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World Azerbaijanis mark Solidarity Day

30 December 2015 21:00 (UTC +04:00)

December 31 has been marked as the Solidarity Day of the World Azerbaijanis for 24 years.

This holiday plays an important role in establishing contacts, unity and solidarity with the Azerbaijanis living in various countries. Celebrating the Solidarity Day of the World Azerbaijanis has become a need and moral necessity for the world Azerbaijanis. December 31 – Solidarity Day of the World Azerbaijanis is marked in over 70 countries of the world. Despite serious pressures of two totalitarian states, the Azerbaijanis living on both banks of the Araz River marched towards the border, broke the wires and for weeks voiced slogans calling for unity, this once more demonstrated the might of the Azerbaijanis as a nation. Solidarity Day is a symbol of this unity.

The foundation of the Solidarity Day of the World Azerbaijanis was laid in Nakhchivan late in December 1989, when USSR-Iran borders were knocked down. On December 16, 1991, chairman of Supreme Assembly of Nakhchivan Autonomous Republic Heydar Aliyev, taking into account the importance of the world Azerbaijanis’ uniting, declared December 31 as the Solidarity Day of the World Azerbaijanis.

In that year, on the insistence and recommendation of Azerbaijan’s National Council, President Ayaz Mutallibov declared December 31 as the Solidarity Day of the World Azerbaijanis. However, the Solidarity Day was celebrated on the state level for the first time in 1992 by the order of Azerbaijani President Abulfaz Elchibey who also initiated the destruction of borders between the USSR and Iran.