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 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 Azerbaijani Popular Front (APF) was established in June 1989. The adoption of the Constitutional Act on the 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. Most deputies of APF were elected in Supreme Council in elections held in 1990 and established the Democratic Bloc faction.
The restoration of state independence of Azerbaijan was declared on October 18, 1991. The Popular Front came to power in May 1992. 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 in 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.
This year, for the first time, the 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. During the 44-day war, settlements were liberated every day, and the glorious flag of Azerbaijan was hoisted on those lands. At present, our flag is flying in all the liberated lands.