President Ilham Aliyev of Azerbaijan has named his wife as his deputy, tightening the family’s grip on power in the oil-producing former Soviet state.
Mehriban Aliyeva will become Azerbaijan’s first vice-president, Mr Aliyev said in a decree that did not detail her responsibilities but, in effect, installed the first lady as the country’s second most powerful person. It also consolidated her position as a frontrunner to succeed her husband.
Energy-rich Azerbaijan has been controlled by the Aliyev family for most of the past five decades. Mr Aliyev’s father, Heydar, was head of the country’s governing Communist party before becoming president of the post-Soviet republic in 1993. His son took over in 2003.
Mrs Aliyeva, who yesterday attended a meeting of Azerbaijan’s security council, hailed the support of her husband in accepting the position.
“Mr President, I express my deep gratitude to you for this high confidence in me,” she said, in remarks reported by local media. “Your assistance and your support stand behind each success and each achievement [of mine] you have mentioned.”
Mrs Aliyeva, who hails from one of Azerbaijan’s most powerful families, is well known in the majority-Muslim country for her western dress sense.
Like many longstanding rulers in central Asia, Mr Aliyev, has positioned himself as a guarantor of Azerbaijan’s stability, security and energy prospects. He has also closely aligned the country with western allies as a bulwark against Russian influence in the Caspian region.
But human rights groups have condemned the administration for alleged abuses and suppression of dissent and political opposition. In October an anti-corruption watchdog ordered it to remove restrictions on NGOs or risk losing financing for a lucrative oil pipeline.
“For all its accommodation with the west, Azerbaijan is one of the world’s longest-running dynasties and the ruling Aliyev family sees little incentive to change,” said Kate Mallinson, an independent analyst on the Caspian region.
Mrs Aliyeva, who runs a charity and used to be an MP, has long been tipped as a potential successor to her husband, Ms Mallinson said.
Her appointment to a full constitutional role comes after a referendum granted extra powers to the president. These included the right to chose his deputy and an extension of the length of terms to seven years, from five.
