TV and radio host of All-Russia State Television and Radio Broadcasting Company Vladimir Solovyov, speaking about Mikhail Gorbachev's rule during the last years of the USSR, drew attention to the secretary general's mean action towards one of the key members of the Politburo - the first deputy chairman of the USSR Council of Ministers Heydar Aliyev, despite the fact that Aliyev once supported his candidacy during the election of a new general secretary.
The host recalled that Heydar Aliyev was not just forcibly retired by Gorbachev, but also persecuted his family. "Look at how he [Mikhail Gorbachev] treated Aliyev. Ok, Aliyev was suspended, but he further insisted that Shevardnadze, who was Minister of Foreign Affairs then, do everything possible to prevent Aliev's son [Ilham Aliyev] from working, teaching In MGIMO, in fact, he was disqualified," Vladimir Soloviev noted.
"It's despicable, people should not be so petty. It's really mean, ugly, unworthy of a big politician," he stressed.
Heydar Aliyev was forced to resign from from the post of First Deputy Chairman of the Council of Ministers of the USSR on October 23, 1987. After his forced retirement, Aliyev remained in Moscow until 1990. Aliyev appeared in the Permanent Mission of Azerbaijan SSR in Moscow, demanded that the organizers and executors of the crime committed against the people of Azerbaijan be punished for a military action which resulted in violent Black January events. Almost immediately after this public appearance in Moscow, Aliyev officially resigned his membership in the Communist Party of the Soviet Union and left Moscow for his native Nakhchivan, where he was elected Chairman of the Supreme Soviet of Nakhchivan Autonomous Republic in 1991.
In May-June 1993, when, as a result of a crisis in the government, the country was on the verge of a civil war and faced the peril of losing independence, the people of Azerbaijan demanded to bring Heydar Aliyev to power. On 15 June 1993, Aliyev had been elected Chairman of the National Assembly of Azerbaijan. In October 1993, Aliyev was elected President of Azerbaijan.
