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Heydar Aliyev

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142-518: Heydar Alirza oghlu Aliyev ( Azerbaijani : Heydər Əlirza oğlu Əliyev (Latin), Һејдәр Әлирза оғлу Әлијев (Cyrillic), IPA: [hejˈdæɾ æliɾˈzɑ oɣˈlu æˈlijef] ; Russian: Гейда́р Али́евич Али́ев , IPA: [ɡʲɪjˈdar ɐˈlʲijɪvʲɪtɕ ɐˈlʲijɪf] ; 10 May 1923 – 12 December 2003) was an Azerbaijani politician who was a Soviet party boss in the Azerbaijan Soviet Socialist Republic from 1969 to 1982, and

284-710: A Smersh battalion, which conducted intelligence operations on the Soviet Union's own forces and executed soldiers who deserted or fought insufficiently hard. He joined the Azerbaijan SSR People's Commissariat for State Security (NKGB) in 1944 and proceeded to become the department head of the State Security Committee of Azerbaijan SSR in 1950, after he graduated from the Senior Staff Training School of

426-471: A presidential election where he won nearly 99% of the vote. His regime in Azerbaijan has been described as dictatorial, authoritarian, and repressive. He was also said to have run a heavy-handed police state where elections were rigged and dissent was repressed. A cult of personality developed around Aliyev, which has continued after his death in 2003. Shortly before his death, his son Ilham Aliyev

568-429: A 2011 study, 30 Turkish participants were tested to determine how well they understood written and spoken Azerbaijani. It was found that even though Turkish and Azerbaijani are typologically similar languages, on the part of Turkish speakers the intelligibility is not as high as is estimated. In a 2017 study, Iranian Azerbaijanis scored in average 56% of receptive intelligibility in spoken Turkish. Azerbaijani exhibits

710-809: A Joint Statement on future relations between the US and Azerbaijan in defense and military issues. During this trip (27 July-5 August 1997), a statement on intentions of formation of bilateral dialogue between the US and Azerbaijan regarding energy issues and the general agreement between the Government of the Azerbaijani Republic, the National Bank, and the US Export-Import Bank on the promotion of projects were signed. Additionally, 4 agreements on development and production sharing for

852-445: A battalion, SMERSH army departments with a company, and SMERSH departments at the regiment, division, or brigade level, a platoon. In its counter-espionage and counter-intelligence roles, SMERSH appears to have been extremely successful throughout World War II . SMERSH actions resulted in numerous captures, desertions, and defections of German intelligence officers and agents, some of whom SMERSH turned into double agents . Indeed,

994-522: A candidate in the 2003 presidential elections , but declined to run in the elections in connection with health problems. When Aliyev became chairman of the Supreme Soviet in June 1993, Azerbaijan was suffering from internal division and military collapse, which allowed Armenian forces to capture most of five districts in the southwest of Azerbaijan without meeting significant resistance, leading to

1136-449: A degree mutually intelligible, though it is easier for a speaker of Azerbaijani to understand Turkish than the other way around. Turkish soap operas are very popular with Azeris in both Iran and Azerbaijan. Reza Shah Pahlavi of Iran (who spoke South Azerbaijani) met with Mustafa Kemal Atatürk of Turkey (who spoke Turkish) in 1934; the two were filmed speaking their respective languages to each other and communicated effectively. In

1278-665: A full member of the Soviet Politburo and appointed him to the post of First Deputy Chairman of the Council of Ministers of the USSR, responsible for transportation and social services. Aliyev thus attained the highest position ever reached by an Azerbaijani in the Soviet Union. Aliyev was dismissed from his position as First Deputy Premier and from the Politburo by Mikhail Gorbachev in 1987, officially on health grounds, but

1420-657: A literary language in the 14th century through poetry and other works. One ruler of the Qara Qoyunlu state, Jahanshah , wrote poems in Azerbaijani language with the nickname "Haqiqi". Sultan Yaqub , a ruler of the Aq Qoyunlu state, wrote poems in the Azerbaijani language. The ruler and poet Ismail I wrote under the pen name Khatā'ī (which means "sinner" in Persian ) during the fifteenth century. During

1562-498: A much larger number of Persian and Arabic loanwords, phrases and syntactic elements. Early writings in Azerbaijani also demonstrate linguistic interchangeability between Oghuz and Kypchak elements in many aspects (such as pronouns, case endings, participles, etc.). As Azerbaijani gradually moved from being merely a language of epic and lyric poetry to being also a language of journalism and scientific research , its literary version has become more or less unified and simplified with

