Karabakh is one of the most ancient regions of not only Azerbaijan but also the entire world. The site of the most ancient human beings was found in the Azykh cave of this region. It proves Azerbaijan to be one of the cradles of the mankind along with Karabakh, the Mediterranean Sea basin and East Africa. The researcher of the Azykh cave, Azerbaijani scientist M.Guseynov wrote: "River stone instruments discovered in the Azykh cave are close to those of the Orduvay culture of East Africa. At the same time the instruments were prepared in different ways thus making it possible to single out the Guruchay culture composed of the labor instruments found in the lower layers of the Azykh cave…The Guruchay culture can be dated back to 1 million 200 thousand years ago".
KARABAKH SINCE ANCIENT TIMES UP TO THE PERIOD OF KHANATES
Karabakh is one of the ancient regions of Azerbaijan. The name of this inseparable part of Azerbaijan consists of two different Azerbaijani words: "gara" (black, big) and "bag" (garden, land). The combination of these two words is as ancient as the nation of Azerbaijan. The association of these two combined words with the definite part of Azerbaijan in every part of the world is an oracle.
ETYMOLOGY, TERRITORY AND BORDERS
The Azerbaijan Democratic Republic, also known as the Azerbaijan People's Republic, was the first secular democratic republic in the Turkic and Muslim worlds. The ADR was founded by the Azerbaijani National Council in Tiflis on 28 May 1918 after the collapse of the Transcaucasian Democratic Federative Republic, and ceased to exist on April 28, 1920. Its established borders were with Russia to the north, the Democratic Republic of Georgia to the north-west, the Republic of Armenia to the west, and Iran to the south. It had a population of around 3 million. Ganja was the temporary capital of the Republic as Baku was under Bolshevik control. The name of "Azerbaijan" which the leading Musavat party adopted, for political reasons, was, prior to the establishment of the Azerbaijan Democratic Republic in 1918, exclusively used to identify the adjacent region of contemporary northwestern Iran.
KARABAKH IN PERIOD OF AZERBAIJAN DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC (1918-1920)
