Ismayil khan Ziyadkhanov deeply felt the pain of the Azerbaijanis who were subjected to the terrible massacres committed by the Armenian Dashnaks in 1905 and joined the political activity. He was one of the active members of the national independence movement of Azerbaijan and in 1906 was elected a deputy of the 1st State Duma of Yelizavetpol (Ganja) province. Ismayil Khan, a member of the Duma’s Muslim faction bureau and a member of the People’s Freedom Party, sharply criticized the tsarist policy of resettlement in the Duma, the genocides committed in the Caucasus, and the tragedies caused by the Armenian Dashnaks. On March 28, 1918, the militia groups led by Ismayil khan Ziyadkhanov, which had come to the defense of Shamakhi, liberated Shamakhi from the Russian and Armenian detachments in a short time. It should be noted that Ismayil khan Ziyadkhanov was appointed Commissioner for Military Affairs in the 2nd government of the Azerbaijan Democratic Republic, and then the First Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs.
