Azerbaijan marks the 106th anniversary of its glorious Armed Forces. As is known, on June 26, 1918, by a decree of the government of the Azerbaijan Democratic Republic, which was the first republic in the Muslim East, the Muslim Corps, formed by the decision of the Special Transcaucasian Committee, was renamed the Separate Azerbaijani Corps.
This decision was the legal basis for the creation of the armed forces of independent Azerbaijan. Lieutenant General Ali-Aga Shikhlinsky was appointed commander of the Azerbaijani corps. Unfortunately, the ADR existed for an extremely short period. And the reason for its fall, among other things, was precisely that the process of building a strong army was not completed.
The importance of creating a powerful military elite was well understood by the national leader of the Azerbaijani people, Heydar Aliyev. He understood and carried out practical, historical steps in this direction. It was thanks to Heydar Aliyev that in 1971 a special school named after J. Nakhichevansky was formed in Baku. In 1973, the school received the status of a republican one.
It was a very wise, far-sighted step in the formation of a national military elite. After its return to power, already in independent Azerbaijan, it was by order of the President of the Republic of Azerbaijan Heydar Aliyev on November 24, 1997, that the special school was renamed the military Lyceum named after J. Nakhichevansky.
More than 100 graduates of the school at different times were awarded orders and medals of Azerbaijan, and 8 of them were awarded the honorary title of the National Hero of Azerbaijan. These are those who can rightly call themselves the national military elite of Azerbaijan, which was created and raised by Heydar Aliyev. And I am convinced that he would be proud now, seeing the fruits of his historical work for the benefit of our country, our people.
I will add that it was by Heydar Aliyev's Decree of May 22, 1998, that June 26 was declared "Armed Forces Day" and declared a non-working day. This is how the national leader linked our past to our present and future. Thus, he demonstrated the most important priorities in the development of independent Azerbaijan.
There is a well-known saying that people who do not want to feed their own army will soon feed someone else's. Regardless of who is the author of this aphorism, it is absolutely fair. For, only the presence of a strong, well-trained and armed army makes it possible to solve the most important tasks facing any state.
Starting from protecting their own borders and ending with measures to force countries that have encroached on the territorial integrity of the state to peace. How all this is implemented in practice Azerbaijan has shown more than once. Our army, led by the President of Azerbaijan, and Supreme Commander-in-Chief Ilham Aliyev, has a number of glorious victories over Armenia and its patrons.
This happened in April 2016, during the April war. The same thing happened after the 44-day war. Azerbaijan showed the whole world what a strong army of a strong state should be, nullifying the myth about the "invincibility" of the Armenian invaders and their "omnipotence" in the minds of Armenians. They had to accept the new reality.
All these achievements of the Azerbaijani army are based on the political will of the country's leadership and on the competent economic policy of the state. As President of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev recently rightly noted, the successful economic policy of Azerbaijan allows the authorities to allocate the necessary state funds for the construction of the army, the purchase of new weapons, new equipment, and the creation of new combat formations.
This is true. In general, our country is independent in the true sense of the word, because it is capable of pursuing an independent policy, and it is our military potential that gives us this strength in the first place. This is the main result of the huge work to strengthen the state, which was started by the national leader of the Azerbaijani people Heydar Aliyev, and completed by the current President of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev.
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