Ilham Aliyev remains at the head of Azerbaijan in the first elections after the conquest of Nagorno Karabakh

The Aliyev family has controlled Azerbaijan without opposition since 1993 and this Wednesday they will revalidate their power until at least 2031, in the first presidential elections after the forcible takeover of the Armenian enclave of Nagorno Karabakh in September of last year. The region, internationally recognized as Azerbaijani territory, but with an Armenian population and a self-proclaimed republic after the dissolution of the Soviet Union, was conquered by Baku in the final assault of a long and intermittent war. More than 100,000 Armenians fled the area, and in the deserted streets of their capital – Jankendi for Azerbaijan, Stepanakert for Armenia – several polling stations have been deployed for elections where opponents, activists and journalists have been persecuted, as have their families. . President Ilham Aliyev (Baku, 62 years old) wins the elections with 92.1% of the votes, with 54.4% counted, according to the central electoral commission.

Aliyev, who succeeded his father at the head of power in 2003, has symbolically cast his vote in the largest city of Nagorno Karabakh, accompanied by his wife, the first vice president of Azerbaijan, Mehriban Aliyeva. Her husband won 86.02% of the votes in the 2018 presidential elections and the president has predictably achieved a fifth consecutive term this Wednesday in early elections where the six rival candidates have been politicians close to power and They have only had praise for their leader. In one of the electoral debates—Alíyev has not attended any—one of the candidates, Zahid Oruj, directly encouraged viewers to vote for the current president.

For their part, the two main opposition parties, Musavat and the Popular Front of Azerbaijan, have withdrawn from participating due to the systematic persecution of critics. According to their figures, there are about 200 political prisoners in the country's prisons, and the Popular Front of Azerbaijan encouraged the population not to go to the polls. “We have made the decision to boycott the elections. There are no normal conditions for opposition formations to act freely. We will not participate in this farce,” said Ali Karimli at the extraordinary congress held by his party last December.

“The Azerbaijani authorities have intensified their repression against peaceful dissent since November with the arrest of more than 13 opponents, journalists and a human rights activist,” denounced Natalya Nozadze, Amnesty International researcher in the South Caucasus. . “After the arrest of critics of the Government, the Executive began to persecute their relatives and friends,” she says in a statement.

The activist points out that the authorities have frozen the income and bank accounts of the parents of several journalists from Abzas and Channel 13 who have been detained: “Ofelia Maharramova, the mother of the editor-in-chief of Abzascannot afford the medications he needs because his pension and disability benefits have been frozen.”

Aliyev left the opposition with no room for maneuver by unexpectedly bringing forward these elections two months ago, as they were scheduled for April 2025. In total, 6,537 polling stations have opened, 26 of them in Nagorno Karabakh, and 6.5 million citizens have have been called to polls where there have been no independent international observers.

The president has vetoed the mission of the Council of Europe, whose Parliamentary Assembly withdrew Baku's credentials on January 25 for “not having fulfilled the important commitments” signed since its accession to Aliyev's arrival to power. The organization accused Baku of having committed “ethnic cleansing” in Nagorno-Karabakh in the fall of last year by resuming the war “and causing the flight of the entire Armenian population” from the region; and also denounced “a series of examples of lack of cooperation with the Council”, among them, not allowing its rapporteurs to meet “with people detained on alleged politically motivated charges” or allowing an observation of these elections.

Aliyev then threatened to permanently leave the Council of Europe “given the unbearable atmosphere of racism, Azerbaijaniphobia and Islamophobia in the Assembly.”

Accusations of human rights violations have not prevented the European Union from strengthening ties with Azerbaijan in the last year. The president of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, visited the country in the summer of 2023, when Baku had already blocked Nagorno Karabakh for months, “to strengthen bilateral relations, including energy cooperation”, that is, the import of Azerbaijani gas as an alternative to Russian.

“Many citizens perceive these elections, which are being held for the first time throughout the country, including the Nagorno-Karabakh region, as an opportunity to express their respect and gratitude to the head of state,” pro-government MP Malajat Ibraguimgyzy told the agency. Russian news outlet Tass.

Azerbaijan's ambassador to Russia, Polad Bulbuloglu, told the same agency that his country's elections “could be helpful.” [para Moscú] thanks to the exchange of experiences in the organization of electoral processes.”

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