February 21 is celebrated around the world as International Mother Language Day. In November 1999, at the initiative of the Ambassador of Bangladesh, UNESCO declared February 21 the International Mother Language Day.
International Mother Language Day commemorates the killing of four students on February 21, 1952, in Bengal, Bangladesh, who were fighting for their mother tongue to become their official language. Representatives of Bangladesh appealed to name February 21 as Mother Language Day as a sign of respect for the memory of those martyrs. The General Conference of UNESCO declared February 21 - International Mother Language Day and informed the member countries to hold events, conferences and seminars on the importance of the mother tongue in schools and universities on that day.
The International Mother Language Day, held annually to protect endangered languages around the world, reminds everybody of the right to feel the existence of their native language, to be proud of it, to preserve and develop it.
Language is the most important and powerful means of preserving and developing the material and spiritual heritage of every nation. Mother tongue plays an important role in enriching a person's spiritual world, broadening his worldview, getting a perfect education, and communicating with his compatriots. It is a crime to ban the mother tongue, which plays a major role in human evolution, under any pretext. International Mother Language Day calls on everyone to unite against this crime.
On the occasion of the International Mother Language Day, UNESCO Director-General Odre Azule addressed the world community. The appeal says that the International Mother Language Day is an excellent opportunity to celebrate the diversity and multilingualism, which is an invaluable asset of mankind.
The comprehensive development of the native language in our country, its transformation into a working language, finding its way into the system of international relations is the result of the well-thought-out policy of the great leader Heydar Aliyev, a great connoisseur of our language. The foundation of this policy was laid in 1970: Heydar Aliyev spoke in the Azerbaijani language on the 50th anniversary of the Azerbaijan State University (now Baku State University). Not long ago, this language also paved the way for events of state importance. The adoption of the Azerbaijani language as the state language in the 1978 Constitution of the Azerbaijan SSR was an important event for that period.
The adoption of the Law "On the State Language in the Republic of Azerbaijan" on September 30, 2002 was another step towards the use of the Azerbaijani language as the state language, its application, protection and development, meeting the national and cultural self-defense needs of Azerbaijanis around the world. This document is one of the brightest examples of national leader Heydar Aliyev's inexhaustible love and care for our people and its language. At present, President Ilham Aliyev successfully continues these traditions
