Michael Weiss
Few developments speak so well of how far Caucasian dictatorships
have come since the grey days of the Soviet Union as the fabulously
wealthy and
incredibly investment-savvy 15-year-old male heir of Azerbaijan's
ruling family.
When he was a mere 11 years old, Heydar Aliyev, the son of
Azerbaijan's President Ilham Aliyev, purchased $44 million in luxury
mansions on Palm Jumeirah,
the elite artificial archipelago built by Dubai and known for housing
both holidaying British soccer players and thieving Russian tax officials. $44 million is, in the words of the
Washington Post's Andrew Higgins, who broke the story in 2010,
"roughly 10,000
years worth of salary for the average citizen of Azerbaijan." But
young Heydar wasn't the only member of his family engaged in Gulf
property speculation.
His two older sisters, Leyla and Arzu, were also listed as owners in
Dubai's Land Department registry. Together, the three Aliyev children
invested in $75
million in Dubai real estate, which certainly is impressive
considering that their father's official annual income as a public
servant is just $228,000.
When asked for comment by Higgins, who showed how the date of birth
and name for the listed Dubai owner was the same as Ilham's dauphin,
Aliyev's spokesman
Azer Gasimov replied: "I have no comment on anything. I am stopping
this talk. Goodbye."
