Abdurrahman Vazirov

Abdurrahman Khalil oglu Vazirov ( _az. Əbdürrəhman Vəzirov) (born 26 May 1930) was the 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 a leader of the Soviet Armenia [Lubomyr Hajda, Mark R. Beissinger. "The Nationalities Factor in Soviet Politics and Society", Westview Press, 1990, ISBN 0813376440, p. 233] .

Vazirov was a Soviet diplomat, who served in Pakistan and Moscow. He has been out of the Azerbaijan SSR for over a decade and therefore was untainted by the corruption [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 081331027X, p. 494] . He was neither a typical political boss nor a local nationalist; he could not even speak fluent Azerbaijani Robert V. Barylski. "The Russian Federation and Eurasia's Islamic Crescent", "Europe-Asia Studies", Vol. 46, No. 3. (1994), p. 397] . But at the same time, Vazirov was born in Nagorno-Karabakh region of Azerbaijan SSR and also spoke some Armenian [Mark Malkasian. "Gha-Ra-Bagh!: The Emergence of the National Democratic Movement in Armenia", Wayne State University Press, 1996, ISBN 0814326048, p. 86] .

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 . 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 [Thomas Goltz. "Azerbaijan Diary: A Rogue Reporter's Adventures in an Oil-Rich, War-Torn, Post-Soviet Republic", M. E. Sharpe, 1998, ISBN 076560244X, p. 410] . On January 24, 1990, he was replaced in his position by Ayaz Mutallibov.

References