National Revival Day November 17

Every year on November 17, Azerbaijan celebrates an important holiday - the Day of National Revival, which is celebrated at the state level but is currently a working day. In 1988 on that day on Lenin Square (today Freedom Square) in Baku, the first indefinite mass meetings began to protest against the policies of the central authorities of the former Soviet Union regarding the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, for the first time there were calls for Azerbaijan to leave the USSR. Gradually, the rally grew into a powerful unprecedented political action. According to some estimates, in those days about half a million people gathered on the square.
For Azerbaijanis, the National Revival Day symbolizes the beginning of the national liberation movement, as a result of which Azerbaijan has become an independent state. In 1991, Azerbaijan became an independent state; in honor of this event, Independence Day was established in the Republic.