Azerbaijan marks 101st anniversary of National Leader Heydar Aliyev's birth

Today is the birthday of the National Leader of Azerbaijan, Heydar Aliyev.

In Azerbaijan, the 101st anniversary of Heydar Aliyev's birth is marked.

Heydar Alirza oglu Aliyev was born on May 10, 1923, in the city of Nakhchivan (AR), Azerbaijan. After graduating from the Nakhchivan Pedagogical Technical College in 1939, he studied at the architecture faculty of the Azerbaijan Industrial Institute (now Azerbaijan State Oil Academy). The war did not allow him to finish his education.

Since 1941, Heydar Aliyev worked as a department head in the People's Commissariat of Internal Affairs of the Nakhchivan MSSR and the Council of People's Commissars of the Nakhchivan MSSR, and in 1944 he was sent to work in the state security agencies. Heydar Aliyev, who worked in the system of security bodies since 1964, worked as the deputy chairman of the State Security Committee under the Council of Ministers of the Azerbaijan SSR, and since 1967 as its chairman, rising to the rank of major general. In those years, he received special higher education in the city of Leningrad (now St. Petersburg). In 1957, he graduated from the history faculty of Azerbaijan State University.

Heydar Aliyev was elected the first secretary of the Central Committee at the July 1969 plenum of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Azerbaijan and became the head of the republic. Heydar Aliyev, who was elected a member of the Political Bureau of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union in December 1982, was appointed as the first deputy chairman of the USSR Council of Ministers and became one of the leaders of the USSR. Heydar Aliyev was a deputy of the Supreme Soviets of the USSR and the Azerbaijan SSR for twenty years and served as the first deputy chairman of the USSR Council of Ministers for five years.

In October 1987, Heydar Aliyev resigned from his positions as a sign of protest against the political line introduced by the Political Bureau of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union and personally by General Secretary Mikhail Gorbachev.

On January 20, 1990, Heydar Aliyev made a statement at the Azerbaijani representative office in Moscow regarding the bloody tragedy committed by the Soviet troops in Baku and demanded the punishment of the organizers and perpetrators of the crime committed against the people of Azerbaijan. He left the ranks of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union in July 1991 as a sign of protest against the hypocritical policy of the USSR leadership regarding the acute conflict situation in Nagorno-Karabakh.

Heydar Aliyev, who returned to Azerbaijan in July 1990, first lived in Baku and then in Nakhchivan, and was elected a deputy to the Supreme Soviet of Azerbaijan in the same year. In 1991-1993, he was the Chairman of the Supreme Assembly of the Nakhchivan Autonomous Republic, Deputy Chairman of the Supreme Soviet of the Republic of Azerbaijan. In 1992, Heydar Aliyev was elected chairman of the New Azerbaijan Party at the founding congress held in Nakhchivan.

In May-June 1993, when the government crisis became extremely acute and there was a threat of a civil war in the country and the loss of independence, the people of Azerbaijan rose up with the demand to bring Heydar Aliyev to power. The then leaders of Azerbaijan were forced to officially invite Heydar Aliyev to Baku. Heydar Aliyev was elected the Chairman of the Supreme Soviet of Azerbaijan on June 15, 1993, and on July 24, by the decision of the Milli Majlis, he began to exercise the powers of the President of the Republic of Azerbaijan.

On October 3, 1993, as a result of the national vote, Heydar Aliyev was elected the President of the Republic of Azerbaijan. On October 11, 1998, he was re-elected as the President of the Republic of Azerbaijan, having collected 76.1 percent of the votes in the elections held under conditions of high public participation. Heydar Aliyev, who agreed to be nominated in the presidential elections held on October 15, 2003, refused to participate in the elections due to health problems.

The National Leader of Azerbaijan, President Heydar Aliyev died on December 12, 2003, at the Cleveland Clinic (USA), where he was being treated, and was buried on December 15 in the Alley of Honor in Baku.

Heydar Aliyev has been awarded many state orders and medals, international awards, and was elected an honorary doctor of universities of various countries.

On September 29, 2022, President Ilham Aliyev signed a decree "On declaring 2023 the Year of Heydar Aliyev in the Republic of Azerbaijan". With another decree signed by the head of state on November 28, 2022, the "Action Plan for declaring 2023 as the "Year of Heydar Aliyev" in the Republic of Azerbaijan" was approved. In accordance with the Plan of Events, various events were held in our country and abroad in connection with the 100th anniversary of the Great Leader's birth.

National Leader Heydar Aliyev's greatest wish was the liberation of Karabakh from occupation and the restoration of our territorial integrity. This wish and will of the Great Leader was fulfilled by his worthy follower, the President of Azerbaijan, the Victorious Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces, Ilham Aliyev.

President Ilham Aliyev gave the Azerbaijani people the joy of another victory on September 19 last year. By raising Azerbaijan's national flag in the ancient and eternal lands - Khankendi, Khojaly, Khojavand, Agdara, and Asgaran, he fulfilled the wishes of our people. Thus, the sovereignty of independent Azerbaijan was fully restored.

At present, Garabagh and Eastern Zangazur, which have been freed from occupation, are being rebuilt, the areas are cleared of mines, and large-scale restoration and reconstruction works are being carried out.