Azerbaijani leader announced that the nation will celebrate Victory Day every year on Nov. 8, according to the country’s presidency on Thursday.
On Wednesday, President Ilham Aliyev declared Nov. 10, the day when Armenia accepted defeat and ended six weeks of fighting in the Karabakh region, as Victory Day.
“ATATÜRK IS DEAR AND RESPECTED BY THE AZERBAIJANIS”
However, taking into account that the Mustafa Kemal Atatürk’s death anniversary is commemorated in Turkey on Nov. 10, Aliyev decided to change the date of Victory Day into Nov. 8, when Shusha — known as the pearl of Karabakh — was liberated after the nearly three-decade-long Armenian occupation.
Azerbaijan’s national leader and late President Heydar Aliyev once said: “As much as Mustafa Kemal Ataturk is dear and respected by the Turks, he is also dear and respected by the Azerbaijanis.”
Meanwhile, Atatürk’s “the joy of Azerbaijan is our joy, sorrow is our sorrow” statement is also known to be inscribed in golden letters in the history of the Turkic world.
The liberation of Shusha was a triumph of the combat determination and played a decisive role in the fate of the second Nagorno-Karabakh war, or Patriotic War, and led to the recognition of defeat by the Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan, as well as the cessation of the hostilities between Baku and Yerevan.