The Heydar Aliyev Era Ends in Azerbaijan Not with a Bang but a Whisper

Richard Kauzlarich (*)

 

“… [O]ur path is clear…. The system of government and style of society we are developing in Azerbaijan is based on Western values, including democratic pluralism, the free market economy, and a secular republic that respect (sic) universal human rights.”

Heydar Aliyev (quoted by Thomas Goltz in Azerbaijan Diary pg. 477)

On December 3, 2014 the Heydar Aliyev era in Azerbaijan ended. With it went the previously close political relationship between the United States and Azerbaijan. Heydar Aliyev, who was President of Azerbaijan from 1993 until his death in 2003, presided over a foreign policy that emphasized energy relations with the West, and political and security engagement with the United States and a range of transatlantic institutions, such as the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), the Council on Europe (COE), European Union (EU) and NATO. This policy eventually also led to Azeri military support for U.S. operations in Kosovo, Iraq and Afghanistan. His son and successor, Azerbaijan’s current president Ilham Aliyev, has increasingly moved away from his father’s path and now seems to have approved a final rupture with the past.

Aliyev’s Dictatorship is Threat to Regional and Global Stability

Viken Khlgatyan

Armen Sahakyan 

After inheriting the half-a-century-old reins of power in 2003 from his deceased father, Heydar Aliyev, Azerbaijani dictator Ilham Aliyev has tried to position his country as a reliable producer of energy and counter-terrorism partner for the West. At the same time he has pursued rapid militarization, anti-Armenianism, and the consolidation of a strongman regime.

The Two Faces of Azerbaijan’s Mr. Aliyev

President Ilham Aliyev of Azerbaijan does a masterful political Jekyll and Hyde. A cable from the American ambassador to Baku released on WikiLeaks described him as a Michael Corleone-Sonny Corleone figure — referring, respectively, to the coolly calculating and the impetuously violent brothers of the “Godfather” mafia family. Mr. Aliyev is “pro-Western” in many of the ways the West admires: He is suave, well dressed and well spoken in English; he is ready to send his country’s ample supplies of oil and gas to Europe and to Israel; his Islam is moderate and modern; and he hosts lavish international events like the Eurovision Song Contest in 2012 and the European Games to be held next June.

He is also hugely corrupt, and his authoritarian regime has one of the world’s worst records on human rights.

El lobby de Azerbaiyán en México: importante estudio

En un extenso artículo publicado en el número de invierno de 2013 de la revista mexicana de Historia Internacional Istor, Carlos Antaramián, professor del Colegio de Michoacán, revela en detalle las maniobras del lobby azerbaiyano en México.

“¿Por qué México, si no ha reconocido ningún otro genocidio en pronunciamientos parlamentarios (salvo el Holocausto) lo hace con Jodyalí, un debatido asunto?”, se pregunta el académico al comienzo de su texto. Las cámaras del Congreso mexicano aprobaron sendas declaraciones relativas a Jodyalí, el episodio de la guerra de Karabagh a principios de 1993 donde 166 aldeanos azeríes fueron liquidados en lo que, según la evidencia disponible, fue una trampa urdida por las fuerzas de su propia nación, tras varias advertencias de las fuerzas armenias de autodefensa con respecto a la evacuación de la zona, próxima a Stepanakert, desde donde se bombardeaba a la población civil de la capital de Karabagh con misiles Grad.

How Azerbaijan is Like "The Godfather"

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."

Aliyev Father and Son, Different Looks at the Conflict

Giorgio Comai

 

In recent months, a number of incidents have taken tensions between Armenia and Azerbaijan to very high levels. On the Azeri side, the rhetoric is more and more explicitly anti-Armenian and warlike, as clearly exemplified by the Safarov case and the story of writer Akram Aylisli. Yet, things have not always been such.

"Father" Aliyev Goes Back from Mexico to Baku

Istanbul-based Armenian newspaper "Marmara" reports that the statue of former Azerbaijani president Heydar Aliyev, which had been inaugurated in August 2012 in one of the central spots of Mexico City and had triggered a wave of protests in the country, was disassembled in last January and now it's being moved to the embassy of Azerbaijan to be sent to Baku.

Mexican Court Rejects Aliyev Monument

Mexico’s Federal Administrative Court dismissed a complaint filed by Azerbaijan’s Embassy to prevent city authorities to dismantle and remove a statue of Azeri dictator Heydar Aliyev from a park at the center of the city, reported the Cronica newspaper.

The court’s decision paves the way for the statue’s removal.

Mexico City Committee: Boot Out Statue of Azerbaijan Strongman

Tracy Wilkinson

 

That big, hulking statue of the Caucasian strongman in Mexico City has got to go.

