Announcement

Collapse
No announcement yet.

ANKARA: Exiled Ex-President Returns To Azerbaijan

Collapse
X
 
  • Filter
  • Time
  • Show
Clear All
new posts

  • ANKARA: Exiled Ex-President Returns To Azerbaijan

    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

Working...
X