DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE OF THE REPUBLIC OF THE UNION OF MOUNTAIN PEOPLES OF THE SOUTH CAUCASUS AND OF DAGHESTAN (GORSKAIA RESPUBLIKA)

Batumi, 11 May 1918

We, undersigned delegates of the Government of the Union of Mountain Peoples have the honour to bring the notice to all governments on the following:

The peoples of the Caucasus elected the National Assembly, which held the meetings in May-September 1917 and declared about establishment of the Union of the Caucasus Mountain Peoples and rendered the executive power to the current government we are the member of.

Based on the right of the peoples of former Empire to free establishment of the political future that is in force in Russia and recognized by the Petrograd Government, the Government of the Union of Caucasus Mountain Peoples decided to adopt the following Resolution:

1. The Union of Caucasus Mountain Peoples decides to secede from Russia and establish the independent state.

2. The territory of the new state will have the borders as follows: to the North – the same geographical frontier as it was for oblasts and provinces of Daghestan, Terek, Stavropol, Kuban and Chernomorskiy of the former Russian Empire; to the East – the Caspian Sea; the border to the South will be determined upon agreement with the Trans-Caucasus Government.

3. The undersigned Plenipotentiary delegates are entrusted with the task of informing all governments about this decision and make public the Declaration on establishing the independent state – Union of the Mountain Peoples of the Caucasus, thereof the undersigned members declare that henceforth the independent state of the Caucasus Union considers itself legally established.

Signed by: Abdul Medjid Chermoev, Gaidar Bammatov

(Union of the North Caucasus Mountain Peoples and Daghestan (1917-1918). Mountain Republic (1918-1920). Documents and Materials. Makhachkala, 1994, p. 121/in Russian)