Be Vestnik Kavkaza
The 90th anniversary of the birth of Heydar Aliyev will be marked on May 10th. The anniversary is celebrated not only in Azerbaijan, but in other countries as well. Yesterday people who were acquainted with Aliyev gathered in Moscow in the House of Unions.
“Heydar Aliyev’s fate reflects the history of Azerbaijan; and he wrote several very important chapters of the history,” Sergey Naryshkin, the State Duma speaker, stated. “Heydar Aliyev was able to make the most important and bold decisions. We know under what conditions he returned to heading the country. He was managed to give confidence to his people, and people supported him. We all remember Heydar Aliyev as a strong, bright, independent politician; we highly appreciate his historical role in establishing of the strategic partnership between Russia and Azerbaijan, between people of our two countries.”
“I knew Heydar Aliyev not only as the head of the country and the leader of the nation, but as my most beloved, closest, and dear person,” Leila Aliyeva, vice-president of Heydar Aliyev Fund, said. “For me, first of all, he was grandfather and the best friend who was ready to help in any situation. Today I miss him so much; but he is always near, I won’t stop feeling his strength, his protection, and his love. I think Azerbaijani people feel the same, mutual love and deep respect.”
Friendly relations between Russia and Azerbaijan are an achievement by Heydar Aliyev. The event began with awarding prizes of the All-Russian Azerbaijani Congress for improvement of bilateral relations.
“The main role played in my life was, of course, Muslim’s role, everyone knows about it. But an equally important role was played by Heydar Aliyev, because he was like our father. He treated Muslim as his son, so we perceived him in that way. He really treated us so, especially Muslim, and me too,” Tamara Sinyavskaya, Muslim Magomayev’s widow, told Vestnik Kavkaza. “For 35 years of marriage, there was virtually no year, there was no summer, no winter, no autumn, no spring, when we did not meet with Heydar Aliyev - either in Azerbaijan or here in Moscow, where he worked in the Politburo. So our lives were connected. It is even now linked with another generation, the next generation. Now the president of Azerbaijan Ilham Heydar oglu, with whom I am familiar, I can say, from his infancy, has become a great politician, a great leader of Azerbaijan. Therefore, I have very strong ties with this family.”
“We knew each other since 1968, we met when I first arrived from Lisbon with the First Prize, and he became the leader of Azerbaijan,” Farhad Badalbeyli, president of the Baku Musical Academy, told Vestnik Kavakza. “He received me. Then he watched me training, and even in this room, as a member of the Politburo, he came to the concert. I played with Dudarova and a symphony orchestra, and he came. Then the members of the Politburo rarely attended symphony concerts, and he attended them even when he was the leader of independent Azerbaijan. Very often he included artists in the program of his official visits, so they gave concerts of Azerbaijani classical music – for example, in France or in England. He always wanted to hear Azerbaijani music. I must say that his attitude to classical music was very touching.”
Not only art workers, but also politicians were guests.
“Heydar Aliyev was the founder of the Republic of Azerbaijan,” Alexander Yermoshkin, the envoy of Dagestan under President of Russia, said. “He made a great historic contribution to the establishment of the republic and everything made now by the people of Dagestan and the republic itself. It is our direct neighbor. We have a state border. And, perhaps, this is one of our largest trading partners. So far for us the development of Dagestan is very important, but also very important, as well as the development of Azerbaijan. And of course we count on industrial cooperation and trade relations.”
“The fact is that I really knew him very well,” Alexander Dzasokhov, the former head of North Ossetia, told Vestnik Kavkaza. “And during the days of a jubilee everything comes to mind, emotionally, authentically. Of course, I can confirm that Heydar Aliyev is an individual of great scale. And I attribute him to a number of politicians, not only well-known in his home country, in Azerbaijan, in our great country – the Soviet Union, but also in the world, when he was part of the Soviet leadership, as if he represented a vast world of new young states of the post-colonial period - in the Arab world, Africa, Latin America and Asia. And, as an active and energetic person, he visited countries where there was no political figure of such a level. He visited Angola, Vietnam, Syria, Latin America. So, of course, many years later we will receive confirmation of his contribution to the fate of Azerbaijan, because Azerbaijan after the collapse of the Soviet Union, like the other republics, was in a very difficult position. The breakup was particularly reflected in the Caucasus, not even so much as it was in the Baltic republics or in Central Asia. Because the Caucasus has political tradition. And if fate had not developed so that in a hard but very fair, difficult road Heydar Aliyev would not go back to his homeland, we would have experienced the bitterness of the difficulties faced by the ancient people of Azerbaijan. Of course, my generation appreciates the fact that he did not succumb to any situation and retained his sympathy to Russia, Russian culture and Russian history. This, of course, confirms that he is a politician, not falling under any momentary mood, seeing matters in the long run. Therefore, the Caucasus, Russia, the North Caucasus and the South Caucasus will gratefully remember his name.”
