Mehriban Aliyeva: To forgive people means to give them new path in life

Baku, Azerbaijan, May 20 Trend: Based on the most valuable traditions of humanism in Azerbaijan, the country's first lady, president of the Heydar Aliyev Foundation, MP Mehriban Aliyeva has proposed to announce an amnesty on the occasion of the Republic Day (May 28). Mehriban Aliyeva was delivering a speech May 20 in the parliament of Azerbaijan on the amnesty issue on the occasion of the Republic Day. Nearly 30,000 convicts have been exempted from various types of penalty since 2007 based on amnesty acts adopted on the initiative of the Heydar Aliyev Foundation, said the first lady of Azerbaijan. Mehriban Aliyeva expressed deep gratitude to her colleagues in the parliament who supported the initiative of the Foundation in 2007, 2009 and 2013, and thus granted freedom to thousands of people. She noted that during its 12-year activity, the Heydar Aliyev Foundation has earned a lot of respect and trust both in Azerbaijan and abroad. "In its every step, each activity, the Foundation is guided by the ideas of humanism and philanthropy, it always tries to help the people in need of care and help," Azerbaijan's first lady said. "It is no coincidence that the people who appeal us today regard the Heydar Aliyev Foundation as the last destination of hope, and we have always tried to justify that hope." "Today, the greatest hope of thousands of compatriots deprived of freedom is to be released, to join their families and to establish a normal life," Mehriban Aliyeva said. "To forgive them, to give them a new chance means to give them a different path in life, where there is no place for crime, a new way in life built on the principles of respect for the law. Everyone who has committed a crime should surely realize his mistakes and avoid making them in the future."