17th Commemoration Day of the Nationwide Leader of the Azerbaijan people – Heydar Aliyev
Every year on 12 December, Azerbaijan commemorates the passing away of Nationwide Leader of Azerbaijan people Heydar Aliyev. Commemorative events are organized in all districts of Azerbaijan, as well as in the capital Baku. Representatives of government agencies, political parties, nongovernmental organizations, media outlets, as well as the people of Azerbaijan visit Heydar Aliyev’s grave at the Alley of Honor. Azerbaijan’s embassies around the globe, diaspora organizations abroad also hold commemorative events.
Heydar Alirza oglu Aliyev was born in Nakhchivan on 10 May 1923. He received special higher education in Leningrad (now St. Petersburg), and in 1957 he graduated from the history department of the Azerbaijani State University. In 1967 He became the chairman of the State Security Committee of the Cabinet of Ministers of Azerbaijan Republic. 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 heads the Republic.
1982 – Heydar Aliyev becomes full member of Soviet Politburo and first deputy chairman of USSR Council of Ministers. In October 1987, Heydar Aliyev, as a sign of protest against the policy pursued by Politburo of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union and personally the Secretary-General Michael Gorbachev, resigned from his post.
Inbound with the tragedy, committed on 20 January 1990 in Baku by the Soviet troops, appearing on the next day at the Azerbaijan Representation in Moscow with a statement, 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. By return in July 1990 to Azerbaijan, Heydar Aliyev has lived at first in Baku, then in Nakhchivan, and in the same year, he was elected as the Deputy to the Supreme Soviet of Azerbaijan.
In 1991-1993s, he held the post of Chairman of the Supreme Mejlis of the Nakhchivan Autonomous Republic, 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 as the Chairman of the Party.
On 15 June 1993, Heydar Aliyev was elected as the Chairman of the Supreme Soviet of Azerbaijan, and on 24 July – on the resolution of the Milli Mejlis, he managed to fulfil powers of the President of the Republic of Azerbaijan. On October 3, 1993, as the result of nationwide voting, Heydar Aliyev was elected as the President of Azerbaijan.
National leader of Azerbaijan Heydar Aliyev passed away in Cleveland hospital in the United States of America on December 12, 2003.
The deeds of Heydar Aliyev are highly appreciated by our people during his leadership of both Soviet Azerbaijan (1969-1982) and independent Azerbaijan (1993-2003). He transformed Soviet Azerbaijan from a backward agricultural country into an industrial country and carried out large-scale creative works. During his presidency of independent Azerbaijan, he prevented the civil war and successfully implemented the “oil strategy” that formed the basis of Azerbaijan’s future development. The Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan oil pipeline, which serves to improve the well-being of the Azerbaijani people and the prosperity of the regions along with the capital Baku, is named after him.
His policy was successfully continued from 2003 by his son, the current President of the Republic of Azerbaijan H.E Ilham Aliyev. During Ilham Aliyev’s presidency, Azerbaijan became an economic and military leader in the region.
In 2020, the people of Azerbaijan got its greatest victory under his leadership, and the territory of Nagorno-Karabakh, occupied by Armenia in the 1990s, was liberated. The Karabakh region, the cradle of Azerbaijani culture, will play a major role in our future economic development.
In his congratulatory speech President Ilham Aliyev said that he had fulfilled his father’s will.
With deep respect and esteem,
to everyone and all states who rejoice in the just cause victory and success of Azerbaijan,
Embassy of the Republic of Azerbaijan to the State of Kuwait
