THE ALIYEVS: AZERBAIJAN’S RULING DYNASTY

Agence France Presse
March 16, 2009 Monday 1:56 AM GMT

The Aliyev family, which has held a firm grip on power in ex-Soviet
Azerbaijan for nearly four decades, appears set to extend its rule
following a vote Wednesday on lifting presidential term limits.

First under Soviet-era boss Heydar and since 2003 under his son Ilham,
the Aliyev dynasty rose from humble roots to dominate politics in
Azerbaijan, an oil-rich, predominantly Muslim republic wedged between
Russia and Iran.

Praised by supporters for bringing stability and wealth, the Aliyevs
were instrumental in securing energy deals that made Azerbaijan one
of the world’s fastest-growing economies.

But critics have accused them of cracking down on dissent, jailing
opponents and stifling the media. Opposition supporters say the
constitutional amendments proposed in this week’s referendum are
aimed at cementing the family’s hold on power for decades to come.

Heydar Aliyev, still affectionately called "Baba" or "Grandfather"
by many Azerbaijanis, was born in 1923 in the dirt poor Azerbaijani
region of Nakhchivan to a railway worker and his wife.

Driven to improve his lot, he joined the KGB, the dreaded Soviet secret
police, and rose quickly through the ranks of the Communist Party.

In 1969 he was appointed first secretary of the Azerbaijani Communist
Party and in 1982 was called to Moscow to become the first Muslim to
sit on the Politburo, the Soviet Union’s ruling body.

When he was fired from the Politburo in 1987 as part of Mikhail
Gorbachev’s perestroika reforms, many believed his political career
was over.

Biding his time in Nakhchivan, he watched as the Soviet Union collapsed
in 1991 and waited for an opportunity to return to power in newly
independent Azerbaijan.

It came in 1993, with Azerbaijan in the midst of a disastrous war
with Armenia over the Nagorny Karabakh region and then-president
Abulfaz Elchibey facing a mutiny by his army.

Heydar Aliyev returned to Baku and within weeks became caretaker
president. Elected in a landslide in 1993, he signed a controversial
ceasefire with Armenia and neutralised the rebellious army officers.

A year later he negotiated the so-called "deal of the century" that
would see Western energy firms pump hundreds of millions of dollars
into developing Azerbaijan’s oil industry.

He ruled Azerbaijan for the next decade, though his re-election
in 1998 and parliamentary polls in 2000 were marred by allegations
of vote-rigging.

Opponents also accused him of tolerating widespread corruption among
his supporters while the majority of Azerbaijanis lived in poverty.

When Heydar Aliyev’s health began to deteriorate, his son Ilham at
first appeared an unlikely successor. Burdened with the image of a
playboy and gambler from the 1990s, Ilham Aliyev seemed to lack his
father’s toughness and political savvy.

He was nonetheless elected president in 2003, a few weeks before
his 80-year-old father died. Confounding expectations, Ilham Aliyev
consolidated his hold on power and became Heydar’s undisputed heir.

He continued his father’s policies, balancing Azerbaijani diplomacy
between Russia and the West, seeking out new opportunities for
energy contracts and, as oil money flooded in, overseeing huge
economic growth.

But any hopes that the younger Aliyev was reform-minded were quickly
dashed. Authorities were again accused of fixing parliamentary
elections in 2005 and condemned after riot police used truncheons,
tear gas and water cannons to disperse thousands protesting the result.

Last October, Ilham Aliyev won re-election with nearly 89 percent
of ballots cast in a vote the opposition boycotted as unfair. The
country’s increasingly marginalised opposition didn’t even attempt
to protest the result.

Ilham Aliyev has said little about Wednesday’s referendum, though
his Yeni Azerbaijan party is behind the initiative.

Analysts say there is little doubt the move is aimed at extending
his rule and that if 47-year-old Ilham reaches his father’s age,
Azerbaijan could be looking at another three decades with the Aliyev
family in power.