Aliyev Heydar Alirza oglu (born 10.05.23 in Nakhchivan, Azerbaijan - died 12.12.03 in Cleveland, USA) is an Azerbaijani statesman who for 30 years was one of the country's most influential politicians as deputy and chairman of the republican KGB, secretary of the republican Communist Party and the repressive and authoritarian president of independent Azerbaijan.
Oil and Nagorno-Karabakh
Heydar Aliyev, whose biography ended at the age of 80, was the leader of Azerbaijan from 1969 (with a short break) until October 2003 and transformed from a party leader of the Brezhnev era to a statesman friendly to the West. The period of his reign was remembered by two events: the sale of Caspian oil (with the conclusion of the "Contract of the Century") and the conflict with Armenia over the disputed territory of Nagorno-Karabakh - an enclave within Azerbaijan with the majority of the Armenian population.
As president of an independent state, Aliyev cultivated the image of a reformer. Many, however, remember him as a person who led a country that did not respect human rights, where widespread corruption became official.
Heydar Aliyev: biography
Nationality is Azerbaijani. The son of a railway worker, Aliyev was born in Nakhichevan, an Azerbaijani enclave in Armenia. He graduated from the History Department of Baku State University, and then from the Industrial Institute. Between 1941 and 1944, Aliyev gained political acumen as the senior functionary of the Communist Party in his hometown. At the beginning of his career, he miraculously managed to avoid exclusion from her after being accused of sexual abuse with a margin of one vote.
Aliyev earned his name and position in the KGB, climbing the career ladder of the Azerbaijan State Security Service for two decades, before he became deputy head of the organization in 1964 and headed it three years later.
In 1969, Heydar Aliyev was appointed the first secretary of the Communist Party of Azerbaijan. The biography of the head of the republic in 1982 was replenished with the event of his promotion to full members of the Politburo of the Central Committee of the CPSU. Aliyev was rather cautious in relations with his patron and became one of his closest allies. For Brezhnev’s visit to Baku in 1982, for example, he built the palace exclusively for the personal use of the Secretary-General. The Soviet leader spent two nights there, after which the palace was closed.
Opal
The appointment of Mikhail Gorbachev to the post of Soviet leader in 1985 marked a sharp change in the political fate of Aliyev. Carried on the pages of the press organ of the Central Committee of the CPSU "Pravda" for corruption during perestroika, he became one of the first victims - representatives of the old guard. In 1987, Gorbachev deprived him of his place in the Politburo and forced him to resign from the post of head of the Communist Party of Azerbaijan. It seemed that his career was over. Shortly before that, the wife of Heydar Aliyev died.
The biography of the politician again turned out to be connected with Nakhichevan - it was there, in his native city, that Geidar temporarily retreated. In 1990, with his inherent political acumen, Aliyev left the Communist Party, supposedly in protest against the events of Black January, when Soviet tanks entered Baku and many civilians were killed.
Independence
The return of the politician was accelerated by the rapid plunge of Azerbaijan into a state of internal chaos after the country gained independence in 1991 and the inability to achieve a quick victory in Nagorno-Karabakh. In 1992, Abulfaz Elchibey, the leader of the Popular Front, who led the independence movement, became the country's first democratically elected president, but proved to be a weak leader.
The order could not be restored, and Heydar Aliyev was invited to support the government in Baku. The biography of the politician again made a sharp turn. When in June 1993 Elchibey was forced to flee the capital after an attempted coup, Aliyev became the acting president. He made an agreement with the putschists to prevent a civil war, and was approved as head of the country following a referendum in October of that year.
Head of state
It was under Aliyev that the war in Karabakh grew into a bloody phase. When he came to power, the Armenians strengthened their positions in the occupied territory of Azerbaijan, but military operations were not conducted. In December 1993, Aliyev again began conducting full-scale military operations, which lasted for 18 months. It was during this period that most of the 30, 000 victims of the war died. As a result of the conflict, 750, 000 Azerbaijanis were forced to leave their homes.
Aliyev was ruthless to his political opponents. He strengthened his power by placing his friends from Nakhichevan in key positions. Despite growing discontent with the government for its inability to find a long-term solution to the Nagorno-Karabakh problem or to cope with the socio-economic consequences of the war, despite the constant facts of corruption of officials, Aliyev consistently managed to distance himself from public discontent. In October 1998, the politician was re-elected with 76% of the vote, although opposition groups and international observers questioned the legitimacy of the result.
Geopolitics
Aliyev had a trump card in the form of oil resources of the Caspian, and he also had the ability to navigate the extremely difficult geopolitical labyrinth of the Caucasus, testifying to his political insight. Relations with the United States and Western Europe are characterized by the signing in 1997 of a contract with the International Petroleum Consortium, which provided Western companies with a huge share in the Caspian Sea. Cooperating with foreign oil giants, primarily with British Petroleum, Aliyev also became one of the driving forces in the development of the Baku-Ceyhan pipeline, the purpose of which was to transport Caspian oil to the West through Georgia and Turkey.
This pipeline project strengthened already tense relations with Moscow, but the head of Azerbaijan managed to avoid a complete break. Relations between the countries were low during the presidency of Boris Yeltsin, but when the KGB pupil Vladimir Putin came to power in Russia, Heydar Aliyev, whose biography was also associated with this organization, managed to establish relations. The politician also focused on building strong ties with Turkey. Relations with Iran, where about 14 million ethnic Azerbaijanis live, openly supporting Armenia, gradually came to naught during his reign.
Dynasty
Aliyev did not run in the elections in October 2003, citing ill health. This was the first case of dynastic succession in the post-Soviet space when his son Ilham became president. The OSCE stated that the vote did not meet international standards, riots ensued.
Although Aliyev referred to his state of health, nothing showed a deterioration in his mental abilities. He remained to the end a sharp and insightful figure.
12.12.03 the leader of the people of Azerbaijan Aliyev Heydar Aliyevich died. The biography of the politician was interrupted at a Cleveland clinic in the United States. Heydar was buried on the Walk of Fame in Baku.
Heydar Aliyev: biography, family
In 1948, the future politician married Zarif Aziz. On October 12, 1955, their daughter Seville was born, and on December 24, 1961, their son Ilham. Children outlived their father. His wife, a famous ophthalmologist, professor, academician of the Academy of Sciences of Azerbaijan, died of cancer in 1985.
Western dictator
The fact that the old KGB officer became extremely pro-British was determined largely by the decisive role that British Petroleum acquired in Azerbaijan. The prospect of turning the country's huge reserves of oil and gas into a means of its development largely depends on the pipeline through Georgia and Turkey, for which Russia was not enthusiastic.
One hundred years ago, Baku was the oil capital of the world, and part of the lost glory is now being restored. The opening of new and larger reserves allowed Aliyev to achieve, at least for the capital, a certain degree of prosperity, accompanied by a tight containment of political dissent. And his son supported this momentum of economic progress.
Taking into account the extraordinary figure of the old Soviet school, Aliyev Heydar Alirza, his biography, if it contained at least half of what he knew, would make a significant contribution to our understanding of an era that seems already distant.
