Aliyev, Heydar (1923-2003), served as president of Azerbaijan from 1993 to 2003. Aliyev initially assumed the role of president during a political crisis in June 1993. But he was elected president in October 1993 and again in 1998.
As president, Aliyev worked to bring economic growth to Azerbaijan. The vast oil and gas deposits in the Caspian Sea attracted much investment from Western Europe and the United States. Aliyev supported the building of oil and gas pipelines to Turkey and Western Europe.
In 1994, Aliyev agreed to a cease-fire in a bitter war that had raged since 1988 between Azerbaijan and its neighbor Armenia over the disputed area of Nagorno-Karabakh. Armenia claimed the region because a majority of the inhabitants of Nagorno-Karabakh are Armenians. The truce with Armenia remained fragile, however, and fighting often broke out along the border.
Heydar Alirza oglu Aliyev was born on May 10, 1923, in Naxcivan, in southwestern Azerbaijan. He was educated at Baku State University. He became a local Communist Party official in his native region of Naxcivan in 1941. He joined the Communist Party of the Soviet Union (CPSU) in 1945. He became an official of the Azerbaijan Soviet Socialist Republic, joining the staff of the foreign ministry and the Committee of State Security, also known as the KGB. Aliyev was promoted to the military rank of major general.
In 1969, Aliyev became first secretary of the Central Committee of the Azerbaijan Communist Party, the top political job in the republic. He became a deputy in the Supreme Soviet in 1970 and joined the Central Committee of the CPSU in 1971. Aliyev became a candidate (nonvoting) member of the CPSU’s Politburo (chief policymaking committee) in 1976. Political disputes forced Aliyev to retire from politics in 1987.
In 1991, around the time the Soviet Union was breaking up, Aliyev resigned from the CPSU. Also in 1991, after Azerbaijan declared its independence, Aliyev won election to the republic’s Supreme Soviet and became its deputy chairman. A political crisis in 1993 elevated Aliyev first to chairman of the Supreme Soviet and then to acting president. Elections held later in 1993 confirmed him as Azerbaijan’s president. Aliyev won reelection in 1998 by a wide margin over his nearest opponent. Aliyev did not run for reelection in 2003 because of poor health. Voters elected his son Ilham to succeed him as president. Heydar Aliyev died on Dec. 12, 2003.
See also Azerbaijan .
