Today is Mehriban Aliyeva's birthday

Today is Azerbaijani First Lady Mehriban Aliyeva's birthday. Azerbaijani first lady, President of the Heydar Aliyev Foundation, Goodwill Ambassador of UNESCO and ISESCO, President of the Gymnastics Federation of Azerbaijan Mehriban Aliyeva was born in Baku, Azerbaijan.

Having finished secondary school №23 with a gold medal in 1982, she entered the Preventive-Treatment Faculty of the Azerbaijan State Medical University named after N.Narimanov.

In 1988, Mehriban Aliyeva graduated from the 1st Moscow State Medical Institute named after M.Sechenov with honours diploma.

During 1988-1992, she worked at the Eye Diseases Research Institute in Moscow under the leadership of Academician Krasnov.

In 1995, the "Friends of the Azerbaijani Culture" Foundation, which is currently led by her, was established upon Mehriban Aliyeva’s initiative.

In 1996, with the objective of extensive promotion of the Azerbaijani culture, Mehriban Aliyeva founded the "Azerbaijan - Irs" Magazine, which is published in three languages (Azerbaijani, English and Russian).

In 2002, Mehriban Aliyeva was elected President of the Gymnastics Federation of Azerbaijan and showed herself as an accomplished coordinator in that position. Her growing prestige on the international arena has played an important role in delivering a decision by the International Gymnastics Federation to hold the Rhythmic Gymnastics World Cup Competitions in 2003 and 2004, as well as the World Championship in 2005 in Azerbaijan.

Mehriban Aliyeva has been leading the Heydar Aliyev Foundation founded to study the rich legacy of Heydar Aliyev, the national leader of Azerbaijan, as well as deliver his national statehood ideas to new generations. The Heydar Aliyev Foundation was inaugurated on May 10, 2004.

Due to her hard efforts in protection and development of Azerbaijan's verbal folk literature and music heritage, Mehriban Aliyeva was awarded the title of Goodwill Ambassador of UNESCO on August 13, 2004.

On December 28, 2004, Mehriban Aliyeva was elected a member to the Executive Committee of the National Olympic Committee of the Republic of Azerbaijan at the 4th General Assembly of the Organization.

M.Aliyeva has been a member of the Political Board of the New Azerbaijan Party since 2004.

Mehriban Aliyeva was awarded the title of "Woman of the Year" according to the social poll held in Azerbaijan in 2005.

In 2005, she received an academic degree of a Candidate of Philosophy.

In the elections to the Milli Majlis of the Republic of Azerbaijan held on November 6th, 2005, Mehriban Aliyeva, whose candidacy was run by the New Azerbaijan Party from the Azizbeyov Second Constituency №14, was elected to the Parliament with 92.12% vote (23,106 votes).

In March 2006, for the contribution made to preservation of cultural and moral values, Mehriban Aliyeva was awarded the golden medal of the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO).

On November 24, 2006, Mehriban Aliyeva was awarded the title of Goodwill Ambassador of ISESCO for the wide-scale and selfless activity in different spheres, including the dialogue among civilizations, the attention towards the children in need of care - big support to improvement of their living conditions, education, as well as the works carried out in the Islamic world.

M.Aliyeva was awarded a prize of the World Health Organization for her great contributions to the protection and strengthening of mother, child and family health upon the unanimous decision of the 120th Session of the Executive Committee of the Organization held in Geneva, January 29, 2007.

In May 2007, Mehriban Aliyeva was honoured with the ‘Golden Heart’ international award for high achievements in the sphere of serving supreme ideals of the mankind.

For her contribution to the enhancement of friendly relations between Azerbaijan and Poland, Mehriban Aliyeva was decorated, on September 14, 2009, with the ‘Senior Commander Cross’ Order of Merit of the Republic of Poland.

On February 15, 2010, Mehriban Aliyeva was honoured with Officer Degree of the ‘Legion of Honour’ Order by a resolution of the President of the Republic of France for her services to France and the loyalty demonstrated.

UNESCO`s Mozart Gold Medal was presented to Mehriban Aliyeva on July 30, 2010.

Nominated for the elections to the Milli Majlis to be held on November 7, 2010 by the New Azerbaijan Party from Constituency No.14 in the Khazar District, Mehriban Aliyeva was elected a deputy, winning 94.49% (31797 votes) of the votes.

On June 24, 2011, Mehriban Aliyeva was awarded the Gold Medal and, on June 29, 2012, the "Prix de la Fondation" Prize of the Crans Montana Forum.

On February 13, 2012, Mehriban Aliyeva was honoured with the title of Honorary Professor of the Russian Federation’s I.M.Sechenov First Moscow State Medical University.

On April 13, 2012, Mehriban Aliyeva was presented the "Stars of the Commonwealth" Interstate Prize by the Humanitarian Cooperation Council (HCC) of CIS member states and the Interstate Humanitarian Cooperation Foundation (IHCF) of CIS member countries.

On 7 June 2013, she was elected deputy chairperson of the New Azerbaijan Party.

On December 27, 2013, Mehriban Aliyeva was honoured with the award "Martyr Benazir Bhutto Woman Perfection Prize - 2013".

In March 2014, for the contributions made to dialogue between civilizations, as well as for the services to promotion of the Turkic world in Germany and development of Azerbaijan-Germany relations, Mehriban Aliyeva was awarded an honorary prize of the Turkish-German Friendship Federation.

In June 2014, Mehriban Aliyeva was awarded the "Olympic Excellence" Special Honorary Prize of the International Olympic Academy for promotion of the Olympic values.

Mehriban Aliyeva is married, has three children and three grandchildren.