Abdurrahman Vazirov

Abdurrahman Vazirov
First Secretary of the Azerbaijan Communist Party
In office May 21, 1988 – January 20, 1990
Personal details
Born	May 26, 1930 Shusha, NKAO, Azerbaijan SSR, USSR
Political party	Communist Party of the Soviet Union

Abdurrahman Vazirov Khalil oglu (Azerbaijani: Əbdürrəhman Vəzirov Xəlil oğlu) (born May 26, 1930) was the 13th First Secretary of the Communist Party of Azerbaijan and the leader of the Azerbaijan SSR from 1988 till January, 1990.

Abdurrahman Vazirov was appointed by Kremlin to lead Soviet Azerbaijan in May, 1988, amidst the heating of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict. Vazirov replaced Kamran Baghirov, whose dismissal came along with similar dismissal of Karen Demirchyan and appointment of Suren Harutyunyan as the leader of the Soviet Armenia.^[1]

Vazirov was a Soviet diplomat, who served in India, Nepal and Pakistan. He had been out of the Azerbaijan SSR for over a decade and therefore was untainted by the corruption.^[2] He was neither a typical political boss nor a local nationalist; he could not even speak fluent Azerbaijani.^[3] But at the same time, Vazirov was born in Nagorno-Karabakh region of Azerbaijan SSR.

Vazirov shared Mikhail Gorbachev's internationalist values and aspirations for political reform but he could not cope effectively with the complex political situation in Azerbaijan.^[3] He was also known as a fierce opponent of the former leader of Soviet Azerbaijan and later the 3rd president of independent Azerbaijan, Heydar Aliyev.

Vazirov left Azerbaijan SSR amidst the Black January events in Baku, for which he was later sought by the Parliament of Azerbaijan as one of the responsible parties.^[4] On January 24, 1990, he was replaced in his position by Ayaz Mutallibov.

References

1. Lubomyr Hajda, Mark R. Beissinger. The Nationalities Factor in Soviet Politics and Society, Westview Press, 1990, ISBN 0-8133-7644-0, p. 233
2. Roland Grigor Suny. "Nationalism and Democracy in Gorbachev's Soviet Union: The Case of Karabagh", published in Rachel Denber. The Soviet Nationality Reader: The Disintegration in Context, Westview Press, 1992, ISBN 0-8133-1027-X, p. 494
3. Robert V. Barylski. "The Russian Federation and Eurasia's Islamic Crescent", Europe-Asia Studies, Vol. 46, No. 3. (1994), p. 397
4. Thomas Goltz. Azerbaijan Diary: A Rogue Reporter's Adventures in an Oil-Rich, War-Torn, Post-Soviet Republic, M. E. Sharpe, 1998, ISBN 0-7656-0244-X, p. 410