Talk:Declaration of Independence of Azerbaijan/GA1

GA Review

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Reviewer: Kaiser matias (talk · contribs) 16:40, 28 May 2022 (UTC)

I'll review this article. Kaiser matias (talk) 16:40, 28 May 2022 (UTC)

Comments

• "The Azerbaijan SSR was formed in its place as part of the Soviet Union." Spell out "SSR" here, as it's the first use of it in the article.

• Done.

• I would also suggest a paragraph in the lead about why Azerbaijan declared independence in 1918. Explain a few of the factors that led to this.

• Done.

• "Following the October Revolution, which brought Bolsheviks into power on 7 November 1917..." Note if this is Old Style of New Style dates; I know this is New Style, but it's confusing for readers to see "October Revolution" and a date in November.

• Done.

• "The Provisional Government established a Special Committee to administer the region until Russian order was restored..." Provisional Government of what? Be clear, and also is good to link the respective article: Russian Provisional Government.

• Done.

• "On 20 March, Ottoman delegates proposed that the Seim could return to negotiations only if they declared independence." This is the first mention of negotiations between the Ottoman Empire and the Seim. Ensure to clarify the prior negotiations elsewhere.

• Done.

• "However, independence did not halt Ottoman advances and on 26 May 1918, Georgia declared its independence, effectively ending the Transcaucasian Democratic Federative Republic only six weeks after it was established." This is a very short paragraph, but I think this can be resolved: break off the preceding paragraph at "The decision to move forward..." and add this one-sentence paragraph to that, making two decent-sized paragraphs.

• Done.

• "The following issues were on the agenda of the meeting..." This summary sentence should be removed, as the body of the section does a good enough job to not be needing a summary like this.

• Done.

• "Then, Nasib bey Yusifbeyli read telegrams and letters sent from Mammad Amin Rasulzade from Batumi for the information of the Council members." No citation, and it should have more detail about the letters themselves, if possible. It's also a one-sentence paragraph, which should be avoided.

• Removed the sentence as I couldn't find a source for it.

• "...with 24 votes and two abstentions..." Avoid mixing numerals and written numbers (I'd write 24 out).

• Done.

• "After an hour-long break, Khoyski announced the composition of the interim government consisting of the following people..." The following list would be better served in a table; something like this may be good to follow.

• Done.

• I believe one of the citations for the declaration is for the Azerbaijani text; if so move it to there for a better reference.

• Both citations are for the English text.

• "The purpose of the delegation headed by Alimardan bey Topchubashov to Paris was to achieve de facto recognition of Azerbaijan as a young independent state." This is worded oddly, and can be simplified: "Headed by Alimardan bey Topchubashov, the delegation went to Paris with the purpose to gain de facto recognition of Azerbaijan as an independent state."

• Done.

• "The delegation carried with them a copy of the Declaration of Independence in Azerbaijani and a translation into French as the main document." Again, oddly written. "The delegation brought a copy of the Declaration of Independence, both in the original Azerbaijani and a French translation."

• Done.

• "As a result of the delegation's works, on 11 January 1920, the Supreme Council of the Paris Peace Conference recognized Azerbaijan as a de facto independent state." One more: "The delegation was successful, and on 11 January 1920 the Supreme Council of the Paris Peace Conference recognized Azerbaijan as a de facto independent state."

• Done.

• "However, after the Soviet occupation of Azerbaijan on 28 April 1920, the government of the Azerbaijan Democratic Republic was overthrown and the members of the delegation were forced to stay in France." I'd clear this up a bit: "However the Bolsheviks/Red Army (note: it was not the Soviets yet; not until 1921) invaded Azerbaijan on 27 April 1920, and the Azerbaijan Democratic Republic was dissolved the next day, so the delegation remained in France."

• Done.

• "The copies of the Declaration of Independence that they took with them, were soon lost." This should start the next paragraph, which I would also re-organize: note the copies were lost, then state they were later found in London and donated in 2014.

• Done.

• "The adoption of the Declaration of Independence of Azerbaijan made the Azerbaijan Democratic Republic the first republic in the Muslim World." I also understand that the Crimean People's Republic can claim this as well, so perhaps a note should be made to that extent?

• This was discussed in the past in the talk page of Azerbaijan Democratic Republic article (Talk:Azerbaijan Democratic Republic#First or third?) and the consensus was to add "successful" to the description. I've done this in this article as well.

• Literature section: organize alphabetically.

• Done.

The article is well-done, and really comprehensive. I would however advise seeing about adding some more detail in the background section about Azerbaijan-specific things. It mentions the events from 1917 onwards, but doesn't note that the Azerbaijani identity was a relatively recent creation (Swietochowski argues it really only came into play since 1905, for example). I think it would be good to include a little bit on that to give some context to why Azerbaijan would want to become independent, as it seems kind of sudden otherwise. That said, it's great to see some solid Azerbaijan-related articles here, and more on the South Caucasus as a whole. Kaiser matias (talk) 23:52, 30 May 2022 (UTC)

Thank you for your thorough review! I've addressed most of your concerns. The remaining points may take some time to implement as I will need to do some additional research. — Golden ^{call me maybe?} 08:40, 31 May 2022 (UTC)

@Kaiser matias: I've completed implementing all of your suggestions. Thank you once more for these excellent suggestions. — Golden ^{call me maybe?} 10:38, 4 June 2022 (UTC)

Well done, I'm happy to pass the article. Kaiser matias (talk) 17:05, 4 June 2022 (UTC)