by Vestnik Kavkaza
December 12 marks 9 years since the death of Heydar Aliyev. The man who overcame internal differences in Azerbaijan, brought foreign investments in the country, started realizing high-scale projects is considered the national leader here.
Polad Bul-Bul Ogly, Azerbaijani Ambassador to Russia
For 10 years I worked together with him as minister of culture. In his life there were only two ministers of culture. In Soviet times it was Professor and Doctor of Philosophy Zakir Bagirov. In independent Azerbaijan I was the minister of culture for 10 years. I have to admit that the time was hard, in 1993 when Heydar Aliyev came back to governing the country, the budget was empty and for month we could not even pay the small salary to our librarians, museum and cultural workers. The theatres were on the verge of closing. You all remember those hard times. The conspiracies against him.
The generations will change, our place will be taken by other people, but the name of this great person will live. So long as the Azerbaijani people will live, so long the name of Heydar Aliyev will live, it will be remembered, studied, books and films will be created about him, and of course his grateful successors will remember what he did for his people. In the life of a people or a state, as in the life of ordinary people, there are turning points. The moments when one man can do more than an army. The skill to be in the right place at the right time and make the right decision. There are few people like this, and Heydar Aliyev is among them.
Rasim Musabekov, political scientist, MP
Back in 1976 Heydar Aliyev recommended me to send me, a young guy, to Moscow, to the central committee of the Komsomol, where I went until 1982, I was very often in this room, until 1990 I lived in Moscow, so in a way I can consider myself a Muscovite. Russian is my mother tongue together with Azeri. When Heydar Aliyev was elected first secretary I was just 18, I'd finished my first year at university. Now I am 62, so I can say that the biggest part of my life was with Heydar Aliyev. When he went to Moscow, he still played an important role in the life of Azerbaijan. Even when he retired and lived in Moscow and then came to Nahichevan, he was still at the center of Azerbaijani life. In a way, Heydar Aliyev and his life are the contemporary history of Azerbaijan. Now we are remembering how he came back to power and pulled Azerbaijan out of a difficult situation. But I would like us to go back to earlier events, when in Moscow he left the Politburo. When the bloody tragedy happened in January in Baku, very few members of Politburo protested against it. Heydar Aliyev was brave enough to do it. Can you imagine a retired member of the Politburo, who left a warm and developed Moscow with electricity and gas, and went to some remote provincial town on the border with Turkey, Iran and Armenia, where the situation was dangerous, there was no heating, food or electricity. He wanted to be with his people. Now they often say that a president or prime-minister is only a manager, hired by society to rule. Maybe this definition suits some comfortable Denmark or the Netherlands or maybe France or Germany, but a person leading a country at a turning point has to have not only experience and knowledge but he has to feel his mission. Aliyev had experience and an iron will, but also a deep understanding of his mission. Independent Azerbaijan had to be built and protected from the troubles, like a new-born child that needs to be brought to the right to road. Heydar Aliyev took this mission and fulfilled it with honour.
Chingiz Abdullayev, writer
If we look at the 20th century, Azerbaijani people have achieved wonderful success. We have something to be proud of. I would like to say to our guests that this is not just cheap nationalism. We created the first republic in the East, we opened the first opera, ballet and space institute, we had famous writers and artists, many prominent personalities were our compatriots. It was Nariman Narimanov that with pain wrote to Lenin that he had not expected such behaviour from the 11th army. It was Mir Djfar Bagirov who did not allow the resettlement of Azeris on the other side of the Caspian Sea and mourned the retreat of the Soviet army from Southern Azerbaijan. It was of course Heydar Aliyev. I think that in our long history he was a very prominent politician. We are not saying it now because his son is our president, but it will be also said in 50 or 100 years. Even if the political situation changes, we need to remember that we had such person in our history. And it does not matter whether we share the views of Heydar Aliyev and his party or not. He was indeed an outstanding man, who will always stay in our history.
Farid Akhverdiyev, Member of the All-Russian Azerbaijani Congress
Indeed, it is very rare that God gives so much talent to one man. So much creativity, so much inspiration, so much energy. We all know Heydar Aliyev as a prominent politician. With every year our history brings us further away from the era of Heydar Aliyev. The current young generation see Heyday Aliyev in the films and documents, in granite and in bronze. I lived and worked in Baku when Heydar Aliyev was the leader of Azerbaijan. Everybody was charmed by him. Heydar Aliyev was a strict and demanding bureaucrat, but with ordinary people he was sincere and charming. Heydar Aliyev was gifted not only in politics, he was very educated in art, literature and science. Heydar Aliyev was broadly educated and highly intellectual, he left us a priceless heritage that we need to promote and develop for future generations, keeping the unique spirit of a departed era, the era of Heydar Aliyev.
