(MENAFN- AzerNews)
May 10 marks the 99th birthday anniversary of Heydar Aliyev, Azerbaijan's national leader, and former president. He made an exceptional contribution to the history of the country and played a huge role in the formation of the Azerbaijani statehood.
Heydar Aliyev was born on May 10, 1923, in Nakhchivan, Azerbaijan. He is renowned as the father of modern Azerbaijan and the architect of the country's current foreign and domestic policies.
During the Soviet time when Heydar Aliyev came to power on July 14, 1969, as the first secretary of the Communist Party of Azerbaijan, his leadership led to outstanding accomplishments.
He was a member of the Soviet Politburo, and in 1982, he was appointed the First Deputy Chairman of the Council of Ministers of the USSR, the highest position ever reached by an Azerbaijani in the Soviet Union.
In October 1987, in protest against the policy pursued by the Political Bureau of the Central Committee of the Soviet Communist Party and, by Secretary-General Mikhail Gorbachev personally, Heydar Aliyev resigned from his posts.
Over the January 20, 1990 tragedy in Baku by the Soviet troops, Heydar Aliyev went to Azerbaijan's Representative Office in Moscow the next day and demanded that the organizers and executors of the crime committed against the people of Azerbaijan be punished. As a sign of protest against the hypocritical policy of the Soviet leadership against the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, in July 1991, he left the Soviet Communist Party.
Having returned to Baku, Heydar Aliyev was elected a deputy to the Supreme Council of Azerbaijan. From 1991 to 1993, he held the post of chairman of the Supreme Assembly of the Nakhchivan Autonomous Republic, Deputy Chairman of the Azerbaijan Milli Majlis (parliament). In 1992, at the constituent congress of the New Azerbaijan Party in Nakhchivan, Heydar Aliyev was elected chairman of the party.
On June 15, 1993, Heydar Aliyev was elected chairman of the Azerbaijani Milli Majlis, and on June 24, by a parliamentary resolution, he was vested with the powers of the acting president of Azerbaijan.
On October 3, 1993, Heydar Aliyev was elected president of the Azerbaijani Republic.
He led the nation during a very dramatic period of its history, paving the country for its bright future. He served as Azerbaijan's president between 1993 and 2003, leading the war-torn post-Soviet country to prosperity in the South Caucasus.
During his tenure, Aliyev carried out a number of important economic, social and political reforms that put Azerbaijan on track to becoming a strategically-important nation and the region's energy hub. He also developed Azerbaijan's oil strategy. Under his leadership, Azerbaijan and the consortium of 11 oil companies from six countries signed the Contract of the Century on September 20, 1994.
Besides, Heydar Aliyev, who spearheaded the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan oil pipeline project, did much to attract huge western capital to Azerbaijan, which created many new jobs and led to the development of several sectors. The construction of the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan oil pipeline was also among the grand achievements of Heydar Aliyev's oil strategy.
Moreover, the national leader initiated the development of a new constitution, which was adopted in 1995. He is also credited for pursuing a balanced foreign policy that ensured Azerbaijan's good bilateral ties with other countries and the deepening of cooperation with international organizations.
Starting from 1993, Azerbaijani demonstrated a breakthrough in all areas. The period of 1993-2003 was a phase of rapid development and stability.
He was re-elected president of Azerbaijan on October 11, 1998.
Heydar Aliyev managed to inspire the nation, withdrew it from the crisis, and ultimately turned Azerbaijan into a stable country. People of all generations in Azerbaijan honor the national leader and pay tribute to his tremendous efforts aimed at the development of the country.
On December 12, 2003, the national leader of the Azerbaijani people, President Heydar Aliyev passed away in the Cleveland hospital in the U.S., where he had been undergoing medical treatment, and on December 15, he was buried at the Alley of Honor in Baku.
Heydar Aliyev is a phenomenon, that created the modern history of Azerbaijan and history remembers him as an outstanding politician and statesman, an indisputable leader of the nation, and a legend who loved Azerbaijan more than anything in his life.
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