Heydar Alirza oglu Aliyev was born on May 10, 1923 in the city of Nakhchivan.
After graduating from the Nakhchivan Pedagogical College, he studied at the Faculty of Architecture of the Azerbaijan Industrial Institute (now the Azerbaijan State University of Oil and Industry) in 1939-41. Since 1941, he worked as the department head in the Nakhchivan People’s Commissariat of Internal Affairs and the Nakhchivan Council of People’s Commissars. Heydar Aliyev was sent to work in state security bodies in May 1944, received a special higher education in Leningrad and received the rank of general. In 1957 he graduated from the History Department of Azerbaijan State University. In 1964, he was appointed deputy chairman of the State Security Committee under the Council of Ministers of the Azerbaijan SSR, and in 1967 he was appointed chairman. In 1969, he was elected first secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Azerbaijan, a member of the Central Committee bureau. In March 1976, Heydar Aliyev was elected a member of the Politburo of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, and in November 1982 – a member of the Politburo and was appointed First Deputy Chairman of the Council of Ministers of the USSR. He was a deputy of the Supreme Council of the USSR (8th, 9th and 10th convocations), deputy chairman of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR of the 9th convocation, deputy of the Supreme Council of the Azerbaijan SSR (7th, 8th, 9th and 10th convocations) and the Supreme Council of the Republic. He was a member of the Presidium, awarded the Order of Lenin (4 times), the Order of the Red Star and many medals, twice awarded the title Hero of Socialist Labor (1979, 1983).
Aliev resigned in October 1987 in protest against the wrong policy pursued by the Politburo of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union and personally by the General Secretary Mikhail Gorbachev, and took an opposition position. He strongly condemned the use of weapons against the Azerbaijani people in a statement published the next day at the Azerbaijani mission in Moscow in connection with the bloody tragedy committed by Soviet troops in Baku on January 20, 1990. Aliyev left the Communist Party of the Soviet Union in July 1991 in protest against the hypocritical policy of the center regarding the acute conflict in Nagorno-Karabakh. Returning to Azerbaijan in July 1990, Heydar Aliyev lived in Nakhchivan and was elected deputy of the Supreme Council of Azerbaijan in the same year. In 1992, at the constituent congress of the New Azerbaijan Party in Nakhchivan, he was elected chairman of the party. In 1991-1993 he was the chairman of the Supreme Assembly of the Nakhchivan Autonomous Republic, deputy chairman of the Supreme Council of the Republic of Azerbaijan. On June 15, 1993, Heydar Aliyev was elected chairman of the Supreme Council of Azerbaijan, and on June 24, by the decision of the Milli Majlis, he began to exercise the powers of the President of Azerbaijan. On October 3, 1993, as a result of a popular vote, Heydar Aliyev was elected President of Azerbaijan.
With the return of Aliyev to the leadership of Azerbaijan, a turn in the socio-political, social, economic, scientific and cultural life of the country took place, the process of building an independent state began in international relations, and attempts to coup in October 1994 and March 1995 were prevented. political stability was established. The foreign policy of the state, as well as its relations with leading countries of the world and international organizations, began to develop on the basis of national interests and far-sighted political prospects. In May 1994, he managed to announce a ceasefire at the front. In September 1994, an oil contract was signed in Baku under the name “Contract of the Century”, successful steps were taken to transport Azerbaijani oil to world markets, and the Baku-Supsa pipeline was built and commissioned. Thanks to the will of Heydar Aliyev, an agreement was signed on the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan trunk export pipeline and its implementation began. At the initiative of Heydar Aliyev, Azerbaijan played a leading role in restoring the Great Silk Road – the implementation of a global communication program. Heydar Aliyev also played an important role in creating the GUAM alliance, which covers Georgia, Ukraine, Azerbaijan and Moldova, and, thus, in uniting regional forces in a large geographical area. He pursued a consistent policy of building a democratic state of law and laid a solid foundation for establishing the basic principles of human rights and freedoms in the country. The Constitution of Azerbaijan was adopted at a referendum in November 1995, parliamentary elections were held in a multi-party system in 1995 and 2000, the Constitutional Court was established, and the death penalty and press censorship were abolished in Azerbaijan. In May 1995, the institution of amnesty was restored, in 1995-2002, thousands of prisoners were fully or partially released from various sentences under decrees of clemency and amnesty. Azerbaijan received the status of “special guest” in the Council of Europe in June 1996. January 25, he became a full member of the organization.
Aliyev was re-elected President of Azerbaijan on October 11, 1998. In 2001, he signed decrees on the transition to the Latin alphabet in Azerbaijan, improving the use of the state language, approving the Day of the Azerbaijani alphabet and the Azerbaijani language.
Aliyev died on December 12, 2003.