Today marks the 22nd anniversary of the National Leader of the Azerbaijani people, Heydar Aliyev’s death.
Heydar Alirza Aliyev was born on May 10, 1923, in Nakhchivan city of Azerbaijan. In 1939, after graduating from the Nakhchivan Pedagogical School, he studied at the architecture faculty of the Azerbaijan Industry Institute (present-day Azerbaijan State Oil and Industry University). The incipient war impeded the completion of his education. In 1941, Heydar Aliyev headed the department at the People’s Commissariat of Internal Affairs of the Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic of Nakhchivan.
In 1944, he was sent to work at the state security bodies. Heydar Aliyev, working since that time in the security bodies, from 1964, held the post of deputy chairman and, from 1967, chairman of the Committee of State Security under the Cabinet of Ministers of the Azerbaijan Soviet Socialist Republic, and he had been conferred the rank of lieutenant general. During these years, he received special higher education in Leningrad (present-day St. Petersburg), and in 1957, he graduated from the history faculty of the Azerbaijan State University.
After being elected at the Plenum of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Azerbaijan in July 1969 as the First Secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Azerbaijan, Heydar Aliyev became the head of the republic.
In December 1982, Heydar Aliyev was elected a member of the Political Bureau of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, appointed to the post of First Deputy Chairman of the Cabinet of Ministers of the USSR, and became one of the leaders of the USSR. For twenty years, Heydar Aliyev was an MP of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR and was Deputy Chairman of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR for five years.
In October 1987, Heydar Aliyev, as a sign of protest against the policy pursued by the Political Bureau of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union and personally by Secretary-General Michael Gorbachev, resigned from his post.
In response to the tragedy committed on January 20, 1990, in Baku by the Soviet troops, appearing the next day at the Azerbaijan Representation in Moscow with a statement, Heydar Aliyev demanded to punish the organizers and executors of the crime committed against the people of Azerbaijan.
As a sign of protest against the hypocritical policy of the leadership of the USSR, in connection with the critical conflict that occurred in Nagorno-Karabakh in July 1991, he left the Communist Party of the Soviet Union. On his return in July 1990 to Azerbaijan, Heydar Aliyev lived in Baku, then in Nakhchivan, and in the same year, he was elected an MP to the Supreme Soviet of Azerbaijan. In 1991–1993, he held the posts of Chairman of the Supreme Assembly of the Autonomous Republic of Nakhchivan and Deputy Chairman of the Supreme Soviet of the Republic of Azerbaijan.
In 1992, at the constituent congress of the New Azerbaijan Party in Nakhchivan, Heydar Aliyev was elected Chairman of the Party.
In May-June 1993, when the country was on the verge of civil war and a loss of independence as a result of extreme tension of the governmental crisis, the Azerbaijani people demanded to bring Heydar Aliyev to power. The then-leaders of Azerbaijan were obliged to officially invite Heydar Aliyev to Baku. On June 15, 1993, Heydar Aliyev was elected Chairman of the Supreme Soviet of Azerbaijan, and on July 24, 1993, on a resolution of the Milli Majlis, he commenced to fulfill the powers of the President of the Republic of Azerbaijan. On October 3, 1993, as a result of nationwide voting, Heydar Aliyev was elected President of the Republic of Azerbaijan.
On October 11, 1998, having garnered at the elections, passed in high activeness of the population, 76,1% of the votes, he was re-elected President of the Republic of Azerbaijan.
Heydar Aliyev, giving his consent to be nominated as a candidate at the October 15, 2003, presidential election, relinquished running in the elections in connection with health problems. The national leader Heydar Aliyev passed away in Cleveland Hospital in the United States on December 12, 2003.
Heydar Aliyev was awarded four times the Order of Lenin, the Order of the Red Star, and numerous medals. He twice received the title of Hero of Socialist Labor and was awarded orders and medals from many foreign states. Heydar Aliyev was elected professor and a full member of the Academy of Safety, Defense and Legal Norms Problems of the Russian Federation, awarded the premium of Y.V. Andropov. A decree was signed on granting Heydar Aliyev the Order of Saint Apostle Andrey Pervozvanny, Russia’s supreme order. On January 20, 2001, President of the Republic of Azerbaijan Heydar Aliyev was awarded the title of “Honorary Professor” of Moscow State University. On April 13, 1999, President Heydar Aliyev was awarded the most prestigious award in Türkiye – the Ataturk International Peace Prize. On March 27, 1997, in Kyiv, Heydar Aliyev was awarded the supreme award of Ukraine, the Order of Prince Yaroslav the Wise.
The great leader came to power at a time of economic decline, civil strife, and war with the Armenians. At the same time, the double standards used against Azerbaijan in the world almost caused the country to lose its balance. Against all this background, with Heydar Aliyev coming to power in Azerbaijan, stability and peace were restored in the country.
When national leader Heydar Aliyev came to power, the main task was to liberate the occupied lands of Azerbaijan from the enemy. During his tenure as the head of the country, he became the founder of modern Azerbaijan and won the eternal sympathy of the people with his work and the policy he pursued. The late leader spared no effort for the liberation of Karabakh and East Zangazur. Although he passed away at 80, his name, politics became an eternal ideology. As a continuation of the policy founded by the great leader, Karabakh and Eastern Zangazur are free today.
