AZERBAIJAN SOCIETY OF AMERICA CONDOLES ON DEATH OF PRESIDENT HEYDAR ALIYEV
Mr. Heydar Aliyev led Azerbaijan for 34 years, being the member of Politburo (the supreme political and decision making body in the USSR) and , in fact, one of the top leaders of the USSR. The Armenian propagandist already then began hteir distorted and misleading attacks against one of the most outstanding political personalities in the Caucasus.
Mr. Aliyev was the one who, despite the pressure from Gorbachev, strongly criticized sending Soviet troops to Baku, which resulted in ruthless execution of 500 innocent civilians. His reaction to this crime was courageous: he quit the Communist Party (long before the coup of August 1991) and encouraged the Azeri nation to withdraw from the USSR. His return from Moscow to Azerbaijan in the summer of 1990 was welcomed by tens of thousands of ordinary people.
Mr. Aliyev was the architect of the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan pipeline project, a revolutionary development for the Caspian region. The pipeline will eventually bring Azerbaijan close to the West and cement its links to the world’s growing market economic system. Russia, the country that strongly opposes Azerbaijan’s rapprochement with the West and cooperation of this South-Caucasian nation with NATO, uses its puppet Armenian state to apply pressure on Baku to make the latter redraw the pipeline route. Armenia, which is known as a country-aggressor, occupies close to 20% of historical Azerbaijani lands despite several UN Security Council resolutions. Mr. Aliyev had always shown a firm stands with aggressive Armenian State led y the international war criminal Robert Kocharyan (the murderer of the Khodjaly children and women in 1992). Mr. Aliyev made it clear to the whole world that there is no alternative to the rapprochement with the West.
Mr. Aliyev, until his last breath, remained committed to the western values and cooperation with the West. His uncompromised position on the war on terrorism has made Azerbaijan a key ally in this war with the US. The US has greatly appreciated Aliyev’s firm stand, and as a sign of gratitude, President George W. Bush waived the discriminatory Section 907, which was pushed through in 1992 by the infamous Armenian lobby.
Mr. Aliyev emphasized that the soonest withdrawal of the foreign troops from the internationally recognized territory of Azerbaijan is first of all in the interest of the aggressor. This would save lives of the Armenian soldiers who are sent to serve in occupied Azeri territories. Being an advocate of the peaceful solution to the conflict with Armenia, Mr. Aliyev however always stressed that the country-aggressor Armenia doesn’t understand the language of peace, continues to play the “cat and mouse” game and abuses the patience of the Azeri nation by trying to freeze the conflict. Part of the country is occupied by the neighboring state that is preoccupied with expansionist utopia. The sooner Armenia understands this, the less costly its post-war recovery will be, and the sooner it will be included in the beneficial regional projects, from which it has been so far kept out due to its unwise policy. Mr. Aliyev had been always drawing attention of officials in Yerevan to these facts.
Today, the world is mourning together with the Azeri nation with the death of the great leader Heydar Aliyev. His policy will remain unchanged despite any external pressure - be it either from Moscow or from its puppet Armenia. Azerbaijan will crush the aggressor, liberate the occupied lands and return 1 million refugees and IDPs to their homes. The people of Azerbaijan will achieve the goals set by Mr. Heydar Aliyev. There is no alternative to victory of Azerbaijan!
Azerbaijan Society of America is oldest and leading nationwide non-profit organization dedicated to enhancing knowledge about the Republic of Azerbaijan, the Azerbaijani people, their culture and history.
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