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| “ | In his eight years of rule, the autocrat has orchestrated a true cult of personality. Pictures of leathery, sphinxlike Aliyev stare from the wall in every office across the country. The paintings with the caption "Shining Son of the People" show an amazingly rejuvenated president emitting red and yellow rays of light, while in actuality 80-year-old Aliyev is suffering from cancer and has long since chosen his son Ilham to succeed him as president | „ |
| ~ Lutz Klaveman desribing Aliyev's personality cult |
Heydar Aliyev (May 10, 1923 - December 12, 2003) was an Azerbaijani politician who served as the first President of Azerbaijan from 1993 to 2003. Aliyev served as the head of the KGB branch in Azerbaijan. He has long been accused of violating human rights and forming an autocratic system in Azerbaijan with some critics even describing the regime as totalitarian and magisterial. His rule was also characterized by censorship of the press and and atmosphere of fear in Azerbaijan. Aliyev was known for his cult of personality throughout the country.
Biography
Aliyev was one of the most powerful men in Azerbaijan for nearly 40 years, as deputy chairman (1964–67) and chairman (1967–69) of the regional KGB, as secretary (1969–87) of the Communist Party of Azerbaijan, and from 1993 as the repressive and autocratic president of independent Azerbaijan. Aliyev attained full membership in the Communist Party of the Soviet Union (CPSU) Politburo in 1982, but he opposed Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev’s reforms, and in 1987 he was removed from office.
In 1990 he denounced Soviet intervention in his homeland, and he resigned from the party the following year. When a rebellion drove Pres. Abulfaz Elchibey into internal exile in June 1993, Aliyev stepped in as acting president. He legitimized his position in a special presidential election that October and was reelected in 1998. By the time the seriously ill Aliyev stepped down in favour of his son in 2003, he had conducted protracted peace negotiations with Armenia over the status of Nagorno-Karabakh and had opened up Azerbaijan’s oil industry to outside investment, but the country remained economically disadvantaged.