On September 19, President Ilham Aliyev signed the Order “On establishing the Day of State Sovereignty in the Republic of Azerbaijan”. According to the decree, every year September 20 will be celebrated as the Day of State Sovereignty in Azerbaijan.
The document emphasized that starting from the early 1990s, the Republic of Armenia grossly violated the requirements of the Charter of the United Nations and implemented a policy of aggression against Azerbaijan and occupied 20 percent of the internationally recognized territory of our country using military force.
It was noted that ethnic cleansing was carried out against Azerbaijanis in Armenia and the occupied lands of Azerbaijan, as a result of crimes against humanity and war crimes, our cities and villages were destroyed, the natural resources of our country were looted, and the Khojaly genocide, one of the most terrible tragedies of our time, was committed.
As a result of the 44-day Patriotic War, which began on September 27, 2020, in response to Armenia’s new invasion plans, the next attempt at military aggression and successive provocations, the Armed Forces of Azerbaijan defeated the Armenian army and won a historic victory. Azerbaijan freed its land from 30 years of occupation, restored its territorial integrity and fulfilled the resolutions of the UN Security Council.
On September 19, 2023, an anti-terrorist operation was launched in order to prevent large-scale provocations committed in the Karabakh economic region of Azerbaijan, to disarm and remove the remnants of the Armenian armed forces from our lands, and to restore the constitutional structure of Azerbaijan in those areas. As a result of the operation, which lasted only 23 hours and ended on September 20, the brave Azerbaijani Army fulfilled all the tasks set before it with high professionalism.
Thus, as a result of the next brilliant Victory, the sovereignty of Azerbaijan was fully restored. Thanks to the glorious Victory, which is of exceptional importance in the life of the Azerbaijani people, today the State Flag of Azerbaijan flies majestically in all territories where our sovereignty is established.
For each nation, owning its own destiny, creating and developing its independent state is its greatest achievement. Despite the difficulties, occupation, deprivations faced at various stages of history, no force has been able to shake the determination of independence and statehood of our people. Today, the people of Azerbaijan have their own independent state, our territorial integrity and sovereignty obtained at the expense of the blood of our heroic soldiers and officers, our martyrs, is the national wealth of our people.