Eldar Mahmudov

Eldar Mahmudov Ahmad oglu (Eldar Mahmudov Əhməd oğlu) is an Azerbaijani politician formerly serving as the Minister of National Security of Azerbaijan Republic.

Mahmudov was born in Baku in 1956 to the family of a scientist.

His father's family is originally from the village of Shahtakhti in the Sharur region of the Nakhchivan Autonomous Republic.

He graduated from the Bunyadzadeh Institute of Economy in 1978 (B.A. in Finance and Credit) and Baku State University in 1993 (B.A. in Law).

In 1980-2004 Mahmudov served in internal affairs agencies, firstly of the Azerbaijan Soviet Socialist Republic (to 1991) and thereafter the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Azerbaijan Republic.

His duties included preventing organized crime and criminal investigation.

In 1992, Mahmudov was appointed Head of the Drugs Enforcement Department of the Ministry of Internal Affairs (Azerbaijan).

In 1993-2003, Mahmudov was Chief of the Economic Crimes Department and the Operative Economic Coordination Bureau.

The operation against the organised crime group that had engaged in kidnapping, murder and other serious crimes since 1996 was a success.

During the investigation more than 50 crimes were uncovered including murder, kidnapping and other serious crimes.

The gang included very senior police officers, and they were led by a senior operative of the Main Directorate of Criminal Intelligence of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, Lieutenant Colonel Haji Mammadov.

The gang had kidnapped at least a dozen relatives of well-known businessmen in Azerbaijan in order to obtain ransom over a nine-year period[1].

Simultaneously 13 other members of the kidnapping group were arrested across Azerbaijan, including Russian Federation and Chechnyan citizens.

Operation Qartal was a large anti-terrorist operation in the northern territories of Azerbaijan mounted by the Ministry of National Security of the Republic of Azerbaijan, led by Eldar Mahmudov.

Its aim was to confront and neutralise the leaders of the Forest Brothers gang, a notorious terrorist group based in the Qusar region of Azerbaijan.

In early 2004, he was appointed Head of the Main Directorate for Combatting Illicit Drug Trafficking.

Mahmudov frequently represented Azerbaijan in the work of several international organisations and at different conferences and seminars dedicated to the issues of war on terrorism, corruption, human trafficking, and the illegal drugs trade held in different countries around the world.

He was directly involved in the drafting of numerous international legal instruments, including the United Nations Convention against Corruption.

On July 24, 2004 he was appointed the Minister of National Security by President Ilham Aliyev and awardedthe military rank of Major General.

With the arrival of Mahmudov, personnel and structural reforms were introduced in the fight against terrorism and other serious crimes such as murder, kidnapping, drug trafficking and cyber crime.

He holds the military rank of Lieutenant General as of March 16, 2005 and formerly served in the USSR Armed Forces.

By the Order of the President of the Republic of Azerbaijan dated March 16, 2005, he was awarded the military rank of Lieutenant General and by a subsequent Order dated March 27, he was awarded the highest military rank of Colonel General.

In March 2005 Mahmudov implemented Operation Black Belt to rescue Zamira Hajiyeva, the wife of the Chairman of the International Bank of Azerbaijan, Jahangir Hajiyev, who had been kidnapped by a criminal gang in February 2005.

However, the gang’s movements were already being monitored by the Azerbaijan Ministry of National Security.

On August 25, 2008, the gang was located in a forest between the villages of Avaran and Khurel in the Qusar region.

Special forces were ordered to engage with the terrorists who had opened fire using machine guns and grenades.

The militants fled the scene and a full pursuit was mounted using combat helicopters and armoured vehicles.

Illegally stored weapons and literature "propagandizing jihad and terrorism" were seized from members of the group.

In May 2012 in a major widespread operation across Azerbaijan, an attempt on the life of President Aliev was prevented, as was a planned terrorist atrocity at the Eurovision Song Contest 2012 in Baku.

The thwarted attempt on the life of President Aliyev was in the north-western region of Azerbaijan, where Ministry of National Security forces took decisive action to neutralise the threat.

A transnational terrorist group had planned a co-ordinated attack designed to kill and maim the maximum number of victims, targeting landmark locations where widespread casualties would be caused.

The terrorists were planning to target prestigious hotels, religious centres and places of pilgrimage and other sites likely to result in maximum casualties.

Law enforcement officers and administrative centres throughout Azerbaijan were also targeted by the well prepared and resourced terrorist group.

Acting upon intelligence, the Ministry of National Security, headed by Eldar Mahmudov, conducted special large-scale operations in a number of Azerbaijan cities including Baku, Ganja and Sugayit, as well as other cities that were under threat of terrorist attack.

The terrorists had specifically targeted the Eurovision 2012 contest in Baku, hoping to commit an international atrocity that would attract worldwide attention.

As a result of the anti-terrorism operation, a notorious leader of the organised group, Vugar Padarov, was killed, along with a number of other terrorists.

Prestigious hotels such as the Hilton Baku and the JW Marriot Hotel Absheron were targets of the terrorist group, as was the Baku Crystal Hall which was the venue for the Eurovision 2012 contest.

The terrorists had planted explosive devices in cars outside various hotels and the Eurovision 2012 venue, but the anti-terrorism measures adopted by the Ministry of National Security foiled the attempt to cause widespread casualties.

A number of terrorists were killed by Ministry of National Security forces, with multiple arrests being made and convictions secured.

On October 17, 2015 he was relieved of his post as Minister of National Security of the Republic of Azerbaijan by decree of President Ilham Aliyev.