In honour of the 100th anniversary of the founder and spiritual father of modern Azerbaijan, the world-famous political figure Heydar Aliyev, the State Translation Centre has published the book entitled "Heydar Aliyev and the Azerbaijani language", reflecting the love, attention and care of the Great Leader for the Azerbaijani language and literature, his exceptional historical merits in preservation and development of the purity of our language.

The book, which consists of the chapters "Heydar Aliyev about the Azerbaijani language", "Azerbaijani language in official documents", "Heydar Aliyev and Azerbaijani literature", as well as the rich "Photo album" representing various periods of the life and activity of the politician, along with the decrees and orders of the head of state on the preservation of the Azerbaijani language as a national treasure, enshrining the status of the state language in the legislation, expanding the scope of its functionality and use, contains thoughts, speeches and statements expressed by him about the language and literature at various meetings, events and ceremonies.

The project manager and author of the preface is People's writer Afag Masud, the editor is Yashar Aliyev.

                                                                                                         Historic Mission

Language and literature, enriching and developing this language, determine the identity, history, individuality and uniqueness of each nation and create an eternal indestructible bridge between its past, present and future. Only such concepts, as land and language, make the country the Motherland. One of these concepts defines the geographical, and the other is the spiritual territory of the people.
The mission of preserving, maintaining and developing the language has for centuries been falling on the shoulders of great historical figures, people of the people, who speak this language. If today we look at the history of the Native language from this point of view, we will witness the fact that there is no other person like the great Heydar Aliyev who influenced this path of evolution, rich in various political and social reforms and events, and who never gave up on anything. He worked with tireless perseverance and courage for the sake of preserving the national identity of the Azerbaijani language and turning it into an attribute of the state on the example of the coat of arms, flag and anthem of the country.

In his speech at the 50th anniversary of Azerbaijan State University in November 1969, Heydar Aliyev said: "The native language needs the care of the state, and especially the sensitive attitude of the intelligentsia!" The national-language policy, continuously pursued by the head of state back in Soviet times since the late 60s, which are considered to be the most difficult period of the political and ideological pressure of the Centre on individual republics, that is, multifaceted, fateful measures taken towards the formation of the Azerbaijani language as a national treasure, preservation of its identity, gaining the status of the state language and enshrining it in legislation, expanding its functionality and scope, purity, richness and development along with the awakening of the spirit of national freedom, national self-return and self-consciousness, opened broad horizons for updating the semantic, content and ideological circle of the national literature, freedom of literary-artistic space…

In his speech at the Tenth Congress of Azerbaijani Writers, held on October 30, 1997, Heydar Aliyev remembered this period as follows:

“I remember having taken a break for the first time after my speech at the congress of the Union of Writers with a statement in Azerbaijani. Everyone congratulated me because I was the first to speak there in my native language. I said: "Dear brethren, there is no courage in this, it is our mother tongue." I realized that the state people had not spoken Azerbaijani. It was the everyday language, there was also a literary language. But there was no state language.”

This eternal attachment to the native language, boundless love for the people and the nation became even more evident after the second return of the National Leader to power... Many historical decrees and orders signed in connection with the promotion of the national and state significance of the Azerbaijani language, its updating, teaching, use and research, in addition to laying the basis for the concept of a perfect language construction, created fundamental historical changes in the direction of the development of the language, enrichment of its content and essence, range expansion of the ​​use and expression.

Heydar Aliyev, whose name is forever engraved in gold letters on the pages of history for exceptional services for the benefit of prosperity, development, preservation of independence, strengthening and inviolability of the foundations of the state, showed a sensitive attitude and concern for the protection and development of the immediate literary level of the language, our national literature.

The national literature, as the most sacred spiritual asset of the nation, had constantly been in the spotlight since the first years of his appointment as the main leader of Azerbaijan, during the period of the cruellest and ideological dictatorship of the Soviet era. Such literary activities as the awarding of writers and poets with high honorary titles and state awards, organizing commemorative events, implementing measures of state and national importance for the preservation and perpetuation of the classical cultural heritage, the erection of the mausoleums of Molla Panah Vagif and Huseyn Javid, the opening of the monuments to Imadaddin Nasimi, Jalil Mammadguluzade, Jafar Jabbarli, Samad Vurgun, Ashig Alasgar, Nariman Narimanov, the creation of their house-museums, the transfer of the body Huseyn Javid from Siberia to Nakhchivan and burial in his homeland, and other similar fateful steps will forever keep the image of the great political figure, as well as the defender of the Azerbaijani language and literature, the great protector, the “Great Man of Literature” in the memory of the people.                                                                                                                                                                                                                    

                                                                                                                                                                                               Afag Masud

                                                                                                                                                                                               People’s Writer