Believing that the usage of the Turkic language as the state language is one of the principal conditions for the sovereignty of the Republic of Azerbaijan, it shall take care of its application, preservation and development and shall encourage the Azerbaijanians residing abroad to get education in the native language and to meet their national and cultural requirements.

The present Law shall establish a legal status of the Turkic language on the territory of the Republic of Azerbaijan.

The present Law shall not govern the usage of any languages in private, unofficial relations.

Article 1. The Turkic language shall be the state language of the Republic of Azerbaijan. The work in all state bodies of the Republic of Azerbaijan shall be conducted in the Turkic language. The Turkic language as the state language of the Republic shall be applied in all spheres of political, economic, public, scientific and cultural life and it shall function as a means of interethnic communication on the territory of the Republic.

Representatives of other nationalities shall be encouraged and assisted to study the Turkic language.

Article 2. The legal status and sphere of application of the language in the Republic of Azerbaijan as well as the principles of the usage of languages of peoples residing on its territory shall be established by the supreme state authorities of the Republic of Azerbaijan.

Article 3. Citizens of the Republic of Azerbaijan shall be guaranteed the freedom to choose a language of teaching.

Nationalities and ethnic groups compactly residing on the territory of the Republic of Azerbaijan shall be granted the right to establish, by means of the state bodies of the Republic, pre-school institutions in the native language as well as general secondary schools or separate classes and groups in the native language at various educational institutions.

The study, as an obligatory discipline, of the Turkic language which is the state language of the Republic of Azerbaijan shall be provided in educational institutions with teaching in another language.

Article 4. Replies to suggestions, applications, and complaints of citizens of the Republic of Azerbaijan filed to state bodies, shall be in the state language of the Republic of Azerbaijan.

Article 5. The legal proceedings and notary actions shall be in the Turkic language. The participants in a case who do not know the language in which the proceedings are carried out shall be ensured the right to be acquainted with the materials of the case, to participate in the court proceedings through an interpreter as well as to make statements in the native language.

Article 6. Official documents identifying a person or information therein (passport, labour book, military card, school-leaving certificate, diploma, birth, marriage, death certificates etc.) shall be filled up in the Turkic language.

Article 7. Workers of the service sphere (trade, medical service, transport, customer service, long-distance communications etc. shall use in working hours the state language of the Republic of Azerbaijan.

The evasion from customer service under the pretext of lack of knowledge of the language shall be inadmissible.

Article 8. Sessions of the Supreme Soviet of the Republic of Azerbaijan shall be in the Turkic language. Peoples' deputies of other ethnicity in the Republic of Azerbaijan in case of lack of knowledge of the state language of the Republic of Azerbaijan, shall be granted the right to make statements in the other language.

The drafts of laws and of other legal acts submitted for consideration by the Supreme Soviet of the Republic of Azerbaijan, by its commissions shall be presented in the state language of the Republic of Azerbaijan.

Article 9. The laws and other legal acts adopted by the National Assembly of the Republic of Azerbaijan and by its commissions and by the President of the Republic of Azerbaijan, shall be published in the Turkic language.

Article 10. Official publications of acts of state authority and administration bodies of the Republic of Azerbaijan and of the autonomous republic of Nakhichevan, shall be issued in the state language of the Republic of Azerbaijan.

Article 11. The documentation related to elections of the President of the Republic of Azerbaijan, of the Supreme Soviet and local Soviets shall be prepared in the state language of the Republic of Azerbaijan and shall be submitted to the Central electoral commission in that language.

Article 12. The office work at the enterprises, institutions, and organizations being a state property of the Republic of Azerbaijan, shall be in the Turkic language.

The texts of letterheads, stamps and signboards with names of ministries, institutions, enterprises, organizations of the Republic of Azerbaijan and of autonomous republic of Nakhichevan shall be produced in the Turkic language.

Article 13. The Turkic language and the accepted international language shall be used in the operator's communications, documentation and reference information in order to ensure the safe and uninterrupted functioning of the energy and transport systems (principal railway, air, sea, pipe transport etc.).

Article 14. The state language of the Republic of Azerbaijan shall be used in the military forces, internal and border guard troops of the Republic of Azerbaijan.

Article 15. Besides the state language, other languages may be used in the mass media on the territory of the Republic of Azerbaijan.

Printed announcements, communications, advertisements and other visual information may be produced in the state language of the Republic and, where necessary, at the same time in the accepted international language.

Labels of the goods produced in the Republic of Azerbaijan, names of industrial and alimentation goods, instructions for the goods shall be produced in the Turkic language and, where necessary - in the accepted foreign language.

Article 16. The names of settlements, administrative units and other geographic entities on the territory of the Republic of Azerbaijan shall be written in the state language, their writing on maps shall be established in accordance with the special reference books approved by the state.

Article 17. The names of state authority bodies, ministries, state committees and departments, enterprises, organizations and their subdivisions shall be written in the Turkic language.

Article 18. The proper name of a citizen of the Republic of Azerbaijan of Azerbaijanian ethnicity shall be composed of a name, patronymic and family name (patrimonial name). The patronymic shall be used together with the words "ogly" and "guyzy". Every citizen of the Republic of Azerbaijan shall have the right to have a family name in accordance with his national affiliation.

The present Law shall not govern the writing of names and family names of representatives of other nationalities residing on the territory of the Republic.

Article 19. The officials of all state bodies, enterprises, institutions and organizations in case of being guilty of violation of the Law on the state language shall be called to account in accordance with the legislation of the Republic of Azerbaijan.