Heydar Aliyev

Heydar Aliyev resigned from his position in October 1987 in protest to the policy pursued by the CPSU Politburo and the CPSU General Secretary Mikhail Gorbachev.
In the immediate aftermath of the massacre committed by the Soviet troops in Baku on January 20, 1990, Heydar Aliyev made a statement at the Azerbaijani Representation in Moscow with strict demand to penalize those responsible for the crimes against the people of Azerbaijan. In July 1991, he left the Communist Party of the Soviet Union to oppose the double standard policy of the Soviet leadership resulting in the violent conflict over Nagorno-Karabagh.