In the face of Ottoman military superiority, the Georgian National Council decided that the only option was for Transcaucasia to declare itself an independent state. The idea was debated in the Seim on 22 April, with the Georgians leading the debate, noting that the Ottoman representatives had agreed to resume peace talks, so long as the Transcaucasus would meet them as an independent state. The choice to move forward was not unanimous initially: the Dashnaks felt that the best option at the time was to stop the Ottoman military's advance, though they were reluctant to give up so much territory, while the Musavats were still hesitant to fight fellow Muslims, but conceded that independence was the only way to ensure the region would not be divided by foreign states. The only major opposition came from the Socialist Revolutionary Party, whose member argued that the people of Transcaucasia did not support such an action. He also argued that the Musavats' claim that "conscience not fear" as the driving force was, in fact, "fear and not conscience". He concluded that they would all regret this act.