The statehood model established by National Leader Heydar Aliyev paved the way for Azerbaijan’s Victory, Hikmat Babaoghlu, a member of the Milli Majlis and the Board of the New Azerbaijan Party, told APA.
Azerbaijan’s path of state-building
Hikmat Babaoghlu said that October 3, 1993, was the date when, for the first time after Azerbaijan gained its independence, a legitimate government was formed in the country: “It was precisely on October 3, 1993, that the Azerbaijani people, through their political will, brought the great statesman Heydar Aliyev to power with 98.8% of the vote. The path that began with Heydar Aliyev’s coming to power actually turned into the path of building an independent Azerbaijani state. Our country was saved from civil war, and the functionality of state institutions was restored. A new philosophy of Azerbaijan’s economic activity was defined, and in 1994 the economic foundations of an Azerbaijan that would develop in the future were created. A year later, in 1995, with the adoption of a new Constitution in Azerbaijan, the legal, political, philosophical and conceptual foundations of our state were defined.
At the same time, several attempts to carry out a coup d’état in Azerbaijan were prevented. Only after 1995 were the foundations created for the formation of domestic political stability in Azerbaijan, and in this regard, the first national task that came to the fore was the creation of a National Army in Azerbaijan subordinate to a unified command. Thus, we can assess the path that began after October 3 as the process of transforming the independent Azerbaijani state from formal foundations into a genuine national state. We can see how historically correct the foundations that were laid were when, from the peak of the historic Victory we achieved in 2020, we look back at that period.”
National solidarity, strong state
The member of the YAP Board noted that the independent Azerbaijani statehood, the foundation of which was laid in 1993, finally gained the strength in 2020 to restore its territorial integrity: “This became possible as a result of the development of Azerbaijan, whose architect was Heydar Aliyev. But here we should not forget the issue of overall national solidarity and ideological solidarity either. If the existence of every state is associated with its strength, the foundation of every strength is the overall national strength arising from national solidarity. If the foundations had not been laid correctly in the ideological-political, legal-political and economic-social aspects, undoubtedly, we would not have been able today to transform from a defeated country into a victorious state, a victorious country.”
Hikmat Babaoghlu said that at the 8th Congress of the New Azerbaijan Party, President Ilham Aliyev also based the philosophy of sovereign Azerbaijan’s future security concept on strength and explained it through the model of a strong Azerbaijan: "In this context, the head of state returned to the early 1990s, refreshed our statehood memory and consistently expressed his views in order to analyze where we came from and where we have arrived. Therefore, the speech of the President of Azerbaijan at the 8th Congress of the New Azerbaijan Party should be assessed as the general concept of the future development and security of sovereign Azerbaijan and should be evaluated through the philosophy of strength. This strength is not merely military strength; at the same time, it is economic strength, the strength of solidarity, and ideological solidarity and ideological strength, which the President of Azerbaijan equates with physical strength. Therefore, if we try to analyze the five years from the 7th Congress of the New Azerbaijan Party in 2021 to 2026, this period should be assessed as a period of transition from Victory to sovereignty. The new period that will begin from now on should be characterized as the era of a stronger Azerbaijan. The views of the President of Azerbaijan on how this will be implemented, what tasks will fall on society and the political system, and what work will be carried out by the state should be systematized and implemented in the form of specific theses and a concept.”
Factor protecting peace
The member of the YAP Board said that President Ilham Aliyev had stated that strength is also necessary to preserve peace in the country: “Because peace is constantly under threat and will always be so. As difficult as it is to achieve peace, it is even more difficult to preserve it. The President of Azerbaijan pointed to two sources of threats to peace and cited our historical experience as the main reason why we should not trust the Armenians’ rhetoric of peace. He noted that if we weaken, we will inevitably see an Armenian knife stabbed in our back. Every Azerbaijani should turn this into a programme of action.
Secondly, he showed that under the current international circumstances, peace is threatened from all sides. In other words, he linked this to political reality. Therefore, the model of a strong Azerbaijan will complement the model of a sovereign Azerbaijan and will become the main human means of protecting peace from threats.”
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