Azerbaijanis celebrate National Revival Day

Azerbaijanis celebrate today as National Revival Day, recalling the nationwide struggle that spawned the cross-country movement for regaining independence from the Soviet Union.

On the first days of 1988, Armenia started its evident attack against Azerbaijan. Based on the indifferent attitude of Moscow and particularly Mikhail Gorbachov, the head of the USSR, Armenians started to plan and implement mass deportation of Azerbaijanis from their ancestral lands in modern-day Armenia. The ethnic cleansing policy took place under the Armenian government's aegis.

More than 200,000 Azerbaijanis were deported from their homes, killed, and tortured by the Armenians. The brutalities prompted no reaction from Gorbachov and the Soviet Union's ruling elite.

In early February 1988, Armenians carried out revolts in the Karabakh region of Azerbaijan demanding separation and integration into Armenia's territory.

The people of Azerbaijan expressed their protest to the Soviet government. However, the Soviet rulers did not react to their call.

Eventually, people from across Azerbaijan flocked to the capital Baku and gathered in Azadlig Square (former Lenin Square) to hold rallies and evidently express their protest.

On November 17, 1988, a nationwide rally in Azerbaijan began at the Azadlig Square in protest of the anti-Azerbaijan policy of the Soviet government. People united for a massive movement for independence. However, the Soviet army dispersed the rally brutally by early December.

The heroic actions of Azerbaijanis were further recognised as a national movement and considered to be an important factor in the achievement of independence.

Shortly after regaining independence from the dissolved Soviet Union in 1991, the government of Azerbaijan designated November 17 as the Day of National Revival in 1992.