Aliyev, Heydar, 1923-2003

Heydar Alirza oghlu Aliyev (10 May 1923 – 12 December 2003) was an Azerbaijani politician who was a Soviet party boss in the Azerbaijan Soviet Socialist Republic from 1969 to 1982, and the third president of Azerbaijan from October 1993 to October 2003. He was a high-ranking official in the KGB of the Azerbaijan SSR, serving for 28 years in Soviet state security organs (1941–1969). He governed Soviet Azerbaijan from 1969 to 1982 as First Secretary of the Communist Party of Azerbaijan. He held the post of First Deputy Premier of the Soviet Union from 1982 to 1987. He rose through the ranks due to his close associations with Leonid Brezhnev and Yuri Andropov. Aliyev was installed as president of Azerbaijan after the 1993 military coup ousted President Abulfaz Elchibey. Elchibey was a prominent Soviet dissident and Azerbaijani nationalist leader who had been elected as president in independent Azerbaijan's first free election in 1992. Aliyev's installation as president put an end to Azerbaijan's short post-independence democratic interlude. Shortly after taking charge, Aliyev organized a presidential election where he won nearly 99% of the vote. His regime in Azerbaijan has been described as dictatorial, authoritarian, and repressive. He was also said to have run a heavy-handed police state where elections were rigged and dissent was repressed. A cult of personality developed around Aliyev, which has continued after his death in 2003. Shortly before his death, his son Ilham Aliyev was elected president in a fraudulent election and continues to lead Azerbaijan to this day.