The declaration of the "Year of Heydar Aliyev" in our country by the decree of the President of the Republic of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev on September 29, 2023 is one of the significant events. This Order is an indicator of the high value that the head of our state has given to the development of the Azerbaijani language and our statehood. The declaration of "Heydar Aliyev Year" this year is also very important from the point of view of studying the language policy of the Great Leader. Heydar Aliyev's position on the issue of language is clear and decisive: "A person who does not love his language cannot know his history well."

In 1969, the great leader, who knew the Azerbaijani language well, was deeply familiar with the rich vocabulary of this language and was able to use his grammatical abilities with talent, gave a brilliant speech in his mother tongue at the jubilee meeting dedicated to the 50th anniversary of Baku State University. At that time, this event created a great echo in all parts of the republic. Heydar Aliyev, the great son of our people, the great leader, has paid great attention to his mother tongue since the beginning of his leadership in Azerbaijan at the end of the 60s of the last century. Holding the anniversaries of historical figures is, on the one hand, an appreciation of their services to the people and the nation. On the other hand, it shows the wealth of the people and the nation. It is gratifying that the 600th anniversary of Imadaddin Nasimi was celebrated on an international scale in 1973 at the initiative of national leader Heydar Aliyev. Since those years, a lot of research has been done on Nasimi's language. Since that time, Nasimi's creativity has been recognized once again on the scale of Azerbaijan and world culture.

In his speech at the 10th Congress of Azerbaijani Writers, Heydar Aliyev gave ample space to the issues of language and speech culture. Heydar Aliyev shows that every Azerbaijani should first of all know his mother tongue. The great leader used to say: "Our first achievement should be to make our language the dominant language in Azerbaijan."

Heydar Aliyev's great care, loyalty and deep love for his mother tongue are not only related to his feelings of true citizenship, love of his mother tongue, and high pride. This comes from the ability and talent of a genius to know the native language deeply, to be deeply aware of its inner secrets and beauties, and to use it skillfully.

In the national language policy of Great Leader Heydar Aliyev, respect and care for language and language development is a system. In the 1970s, the four-volume "Modern Azerbaijani Language" textbook received the Republican State Prize, precisely because of care and respect for the mother tongue. The national leader said about this: "For the sake of our linguists and scientists, it should be remembered that it was the end of the 1970s - state awards were given. In particular, we awarded a state prize to a large collective who wrote a book about the Azerbaijani language. We gave this book not because of its author, but because of the work itself and the dedication of this book to the analysis of our language. Here, my personal initiative, my personal goal was to let the public know once again how much we care about the development of our language."

In 1970, the publication of the Turkological magazine with the status of the All-Union was also due to the desire to raise the respect of the Azerbaijani language.

In his speeches, National Leader Heydar Aliyev always emphasized the importance of protecting the purity and richness of our language, and mobilized all the opportunities of the society to ensure the development of his mother tongue. One of the greatest historical services of the genius leader to the people was the initiative to grant the status of the state language to the Azerbaijani language. On April 2, 1978, at the VII session of the Supreme Soviet of the Azerbaijan SSR of the 9th convocation dedicated to the draft of the Constitution of the Azerbaijan SSR and the results of its public debate, it was proposed to issue Article 73 in the following wording: "Azerbaijan Soviet The state language of the Socialist Republic is Azerbaijani. This initiative of Heydar Aliyev was reflected in the Constitution of the Azerbaijan SSR adopted on April 21, 1978. The Great Leader has skillfully protected one of the national symbols of the future independent statehood. The Constitution of 1978 was indeed a great service rendered by Great Leader Heydar Aliyev to his state, homeland and people.

In discussions about the name of the state language, the Great Leader considered this issue as a fateful issue for the future of the people and the country, and considered its correct solution an honor for every citizen of the country. The great leader, who faced all kinds of difficulties in the struggle for the state language, which is one of the most important factors that determine the identity of the people and the nation, equated taking a sincere position on this matter to human life.

In October 1995, at the meeting of the commission preparing the new Constitution of the Republic of Azerbaijan, he said: "I respect and express my respect for every language. I believe that we can be proud of the Azerbaijani language. Because this is a rich language, it is already a well-known language in the world. The name of our people and our language has been recognized. This is reality."

A separate article called "State language" was included in the basic law of the Republic of Azerbaijan - the Constitution, which was developed under the leadership of Great Leader Heydar Aliyev and adopted by popular vote on November 12, 1995.

The process of discussion and adoption of the Constitution also showed that Heydar Aliyev's language policy is an integral part of his national state-building policy.

Great leader Heydar Aliyev's concrete position about language and nation is clear: "Language, nation is a philosophical concept, a historical concept. People have spoken in some language that exists in the world. In the event that there were people, it means that there was also a language to communicate with each other."

Heydar Aliyev used to say: "Azerbaijan is the native land of all nationalities living in Azerbaijan." The Azerbaijani language has united us. All of our people belonging to many ethnic nationalities have adopted the Azerbaijani language as their mother tongue. The Azerbaijani language will unite us both in the past and in the future."

Great leader Heydar Aliyev's care and attention to his mother tongue continued in the following years. The decree of June 18, 2001 "On improving the implementation of the state language" has a special place. First of all, this historical decree, which is of exceptional importance in terms of defining, forming and strengthening the language policy of the independent state of Azerbaijan, contains comprehensive and extensive information about the state language.

One of the important steps regarding the Azerbaijani language is the Law of the Republic of Azerbaijan "On the State Language of the Republic of Azerbaijan", signed by the Great Leader on September 30, 2002. In this law, which embodies the comprehensive concern of the independent Azerbaijan state for its mother tongue, the development, development, protection of the state language, compliance with the norms of the literary language, the creation of the necessary conditions for the development of the theoretical and applied fields of linguistic science in our country, etc. 

National leader Heydar Aliyev always emphasizes in his speeches the importance of protecting the purity and spiritual richness of our language. In addition to ensuring the development of the mother tongue in his speeches with political content, the great leader mobilized all the possibilities of the society for this work.

The national leader who loved his mother tongue and was proud of speaking it masterfully used the colorful means of expression of our language in his unique speeches and speeches with deep content.

National leader Heydar Aliyev always emphasized in his speeches the importance of protecting the purity and spiritual richness of our language. In addition to ensuring the development of the mother tongue in his speeches with political content, the Great Leader mobilized all the possibilities of the society for this work.

Currently, the Azerbaijani language has a grammatical structure with its own development laws, a rich vocabulary, wide expressive possibilities, a perfect alphabet, and high-level writing norms. Today, there are opportunities for the wide use of the Azerbaijani language in all spheres of social life

 We believe that the "Year of Heydar Aliyev" will be a contribution to the research and deeper study of the creativity of the genius and to the wide promotion of his language policy.
The political line of the National Leader, who took great steps to protect our mother tongue, is confidently continued by President Ilham Aliyev. The Decree "On measures related to the protection of the purity of the Azerbaijani language and further improvement of the use of the state language" signed by the head of state on November 1, 2018 confirms once again that the state language is always in the center of attention in our country.

Tarana Shukurlu Ibadullazade
Ph.D. in philology, associate professor
Leading researcher of Nasimi Institute of Linguistics of ANAS