“Despite the difficulties, occupation, and deprivations faced at various stages of history, no force has been able to shake our people’s determination for independence and statehood. Today, the Azerbaijani people possess their own independent state, and our territorial integrity and sovereignty, achieved at the cost of the blood of our heroic soldiers, officers, and martyrs, are the national wealth of our people.”
President of the Republic of Azerbaijan
İlham Əliyev
By the Decree of President Ilham Aliyev dated September 19, 2024, September 20 was established as the Day of State Sovereignty of Azerbaijan. State Sovereignty Day is the foundation of Azerbaijan’s existence and institutional sustainability. It is a symbol of the determined national struggle and the victory achieved by our country, which restored its independence in 1991, in ensuring its territorial integrity and sovereignty. Celebrated for the first time in 2025, this historic day is becoming one of the most significant dates in our state calendar.
It is not granted to every nation to take ownership of its political and cultural history and destiny, to build and develop its independent state, and to take its rightful place in the world community. Despite the political, economic, and military difficulties and occupations encountered throughout its centuries-old history, the Azerbaijani people have continued their desire and struggle for independence and statehood for centuries, and no force has been able to break their unwavering determination.
Although our people, who built their statehood after passing through severe historical trials, restored their state independence at the end of the last century, they faced the threat of losing their national independence due to the poor governance of incompetent and accidental people who had seized power. The return of our savior, National Leader Heydar Aliyev, from Nakhchivan to Baku in such a fateful and difficult situation ensured the eternal irreversibility of our independence.
The Great Leader devoted his entire life to the strengthening of our independence and the ensuring of state sovereignty, and worked tirelessly to end the aggressive policy of Armenia, which occupied Azerbaijan’s territories by grossly violating the norms of international law and the requirements of the UN Charter, and to ensure territorial integrity. At the same time, by building a strong state, he formed a modern and organized army and expanded Azerbaijan’s international relations, gaining reliable partners on a global scale. His determined foreign policy and perfect diplomatic course ensured that Azerbaijan’s territorial integrity and sovereignty were unequivocally supported by international organizations and countries of the world.
Heydar Aliyev conducted long and tense negotiations for the peaceful resolution of the war and the implementation of UN Security Council resolutions 822, 853, 874, and 884; alongside this, he developed exemplary army building to resolve the conflict by other means in case hopes for peace were exhausted. In all cases, he was firmly convinced that our lands would be liberated from the Armenian yoke. The Great Leader’s greatest belief was in the strong Army he created, the unwavering national solidarity of our people, and the fact that his political successor, whom he trusted as much as himself, Ilham Aliyev, was growing into a perfect commander capable of completing fateful tasks.
In his high office, President Ilham Aliyev fought for exactly 17 years against Armenia and its patrons for the restoration of territorial integrity, which was his greatest mission, and never retreated from his determined position.
The fact that the forces that came to power in Armenia in 2018 were not interested in resolving the conflict, rejected peace proposals, made statements about new territorial claims, and subsequently committed military provocations, resulted in Azerbaijan using its legitimate right to liberate its occupied lands.
Under the leadership of the Victorious Commander-in-Chief, President Ilham Aliyev, Azerbaijan, which ensured its territorial integrity, single-handedly fulfilled the UN Security Council resolutions that could not eliminate the 30-year occupation fact and restored justice.
Despite the heavy defeat it suffered on the political and battlefield during the 44-day Patriotic War, Armenia continued to support the terrorist regime and illegal armed groups still remaining in a small part of Karabakh, did not fulfill the obligations it undertook, and even resorted to new provocations, regularly violated the ceasefire, and seriously threatened security in the region.
In such a situation, the Armed Forces of the Republic of Azerbaijan, with the anti-terror operation launched on September 19, 2023, in order to ensure stability and peace in its sovereign territories, fulfilled all tasks with high professionalism within 23 hours and rooted out separatism once and for all.
Thus, the territorial integrity and sovereignty, which are the culmination point of the events that began with the restoration of Azerbaijan’s independence in 1991, as well as the constitutional order and geographical-administrative unity, were completed. The establishment of “State Sovereignty Day” by the Decree of President Ilham Aliyev dated September 19, 2024, was written into our modern history as a symbol of the struggle for independence.
Ramid Namazov
Milli Məclisin deputatı