Abulfaz Elchibey

Abulfaz Gadirgulu oghlu Aliyev (Əbülfəz Qədirqulu oğlu Əliyev; 24 June 1938 – 22 August 2000), better known as Abulfaz Elchibey (Əbülfəz Elçibəy), was an Azerbaijani politician, Azerbaijani nationalist and Soviet dissident who was the first and only democratically elected President in post-Soviet Azerbaijan.

He was the leader of the Azerbaijani Popular Front and played an important role in achieving Azerbaijan's independence from the Soviet Union.

Elchibey was elected as the president of Azerbaijan in independent Azerbaijan's first free election.

Abulfaz Aliyev studied Arabic at the Baku State University and graduated in 1957 from the department of Arab philology of the Faculty of Oriental Studies.

He worked as a translator and later as a lecturer of history at the Baku State University.

From 1963 to 1964 he practiced in Egypt, working as a translator.

He soon joined the Soviet dissident movement, supporting the re-establishment of Azebaijani independence.

He was arrested in 1975 on charges of defaming the Soviet Union and spent 18 months in prison.

Thereafter he worked at the Institute of Manuscripts of Azerbaijan and published over 50 scientific works on oriental philosophy, history, literature and religion.

He assumed the nickname of Elchibey (Azerbaijani for "noble messenger") upon his leadership of the Azerbaijani Popular Front in 1990.

Elchibey's rise to presidency came after the first round of heavy losses of Azerbaijan in the war against Armenia in the First Nagorno-Karabakh War.

He served from 17 June 1992 until his overthrow in a 24 June 1993 military coup backed by Russia that led to the installation of Heydar Aliyev as president.

Elchibey's brief rule was the only post-Soviet period in which Azerbaijan has been democratic.

During his rule, Elchibey sought to dismantle the old communist system domestically, such as the planned economy and the black market.

In his foreign policy, he sought to re-orient Azerbaijan to the West.

After the Khojaly Massacre (26–27 February 1992), the fall of Shusha (8 May 1992) and Lachin (15–17 May 1992), the temporary Azerbaijani communist establishment led by Yaqub Mammadov could no longer hold power.

Amidst disorder on the frontline, former Azerbaijani president Ayaz Mutalibov attempted a comeback two months after his resignation in a parliamentary coup on 14 May 1992, resulting in public outrage and the military overthrow of Mutalibov by the Azerbaijani Popular Front in Baku on 15 May 1992.

The national presidential election with 7 candidates was held on 7 June 1992 in which Elchibey was elected the President of Azerbaijan, gaining 54% of votes and becoming Azerbaijan's first democratically elected, non-communist president.

During the summer of 1992, Elchibey secured the full withdrawal of the Soviet 4th Army and other elements of the Transcaucasus Military District from Azerbaijan, which became the first former Soviet republic (after the Baltic states) free of Soviet military presence.

At the same time, Elchibey's government established the national Azerbaijani Navy and managed to reach an agreement with Russia on receiving one-quarter of the Soviet Caspian Flotilla based in Baku.

Upon his election, Elchibey appointed Isgandar Hamidov, a police colonel and the leader of the newly established Grey Wolves movement in Azerbaijan, as the Minister of Interior.

In June 1992, the Azerbaijani army started a counter-offensive codenamed Operation Goranboy in Nagorno-Karabakh, establishing control of over 40% of the region by the fall of 1992 and approaching within 7 kilometers of Shusha.

However, as the Azerbaijani offensive pushed further into Karabakh, it became further bogged down in controversy, mismanagement, corruption and treachery by Elchibey-appointed Defense Minister Rahim Gaziyev, along with the guerilla tactics of the NKR Army in mountain warfare.

This led to unexpectedly heavy Azeri casualties, loss of heavy military equipment, and the campaign ending in failure.

On 18 August 1992, Elchibey signed a decree on Azerbaijan's entry into the International Monetary Fund and the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development.

On 7 and 8 September 1992, former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher visited Baku on an unofficial visit as a guest of Elchibey.

During her visit, she oversaw the signing ceremony of an agreement between Azerbaijan, British Petroleum and Statoil on exploratory work at the Chirag oilfield.

In this respect, one of Elchibey's goals in inviting Thatcher was to attract foreign entrepreneurs looking to do business in Azerbaijan.

During a reception at the Gulustan Palace, he described Thatcher as being one who played a role in Azerbaijan achieving independence, saying that "she can see the fruits of the tree she planted".

In 1992, during a visit to the Turkish capital of Ankara, Elchibey described himself as a soldier of Mustafa Kemal Atatürk (founder and the first president of Turkish Republic).

He also held some pan-Turanian views, for which he enjoyed the support of the leader of the Turkish Nationalist Movement Party, Colonel Alparslan Türkeş.

However, Elchibey's attempted reforms were put to a halt by the 1993 coup.

According to historian Audrey Altstadt, Elchibey faced several major problems during his tenure as president: "the war in Nagorno-Karabagh (with loss of land and creation of refugees), inflation and related economic problems (including slow progress on an oil deal with foreign investors), and the remnants of Russian-Soviet control and influence of the old order. The most immediately pressing problem was unrest around Baku."

During his tenure, Elchibey had to contend with an administration staffed by former Communists and military forces that were not under his control.

He positioned himself as a pan-Turkist while holding hostile views towards Iran and Russia.

Hamidov, despite his personal devotion and contributions in capturing Agdere district of Azerbaijan, proved to be generally incompetent and resigned in April 1993 after the fall of Kalbajar.

In April 1993, he attended the funeral of President Turgut Özal in Istanbul, a person who shared his beliefs for a potential Turkic union from the former Soviet Union.

During his one-year rule, Azerbaijani–Russian relations were damaged, with his politics being described in this regard as "anti-Russian."

He was noted for using an interpreter when speaking to Russian figures, despite being fluent in the Russian language as he was educated in the USSR.

Often teasing the Russian leadership, he once declared that among the Russians who did the greatest services to democracy was Tatarstan President Mintimer Shaimiev and in a congratulatory telegram sent in connection with the adoption of a new Tatar constitution, Elchibey wrote that "the heroic Tatar people" have contributed to the "awakening and revival of the Turkic world".