It has been 108 years since Azerbaijan’s capital Baku was liberated from Bolshevik and Armenian gangs, but the Caucasian Islamic Army, led by a Turkish general, is still fondly remembered.

On Tuesday, people left flowers at a monument in Baku in memory of Nuri Pasha and the soldiers of the Caucasian Islamic Army. President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan issued a message commemorating the pasha and his heroes as he celebrated the liberation of Baku, "the capital of our friend, brother Azerbaijan,” from enemy occupation.

Türkiye and Azerbaijan trace the roots of their relations to a deal between newly independent Azerbaijan and the Ottoman Empire in June 1918. The agreement allowed Azerbaijan to request assistance from the Ottoman government against the threat of occupation by Armenian and Bolshevik gangs. The Ottoman government’s Minister of War, Enver Pasha, tasked his brother Nuri Pasha, an accomplished officer who had previously worked to mobilize Libyans against Italian and British forces. Nuri Pasha formed the Caucasian Islamic Army from several military units, including infantry and artillery regiments from the Palestinian front of World War I. It merged with a 1,000-strong reinforcement from the Azerbaijani Corps. After 30 hours of clashes, the 12,000-strong army liberated Baku on Sept. 15, 1918.

The army stayed in Baku for two months and left the city after the Ottomans lost the war and were forced to sign an armistice that required their military forces to withdraw to the remaining borders of the Ottoman Empire. Still, the Caucasian Islamic Army is viewed today as a key factor in ensuring Azerbaijan’s territorial integrity.

Speaking at a ceremony in Baku on the occasion, Turkish Ambassador Birol Akgün stated that the struggle the Islamic Army carried out together with its brothers and sisters in Azerbaijan was remembered with appreciation decades later. In remarks penned at the memorial dedicated to Nuri Pasha, Akgün recalled how the young commander became the architect of unshakable bonds between the two countries, "blossomed in the blood of martyrs.”

Akgün said the army’s victory was also an inspiration for the Shusha Declaration of 2021, signed by Erdoğan and Azerbaijan’s President Ilham Aliyev, which upgraded the alliance between the two countries, as well as for Karabakh’s liberation from Armenian occupation.