Senior Lieutenant Javad Hakimli was an Azerbaijani-Soviet guerrilla who commanded a Soviet POW battalion of the Yugoslav Partisans during World War II.

[1] He finished school in Tbilisi which was then the capital city of the Transcaucasian SFSR (which included Armenia, Azerbaijan, and Georgia) and continued his studies specializing in tobacco cultivation in the Crimean ASSR.

[5] In February 1944, Javad was near Trieste in the village of Vila Opicina with fellow Soviet POWs Mehdi Huseynzade and Asad Gurbanov escaped into the Slovenian woods, where they joined up with the 9th Corps of the Yugoslav Partisans.

It was Javad Hakimli who insisted that "Mikhailo" be reburied according to Muslim custom with full honours, he personally washed Mehdi’s body, wrapped it in silk from a parachute in replacement of a shroud with his face directed towards Mecca.

[6][13] Another Soviet Partisan of Georgian origin, David Tatuashvili, described the funeral as follows: "The first monument in his honour was sculpted by Javad Hakimli, while I built the tomb despite the tears streaming down my face, I carved a star for Mikhailo".

[6] After demobilisation in December 1946, Javad first went to Baku to notify the family of Mehdi Huseynzade of his exploits in Yugoslavia and to hand over his personal belongings (jacket, silver cigarette case, ring, pocket Franco-Russian dictionary, etc.).