[Congressional Record Volume 156, Number 83 (Friday, May 28, 2010)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E964]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                        AZERBAIJAN REPUBLIC DAY

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                          HON. LYNN C. WOOLSEY

                             of california

                    in the house of representatives

                         Thursday, May 27, 2010

  Ms. WOOLSEY. Madam Speaker, I rise to honor the people of the 
Republic of Azerbaijan as they prepare to celebrate Republic Day on May 
28.
  Azerbaijan's Republic Day commemorates the day that this nation, 
located on the shores of the Caspian Sea, south of Russia and north of 
Iran, declared its independence from the Russian Empire in 1918, as the 
first Muslim democracy.
  The new democracy granted women the right to vote in 1919, a year 
before the 19th Amendment was passed in the United States granting U.S. 
women that right.
  Their independence was tragically short, as the Soviet Union invaded 
the tiny nation in 1920--altering Azerbaijan's dream of democracy in 
the 20th Century. That dream reemerged in 1991 when the brutal Soviet 
regime finally passed to the dustbin of history, and Azerbaijan 
declared its independence yet again.
  My congratulations to the people of Azerbaijan: congratulations on 
the anniversary of Republic Day, and for your continued efforts and 
commitment to build a strong democracy in the critically important 
region of the South Caucasus.

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