15 JUNE 15 YEARS LATER

June 1993. Azerbaijan is in flames. There is hardly anyone to repulse the attacks of armed Armenian groups the entire length of the front-line. The armed forces subordinate to mutinous Colonel Surat Huseynov have left their forward positions and are fighting their own authorities, while the government of the People's Front of Azerbaijan (PFA) has sent forces under its control to Ganca. The country that was already gripped by an aggressive war from Armenia now stands on the brink of civil war too.

On the morning of 4 June government troops attacked the barracks subordinate to Surat Huseynov in the military unit in Ganca. What came next was hard to believe. The rebels fought off the attack, crushing the government troops and taking prisoner the prosecutor general, Ixtiyar Sirinov, and first deputy national security minister, Sulhaddin Akbarov. The commander of the Interior Ministry's Internal Troops, Fahmin Haciyev, fled Ganca. The fighting claimed around 80 lives on both sides. Surat Huseynov, who a few months earlier had lost his position as deputy prime minister, the Azerbaijani president's plenipotentiary representative for Nagornyy Karabakh and the adjacent districts and commander of the second army, took control of the city of Ganca. But the main offender, President Abulfaz Elcibey, was sitting in Baku.

The first thing for Surat Huseynov was to order the arrested prosecutor general to sign an arrest warrant for the head of state, which Sirinov obediently did. Having received the warrant to arrest the president, the offended colonel set off with his troops for Baku, sweeping away everything before him and replacing the heads of executive authorities with his own people. The country's leadership was practically paralysed at the very time when it needed to take urgent action. The authorities began to understand that what could not be achieved by force must be done in another way. But nobody wanted to admit their incompetence. A fresh look at the record of President Elcibey's speech at the emergency government sitting reveals this clearly. Here is just one extract from the then head of state's speech: "We get some of our information from people, we glean some of it from individual conversations and we find something else out on the bus. We don't yet have a full picture of what is happening. We need time for the situation to become clear." While the president was gleaning information from the buses, blood was being shed in the country, even brothers were on opposite sides of the barricades. 

This is what Interior Minister Abdullah Allaxverdiyev reported to the head of state: "I repeat, we do not have the option of entering the city of Ganca. Military hardware, servicemen and civilians are at every checkpoint. They are not letting us into the city." 

The tragicomic position of the authorities and their inability to function were plain to see. Infighting was also preventing decisions being taken, which can be seen clearly in the parliamentary records. 

The situation was crying out urgently for an experienced and decisive leader. And the Azerbaijani people called for Heydar Aliyev to be brought to power. At that time he led the Supreme Maclis of the Naxcivan Autonomous Republic and was a deputy of the Milli Maclis (Azerbaijan's parliament). Realizing that he had no alternative but to heed the voice of the people, President Abulfaz Elcibey was forced officially to invite Heydar Aliyev to Baku. Azerbaijan's fragile independence was at stake and in these difficult circumstances Heydar Aliyev took on the responsibility of getting the country out of crisis. On 9 June 1993 Heydar Aliyev arrived in Baku on a special plane sent by Elcibey. Having been granted authority by parliament, on 13 June he went to Ganca for talks with Surat Huseynov. The risk was huge but Heydar Aliyev did not shirk it. With just two people accompanying him, he went for talks with the rebels, who were backed by an entire army.

After difficult talks the rebels laid down their arms and the first signs of civil peace emerged in the country. Now this fragile peace had to be protected. Realizing that only Heydar Aliyev could manage this, on 15 June 1993 deputies elected him to the post of chairman of parliament. Later Heydar Aliyev was twice elected president of Azerbaijan in a nationwide ballot and went down in history as the national leader. Since then, the people have remembered 15 June as the Day of National Salvation.

In order to picture Azerbaijan's plight at the time, it is worth remembering how, during the tragic events in Ganca, separatists stepped up their activity in the south of the country too. On 15 June an armed group led by Col Alikram Humbatov seized power in Lankaran, taking under its command the military unit based there, and announced the creation of the Talysh-Mughan Republic as part of the CIS. The country was facing the threat of break-up: on the one hand the unstable social and political situation, on the other the Armenian occupation and now a new hotbed of separatism.

The people already knew what to do and the population of the southern districts asked Heydar Aliyev for help and he quickly dealt with this task too. The regime of the pretender, Alikram Humbatov, was liquidated with the support of the local population.

Interestingly, in subsequent years attempts have been made to disparage Heydar Aliyev's achievements. Ex-President Abulfaz Elcibey, who did not withstand the onslaught of the rebels, fled his post and left the collapsing country to Heydar Aliyev, said, "Aliyev used Surat Huseynov's rebellion to seize power. Moscow, the GRU [Russian military intelligence] and Grachev [Russia's defence minister] were behind him. In his book A Second Attempt at Independence Abulfaz Elcibey directly linked the events in Ganca with the planned signing of an oil contract. Here is an excerpt from this book: "One of the main aims of the revolt was to hinder the conclusion of our oil agreements with the West. Both Russia and Iran were doing their utmost to stop it." Abulfaz Elcibey was right - Moscow and Tehran really were against the presence of Western companies in Azerbaijan. But he clearly contradicted himself on one point. Why did he invite Heydar Aliyev to save the country, if he considered him to be Moscow's man? How could Heydar Aliyev be a representative of Moscow and at the same time upset those forces by agreeing cooperation with the West? After all, the contract with Western companies was concluded and became known as the Contract of the Century thanks to Heydar Aliyev's efforts. In later years this contract was to be augmented by such major international agreements as the Baku - Tbilisi - Ceyhan oil export pipeline and the Baku - Tbilisi - Erzurum gas pipeline amongst others. Straight after the signing of the Contract of the Century in October 1994, the same Surat Huseynov, not without interference from outside, attempted a state coup. But this time too, thanks to his great experience, personal authority and nationwide support, Heydar Aliyev managed to defend his country's independence.

In this context it is appropriate to remember the words of the current president, Ilham Aliyev: "It is easier to gain independence than to keep it."

Heydar Aliyev was able to fulfil this mission and today Azerbaijan is not only a fully fledged member of the international community but the country in the region that is developing the most actively and growing stronger. And National Salvation Day, 15 June 1993, was the turning point.