Heydar Aliyev

Early life

According to his website, he was born in Nakhchivan City. After graduating from Nakhchivan Pedagogical School, from 1939 to 1941 Aliyev attended the Azerbaijan Industrial Institute (now the Azerbaijan State Oil Academy), where he studied architecture. In 1949 and 1950, he studied at the USSR MGB Officer Corps Qualifications-Raising School. Aliyev's official biography also stated that he studied at Baku State University, graduating with a degree in history in 1957. According to American journalist Pete Earley, Aliyev first attended the Ministry of State Security Academy in Leningrad, graduating in 1944.

In 1948, he married Zarifa Aliyeva. On 12 October 1955, their daughter Sevil was born. On 24 December 1961, their son Ilham was born. Zarifa died of cancer in 1985.

Leadership of Soviet Azerbaijan

Aliyev joined the Azerbaijan SSR People's Commissariat for State Security (NKGB) in 1944. In 1954, as part of a government reform, NKGB became known as Committee for State Security, or the KGB. Aliyev rose quickly within the agency to the rank of Major-General, became a deputy chairman of Azerbaijani KGB in 1964, its chairman in 1967 and rose to the rank of a major general.

In 1969, Aliyev was appointed by Leonid Brezhnev to the post of First Secretary of the Central Committee of Azerbaijan Communist Party amidst a Soviet anti-corruption campaign, Aliyev made some progress in the fight against corruption: a number of people were sentenced to prison terms; and in 1975, five factory and collective farm managers were sentenced to death for gross corruption. In the early 1980s, Aliyev barred the offspring of certain legal personnel from attending the Republic's law school, in a purported effort to curb a self-perpetuating elite based on corruption. In 1977, even in Brezhnev's time, he visited Iran: Mashhad twice and Kerbala once.

During the period of his leadership of Soviet Azerbaijan, Aliyev's efforts led to considerably increased economic, social and cultural growth rates in Azerbaijan SSR. Aliyev became perhaps the most successful republican leader, raising the profile of the underprivileged republic and consistently promoting Azerbaijanis to senior posts.

On 22 November 1982, Yuri Andropov promoted Aliyev from candidate to full member of Soviet Politburo and appointed him to the post of First Deputy Chairman of the Council of Ministers of the USSR, responsible for transportation and social services. Aliyev thus attained the highest position ever reached by an Azerbaijani in the Soviet Union.

Aliyev was forced to resign from this position in 1987 amidst allegations of corruption made against him by Mikhail Gorbachev. Despite that, CIA report states that, Heydar Aliyev became First Deputy Chairman of USSR Council of Ministers and a full Politburo Member who publicly pledged to fight against corruption, free key state personnel and the economy of the Soviet Union from  bribery. It is noted in the report that his colleagues understood his intention to deal harshly with corruption was serious and his committment to the anti-corruption became his trademark within the Soviet Union.

From KGB to leader of Azerbaijan SSR

As head of the KGB's branch in Azerbaijan, Aliyev ran an anti-corruption campaign. Following the campaign, he became the undisputed leader of Azerbaijan. Aliyev became a candidate (non-voting) member of the Soviet Politburo in 1976. He ran this position until December 1982, when Yuri Andropov promoted him to the office of First Deputy Chairman of the Council of Ministers.

His star waned following his appointment in 1985 under Mikhail Gorbachev. His political views became something of a liability to him in the era of perestroika, but he still exerted tremendous power in Azerbaijan.

Fall and re-invention

After his forced retirement in 1987, Aliyev remained in Moscow until 1990. He suffered a heart attack during this time. Aliyev appeared in the Permanent Mission of Azerbaijan SSR in Moscow, demanded that the organizers and executors of the crime committed against the people of Azerbaijan be punished for a military action which resulted in violent Black January events amidst the brewing Nagorno-Karabakh War.

Almost immediately after this public appearance in Moscow, Aliyev officially resigned his membership in the Communist Party of the Soviet Union and left Moscow for his native Nakhchivan. Here, Aliyev reinvented himself as a moderate nationalist and was subsequently elected deputy to the Supreme Soviet of Azerbaijan SSR in Baku. Under the pressure and criticism from the groups connected to his nemesis, the then-leader of Soviet Azerbaijan Ayaz Mutallibov, Aliyev again returned to Nakhchivan, where he was elected Chairman of the Supreme Soviet of Nakhchivan Autonomous Republic in 1991.

