Today is the birthday of Abulfaz Elchibey, a statesman, political and public figure of Azerbaijan, dissident, leader of the Azerbaijan Popular Front, and the second president of the Republic of Azerbaijan.
elchi reports that Abulfaz Gadirgulu oglu Aliyev (Elchibey) was born on June 24, 1938, in the village of Keleki, Ordubad district of the Nakhchivan AR.
After graduating from the 7-year Unuskend school, he continued his education at secondary school No. 1 in Ordubad city.
In 1957, he entered the Arabic philology department of the Faculty of Oriental Studies at Baku State University. After graduating (1962), he worked as a translator at the Baku branch of the USSR Hydroproject Institute.
Since his student years, Abulfaz Elchibey fought against the colonial policy of the Soviet regime, created secret student circles, and widely spread the ideas of freedom.
Even his arrest in 1975 could not turn him away from his path. When the Azerbaijan Popular Movement began in 1988, it was Elchibey who was one of its leaders. He was one of the founders (July 1989) of the Azerbaijan Popular Front, the organized form of the Movement, and remained its irreplaceable chairman until the end of his life.
Elected president on June 7, 1992, Abulfaz Elchibey left Baku after the military rebellion that began in Ganja a year later and went to his birthplace, the village of Keleki in the Ordubad district, on June 17, 1993.
Abulfaz Elchibey, whose powers were terminated by the decision of the Milli Majlis on June 24, continued his activities as the chairman of the Azerbaijan Popular Front Party and the United Azerbaijan Union.
After a long and serious illness, Abulfaz Elchibey passed away on August 22, 2000, at the Ankara State Hospital in Turkey; his remains were brought to Baku and buried in the Alley of Honor.