Iran commemorates the 34th anniversary of the referendum in which Iranians voted for the establishment of the Islamic Republic following the collapse of the US-backed Pahlavi regime.

In a two-day referendum held on March 30-31 after the 1979 victory of the Islamic Revolution, over 98.2 percent of the Iranians voted “yes” to the establishment of an Islamic Republic.

Addressing a Sunday cabinet meeting in Tehran, Iran’s President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said the day, Farvardin 12 in the Iranian calendar, marked the birthday of the Islamic Republic of Iran.

    “On this day, the blood of thousands of martyrs that prepared the ground for the establishment of the Islamic state bore fruit,” the president said.

The establishment of the system was in line with the popular motto of the 1979 Islamic Revolution that called for the country's "Independence, Freedom and an Islamic Republic" against the regime of Iran's last monarch Mohammad Reza Pahlavi.

Since then, the nation annually celebrates Farvardin 12, which falls on April 1 in normal years and March 31 in leap years, as the anniversary of the establishment of the Islamic Republic of Iran, referred to as the Islamic Republic Day.

With the 1979 Islamic Revolution, the Pahlavi regime collapsed, putting an end to 2,500 years of monarchic rule in the country.