Ilham Aliyev, son of Azerbaijan's ailing president, Heydar Aliyev, was appointed prime minister of the oil-rich former Soviet republic today, stepping in to run the government as concerns grew about the health of his 80-year-old father, who has been confined to a military hospital in Turkey for nearly a month. Today's sudden move, in which Azerbaijan's parliament ratified with just one abstention a presidential decree appointing the younger Aliyev, set the stage for the first handover of power from father to son in a former Soviet republic.
| I think this is the first handover of any sort for Azerbaidjan. Another hereditary democracy. Guess he and Assad will have something to talk about. |
Members of Azerbaijan's democratic opposition immediately denounced the dynasty's "illegal effort to seize power" in a strategically located country of 8 million that expects to reap billions of dollars in new oil revenues in coming years. A presidential election, in which both Aliyevs are registered as candidates, is scheduled for Oct. 15. But as prime minister, Ilham Aliyev would automatically become acting president if his father could not continue in office, a constitutional change pushed through by the elder Aliyev last year. The new prime minister, 41, who has a reputation as a reformed gambler who now serves as deputy head of the ruling party and vice president of the state-owned oil company, has long been groomed as a presidential successor. "I will telephone my father today," he told a television reporter minutes after the vote. He then waved to acknowledge a standing ovation in the parliament. "This decision will make him very happy."
| Well, sure. He was worried Sonny wouldn't have a job... |
His appointment came after days of deepening mystery about the health of his father, a member of the former Soviet Politburo who redefined himself as an Azeri nationalist after independence and has ruled the country since 1993. Sequestered in Turkey since July 8, Aliyev, who has had heart problems, has not been seen in public for the last month, fueling increasingly frantic rumors in Azerbaijan that he might be dead. |