Flower festival in Baku on fictional birthday

PanARMENIAN.Net - May 10 marks the official birthday of Heydar Aliyev, who, if alive, would turn 88. However, in none of his biographies there’s the exact date and year of birth given. Some sources say that before the World War II Aliyev changed his date of birth, not to be drafted and immediately went to serve in the People’s Commissariat for Interior Affairs, which automatically “saved” him from joining the army. By the way, according to various sources, he is not an Azerbaijani but a Kurd, and was born not in Nakhichevan but in Sisian, Armenia. Only some time after his birth the family moved to Nakhichevan. But be that as it may – the life and death of this man were all false and fraudulent. The date of Aliyev’s death is shrouded in secrecy – only the year and place of his death are definite. Heydar Aliyev died at the Cleveland Clinic in the U.S. after undergoing several unsuccessful heart operations. He died on August 1, 2003 but Azerbaijani people were notified of his death only on December 12...

Former press secretary of the Turkish Embassy in Baku, Turgut Er, author of the acclaimed book “From Freedom to Tyranny” about Heydar Aliyev, condemns the Azerbaijani authorities for creating an authoritarian regime, exploiting its people and the resources of the country. On the question of what caused Dawn to take up the pen and amass as many enemies, he replied: “I worked in Azerbaijan from 1993 to 2001. Many things I have seen and know I have not written about. If I published it, the scandal would be even greater, and many people in your country would have to leave. I thought hard, and the worse the situation became in Azerbaijan, the more I wanted to reveal the reasons for it. When I hear the authorities praising themselves for their great achievements in democracy, and at the same time people drown in blood, I feel very bad. When you see that a 17-year old boy, the son of a government minister, is the head of a large holding in Azerbaijan and is a billionaire, or that a year after his appointment some minister owns large business structures, it is terrible. And this horror is greater because this regime wants everything to continue!”

After publication of the book, Azerbaijani authorities accused Er of slander and anti-Azerbaijani activities, as he revealed Heydar Aliyev’s two-faced policy, and noted that very often Aliyev acted in his own interests, rather than in the interests of his people.

The ex-diplomat considers it his patriotic duty to inform the present and future generations of Azerbaijanis and Turks about what really happened in Azerbaijan in the ‘90s and who is responsible for it. “Is it a secret that it was Heydar Aliyev who came to power and gave the Armenians six regions, and caused the deaths of thousands of soldiers in Karabakh? He accused the government of the Popular Front of inactivity, promised to return Karabakh, but in fact, he inflicted a crushing blow on Azerbaijan. And now they compare that man with Ataturk, and call him the father of nation?” exclaims Er, quite fairly.

He believes the oil strategy of the country was laid long before Aliyev; he would never have dared to expel Russian troops from the country, and to invite western oil companies. This was done prior to him. “The first thing Aliyev tried to do when he came to power was to freeze oil contracts in order to please Russia , and when he did not manage to do so, he began to realize them, but in worse conditions. But he and his family have become very rich. Here it is - his praised oil strategy!” Er said sarcastically. “Having handed over the territory around Karabakh, Aliyev could do nothing better than to bow to the Russians, disband the most combat-ready units and increase the number of police officers from 9.000 to 150.000. This was done not for the liberation of Karabakh, but to ensure that this regime could rule with impunity and get richer at the expense of the people. Those who love their country would never do this; it is the behavior of a monarch who despises the common people, and who puts his throne above all else in the world,” the Turkish diplomat said.

And humorously treats the fact that Azerbaijani authorities may serve him with the charge of libel: “Our court will uphold everything I have said, because I have all the documents, and I will submit them to court. Will the authorities say that there was no Bishkek protocol, that Suret Huseynov was not appointed by Heydar Aliyev, that special-mission units were not executed and that many other things are not his doing?

For several years now Flower Festival is held in Azerbaijan on May 10 in honor of Heydar Aliyev. Well, and Victory Day in Baku was celebrated in the best traditions of the genre. A large group of Karabakh war veterans led by holder of the Azerbaijan Flag Order, “legendary” scout Ibad Huseynov and deputy of the Milli Mejlis Agil Abbas, as well as commanders of military units that took part in the Karabakh war, laid flowers at the tomb of Heydar Aliyev, thus observing the Day of Victory in Great Patriotic War.