SUMMARY
The Republic of Azerbaijan became independent from the Soviet Union in 1991; prior to this, the Azerbaijan Soviet Socialist Republic (SSR) was one of the constituent republics of the Soviet Union. Ayaz Mutallibov was the first president of the Republic of Azerbaijan; he had previously been the first president of the Azerbaijan SSR. Mutallibov was deposed on 15 May 1992 when forces led by the APF seized key buildings in the capital Baku, including the Parliament. APF had forced Mutallibov to resign already on March 6, following the failure to protect Azeri civilians massacred by Armenian forces, assisted by troops from the Russian 366th Infantry Regiment, in the town of Khojly in Nagorno-Karabakh on 25-26 February (for more on this, see Republic of Nagorno-Karabakh – Civilians). The coup on 15 May was triggered by an attempt by Mutallibov to resume his office on May 14. He was succeeded by APF’s Abulfaz Elchibey, who became Azerbaijan first democratically elected president after winning the presidential election on 7 June 1992. Right after independence, in 1991 and early 1992, the Government of Azerbaijan did not possess any national armed forces. Instead, it had to rely on various paramilitary groups and local warlord to carry out most of the fighting in Nagorno-Karabakh, an Azerbaijani enclave experiencing armed conflict between Azeri forces and Armenian separatists. One such warlord was Surat Husseinov, who was given a formal military rank in return for deploying his militia to fight in Nagorno-Karabakh; Husseinov defected from the government’s de facto armed forces in 1993 and launched a successful coup against President Elchibey.
Elchibey was deposed in June 1993, after he fled Baku in the face of the coup conducted by the forces of Suret Husseinov. In Elchibey’s absence, the political strongman Heydar Aliyev, who was a former KGB (the Soviet security agency) general and former full member of the Soviet Politburo, was given temporary presidential powers. Aliyev had just prior to this, on June 15, been appointed Chairman of the National Assembly (Azerbaijan’s highest legislative body) by President Elchibey in an attempt to discourage Husseinov’s march on Baku. Following Elchbey’s departure, Aliyev quickly negotiated a ceasefire with Husseinov. As part of the negotiated terms, a rudimentary power-sharing arrangement between Aliyev and Husseinov was established, in which the latter was appointed Prime Minister; Husseinov retained this position until 1994, when the arrangement broke down. Heydar Aliyev subsequently became President following elections on 3 October 1993.
In 1992, Aliyev had created the New Azerbaijan Party (YAP, Yeni Azərbaycan Partiyası), which resembled a post-Soviet “party of power”; YAP was used to consolidate Aliyev’s hold on power. Aliyev survived a mutiny and attempted coup by the OPON paramilitary police force in March 1995 (see Government of Azerbaijan – OPON Force). Following his death in 2003, Heydar Aliyev was succeeded by his son Ilham Aliyev as president and as leader of YAP. Azerbaijan has been a fundamentally undemocratic state for most of its independent existence, and the Government of Azerbaijan, led by Heydar and Ilham Aliyev, has impeded any real attempts at democratic transition. The president dominates all aspects of the political milieu, and all important decision making. As of 2018, the Government of Azerbaijan was a consolidated authoritarian regime with the executive power firmly controlled by the Aliyev family. YAP has been managed much like the old Soviet Communist Party, and Azeri politics was highly dependent on patronage politics and regionalism; the Nakhichevanis and Yerazi clans were particularly influential, and Heydar Aliev had connections to both. The two Aliyev regimes have promoted a secular form of Azeri nationalism.
During 1991 and 1992, the Russian 23rd Motor Rifle Division sold weapons to the Azeri, and some of its troops may have served as mercenaries. It is also likely that the prominent Chechen commander Shamil Basayev fought with the Azeri in Nagorno-Karabakh. In the spring of 1993, several hundred mujahedeen from Afghanistan also fought for the Government of Azerbaijan. The Government of Azerbaijan could also equip its forces with vast amounts of weapons and munitions left behind in Soviet arms depots.
In the 1990s, the Government of Azerbaijan also received support from Turkey on the Nagorno-Karabakh issue; Turkey did however not intervene directly in the conflict, but provided some training of the Azeri armed forces. Turkish involvement in Nagorno-Karabakh was also limited by Russia, which warned Turkey to stay out of Azerbaijan. The Turkish Prime Minister Süleyman Demirel was also involved in Heydar Aliyev’s arrival in Baku in June 1993, which prevented Suret Husseinov from assuming power in the country. However, the Government of Azerbaijan, led by President Heydar Aliyev, also claimed that Turkey supported the OPON Forces in both 1994 and 1995. This shift in Turkish support was allegedly brought about by Aliyev’s departure from the pan-Turkic agenda that had been promoted by Elchibey before he was deposed.
The early 2000s were marked by political consolidation under the Aliyev family. Ilham Aliyev succeeded his father, as president in 2003, after elections that were widely criticized by international observers for irregularities and lack of transparency. Despite repeated peace talks under the OSCE Minsk Group, the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict remained unresolved, and occasional ceasefire violations and border skirmishes persisted.
The 2010s saw a continuation of Azerbaijan’s authoritarian political structure, with Ilham Aliyev securing additional presidential terms. This decade also saw periodic escalations along the Nagorno-Karabakh Line of Contact, most notably the April 2016 "Four-Day War," in which dozens were killed on both sides.
The security landscape of the 2020s was altered by renewed large-scale conflict in Nagorno-Karabakh. After the Second Nagorno-Karabakh War in 2020, which saw Azerbaijan regain significant territories with Turkish support and advanced military technology. However, tensions remained high, and the situation escalated again in September 2023 when Azerbaijan launched a rapid and decisive military operation in Nagorno-Karabakh. This offensive led to the collapse of the self-declared Republic of Artsakh, a mass exodus of ethnic Armenians, and the full restoration of Azerbaijani control over the enclave.
In the aftermath of the 2023 conflict, by January 2024, Republic of Artsakh was officially dissolved as a political entity. The following months saw an increased focus on peace negotiations with Armenia, though some critical issues remained unresolved. Politically, the Aliyev family continued to dominate Azerbaijan, suppressing dissent and maintaining close strategic ties with Turkey while managing a complex relationship with Russia.
