Sources: APA, ANS, and Azerbaijan public holidays. Basing itself on paragraph 7 of article 105 of the Labor Code of Azerbaijan, the Azerbaijani Cabinet of Ministers issued a decree making the weekend days of March 29-30, regular working days, in exchange of which, Thursday and Friday, March 27-28, 2008, will be one-off bridge public holidays.
This will have the effect of making the Novruz public holiday, which usually consists of 5 consecutive days, stretch into 9 consecutive days, from March 20 to March 28, inclusively (2 additional days had already been announced on December 8 of last year).