Azerbaijan is marking the Day of National Salvation today.
In October 1991 Azerbaijan gained independence, however, during its first years the republic experienced an internal crisis and a crisis of power. In all spheres of public life chaos and confusion were observed. The situation was complicated in the army, the number of desertion cases increased, the Armenian aggression intensified every day. Different individuals and groups struggled for leadership in the country. The People’s Front came to power on May 14, 1992, and from the first day it showed a complete inability to rule the country. In the summer of 1993 a civil war became a real for Azerbaijan.
During such a hard period for the country, Heydar Aliyev arrived in Baku on June 9. In a very short time, Heydar Aliyev has managed to prevent a civil war in Azerbaijan. Heydar Aliyev was elected the Chairman of the Supreme Council on June 15, 1993.
Thus, this day entered the history of Azerbaijan as the National Salvation Day. This day has been celebrated as the national holiday in Azerbaijan since June 1997.
The leading expert of the North-South Political Science Center, Alexander Karavaev, speaking with a correspondent of Vestnik Kavkaza, stressed that Heydar Aliyev came to power in Azerbaijan in 1993 just in time. "Azerbaijan needed a leader at that time – a man who could be not just a strong politician, but also could look 15-20 years in the future. In those days very few people of the post-Soviet space were able to do it – and Heydar Aliyev was such a man due to a number of episodes in his biography, his decades long political career, as well as his intuition and those character traits which allowed him to mobilize the people around him to make necessary decisive actions in economics and in politics," the expert reminded.
"Heydar Aliyev has became such a leader for Azerbaijan. If he did not return to the executive position in the country, it is unlikely we could talk about those achievements, which Azerbaijan has showed 10-15 years later. He laid the route for the country's development and gave the state an opportunity to rebuild itself, as well as maintained a balance between the objectives of security of the infrastructure development and the power of the administration. On the other hand, the road was also opened for public speakers," Alexander Karavaev noted.
"In general, those options that he outlined are respected and observed today. Heydar Aliyev has formed a team of associates of different generations: both older generation, well-known to him from the Azerbaijan SSR, and the younger one, which received a high-quality western education and is capable of holding the momentum of Aliyev's economic reforms in the right direction," the leading expert of the North-South Political Science Center drew attention to one of the merits of the national leader of Azerbaijan.
A political analyst, Candidate of Historical Sciences Oleg Kuznetsov, in turn, noted that Heydar Aliyev was an outstanding statesman, a man with rich political and administrative experience. "Of course, Azerbaijan is lucky that a man of such magnitude as Heydar Aliyev headed the country and got it out of the most severe political, military and economic crisis. It is enough to say that Azerbaijan was on the verge of a collapse in 1993: centrifugal tendencies intensified, the Talysh-Mughan Autonomous Republic was proclaimed, the country has been actually plagued by the evil of separatism. Heydar Aliyev's return to Baku helped to overcome the legacy of weak-willed rule of Ayaz Mutalibov, following which the country found itself in an economic pit," the expert noted.
"Heydar Aliyev was able to bring together and consolidate around him all the healthy and sensible forces in the country, becoming a figure who reached a nation-wide compromise. Due to his personal qualities, intelligence and rich professional and life experience he was able to make the country a leader of the South Caucasus. The name of Heydar Aliyev is associated with the largest political and economic decisions, especially the decision to terminate the armed phase of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict and to sign the Bishkek protocol on ceasefire. [His other great achievement] is diversification of the Azerbaijan's economy, first of all the hydrocarbon industry, which ensured economic sovereignty of the country" Oleg Kuznetsov said.
"In fact, Heydar Aliyev has created an economic, political and social model, which is the current foundation for the Republic of Azerbaijan. Everything Azerbaijan has now, was created by titanic efforts of Heydar Aliyev, who showed the way for the country to defend its sovereignty, including the economic one," he concluded.
