August 2002: Moments from life given to nation

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2 August. President Heydar Aliyev took part in the event dedicated to the Day of Azerbaijani Cinema and delivered a speech.

5 August. Aksoy received Erdal, Chairman of the Board of Directors of Aksoy Holding Company .

6 August. Iran received delegation headed by Deputy Foreign Minister of Asia, Oceania and Commonwealth of Independent States Mohsen Aminzadeh.

9 August. It received a Russian delegation.

10-15 August. He visited the Nakhchivan Autonomous Republic. As part of his visit, he held a meeting at the Supreme Assembly of Nakhchivan. He met with residents of Shahbuz, Sadarak, Sharur and Babek districts. He addressed a meeting dedicated to the establishment of the Nakhchivan branch of ANAS and took part in other events.

19 August. He received a delegation led by Turkish State Minister Rashad Doghrun.

He held consultations on proposed changes to the Constitution of the Republic of Azerbaijan.

20 August. He received the Ambassador of the United States of America to Azerbaijan, Ross Wilson.

21 August. He addressed the residents of "Heydar Park" in Nizami district.

23 August. Turkish "Marmara" group received delegation of Strategic and Social Research Foundation.

24 August. He answered journalists' questions while voting on proposed amendments to the Constitution of the Republic of Azerbaijan adopted in 1995.

27 August. Received Ambassador of the Federal Republic of Germany to Azerbaijan Klaus Grevlich.

28 August. He met with delegation headed by Turkish State Minister for Maritime Affairs.

29 August. He was received by the Deputy Prime Minister of Ukraine.

30 August. He met with students who entered universities with the highest scores.

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The Great Leader pays special attention to solving the problems faced by Nakhchivan living under blockade, ensuring the security and development of the Autonomous Republic, and periodically visits the homeland where he was born and raised. One such visit took place on 10 August 2002. As it is seen from the chronology, the programe of the six-day visit was rather rich: meeting in the Supreme Assembly of the Autonomous Republic, event devoted to establishment of Nakhchivan branch of ANAS, acquaintance with construction of Vaykhir water reservoir, meetings with residents of Shahbuz, Sadarak, Sharur and Babek districts.

Addressing the meeting held in the Supreme Assembly, Heydar Aliyev talked of numerous problems of the Autonomous Republic and works done to solve them. He emphazsed importance of establishing transport and communication ties with the capital Baku, especially population growth.

Quote: Up to 400 thousand people live in the Autonomous Republic. Population growth is also good and should increase. I believe that real Nakhchivans should not leave Nakhchivan and go somewhere else. I still say that if there was not such a difficult situation in Azerbaijan at that time and there was no great need for me, I would not have left Nakhchivan. I came to Nakhchivan in 1991 with the aim of living here for the rest of my life."

On the eve of his visit to the Autonomous Republic - 7 August, President Heydar Aliyev signed a decree on establishment of the Nakhchivan branch of the Academy of Sciences of Azerbaijan. During his visit, he held a meeting on the establishment of the unit. In his speech at the meeting, he shared his thoughts on upcoming tasks and said the ancient history, culture, science and literature of the Nakhchivan Autonomous Republic, which have been little studied so far, should be thoroughly reinterpreted. and scientific works and popular books should be written about it.

Great Leader also emphasised the importance of studying the nature of Nakhchivan and natural monuments of this ancient land and said: "Unfortunately, the unique nature, natural resources, land and natural monuments of Nakhchivan are still not properly studied, perhaps it would be correct to say that they are not studied at all. There is a great need to study these issues that I am putting forward. Because Nakhchivan, as an integral part of Azerbaijan, occupies a very big place in the history of the Azerbaijani people and in the concept of Azerbaijan as a whole".

Speaking at the meeting dedicated to the construction of Vaykhir reservoir, President Heydar Aliyev said the reservoir will play an important role in the socio-economic life of the Autonomous Republic, and the issue of Nakhchivan's water supply will be solved to one side.

It should be noted that Vaykhir reservoir named after Heydar Aliyev was put into operation on 19 December 2005 in the presence of President Ilham Aliyev. With a total volume of 100 million cubic metres, the reservoir can irrigate 16,830 hectares of land.

Thinking about the future of the Motherland and considering science and education as the main means of national revival, the Great Leader managed to allocate annual quotas for our republic in the advanced universities of the former USSR to ensure training of national cadres during the first period of his leadership of Azerbaijan. On his initiative, in 1970-1980, more than 15 thousand Azerbaijani specialists of higher education were trained in various specialities in more than 170 prestigious universities of the former USSR.

On 30 August, Heydar Aliyev, who considered development of education as one of the priority tasks in the years of independence, met with students admitted to higher educational institutions with the highest scores in 2002/2003 academic year. Emphazising the advantage of conducting admission to higher education institutions by test method, he said: "Since it has a positive result, we support this method, have created and will create necessary opportunities for its continuation in Azerbaijan. We used to use many methods of admission to higher education institutions to make the admission fair, but only those who have knowledge were admitted to higher education institutions. But unfortunately, the recent measures did not bring the desired results. The test method is much more advanced than theirs."

In his speech, the president also touched on the disturbing points and shortcomings associated with education.

Quote: I am concerned about general education, that is, the primary education of our young people, the situation in secondary schools, the education that secondary schools provide, and the level of knowledge of the children who graduate from these schools. That's what worries me. It shows the level of knowledge of our people in general. Because individual people who achieve very high results, or students who do scientific work, cannot yet show the general level of knowledge of the people, of the nation. It cannot be an indicator. This indicator is in secondary schools.

At the end of his speech, the Great Leader addressed the students invited to the meeting and said: "Young people studying in higher schools of Azerbaijan, you are the future of our country. You will not have a near future, but a distant future. Azerbaijan will live and develop in the future on the shoulders of young people like you. I also wish that Azerbaijan's independence, economic policy realised in Azerbaijan continue, so that Azerbaijan can successfully live as an independent state. Let the welfare and life of our people improve day by day. For this purpose it is necessary to work, sacrifice, and young people like you should prepare for the future. I look at you and all young people, all students with great hopes for the future of Azerbaijan".

This tradition, the foundations of which were laid by the National Leader, and the state concern for education successfully continued in the subsequent period. In 2003-2023, thousands of school buildings were built or thoroughly repaired in the country. Presidential scholarship was established by the Decree of President Ilham Aliyev for students admitted to higher education institutions who showed the highest results in entrance examinations. Hundreds of young Azerbaijanis are currently studying abroad within the framework of the "State Programme for 2022-2026 on education of young people in prestigious higher education institutions of foreign countries".