Azernews.Az

Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev visited the Alley of Honors on Wednesday to pay a tribute to the national leader Heydar Aliyev, Trend news agency reported.

President Aliyev laid a wreath at the national leader's grave.

The President also laid flowers at the tombs of renowned ophthalmologist Zarifa Aliyeva, statesman Aziz Aliyev and professor Tamerlan Aliyev.

Since the early hours of Wednesday residents of Baku and other regions of the country as well as foreign guests have been visiting the Alley of Honors to lay flowers and wreaths at the tomb of the great son of Azerbaijan.

Among those in attendance at the commemorative ceremony were Prime Minister Artur Rasizadeh, chairman of the Milli Majlis Ogtay Asadov and Chief of the Presidential Administration Ramiz Mehdiyev, as well as other officials, including MPs, ministers, heads of state committees and companies, and representatives of foreign countries.

Heydar Aliyev led Azerbaijan for 30 years and left an indelible mark on the country`s history. Aliyev`s merits include strengthening Azerbaijan`s independence and sovereignty, economic growth and the country`s participation in projects of a global scale, the peace process on settling the Nagorno Karabakh conflict with Armenia and the strengthening of the Azerbaijani Diaspora. His multi-faceted political activity had given a powerful incentive to Azerbaijan`s comprehensive development and set the course for its irreversible ascent.

Biography

Aliyev was born in Nakhchivan on May 10, 1923. A graduate of the Azerbaijan State University history department, he held high posts in the Nakhchivan Autonomous Republic in 1941-1944. He started working for security agencies in the 1940s and acted as Chairman of the State Security Committee of the Azerbaijan Soviet Socialist Republic from 1967-1969.

Aliyev headed Azerbaijan beginning in 1969. He also held top posts in the Soviet Union`s leadership from 1982 till 1987. However, in 1987, as a result of internal bickering in the USSR leadership, Aliyev resigned from his positions in the Political Bureau and the Council of Ministers.

Aliyev did his best for Azerbaijan while he worked for five years in Moscow and spoke out during the January 1990 tragedy, when hundreds of civilians were brutally slain by the Soviet troops on the streets of Baku. Aliyev courageously accused the USSR leadership of killing innocent people and demanded to punish those responsible for the killings.

He resigned from the USSR Communist Party in July 1991.

Aliyev acted as Chairman of the Nakhchivan Supreme Majlis (parliament) from 1991-1993.

His return to power in 1993 averted the threat of civil war. He was then elected president of the newly independent Azerbaijan. In October 1998 Aliyev was re-elected for another term.

Aliyev died of heart disease at the age of 80 in a hospital in Cleveland, United States on December 12, 2003.