Such was the recommendation Friday, November 23, of a special committee appointed to resolve one of the odder controversies to beset this capital. At issue: the city government’s decision to allow Azerbaijan to erect a monument to its late president, Heydar Aliyev, on the iconic Reforma Boulevard, prime real estate in the sprawling megalopolis.

México: Recomienda comisión retirar estatua de ex presidente de Azerbaiyán de Reforma

La comisión de análisis para la Plaza Tlaxcoaque y el Parque de la Amistad recomendó al Gobierno del Distrito Federal de México retirar la estatua del fallecido presidente de Azerbaiyán, Heydar Aliyev, colocada en el parque de la Amistad ubicado sobre Paseo de la Reforma y trasladarla a un espacio cultural.

Mexico City Journal: Statue of a Foreign Autocrat Sits Uneasily With Some



Elisabeth Malkin

 



When the mayor inaugurated a pretty little garden fronted by a very large statue at the edge of the central Chapultepec Park last summer, it seemed another step forward in his drive to improve the quality of life in this impossible city.       

But a quick check on Google might have spared Mayor Marcelo Ebrard from what happened next.

Speaking off the cuff, the mayor praised the statue’s subject — a complete stranger to many Mexico City residents — as “a great political leader, a statesman.”

In Mexico, Armenian Foreign Minister Edward Nalbandian Voices Dismay about Pro-Azeri Positions

While on an official visit to Mexico, Armenian Foreign Minister Eduard Nalbandian criticized the Mexican Senate on October 23, 2012 for adopting a pro-Azeri resolution and expressed dismay at the recent erection of a statue of Azeri dictator Heydar Aliyev in the nation’s capital.

During a meeting with his Mexican counterpart Patricia Espinosa, Nalbandian expressed his dissatisfaction with the fact that the previous Mexican parliament had adopted resolutions that misrepresent the elements of the Mountainous Karabagh conflict. Earlier this year, the Mexican Senate passed a resolution commemorating the events at Khojaly calling the incident genocide.

Ciudad de Mexico: El gobierno de Ebrard celebra a un dictador

Leo Zuckermann

Me da mucho coraje cada vez que paso, un par de veces al día, por la esquina de Reforma y Tolstoi. Ahí, en medio del Bosque de Chapultepec, sobre una de las avenidas más preciosas del mundo, hay una estatua espantosa de un dictador. Sentado en una silla enorme, mirando hacia la grotesca Estela de la Luz, se encuentra Heydar Aliyev, fundador de la República de Azerbaiyán cuyas credenciales políticas son las de un autócrata. Atrás de él hay una inmensa placa de mármol, que semeja un mapa del país en cuestión, y que en las noches se ilumina de distintos colores. Se trata, en suma, de un monumento de un tirano, de horripilante diseño soviético, en una de las esquinas más bonitas de la capital.

Mexico row over Azeri leader Heydar Aliyev's statue

Will Grant

 

The latest monument in Mexico's capital was erected to commemorate the life of a man who, the plaque reads, was a "shining example of loyalty to the universal ideals of world peace."

Nelson Mandela, perhaps? Martin Luther King, maybe?

No. The life-sized bronze statue now adorning a special garden in Mexico City is of the former president of the oil-rich Azerbaijan and recipient of the Order of Lenin, Heydar Aliyev.

Described by, among others, Human Rights Watch as a leader under whom dissent was crushed, the monument to the late leader sparked increasing controversy since it was unveiled a few weeks ago.

Two Steps Backwards in the Caucasus

Peter Rutland

 

In recent days there have been two symbolic events that run the danger of igniting hostilities in an already tense neighborhood of the Caucasus. On Aug. 31 a former Azerbaijan Army lieutenant, Ramil Safarov, flew back to Baku after serving eight years in a Budapest jail for killing Gurgen Margarian in 2004. The victim, an Armenian officer, had been a fellow participant in a NATO Partnership for Peace exercise. Safarov hacked him to death in his sleep with an ax.

The Hungarian government transferred the prisoner to Azerbaijan on the understanding that he would serve out the rest of his life sentence in his home country. But immediately upon his arrival in Baku, Lieutenant Safarov was pardoned by President Ilham Aliyev, restored to military duties, promoted to major, given an apartment and awarded back pay for his time in prison. These actions drew universal condemnation from Washington, Moscow and European governments.

Apart from the fact that such a step is an affront to basic notions of justice and the rule of law, even more troubling is the message that it sends to the rest of the world: that the Azerbaijani government thinks it is acceptable to kill Armenians. Apparently, the grievances they suffered in their defeat by Armenian forces in 1992-94 are so profound that even murder is excusable. It is hard, then, to ask the Armenians living in Karabakh to quietly accept the idea that the solution to their disputed territory is for them to return to living under Azerbaijani rule.