103rd anniversary of the birth of the National Leader Heydar Aliyev

Heydar Alirza oghlu (son) Aliyev was born on 10 May, 1923 in the city of Nakhchivan, Azerbaijan.

After graduating from the Nakhchivan Pedagogical Technical School in 1939, he studied at the Faculty of Architecture of the Azerbaijan Industrial Institute.

In 1944, he was sent to work in the state security bodies. From this period, Heydar Aliyev, who worked in the system of security bodies, worked as Deputy Chairman of the State Security Committee under the Council of Ministers of the Azerbaijan SSR from 1964, and as Chairman from 1967, rising to the rank of Major General.

Heydar Aliyev was elected First Secretary of the Central Committee at the July 1969 plenum of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Azerbaijan and became the head of the republic. In December 1982, Heydar Aliyev was appointed First Deputy Chairman of the Council of Ministers of the USSR.

In October 1987, Heydar Aliyev resigned from his posts in protest against the political line pursued by the Politburo of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union and personally by General Secretary Mikhail Gorbachev.

In connection with the bloody tragedy committed by Soviet troops in Baku on 20 January, 1990, Heydar Aliyev made a statement the next day at the Azerbaijani representation in Moscow, demanding the punishment of the organizers and executors of the crime committed against the Azerbaijani people.

Returning to Azerbaijan in July 1990, Heydar Aliyev first lived in Baku and then in Nakhchivan, and in the same year was elected a deputy to the Supreme Soviet of Azerbaijan. In 1991-1993, he was the Chairman of the Supreme Assembly of the Nakhchivan Autonomous Republic and Deputy Chairman of the Supreme Soviet of the Republic of Azerbaijan. Heydar Aliyev was elected Chairman of the Supreme Soviet of Azerbaijan on 15 June, 1993. As a result of a nationwide vote on 3 October, 1993, Heydar Aliyev was elected President of the Republic of Azerbaijan. He was re-elected President of the Republic of Azerbaijan on 11 October, 1998, collecting 76.1 percent of the vote in the elections held in conditions of high public activity.

The National Leader of Azerbaijan, President Heydar Aliyev died on 12 December, 2003 at the Cleveland Clinic (USA), where he was being treated, and was buried on 15 December in the Alley of Honor in Baku.