APresident · 1993 – 2003Independent states
Heydar Aliyev
Azerbaijan's third president (1923–2003); a ceasefire was reached and the "Contract of the Century" signed in 1994.
Heydar Aliyev led Soviet Azerbaijan in 1969–1982 and was later First Deputy Chairman of the USSR Council of Ministers. In June 1993 he became Speaker of the National Assembly and in October was elected president.
Under him a ceasefire on the Karabakh front was reached in May 1994 and the "Contract of the Century" on Caspian oil fields was signed that September; the 1995 Constitution was adopted and the Baku–Tbilisi–Ceyhan pipeline project launched. He died in 2003.
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Updated: October 4, 2026