The move is expected to extend decades of authoritarian rule by the Aliyev family.
The 61-year-old politician has ruled the energy-rich country since 2003, when he succeeded his father Cheidar, a former KGB officer.
Last week, I. Aliyev announced that early elections will take place on February 7 next year. Previously, the presidential election was scheduled for 2025.
His popularity soared after Azerbaijan’s military wrested control of the breakaway Nagorno-Karabakh region from Armenian separatists in a lightning offensive in September.
On Friday, I.Aliyev’s Yeni Azerbaycan (“New Azerbaijan”) party put forward his candidacy for re-election during a meeting of the party’s ruling council, an AFP journalist reported.
“This is not only a decision of our party, but also of the entire nation,” said Ali Akhmedov, deputy chairman of the party, at the meeting.
“During his 20 years of rule, Ilham Aliyev fulfilled all the wishes of our people,” he added.
The state public opinion research institution recently announced that 75 percent of the country’s population approves of how Aliyev handled this conflict, which led to mass emigration of ethnic Armenians living in Nagorno-Karabakh.
On September 19, the leader of Azerbaijan sent troops to Karabakh, and after just one day of fighting, Armenian separatist forces, which had controlled the disputed region for three decades, laid down their arms and agreed to reintegrate with Baku.
Azerbaijan’s victory marked the end of a territorial dispute that saw Azerbaijan and Armenia fight two wars, in the last decade of the last century and in 2020, that claimed tens of thousands of lives on both sides.
The countries are now negotiating a comprehensive peace treaty, but Western-brokered talks have so far failed to produce a breakthrough.
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2024-08-05 05:36:01
