Abulfaz Gadirgulu oglu Elchibey (Aliyev) is an Azerbaijani state, political and public figure. The dissident and leader of the Popular Front of Azerbaijan - the Azerbaijan National Liberation Movement. He was the second president of the Republic of Azerbaijan (from 1992 to 1993), but the first elected by the people of Azerbaijan through democratic elections.
Biography of Abulfaz Elchibey
Abulfaz Gadirgulu oglu was born on June 24, 1938 in the village of Kalyaki, Ordubad district of the Nakhichevan Autonomous Republic. He graduated from high school at number 1 in Ordubad.
In 1957 he entered the Azerbaijan State University at the Department of Arabic Philology. After graduating from it in 1962, Abulfaz Elchibey got a job as a translator in the Baku branch of the Institute of Hydrodynamics of the USSR. In January 1963, he was sent on a business trip to Egypt, where he stayed until October 1964. Upon his return, he entered graduate school at Azerbaijan State University, which he successfully graduated in 1968, receiving a degree of candidate of historical sciences.
Abulfaz Elchibey was a lecturer at the Department of History of Asian and African Countries at Azerbaijan State University from 1968 to 1975.
Scientific activity
Abulfaz Aliyev, who knows the intricacies of the literary and modern Arabic language, the foundations of Islam, science, history, philosophy and culture of eastern countries, conducted very valuable scientific research in the field of historiography and oriental studies. During his life he has published more than 40 scientific papers, among which:
- "The Appearance of Ahmed Ibn Tulun and the State of Tulunids";
- "The degradation and division of the Abbasite Caliphate";
- "Ahmed Tantarani Maragi and his Tantraniya" and so on.
Abulfaz Gadirgulu oglu also wrote several books, which are collections of new ideas: “The State of Tolunogullary (868-905)” and “On the Road to United Azerbaijan”.
Political activity of the second president of Azerbaijan
Abulfaz Elchibey struggled with the politics of the Soviet regime since his student years: he created secret student associations and tried to widely disseminate the ideas of freedom. At the same time, he promoted the idea of a united Azerbaijan.
In January 1975, the State Security Committee of Azerbaijan arrested him on charges of nationalist and anti-Soviet propaganda and imprisoned him until July 17, 1976. But the arrest did not change his path.
In 1988, Abulfaz Elchibey created the Popular Movement and became one of its leaders. Thanks to the confident struggle of the Popular Movement, on October 18, 1991, the law on independence of Azerbaijan was adopted.
On June 8, 1992, in Azerbaijan, for the first time in its history, a president was elected democratically. Abulfaz Gadirgulu oglu did a lot to establish democracy in the country, to turn Azerbaijan into a sovereign state and to improve the well-being of the entire Azerbaijani people.
The results of the reign of Abulfaz Elchibey
- The foreign exchange reserves of the National Bank increased by more than 100 times and reached 156 million US dollars.
- The state budget deficit did not exceed 5 percent.
- The national currency of Azerbaijan, the manat, was introduced into circulation, which maintained a starting point of 1:10 against the ruble for a long time.
- Laws were passed on political parties, public organizations, and the media. Based on these laws, up to 30 political parties, more than 200 public organizations and more than 500 media were registered.
- Radical law enforcement reforms have begun.
- In Azerbaijan, multi-party parliamentary elections were held for the first time.
- Assistance was provided to small enterprises. Many different laws and decrees were adopted on trade liberalization, on the rental of unfinished buildings, and programs on entrepreneurship, privatization, and agriculture were developed. Thus, the country created an ideal legal basis for the implementation of economic reforms and took the first steps in this direction. Thousands of private enterprises, dozens of independent banks and so on have opened.
- Considerable work has been done to attract foreign capital to the economy of Azerbaijan.
- Significant reforms in science, education and culture.
- The country moved to the Latin alphabet.
- Within one year, 118 laws and 160 resolutions were passed.
- A decree was issued on national minorities and ethnic groups that were provided with financial assistance and the ability to use radio and television.
The people loved their national leader very much, but, despite this, there were those who wanted to overthrow him: we can cite Abulfaz Elchibey and Emin Milli as an example, who spoke impartially about him.
The president’s economic policy has focused mainly on two goals:
- Protect the state economy from collapse and prevent the looting of state property, strengthen labor discipline, accountability of officials to the state and the protection of public wealth.
- To achieve the formation of a market economy in the republic through liberal economic reforms. For this, the State Property Committee, the State Committee for Antimonopoly Policy and Entrepreneurship, the Ministry of Economy, the Land Committee and other state bodies were created.
