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Today - December 12 - marks the 19th anniversary of the death of Heydar Aliyev - the architect and founder of the modern and independent Azerbaijani state, renowned politician, and national leader of the Azerbaijani people.

Heydar Aliyev was born on May 10, 1923, in Nakhchivan, an ancient corner of Azerbaijan. Heydar Aliyev started working in the system of security agencies in 1944, and in 1964 he became a deputy chairman of the State Security Committee under the Council of Ministers of the Azerbaijani SSR.

In 1967, he was appointed the chairman of the committee and during this period he was promoted to the rank of a major general.

He received special higher education in Leningrad, and in 1957 he graduated from the history department of the Azerbaijani State University. In July 1969, at the plenum of the Central Committee of the Azerbaijani Communist Party, Heydar Aliyev was elected the first secretary.

Elected in December 1982 as a member of the Politburo of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, Heydar Aliyev became the first Deputy Chairman of the Council of Ministers of the USSR and one of the leaders of the Soviet Union.

In October 1987, in protest at the policies of the Politburo of the CPSU Central Committee and Secretary-General Mikhail Gorbachev, he resigned from his posts.

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

In protest against the double-faced policies of the Soviet leadership in connection with the acute conflict situation that arose in Nagorno-Karabakh, he left the ranks of the Soviet Communist Party in July 1991. Returning to Azerbaijan in July 1990, Heydar Aliyev first settled in Baku and then moved to Nakhchivan, and in the same year, he was elected to the Supreme Council of Azerbaijan.

From 1991 to 1993, he served as Chairman of the Supreme Majlis of the Nakhchivan Autonomous Republic, Deputy Chairman of the Supreme Council of the Republic of Azerbaijan. In 1992, Heydar Aliyev was elected chairman of the New Azerbaijan Party at the founding congress of the party in Nakhchivan.

Heydar Aliyev, elected Chairman of the Supreme Council of Azerbaijan on June 15, 1993, by the decision of the Milli Majlis on June 24, began to exercise the powers of the Azerbaijani president.

On October 3, 1993, in a popular vote, Heydar Aliyev was elected Azerbaijani president and on October 11, 1998, he was re-elected.

Heydar Aliyev, who agreed to be nominated for the presidency on October 15, 2003, subsequently withdrew on health grounds.

The national leader of the Azerbaijani people, Heydar Aliyev, passed away on December 12, 2003, at the Cleveland Clinic in the United States.

He was buried in the Alley of Honor in Baku.

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