Independence Day also known as 'State Sovereignty Day', is celebrated on October 18th, on the anniversary of the day in 1991 when Azerbaijan left the USSR.
This day is essentially the second of two independence days celebrated in Azerbaijan. The first is Republic day which marks the establishment of the Democratic Republic of Azerbaijan on May 28th 1918. This republic only lasted two years before Azerbaijan became part of the Soviet Union.
Perestroika (social and economic reform) spread across the Soviet Union in 1991, and many of the nations that were part of it declared their independence from the USSR.
When Parliament passed the Declaration on the State Independence of the Republic of Azerbaijan on August 30, 1991, it made it obvious that Azerbaijan wanted to be an independent country again.
The Supreme Council of the Republic of Azerbaijan authorised and accepted the constitutional act "On the State Independence of the Republic of Azerbaijan" on October 18, 1991.
After Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia, Georgia, and Armenia, Azerbaijan became the sixth country to leave the Soviet Union.
On December 29, 1991, a countrywide vote confirmed the act of independence. That was the day the Soviet Union formally ended.
