It has been one hundred years since the First Turcological Congress was held in Baku, from February 26 to March 6, 1926. Both during the days of the congress and in the following years, hundreds of articles and dozens of books on the topic were published not only in Azerbaijan but also in the former Soviet Union, Turkey, Iran, and other countries. The congress was widely discussed on radio and television, highlighting the care and attention given to the cultural development of Turkic peoples. As they say, in articles, programs, and studies, the visible aspects of the congress were brought to the forefront.
The members of the First Turcological Congress were accused of nationalism and anti-Soviet propaganda, labeled as "enemies of the people," and executed in 1937, which led to the true nature of the events remaining in obscurity.
After the collapse of the Soviet Union, some previously secret archives were opened, and researchers have tried to uncover the true objectives of the colonial authorities. Some of the new-generation researchers have suggested that the Soviet secret services facilitated the organization of the First Turcological Congress in order to identify nationalist and patriotic individuals and eliminate them.
By carefully examining the history of the past 200 years, it becomes clear that the First Turcological Congress was not held solely to eliminate the intellectuals of the Turkic peoples. This congress was part of the assimilation policy of the Russian colonizers. During the Tsarist era, secret and subtle measures were implemented to Christianize and assimilate the peoples under Russian rule. Since the Soviet Union was based on an atheistic ideology and had promised to liberate the peoples who were under Tsarist rule, it changed the form of the assimilation policy. After dividing these people into small groups, it planned to erase their language, culture, and history and to Russify them.
Documents from the archives of the Azerbaijan Communist Party and the Azerbaijan National Security Service show that arrests began two days after the congress, as there were sufficient KGB agents and informants present. The first people arrested were not the scientists and politicians who had participated in the congress, but members of the technical staff. Thus, on March 8, the scientific secretary of the congress, Ali Yusifzada-one of the young people sent abroad by the Azerbaijan Democratic Republic to study at the École Nationale d’Administration in France and who had returned to the country—was interrogated, along with Ahmed Hajinski and Dadash Hasanov. They were questioned for nearly three months. The investigators were mostly interested in conversations that took place outside the congress and in the people who participated in them. Repression and pressure began against those whose names were mentioned during the initial investigation, and by 1937, many of them living in the Soviet Union had been executed.