Every year on November 12, Azerbaijan celebrates the public holiday — Constitution Day of the Republic of Azerbaijan (Azerbaijan). Azərbaycan Respublikasının Konstitusiya günü).
On this day in 1995, the Constitution of Azerbaijan — was adopted through a general popular referendum, the fundamental law of an independent sovereign state.
The people of Azerbaijan, continuing the centuries-old traditions of their statehood, declared their intentions to defend the Republic of Azerbaijan, guarantee a democratic system, achieve the establishment of civil society and live in conditions of friendship, peace and security with other peoples.
The first Constitution of the Republic, as an independent state, was adopted on November 12, 1995 (and on the same day the first parliamentary elections were held in independent Azerbaijan). It was already the fourth for the republic. The first Constitution was adopted in Azerbaijan in 1921, after the establishment of Soviet power. Later, the Constitution was changed twice more to bring it into compliance with the Constitution of the USSR — in 1925 and 1978.
The 1995 Constitution laid the foundations for state building of the Republic of Azerbaijan. According to the Constitution, the Azerbaijani state — is a democratic, legal, secular, unitary republic. State power in the country is divided into executive, legislative and judicial. Executive power belongs to the president, who himself forms the government and only receives the consent of parliament to appoint the prime minister.
The text of the Constitution of the Republic of Azerbaijan consists of 5 sections, 12 chapters and 158 articles. The current Constitution of Azerbaijan was amended three times by popular vote (referendum) — in 2002, 2009 and 2016.
The decision to establish Constitution Day was made on February 6, 1996.
Until 2006, Constitution Day in Azerbaijan was a non-working holiday. However, at the end of 2006, the Azerbaijani parliament, although it retained Constitution Day as a public holiday, excluded it from the list of non-working days.