Today is the National Revival Day of Azerbaijan, Report informs.
The holiday was declared on November 17, 1992, and is related to the national liberation movement that started in Baku in November–December 1988.
At that time, the policy of the Soviet leadership over the issue of Nagorno-Karabakh resulted in an anti-Soviet movement. On November 17, 1988, people gathered in the city's main square, Azadlig (Liberty, formerly Lenin), and protested against Moscow's policy. Millions of people opposed the policy. Although Soviet troops broke up the rallies in early December, Moscow failed to stop the national liberation movement of the Azerbaijani people.
The adoption of the Constitutional Act on sovereignty by the Supreme Council in September irritated Moscow's leadership, and they sent military troops to Azerbaijan on January 19 and 20, 1990. Heavy equipment and firearms were used against the protesters. Hundreds of protesters and civilians were severely killed. However, it only accelerated the liberation movement.
The restoration of state independence of Azerbaijan was declared on October 18, 1991. In a short period, Soviet troops withdrew from Azerbaijan.
On November 17, 1990, the first session of the Supreme Soviet of the Nakhchivan Autonomous Republic with a new composition was held. The words "Soviet" and "socialist" were removed from the name of the autonomous republic. At a time when the empire had not yet been erased from the stage of history, the removal of the words "Soviet" and "socialist" from the name of Nakhchivan was a tremendous historic step on the path to gaining our independence. Thus, national leader Heydar Aliyev took the first significant step towards the revival of our national statehood. The issue of state symbols of the autonomous republic was also discussed at the historic session chaired by national leader Heydar Aliyev. After the discussion of people's deputies, a proposal was made to adopt the tricolor flag as a state symbol. The session, which decided to restore the tricolor flag of the Azerbaijan Democratic Republic, filed a petition to the Supreme Soviet of Azerbaijan to adopt it as the state flag. Thus, it was the beginning of the historical path from national revival to national progress.
It has already been the third year that National Revival Day is celebrated with the fully restored territorial integrity of Azerbaijan. As a result of counter-offensive operations carried out by the Azerbaijani Army on September 27 last year, our lands, which had been under enemy occupation for many years, were liberated.
On September 19 of this year, local anti-terrorist measures were launched in the region in order to ensure the provisions of the Trilateral Declaration, prevent large-scale provocations in the Karabakh economic region, disarm and withdraw the Armenian armed forces units from our territories, neutralize their military infrastructure, ensure the safety of civilians returning to the liberated territories and the civil workers and military personnel involved in the reconstruction work, and restore the constitutional structure of the Republic of Azerbaijan.
During the measures that lasted for a little more than 23 hours, the positions of the Armenian armed forces on the front line and in-depth and long-term firing points, as well as combat vehicles and military objects, were destroyed by the use of high-precision weapons. The enemy raised a white flag. With this, the constitutional structure was restored in all territories of Azerbaijan.