Heydar Aliyev's successor who crumbled before the Karabakh crisis
In connection with the events that occurred in Nagorno-Karabakh and Sumgait, I recognize that I morally have no right to lead the party organization of the republic.
First Secretary of the Azerbaijan Communist Party (1982–1988), appointed after Heydar Aliyev was promoted to Moscow. Personally honest but politically inert, he proved unable to manage the cascading crises of February 1988, when the Nagorno-Karabakh Autonomous Oblast soviet voted for transfer to Armenia and the Sumgait pogrom erupted days later. Distrusted by Gorbachev, he resigned in May declaring that he 'morally had no right to lead the republic's party organization,' and withdrew entirely from public life thereafter.
Career Timeline
- 1949Mechanic, Baku gas office
- 1957Graduated Azerbaijan Polytechnic Institute; assistant, senior lecturer, deputy dean of construction
- 1968–1971Deputy Head, Construction and Public Utilities Dept, Council of Ministers, Azerbaijan SSR
- 1971–1974Head, Construction and Urban Economy Dept, CC Azerbaijan CP
- 1974–1978First Secretary, Sumgait City Party Committee
- 1978–1982Secretary, CC Azerbaijan CP
- 1982–1988First Secretary, CC Azerbaijan CP
- 1990–1992Chairman, State Committee for Industrial Safety and Mining Control, Azerbaijan