activities, N. Yusifbeyli moved to Bakhchisaray

Bakhchisaray

Bakhchisaray is a town in Central Crimea, centre of the Bakhchisaray raion , best known as the former capital of the Crimean Khanate...

 in Crimea

Crimea

Crimea , or the Autonomous Republic of Crimea , is a sub-national unit, an autonomous republic, of Ukraine. It is located on the northern coast of the Black Sea, occupying a peninsula of the same name...

, where he started editing "Tercuman" newspaper with the Crimean Turkic intellectual Ismail Gasprinski.

In 1908, Yusifbeyli moved to Istanbul

Istanbul

Istanbul , historically known as Byzantium and Constantinople , is the largest city of Turkey. Istanbul metropolitan province had 13.26 million people living in it as of December, 2010, which is 18% of Turkey's population and the 3rd largest metropolitan area in Europe after London and...

, continuing on his work as a publicist and establishing the Turkic Society. In 1909, he returned to Elisavetpol to work at a its city council.

In 1917, Yusifbeyli established the National Party of Turkic Federalists in Ganja, with the main goal of federalism in Russian empire. In July 1917, the party joined the Musavat Muslim Democrat Party of Mammad Emin Rasulzade, and Yusifbeyli became Musavat's regional chair in Ganja.

Political career

When the short-lived Transcaucasian Democratic Federative Republic

Transcaucasian Democratic Federative Republic

The Transcaucasian Democratic Federative Republic , was a short-lived state composed of the modern-day countries of Armenia, Azerbaijan, and Georgia in the South Caucasus.-...

 was established on February 10, 1918, N. Yusifbeyli became its Minister of Education. On May 28, 1918, when 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...

 (ADR) was proclaimed, N. Yusifbeyli again held the cabinet post of Minister of Education in ADR government. From March 1919 till March 1920, he was the Prime Minister of Azerbaijan, in parallel, also holding the post of the Minister of Interior from March till December 1919.

After the Bolshevik

Bolshevik

The Bolsheviks, originally also Bolshevists , derived from bol'shinstvo, "majority") were a faction of the Marxist Russian Social Democratic Labour Party which split apart from the Menshevik faction at the Second Party Congress in 1903....

invasion of Azerbaijan and fall of ADR in April 1920, N. Yusifbeyli escaped from Baku but was murdered on May 31, 1920.