Gorbachev's man for the Karabakh crisis who fled Baku as Black January consumed Soviet Azerbaijan
On the night of the 25th, Vezirov called to say 'catastrophe is brewing and we must ask Moscow for help': from Ayaz Mutallibov's recollections
First Secretary of the Azerbaijan Communist Party (1988–1990), appointed by Gorbachev as the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict spiraled. Of Karabakh descent and a career diplomat who had spent over a decade outside the republic, he was untainted by local corruption but could command neither the entrenched party clans nor the street. Having lost all control as mass protests and anti-Armenian pogroms convulsed Baku in January 1990, he fled to Moscow before Soviet troops opened fire on civilians, and was afterward blamed by the central government and Heydar Aliyev alike.
Career Timeline
- 1954–1956Secretary, then Second Secretary, CC Azerbaijan Komsomol
- 1956–1959First Secretary, CC Azerbaijan Komsomol
- 1959–1970Secretary, CC All-Union Komsomol
- 1970–1976First Secretary, Kirovabad City Committee, then Head of Industry Dept, CC Azerbaijan CP
- 1976–1979USSR Consul-General, Calcutta
- 1979–1985USSR Ambassador to Nepal
- 1985–1988USSR Ambassador to Pakistan; involved in Afghan withdrawal talks
- 1988–1990First Secretary, CC Azerbaijan Communist Party