Today, Azerbaijan is at the peak of its development in all spheres of life and is consistently achieving new successes. This makes every Azerbaijani citizen, including Azerbaijanis around the world, happy and proud. To be a citizen of a developed independent, democratic, legal, secular, civilized state.
This is a great happiness that has been bestowed upon our wise people. No matter how hard and hard the history is, the Azerbaijani people have been victorious from this struggle. One of the factors determining this is the important decisions made by our people on such issues. This is an axiom that has stood the test of time. We remember well the first years of independence. Not only did we lose our independence, but our very existence: the country was falling apart. This is terrible.
Illegal armed groups acted arbitrarily, and armed clashes took place throughout the country, including in the capital. Military units run by civilians who had not even served in the military were concentrated in the hands of individual political forces serving foreign countries, not the state.
The country’s civil war had already begun. This was the hardest test for the people of Azerbaijan in its history. At this point, the people, faithful to their tradition, made a historic decision.
When he began his struggle for the salvation of Azerbaijan, he had nothing but the support of the people and his political skills. He appeared unarmed in front of the country’s tyrannical armed groups and managed to neutralize them with his Cypriot leadership qualities. He saved the country from great misfortunes and hard tragedies, led it to the path of stability, economic development and Progress, showed its loyalty to the motherland by implementing huge energy-communication projects. The country, returning to normal life, took a great path of development. All this is the history we live in and we have witnessed this reality.
Preservation and strengthening of our state independence, raising the international image of Azerbaijan, achieving socio-economic progress are the result of the Great Leader’s resolute decisions, political will, quality service to the people. In all his political activities, he acted in the national interest, correctly assessed the historical situation, always considered the factor of time and space, and acted with patience and perseverance. That was his phenomenality.
If we look at the period when the great leader led Soviet Azerbaijan, we see that before he came to power, the situation in the country was not so good, and Azerbaijan was lagging far behind the union in economic and other fields. As a result of Heydar Aliyev’s extensive reform program, a fundamental and qualitative turn in the life of Azerbaijan began. Productive structural projects have been implemented in the economic sphere, new industries have been created, scientific and technical achievements have been made, and the social situation of the people has improved. In short, thanks to the purposeful, systematic, strategic steps of Heydar Aliyev, Azerbaijan became one of the leading developed republics in the USSR.
Due to the hard and tireless activity of Heydar Aliyev, who was elected chairman of the Nakhchivan Parliament, stability was established here, socio-economic situation normalized and progress was achieved.
The Great Leader has a deep mark on Azerbaijan’s path to independence. This was the goal of his political activity since 1969. It laid important foundations for turning Azerbaijan into a free, independent and independent country. The further development of history confirms what we have said.
On July 22, 1990, at a crowded rally in Nakhchivan’s Azadlig Square, Heydar Aliyev called on the people to fight to the end for freedom and independence. Under his chairmanship, the Nakhchivan parliament made historic decisions to remove the words “Soviet Socialist” on behalf of the Autonomous Republic, to adopt the tricolor, crescent and octagonal star flag of the Azerbaijan Democratic Republic as the state flag and to raise the issue before the Azerbaijani parliament. This was a bold step for that period, Heydar Aliyev’s love for his people and homeland, his desire to see his country free and independent did not frighten him. He was always in solidarity with his people, he represented them with dignity.
The invaluable services of the Great Leader in the life of the Azerbaijani trade union are undeniable. With his return to power in 1993 at the request of the people, radical changes took place in the lives of public organizations, including trade unions, as in all areas. As a result of the measures taken by him on the way to building a democratic state, the activity of the organization has expanded, and the threat has subsided. Heydar Aliyev never spared the state care from trade unions, supported the activities of the organization to protect the rights, interests and improve the social situation of workers. Only a year after his election as president, in 1994, for the first time in the former post-Soviet space, the Law on Trade Unions was adopted in Azerbaijan under the personal initiative and control of the great leader. Thus, a legal basis has been created for the regulation of the organization’s activities in society on the basis of new principles and for its active participation in the protection of the socio-economic interests of our citizens. This is a sign of the value that Heydar Aliyev attaches to a democratically developing civil society. Thus, the organization’s activities expanded, its previous reputation was restored, the number of members began to increase, and free and independent opportunities as a public organization were opened before it. The rights of trade unions were recognized in the drafting of legislation on labor, social and economic issues, and Azerbaijani trade unions became an integral part of the international trade union movement.
Today, President Ilham Aliyev, continuing the political course of Heydar Aliyev with dignity, turned the people of Azerbaijan into a victorious nation and brought them to the ranks of developed countries. Azerbaijan has achieved rapid development in all areas, and people’s well-being has improved. Azerbaijan’s political and economic opportunities have expanded, and our country’s position in the international arena has been strengthened. Our territorial integrity, which has been violated for 30 years, has been restored.
In short, Azerbaijan is experiencing the most glorious and happy period of its millennial history.
Sattar Mohbaliyev, Chairman of the Azerbaijan Trade Unions Confederation, MP