The Musavat (Equality) party was founded in 1911 in Baku by the journalist Muhammad Amin Rasulzade.

The party adopted a light blue flag covered by 45 crescents and stars (the crescent pointed towards the hoist), in seven lines of 6,7,6,7,6,7,6 white crescent and stars. Then the party adopted a new flag, horizontally divided blue, red and green with a white crescent and star in the center, that was similar to the first national flag.

Azerbaijan underwent a Turkic cultural revival in the second half of the 19th century and in 1875 the Baku newspaper Akinci became the first Turkic language publication in the Russian dominated world and spread pan-Turkic ideas. The newspaper was closed by the Russian authorities. However, similar publications subsequently appeared and a number of Azeris, such as Huseyinzade Ali Bey (Turan) and Ahmed Agaoglu were prominent in pan-Turkish circles advocating unity of all Turks within a single state. This movement saw the foundation of the Musavat (‘Equality’) party in 1911 in Baku, similar to the Young Turks then in power in the Ottoman Empire, in which the idea of creating a single Turkish/Turkic Muslim state was strong.

"Especially tragic was March 23, 1920 when the Turkish-Azeri troops burnt and sacked the Armenian part of Shushi which occupied more than half of the town’s territory. Within three days the number of the town’s population decreased by 65%. 30,000 of the 47,000 Armenian population of Shushi became victims of the Turkish-Musavat band units." [see: http://nkr.am/eng/history/shushi.htm ]

"There is nothing impossible in the life of nations. Nations which are impelled and led by intellectuals of a certain principle and purpose, will succeed in everything with time.

Should it be necessary, the ultimate purpose is kept secret, and the goals are revealed as purpose. Musavat is a Turkish political party. It is possible that, by covering up its first goal, it presents its primary purpose as its mission. It has edited its true design, based only on that first goal, and determined its political purpose accordingly. ...Therefore, Upper Azerbaijan will first secure its independence and then ally itself with Turkey...In that instance, their efforts are in agreement with outs."

Ali Haydar Emin
(1923 Septemeber)

"Isa Gambar, who is the chairman of the Musavat Party, stated that a war with Karabagh was the only way to solve the Karabagh conflict." [Armenian Action, Country Reports-Karabagh, March 2001, Vol.22 No.3(73)]

"The widely acknowledged real winner of the election, Isa Gambar, is currently under house arrest. His Musavat party name means equality, but represents no progressive alternative to an Aliyev-style kleptocracy. The only equality Gambar demands is of access to Azeri oil riches for himself and his clique." [WSWS: AZERBAIJANI PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION FIXED WITH THE APPROVAL OF BUSH AND PUTIN, By Simon Whelan -- 30 October 2003]

I’m of the thinking that as long as there is such a party called Musavat and international moderators are trying to get us to agree on solutions, we really have to remember Ali Haydar Emin’s words of what their true purpose is and if said purpose and the solutions being recommended threaten the security of our people and nation?