Declaration of Independence of Azerbaijan

Declaration of Independence of Azerbaijan
Original text of the Declaration in Azerbaijani
Created	28 May 1918
Location	National Museum of History of Azerbaijan
Signatories	Hasan bey Aghayev, Fatali Khan Khoyski, Nasib bey Yusifbeyli, Jamo bey Hajinski, Shafi bey Rustambeyli [az], Nariman bey Narimanbeyov, Javad bey Malik-Yeganov, Mustafa Mahmudov
Purpose	To announce the independence of Azerbaijan

The Declaration of Independence of Azerbaijan (Azerbaijani: آذربایجاننݣ استقلال بیاننامه‌سی, Azərbaycanın İstiqlal Bəyannaməsi) is the pronouncement adopted by the Azerbaijani National Council meeting in Tiflis on 28 May 1918, declaring the independence of the Azerbaijan Democratic Republic.

After a century of living under Russian imperial rule and later being influenced by European ideas of nationalism, Azerbaijanis formed their own national identity and national movements. Following the fall of the Tsarist government in Russia as a result of the October Revolution, the Caucasian peoples, including Azerbaijanis, formed a Special Committee, which was followed by a Commissariat and, finally, the independent Transcaucasian Democratic Federative Republic. The new federation lasted only six weeks before Georgia declared its independence from it. Armenia and Azerbaijan followed two days later, on 28 May 1918.

The Azerbaijan Democratic Republic only lasted 23 months and collapsed in April 1920 after the Soviet invasion of Azerbaijan. The Azerbaijan Soviet Socialist Republic was formed in its place as part of the Soviet Union. After the collapse of the USSR on 18 October 1991, the Parliament of Azerbaijan, relying on the Declaration of Independence of 1918, adopted the Constitutional Act "On the State Independence of the Republic of Azerbaijan".

The original copies of the Declaration of Independence, written in the Arabic script of the Azerbaijani language and French are kept in the National Museum of History of Azerbaijan in Baku. The day of the adoption of the Declaration—28 May—is celebrated as the Independence Day in Azerbaijan and is considered a non-working day.