On May 28, Azerbaijan celebrates the Republic Day.
Report informs, the Republic day has been celebrating since 1990 in Azerbaijan.
We should note that the Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev has signed an order on the celebration of the 100th anniversary of Azerbaijan Democratic Republic. The order says that May 28,, 2018 will mark the centenary of Azerbaijan Democratic Republic, the first parliamentary republic in the East. The President instructed the Cabinet of Ministers to draw up a plan of action on the celebration of the centenary of Azerbaijan Democratic Republic.
Azerbaijan Democratic Republic is the first republic in the Muslim world – was proclaimed on this day 99 years ago. The Republic Day is an official state holiday and day off in the country.
Independence of Azerbaijan and other Caucasian republics has become possible after the end of the World War I and owing to political situation that weakened Russian empire. But Russian empire has caused serious confrontation between nations of the region to prevent their uniting.
Azerbaijan proclaimed its independence after collapse of the Transcaucasian Democratic Federative Republic on May 26, 1918 caused by confrontations between Georgian, Armenian and Azerbaijani factions in the Transcaucasian parliament. On May 26 Georgian Deputies dropped out of the Federation and proclaimed independence of Georgia and on May 27 members of the Muslim faction of the Transcaucasian parliament decided to proclaim independence of Azerbaijan and announced themselves the Interim National Council of Azerbaijan. At that session Mamed Emin Rasulzada was elected chairman of the National Council of Azerbaijan.
The Independence Declaration was adopted on May 28, 1918. The Declaration announced creation of the democratic parliament republic in Azerbaijan and it said that all nations living in Azerbaijan have sovereign rights and Azerbaijan is an independence state.
The National Council operated in Tbilisi for 18 days and then moved to Ganja. That time Baku was controlled by the Baku commune led by Stepan Shaumian. In September 1918 the Azerbaijan People’s Republic’s government moved to Baku after liberation of Baku from the Menshevik government “Dictatorship of Central Caspian” by the Caucasian Turkish Islamic army.
Azerbaijan Democratic Republic guaranteed rights and freedoms of all citizens, irrespective of their nationality and religion. For the first time in the Muslim world women had electoral rights and the Republic was recognized at the Versailles World Conference.
During 23 months Azerbaijan People’s Republic’s government adopted several laws, implemented political, military, legal and economic reforms and created the first university.
Even after Azerbaijan’s occupation by the bolshevist Russia, Azerbaijan’s statehood was preserved. The first Azerbaijan Democratic republic collapsed on April 28, 1920 as a result of invasion of the Red Army. Azerbaijan gained independence after the USSR collapse in 1991 and announced itself a successor of Azerbaijan Democratic Republic.
