Azerbaijan. Ganja region. Ganja. A mother and her child walk near a statue of Heidar Aliev, the deceased political leader ( May 10, 1923 - December 12, 2003), also spelled as Heidar Aliev, Geidar Aliev, Haydar Aliyev. He was the president of Azerbaijan for the New Azerbaijan Party from June 1993 to October 2003. Huge poster of the current President of Azerbaijan, Ilham Aliyev (born December 24, 1961), who is the son of Heydar Aliyev. Ilham Aliyev also functions as the head of the New Azerbaijan Party. The flag of Azerbaijan is a national symbol and consists of three equal horizontal bands, blue, red, and green; a white crescent and an eight-pointed star (Rub El Hizb) are centered in the red band. The eight points of the star stand for the eight branches of the Turkic people. The blue band is the color of the Turks, the green is for Islam and red is for progress. © 2007 Didier Ruef