Sevil Aliyeva

Sevil Geydarovna Aliyeva (Russian: Севиль Гейдаровна Алиева, born 12 October 1955) is an Azerbaijani composer and the founder of Space TV.

She is also the daughter to the former President of Azerbaijan Geydar Aliyev, as well as the elder sister to the incumbent president Ilkham Aliyev.

Born in Baku in 1955 to Geydar Aliyev and Zarifa Aliyeva, Sevil started to learn music when she was 6 years old.

In 1982, when Geydar was appointed First Deputy Premier of the Soviet Union, the whole family, including Sevil and his younger brother, Ilkham Aliyev, who was studying at Moscow State Institute of International Relations (MGIMO) during that time, moved to Moscow.

She married Makhmud Mamed-Guliev, who has been serving as the Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs since 1993.

They have a daughter, who frequently made phone calls to Kremlin, where Geydar was working.

One day, she was invited to Kremlin to have a tea with Geydar, and she went with Sevil.

Despite this, Sevil later revealed that her daughter could go there without her.

Following the 1993 coup, Geydar came to power and became the new President of Azerbaijan.

Sevil, who advocated freedom of people, was not in favour of her father's ruling style.

In 1998, Sevil left Azerbaijan and moved to London.

Since then, she rarely visits Azerbaijan; one of them was in 2003, when Geydar passed away.

Following the death of Geydar, his son and Sevil's younger brother, Ilkham, succeeded his presidency, although Sevil was not in favour of her brother.

She once planned to encourage people to fight against her brother.

She opposes Armenian–Azerbaijani wars, as she believes that her mother, Zarifa, has an Armenian blood.

In 2009, several newspapers reported that Sevil was trying to join politics, in opposition to her brother.

She, however, denined the rumour.