The flag once raised will not fall

On May 28, Azerbaijan marks its main state holiday — Independence Day. On this day in 1918, the Azerbaijan Democratic Republic was proclaimed — the first parliamentary democratic republic in the Muslim East. And this is not merely an important historical date.

Too many political trends and vectors converged on that day. For its time, the ADR was a remarkably progressive state. Women received equal voting rights with men earlier than in the United States and, moreover, earlier than in many European countries. It had a multiparty and multinational parliament. The rights of citizens of the ADR were equal regardless of religion, race, or nationality — in the first half of the 20th century, this was an unheard-of step for many countries of “advanced democracy.” And the history of the ADR is eloquent proof of what Azerbaijan’s political and democratic traditions truly are — and that they were laid down decades before numerous grant-funded NGOs, the Soros Foundation, and others appeared on the scene.

For those born and educated in the USSR, this was forbidden memory. Even the epithet “independent” in relation to the ADR was discouraged. It was supposed to be called “bourgeois,” “Musavatist,” or something else — even Soviet propagandists understood that, despite all their efforts, the simple statement of the fact that Azerbaijan proclaimed its independence in 1918 would have an understandable effect on a broad audience. We were not supposed to know about the uprising in Ganja, about student and youth circles whose members dreamed of restoring Azerbaijan’s independence. But it was no longer possible to control information completely. That experience of independent statehood and parliamentary democracy was not forgotten. Because a banner once raised will not fall.

May 28 is also a warning. A harsh and therefore even more eloquent lesson that proclaiming independence is easier than preserving it. That from the moment independence is declared, the building of a state does not end — it only begins. We did not merely ask ourselves what our lives would have looked like if, in the spring of 1920, the ADR had survived. If the results of that first war for Karabakh had not been stolen from us, and if Western Zangezur and the Goycha mahals had remained part of Azerbaijan. If the “golden fund” of our intelligentsia had not been destroyed in the repressions. If our oil had worked for us from the very beginning, and if there had not been 70 years of colonial plunder. We drew conclusions. So that later, in the 1990s, when Azerbaijan’s newly restored independence was hanging by a thread, we could turn away from the abyss at the very last second. So that we would share our sovereignty with no one. So that, through gritted teeth, methodically, brick by brick, we could build a new Azerbaijan. So that we could win the war and liberate the formerly occupied lands.

And today, we meet our main state holiday in a different country. In an Azerbaijan that has joined the ranks of middle powers. At the initiative of our country, of our President Ilham Aliyev, the transport geography is changing, the Middle Corridor is being strengthened, the regional partnership of Azerbaijan, Georgia, and Türkiye is growing stronger, and the Organization of Turkic States is turning into a real and influential force. Azerbaijan’s experience in social governance and military development is now in demand in many countries around the world. And our independence is forever. Because a banner once raised will not fall.