Azerbaijan`s Republic Day in focus of Pakistani media

Pakistan`s English-language “Daily Times” newspaper published an article by Dashgin Shikarov, Azerbaijan`s Ambassador to this country entitled “May 28: The Republic Day of Azerbaijan”.
The article says: “Under the slogan of struggle against the counter-revolutionaries in March 1918, the Baku Commune of Armenians and Bolsheviks decided to completely eliminate the Azerbaijanis in Baku province. The crimes committed by Armenians on those days were engraved on the memory of the Azerbaijanis forever.

The Turkish troops united with Azerbaijani forces in Ganja. Between August-March, the Islamic Caucasian Army launched an attack on Baku and on September 15, 1918, Baku was liberated.
The capital of Azerbaijan Democratic Republic moved from Ganja to Baku and on November 16, 1918, the Azerbaijan National Council resumed its function.

On January 11, 1920, the Supreme Council of the Paris Peace Conference unanimously resolved to recognize de facto the independence of Azerbaijan. On January 19, the Azerbaijani mission received an invitation to the Supreme Council of the Paris Peace Conference. Despite the lack of any previous experience in statecraft, the leadership of the ADR managed to create a well-operated state machine, establishing relations with more than 20 countries of the world, including Turkey, the US, Persia, Belgium, Holland, Greece, Denmark, Italy, France, Switzerland, UK, Poland etc.

The government established an extraordinary investigation commission to scrutinize the act of genocide of Azerbaijanis by Armenians, adopted the official state symbols and regulation on Azerbaijani citizenship, and recognized the equality of men and women. The separation of legislative, executive and judicial powers was also confirmed.

Public education was among the primary concerns of the government. Roughly half of the schools switched to use Azerbaijani language, which became a compulsory subject. Another essential step was establishment of the Baku University on September 1, 1919. A number of schools were opened. Hundreds of young students received government scholarships to study in leading European universities.

The Baku-Batum oil pipeline was restored in 1919 to provide monetary influx into the country. To revitalise the local commerce, the government issued a decree on free trade and gave a rebirth to the merchant fleet. The Caspian fleet of Azerbaijan was established in summer of 1919”.
 

/AzerTAc/