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EXILED EX-PRESIDENT RETURNS TO AZERBAIJAN
Hurriyet
Aug 9, 2011
Turkey
This file photo shows present-day Azerbaijan's President Ilham Aliyev
who speaks during a media conference at EU headquarters in Brussels
on Wednesday, June 22, 2011. AP photo
Azerbaijan's first president after independence from the Soviet Union
has returned to the country from exile for the first time in 19 years,
his allies said on Tuesday.
Ayaz Mutallibov, who was forced to resign in 1992 and fled into exile
in Russia, arrived from Moscow on Monday evening to attend the funeral
of his son in Baku.
The former Azerbaijani president has made no comment to reporters
since his arrival.
Mutallibov still faces legal charges in the country dating from his
time in office and the co-chairman of his Social Democratic Party said
that his return had been sanctioned by Azerbaijan's current leadership.
"If there had been no guarantees of immunity at the highest level,
then Mutallibov would have been arrested at the airport," co-chairman
Araz Alizadeh told journalists.
Mutallibov was the last Communist Party First Secretary of Soviet-era
Azerbaijan, but dissolved the party after independence and was then
restored to the country's leadership by elections in 1991.
However the country fell into political turmoil amid its war with
Armenian forces over the disputed region of Nagorny Karabakh, and
Mutallibov was forced to step down six months later after several
disastrous military defeats
Hurriyet
Aug 9, 2011
Turkey
This file photo shows present-day Azerbaijan's President Ilham Aliyev
who speaks during a media conference at EU headquarters in Brussels
on Wednesday, June 22, 2011. AP photo
Azerbaijan's first president after independence from the Soviet Union
has returned to the country from exile for the first time in 19 years,
his allies said on Tuesday.
Ayaz Mutallibov, who was forced to resign in 1992 and fled into exile
in Russia, arrived from Moscow on Monday evening to attend the funeral
of his son in Baku.
The former Azerbaijani president has made no comment to reporters
since his arrival.
Mutallibov still faces legal charges in the country dating from his
time in office and the co-chairman of his Social Democratic Party said
that his return had been sanctioned by Azerbaijan's current leadership.
"If there had been no guarantees of immunity at the highest level,
then Mutallibov would have been arrested at the airport," co-chairman
Araz Alizadeh told journalists.
Mutallibov was the last Communist Party First Secretary of Soviet-era
Azerbaijan, but dissolved the party after independence and was then
restored to the country's leadership by elections in 1991.
However the country fell into political turmoil amid its war with
Armenian forces over the disputed region of Nagorny Karabakh, and
Mutallibov was forced to step down six months later after several
disastrous military defeats