TASS deputy chief praises Heydar Aliyev’s role in developing Azerbaijani media

First Deputy Director General of the TASS news agency, Mikhail Gusman, stated that among the heads of state he has interviewed, only two had the moral right to say they had saved their people — and one of them was Heydar Aliyev.

Speaking at the panel session of the conference titled “The Role of National Leader Heydar Aliyev in the Development of Media” in Baku, Gusman noted that he has interviewed more than 500 heads of state and government, Caliber.Az reports via local media.

“I have interviewed more than 500 heads of state and government. But only two of them had the moral right to say: ‘I saved my people.’ One of them was Heydar Aliyev.”

Gusman also emphasised that from the earliest days of his political career, Heydar Aliyev paid special attention to the development of mass media and the creation of an open and professional information space.

According to him, a new chapter in the history of the Azerbaijani press began in July 1969, when Heydar Aliyev was elected First Secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Azerbaijan.

“I remember that hot July day when I first heard the name Heydar Aliyev. Just a few months after he came to power, we felt the breath of new life, a renewal of the republic. The media began to work more openly, professionally, and with greater enthusiasm,” Gusman said.

He underlined that during those years, high-quality newspapers were published, including Bakinskiy Rabochiy, Kommunist in Azerbaijani and even Armenian, which serves as a response to those who claim coexistence is impossible.

“There was also the evening newspaper Baku, as well as many youth publications — all of them were the journalistic community’s response to the reforms initiated by Heydar Aliyev,” he noted.

Gusman stressed that Heydar Aliyev deeply understood the importance of the media’s role in society and sought to ensure mutual understanding between the people and the government:

“I have always said that the media and the government are like glass — it must be transparent and not distort reality. Heydar Aliyev worked to achieve precisely that kind of openness — so that the people would know what the government is doing and what it wants.”

By Khagan Isayev