By December 1991, when the Soviet Union ceased to exist and Azerbaijan formally became an independent state, despite Mutallibov's presidency Aliyev independently governed Nakhchivan. Early 1992 was marked by increased violence in Nagorno-Karabakh War with the fall of Shusha, the last Azerbaijani-populated town in Nagorno-Karabakh. These events resulted in the resignation of Mutallibov and the subsequent rise to power of the Azerbaijan Popular Front led by Abulfaz Elchibey. During Elchibey's one year in power, Aliyev continued to govern Nakhchivan without any subordination to the official government in Baku. The attempt by the Popular Front's Minister of Interior Isgandar Hamidov to forcibly overthrow Aliyev in Nakhchivan was thwarted by local militia at the regional airport. During the same period, Aliyev independently negotiated a cease-fire agreement in Nakhchivan with the then-President of Armenia, Levon Ter-Petrossian.

In May–June 1993, when, as a result of a crisis in the government, the country was on the verge of a civil war and faced the peril of losing independence, the people of Azerbaijan demanded to bring Heydar Aliyev to power, and the then leaders of Azerbaijan were obliged to officially invite Heydar Aliyev to Baku. On 24 June 1993, amidst the advancement of insurgent forces under Huseynov's control towards Baku, Elchibey fled from the city to his native village of Keleki in Nakhchivan. Earlier, on 15 June 1993, Aliyev had been elected Chairman of the National Assembly of Azerbaijan, and after Elchibey's flight he also assumed temporary presidential powers. In August 1993, Elchibey was stripped of his presidency by the nationwide referendum, and in October 1993, Aliyev was elected President of Azerbaijan. In May 1994, Aliyev entered into a ceasefire agreement that still remains in force to this very day. However, the conflict remained unresolved, with Armenian control over Nagorno-Karabakh.

On October 3, 1993, as a result of nationwide voting, Heydar Aliyev was elected President of the Republic of Azerbaijan. On October 11, 1998, having garnered at the elections, passed in high activeness of the population, 76,1 percent of the votes, he was re-elected President of the Republic of Azerbaijan. Heydar Aliyev, giving his consent to be nominated as a candidate at the 15 October 2003 presidential elections, relinquished to run at the elections in connection with health problems.

The Government under Aliyev's leadership carried out legal, political and economical measures between 1993-2003.

Further, Commission for Legal Reforms was established, in 1998 capital punishment was abolished. The institute of the Human Rights Ombudsman was established, amnesty and pardon mechanisms were introduced. Simultaneously, the comprehensive economic reforms including the agrarian reform were carried out; the state property privatization was initiated; the industrial and agricultural crises were lifted.

Death and successor

Aliyev's health began to fail in 1999, when he had a major heart bypass operation in the United States at the Cleveland Clinic. He later had prostate surgery and a hernia operation. He suffered a collapse while giving a speech on live television in April 2003. On 6 August Aliyev returned to the United States for treatment of congestive heart failure and kidney problems. He stood down from the presidency at the start of October 2003 and appointed his son Ilham as his party's sole presidential candidate. On 12 December 2003, President Heydar Aliyev died at the Cleveland Clinic. He was buried at the Fakhri Khiyaban (The Alley of Honor) cemetery in Baku.

Ilham Aliyev duly won the presidential election of 15 October 2003 but international observers again criticized the contest as falling well below expected standards. This transfer of power became the first case of top-level succession in the former Soviet Union.

Honors

Throughout his life, Heydar Aliyev was awarded a number of state orders and medals, international awards, elected honorable doctor of universities in many countries, including the Order of Lenin four times, the Order of the Red Star once and Hero of the Socialist Labor twice. On 27 March 1997 in Kiev, Ukraine, Aliyev received Ukraine's highest award, the Yaroslav Mudry Order, and on 13 April 1999, Turkey's highest honor, the Peace Premium of Atatürk Order. On 3 April 2003, he was elected a professor and authorized member of the Academy of Safety of the Russian Federation, and was subsequently awarded the Premium of Y.V.Andropov. On 10 May 2003, he was decorated with the order of Saint Apostle Andrey Pervozvanny—Russia's supreme award.

Honours and awards