It has been 19 years since the National Leader of Azerbaijani People Heydar Aliyev passed away.
Heydar Aliyev Alirza oglu was born on 10 May 1923 in Nakhchivan. He worked in security bodies since 1944. He was appointed the deputy chairman of the State Security Committee under the Council of Ministers of the Azerbaijani SSR in 1964 and became the chairman in 1967, rising to the rank of major general. He had a special higher education in Leningrad in those years and graduated from Azerbaijan State University in 1957, majoring in history. Heydar Aliyev was elected the first secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Part of the Azerbaijan SSR at the July 1969 plenum of the Communist Party Central Committee. Elected a member of the Political Bureau of the Communist Party Central Committee of the Soviet Union in 1982, Heydar Aliyev was appointed the first deputy chairman of the USSR Council of Ministers, thus becoming one of the leaders of the USSR. In October 1987 Heydar Aliyev resigned from his post as a sign of protest against the political line of the Political Bureau of the Communist Party Central Committee of the Soviet Union and General Secretary Mikhail Gorbachev.
Heydar Aliyev made a statement the next day at the Moscow representation of Azerbaijan on the bloody tragedy committed by the Soviet troops in Baku on 20 January 1990 and demanded punishment of organizers and executors of the crime against the people of Azerbaijan. He quit the ranks of the Soviet Union Communist Party in July 1991, as a sign of protest against the hypocritical policy of the USSR leadership regarding the acute conflict situation in Nagorno-Karabakh. Returning to Azerbaijan in July 1990, Heydar Aliyev first lived in Baku, then moved to Nakhchivan. He was elected the member of Azerbaijan Supreme Soviet the same year. He was the chairman of Nakhchivan Autonomous Republic Supreme Assembly and deputy chairman of the Supreme Soviet of the Republic of Azerbaijan from 1991 to 1993. Heydar Aliyev was elected chairman of the New Azerbaijan party at the founding meeting of the party held in Nakhchivan.
Elected the chairman of Azerbaijan Supreme Soviet on 15 June 1993, Heydar Aliyev began executing the duties of the President of the Republic of Azerbaijan on 24 June as per the decision of the Milli Majlis. Heydar Aliyev was elected the president of the Republic of Azerbaijan with a national vote on 3 October 1993. He was re-elected the President of the Republic of Azerbaijan during the elections on 11 October 1998. Although he agreed to put his candidacy for the presidential elections to be held on 5 October 2003, he had to withdraw due to deteriorating health.
Heydar Aliyev died on 12 December 2003 after a long treatment at Cleveland Clinic in the United States of America.
The great leader is buried in the Alley of Honours.
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