Monument to Heydar Aliyev

Heydar Alirza oglu Aliyev was a Soviet and Azerbaijani politician who served as the third President of Azerbaijan from October 1993 to October 2003. Originally a high-ranking official in the KGB of the Azerbaijan SSR, serving for 28 years in Soviet state security organs, he led Soviet Azerbaijan from 1969 to 1982 and held the post of First Deputy Premier of the Soviet Union from 1982 to 1987.

Aliyev became president of independent Azerbaijan while the country was on the brink of civil war and suffering serious losses in the First Nagorno-Karabakh War with neighboring Armenia. Aliyev's supporters credit him with restoring stability to Azerbaijan and turning the country into a major international energy producer. His regime in Azerbaijan has been described as dictatorial, authoritarian, and repressive.