Azerbaijan’s president Ilham Aliyev has named his wife as his deputy, tightening the family’s grip on
power in the small former Soviet oil-producing state.
Mehriban
Aliyeva will become Azerbaijan’s first vice-president, Mr Aliyev said in a
decree issued on Tuesday that did not detail her responsibilities but
effectively installed the first lady as the country’s second most powerful
person and 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 as leader in 2003. Mrs Aliyeva, who on Tuesday
attended a meeting of the country’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.” The 52-year-old 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.
