Day of Azerbaijani alphabet and language

The alphabet of the Azerbaijani language has been changed three times in ten years.For many years Azerbaijan was under the yoke of the empire. During this time, incurable wounds were inflicted on his language and alphabet. As you know, during the years of Azerbaijan being part of tsarist Russia, Azerbaijanis used the Arabic alphabet. But after Azerbaijan was occupied by the Red Empire in April 1920, the dictatorship of the Bolshevik Communists began to conduct cosmopolitan experiments with many customs and traditions of the Azerbaijani people, including their language and alphabet.

In Azerbaijan, Russian has actually acquired the status of the state language. By the end of the 20s of the last century, a reform of the alphabet was carried out, as a result of which a new Azerbaijani alphabet according to the Latin script was used instead of the Arabic alphabet. But not even ten years after the beginning of this reform, a mysterious decision was made to switch to the Cyrillic alphabet.

Thus, in about ten years, the alphabet of the Azerbaijani language was changed three times. In the history of mankind, no other nation has been subjected to such repression.

By the end of the twentieth century, when Azerbaijan gained state independence for the second time, the question of reforming the alphabet again became relevant. In fact, the transition to the new alphabet was planned from the first year of independence - 1991. But the realities of the time did not allow this process to be completed.

Publishing and printing work in the country was conducted in parallel in two alphabets, newspapers were published half in the new alphabet in the Latin script, and half in the Cyrillic alphabet. This led to serious confusion among the population. This situation continued until the middle of 2001, which gave rise to harmful rumors that the Azerbaijani people were not ready for the reform of the alphabet.

The situation changed radically with the issuance of the presidential decree of June 18, 2001. On that day, national leader Heydar Aliyev signed the Decree “On improving the use of the state language”, which emphasized the role and functions of the Azerbaijani language as an attribute of independent statehood.

According to the Decree, from August 1, 2001, the transition to the Azerbaijani alphabet to the Latin script was carried out everywhere. Thus, after about 63 years, our national alphabet in the Latin script has regained the right of citizenship.

On August 9, 2001, a new decree was issued by national leader Heydar Aliyev “On the establishment of the Day of the Azerbaijani alphabet and the Azerbaijani language”.

According to this Decree, the first of August is annually celebrated in our country as the Day of the Azerbaijani alphabet and the Azerbaijani language.