Today is the 102nd anniversary of the establishment of the Azerbaijani Border Guard.
The history of each state is also the history of its borders, the report says. The State Border Service (SBS) maintains and develops the traditions of national border protection, respects the past, looks to the future with confidence, and is proud of the present.
After the establishment of the Azerbaijan Democratic Republic, several power structures of the country, including the Border Troops, started to operate within the Military Ministry, which was established by the national government's decision in 1919. During the Soviet era, the Border Service functioned as a structure of the State Security Committee.
The national leader Heydar Aliyev declared August 18, 2000, as a professional holiday of border guards. For this reason, all the processes from the hoisting of our tricolor flag in the Armed Forces for the first time on August 22, 1992, in the Nakhchivan Border Detachment, the establishment of the necessary infrastructure on our borders to the establishment of the State Border Service are associated with the Great Leader.
In recent years, as a result of the attention and care of President, Supreme Commander-in-Chief Ilham Aliyev, the material and technical base of the State Border Service has been strengthened, and new border detachments and outposts have been established. Protection of Azerbaijan's borders by air, water, and land is fully ensured.
The establishment of the Academy of the State Border Guard Service by an order signed by the President of the Republic of Azerbaijan on June 12, 2007, has played a significant role in improving the border guard system. On September 14, 2008, the first cadets of the Academy took an oath of allegiance to the Motherland and the state and began training.
Heydar Aliyev's decisions to form the Border Troops proved that Azerbaijan is able to protect its borders independently. The Decree of the Great Leader on the establishment of the State Border Service in 2002 once again demonstrated the special importance of reliable protection of borders for Azerbaijan.
After regaining independence, the strengthening of national sovereignty, the organization of reliable protection of the state border, the determination of state borders with neighboring countries have become one of the priorities of state policy. The national border strategy, founded by great leader Heydar Aliyev and successfully continued today by President of the Republic of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev, has established the conceptual foundations of border policy and identified tasks for border protection.
For example, the first border marker on the state border of the Republic of Azerbaijan with the Russian Federation was installed on February 22, 2018, in the village of Zukhul, Gusar district. This has gone down in history as one of the most significant events in the history of Azerbaijan's Border Guard.
The main purpose of the State Border Service of Azerbaijan is to ensure the inviolability of state borders. The protection of our state borders is the greatest goal and the most important mission of the Azerbaijani border guard. Every border guard officer, sergeant, soldier, and sailor, who has repeatedly demonstrated his loyalty to the ideas of Heydar Aliyev, statehood, and the people, vigilantly guards the state borders of our independent country day and night.
The fulfillment of this sacred task by our border guards at the highest level is always appreciated by the President of the Republic of Azerbaijan, Supreme Commander-in-Chief Ilham Aliyev.