Today is Diplomacy Day in Azerbaijan

Today marks the professional holiday of Azerbaijani diplomats.

As reported by BAKU.WS, 107 years have passed since the establishment of Azerbaijan's diplomatic service.

Considering the role of national diplomacy in the creation of the first democratic republic in the Muslim East and in the process of building an independent Azerbaijani state at the current stage, and also based on the fact that on July 9, 1919, the provisional instruction on the Secretariat of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Azerbaijan Democratic Republic was adopted, on August 24, 2007, President Ilham Aliyev signed a Decree on the annual celebration of the professional holiday of employees of Azerbaijan's diplomatic service bodies on July 9.

When determining the Day of Diplomacy, several proposals were considered, including establishing it on the day of signing the first international treaty of the Azerbaijan Democratic Republic with Ottoman Turkey, as well as on the day of de facto recognition of Azerbaijan's independence by the Entente states at the Paris Peace Conference.

However, ultimately it was decided that the basis for establishing the Day of Diplomacy would be specifically July 9, 1919, since the first official document found in the archives relating to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Azerbaijan Democratic Republic was the provisional instruction on the Secretariat of the MFA of the ADR, dated that day.

In 1919, when Azerbaijani diplomacy was taking its first steps, diplomatic missions of 16 foreign states operated in Baku, including the United States, Great Britain, France, Italy, Sweden, Switzerland, Belgium, Iran, Poland, and Ukraine.

Under conditions when there was a threat of Azerbaijan losing its independence and repeating the tragic fate of the Azerbaijan Democratic Republic, the great leader Heydar Aliyev, having deeply analyzed the country's recent and distant historical past, as well as the prevailing geopolitical realities, formulated a foreign policy strategy that primarily envisaged the clear definition of Azerbaijan's national interests, building good-neighborly and equal relations with neighboring states and the international community based on the principles of non-interference in internal affairs and mutually beneficial cooperation, as well as ensuring international political pressure on Armenia to eliminate the consequences of the occupation, and as the ultimate goal, the restoration and protection of the sovereignty, territorial integrity, and inviolability of Azerbaijan's state borders.

The foreign policy course of the great leader Heydar Aliyev is successfully continued today by President of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev.

Azerbaijan's victory in the Patriotic War, which began on September 27, 2020, was the result not only of military successes but also of effective diplomacy. The victory, inscribed in golden letters in world military history, was achieved both on the battlefield and at the negotiating table. In other words, having prevailed on the front, Azerbaijan dealt a crushing defeat to the adversary on the diplomatic front as well.