Between 1917 and 1919, Azerbaijan’s situation can be summarized as political turmoil and constant war. While I was studying that period I was, and still am, amazed at how the founding fathers would establish educational institutions as soon as the land was liberated. For instance, the last battles for Azerbaijan’s war of independence happened in Lankaran against the group of Reds first, then Whites. The Azerbaijani army under Habib Salimov liberated Lankaran in 1919, and the new general-governer of Lankaran Javad Melik-Yeqanov aided everyone who suffered from the war. The first reforms when the city recovered were the opening of reading clubs, libraries, and courses to eliminate mass illiteracy. 

Azerbaijan’s education policy is characterized by the historian Aydin Balayev as “nationalization," meaning that the former imperial language (Russian) was gradually and systematically removed from the education system and replaced by Azerbaijani Turkish. In a broader sense, nationalization meant the restoration of the positions of the Azerbaijani language lost during the colonial period and establishing its state language status in all spheres of public life without exception."

Under an Azerbaijan that is free, the discussions for reforming the alphabet were an avid part of the nationalization policy. Even before the establishment of the state, the Azerbaijani intelligentsia was engaged in reforming the alphabet. Mirza Fathali Akhundov (1812-1878) was the forefather of this idea not only in Azerbaijan but also in Turkiye and Iran. He believed that the Arab alphabet was incompatible with the Azerbaijani language. Although many examples can be provided, I will pinpoint on one of my favourite. A political caricature from Azerbaijan in the 1920s, where we see a man receiving a letter from his brother in a village. After opening the letter, where the text is in Latin script, he is happy. However in the second picture, the family is disturbed. As the reader, I know your first question will be: "What is the punchline?!". In the Azerbaijani language, "O,o"-"Ö,ö" and "U,u"-"Ü,ü" are differentiated. In Azerbaijani phonology, these are met very often. In Arabic script, these sounds were not quite differentiated and as a result, you could easily mistake words. In the case of the caricature, it is "Oldu" (had, or to be. But in this exist born) and "Öldü" (dead). By the way, in no way shape or form do we or the Azerbaijani intelligentsia yesterday believe the Arabic language or Arab script was inherently bad, the problem was that the Arab script and Azerbaijani phonology are ill-matched (no pun intended).

The government started its reform commission in 1919. Unfortunately, Azerbaijan's second occupation did not let the reform be conclusive. Rather, Soviet government sought to play around for its political interests.

By the spring of 1919, the Azerbaijani government successfully nationalized all elementary schools. 15 of the 23 secondary, or commonly known as highschools, in the country were also newly established.

However, the biggest problem came when establishing the first university in Azerbaijan. One of the well-known initiatives of the founding fathers was to send students to study in countries like France, Germany, Ukraine, and Turkey. They were sent to study in different fields. Most notable areas include philology, aviation, economics, mechanical engineering, medicine, mining, physics and mathematics. So far, everyone supported the idea of foreign universities as a nice way to build a professional middle class in Azerbaijan. However, the vanguard of the nation-building in Azerbaijan, the Musavat Party and mainly M. Rasulzade, were not satisfied with sending the students abroad to study. Most importantly, they had an agenda to open a university in Baku. However, the opposition parties, such as the Islamist "Ittihad" in the Milli Mejlis, did not agree with this idea.

The leader of the opposition in 1919, Dr.Qara Qarabeyov, insisted that the government should not rush with the idea of opening it's first university. The government's initial plan was to establish the university under Baku's Russian-speaking intellectuals as the teaching staff. However, Qarabeyov believed we could not trust our youth to Russian professors, who did not even believe that the Caucasus should be free at that time. Instead, Dr. Qarabeyov believed that the government should slowly and steadily invest in pedagogical institutes and schools, and proceed with then only establishing universities relying on our teachers. A bottom-to-top reform.

After hearing these arguments by the opposition, I was quite appalled and could not wait to read Rasulzade's response... And his retaliation speeches shocked me. To foreshadow all, education is universal. Usually, the phrase is "universal education" (access to education for everyone), but Rasulzadeh also believed education is itself universal! I know sounds weird but let's listen to what he says.

Rasulzadeh believed that higher education institutes were important as having a flag for a newly independent state. In his speech, he said that universities would be a great way to express the "national talent" of our people. Also, highlighting that it would be instrumental for the study and eradication of problems at the national level. Rasulzadeh expressed his dismay. He stated that the country did not have an educational teaching staff, but also he believed that students who knew how to write and read could only do so in Russian. However, because of the past colonial policy, people's literacy was low.

However, he believed that this was not a good reason not to open a university in Azerbaijan. He brought examples from Japan and Russia. If you did not know, the first university in Russia (1775) was teaching in Latin, and the first university in Japan (1877) was teaching in Dutch, German and English. So why did Japan not turn into a Dutch, German or English vassal? or why did Russia not turn into an Italian vassal? 

Because education is universal. Also, as soon as the reforms were done in educational staff, Russian and Japanese languages were used in their respective universities. Rasulzadeh believed Azerbaijan should take the same course, and not delay reforms in the educational front.

 In his speech, Rasuzladeh says: "There is no difference and no danger for us to learn a science that needs to be studied in China from a Chinese in the capital of Azerbaijan... We do not need to be afraid of the limitations of scientific forces."

He also adds: "There is no need to be afraid that the university will become a center of the Russian way of life, because the scientific institution will operate in a Turkic country, in a Turkic environment."

After these debates between Qarabeyov and Rasulzade, the university's establishment draft law was accepted by an overwhelming majority vote on September 1. On November 15 of the same year, the university was founded.
Let's also listen to how the education minister sided with Rasulzade. Rashid Khan Qaplanov says in his speech: "If we are an independent state, if we are determined to cease being a disorganized mass, and become a progressive nation that will play a worthy role in the cultural life of mankind, then we must realize the need to create a scientific center that will organize the spirit of our national body."

Rashid Khan believed that university would become: "a temple that provides national perspective"

He was not wrong. The aforementioned book by Aziz and Amiraslanov gave readers of Azerbaijani history a better understanding of how BSU was the hotbed of resistance against the second Russian colonialism.