Azerbaijan celebrates Day of Azerbaijani Alphabet and Language

Baku. 1 August. REPORT.AZ/ Over the last 14 years  August 1 has been celebrated as a Day of Azerbaijani Alphabet and Language in the country. The decree to mark this day was signed by national leader of Azerbaijan Heydar Aliyev in August 9, 2001 with the decree ''On establishment of the day of Azerbaijani alphabet and Azerbaijani language'', under which 1 August is celebrated as the Day of Azerbaijani Alphabet and Azerbaijani language every year, Report informs.

On June 18, 2001, the national leader Heydar Aliyev signed a decree "On improvement of the State Language", highlighting the role and functions of the Azerbaijani language as an attribute of an independent State. This marked a widespread transition to the Azerbaijani alphabet based on Latin script.

Publishing and printing work in the country was carried out on two alphabets: the newspapers were published by half in the new alphabet based on the Latin script, half - in the Cyrillic alphabet, which created confusion.

Changes were made to the alphabet of the Azerbaijani language three times in the 20th century. The history knows no other similar cases.

Arab alphabet was used in Azerbaijan till 1929. The alphabet reform implemented in late 1920s replaced the Arab alphabet with a new Azerbaijani alphabet based on Latin script.

But less than ten years from the start of the reform, a new decision was made to use the Cyrillic alphabet. However, Azerbaijan’s regaining of the independence in early 1990s marked a gradual transition to the Latin alphabet which is used nowadays.