BAKU, Azerbaijan, January 23. Heydar Aliyev possessed an unswerving love of his country and total commitment to defending the interests of his people, former President of Latvia, Co-Chair of the Nizami Ganjavi International Center Vaira Vike-Freiberga told Trend.
Vike-Freiberga was sharing her memories of Heydar Aliyev as part of the joint Trend-NGIC project titled "The lasting legacy of Heydar Aliyev".
"On the centenary of the birth of Heydar Aliyev, I join the ranks of those who have had the privilege of direct personal contact with this towering figure of Azerbaijani history during my term in office as President of Latvia. He was truly an impressive personality, free and generous in sharing his insightful analysis of the challenges faced by all the countries that either gained or recovered their national independence after the dissolution of the USSR in December 1991," she said.
Vaira Vike-Freiberga noted that Heydar Aliyev's own personal experience spanned the cataclysmic changes that Azerbaijan had experienced during his lifetime, and he was fully committed to a vision of the future of his country that would rapidly advance on the path of independence, stability, social justice, economic development, religious tolerance, and modernity.
"Heydar Aliyev possessed an unswerving love of his country and total commitment to defending the interests of his people, which remain as a heritage worth emulating by future generations of Azerbaijanis," concluded the former president of Latvia.