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1704-535: A non-syllabic / v / can also be pronounced after the aforementioned diphthongs, to form / ou̯v / and / œy̯v / , the rules of which are as follows: Modern linguists who have examined Azerbaijani's vowel system almost unanimously have recognised that diphthongs are phonetically produced in speech. Before 1929, Azerbaijani was written only in the Perso-Arabic alphabet , an impure abjad that does not represent all vowels (without diacritical marks ). In Iran,

1846-532: A number of German agents who tricked the German military into underestimating the number of Soviet troops by 1.2 million men. SMERSH played a major role in creating and controlling partisan operations behind German lines. After capturing German-held territory and reuniting with the Red Army, SMERSH interviewed partisans in order to determine the partisans' loyalty to the regime. SMERSH has been popularized due to

1988-516: A similar stress pattern to Turkish but simpler in some respects. Azerbaijani is a strongly stressed and partially stress-timed language, unlike Turkish which is weakly stressed and syllable-timed . Below are some cognates with different spelling in Azerbaijani and Turkish: The 1st person personal pronoun is mən in Azerbaijani just as men in Turkmen , whereas it is ben in Turkish. The same

2130-459: A speech on live television in April 2003. On 6 August, Aliyev returned to the US for treatment of congestive heart failure and kidney problems. He did not return to Azerbaijan again. Less than two weeks before the 2003 Azerbaijani presidential election , he withdrew his candidacy and appointed his son Ilham as his party's sole presidential candidate. On 12 December 2003, President Aliyev died at

2272-938: Is a Turkic language from the Oghuz sub-branch. It is spoken primarily by the Azerbaijani people , who live mainly in the Republic of Azerbaijan , where the North Azerbaijani variety is spoken, while Iranian Azerbaijanis in the Azerbaijan region of Iran , speak the South Azerbaijani variety . Azerbaijani has official status in the Republic of Azerbaijan and Dagestan (a federal subject of Russia ), but it does not have official status in Iran, where

2414-477: Is as follows: The modern Azerbaijani Latin alphabet contains the digraphs ov and öv to represent diphthongs present in the language, and the pronunciation of diphthongs is today accepted as the norm in the orthophony of Azerbaijani. Despite this, the number and even the existence of diphthongs in Azerbaijani has been disputed, with some linguists, such as Abdulazal Damirchizade  [ az ] , arguing that they are non-phonemic. Damirchizade's view

2556-457: Is because there is a strong tu-vous distinction in Turkic languages like Azerbaijani and Turkish (as well as in many other languages). The informal "you" is used when talking to close friends, relatives, animals or children. The formal "you" is used when talking to someone who is older than the speaker or to show respect (to a professor, for example). SMERSH SMERSH ( Russian : СМЕРШ )

2698-641: Is certain that Russian and Iranian words (sic), respectively, have entered the vocabulary on either side of the Araxes river, but this has not occurred to an extent that it could pose difficulties for communication". There are numerous dialects, with 21 North Azerbaijani dialects and 11 South Azerbaijani dialects identified by Ethnologue. Three varieties have been accorded ISO 639-3 language codes: North Azerbaijani, South Azerbaijani and Qashqai . The Glottolog 4.1 database classifies North Azerbaijani, with 20 dialects, and South Azerbaijani, with 13 dialects, under

2840-557: Is close to present-day Azeri- Türki . ), Afshari (often considered a separate language ), Shahsavani (sometimes considered its own dialect, distinct from other Turkic languages of northwestern Iran ), Baharlu (Kamesh), Moqaddam, Nafar, Qaragozlu, Pishagchi, Bayat, Qajar, Tabriz ". Russian comparatist Oleg Mudrak  [ ru ] calls the Turkmen language the closest relative of Azerbaijani. Speakers of Turkish and Azerbaijani can, to an extent, communicate with each other as both languages have substantial variation and are to

2982-651: Is common throughout former USSR countries). The Shirvan dialect as spoken in Baku is the basis of standard Azerbaijani. Since 1992, it has been officially written with a Latin script in the Republic of Azerbaijan, but the older Cyrillic script was still widely used in the late 1990s. Ethnologue lists 21 North Azerbaijani dialects: "Quba, Derbend, Baku, Shamakhi, Salyan, Lenkaran, Qazakh, Airym, Borcala, Terekeme , Qyzylbash , Nukha, Zaqatala (Mugaly), Qabala, Nakhchivan, Ordubad, Ganja, Shusha (Karabakh), Karapapak , Kutkashen, Kuba". South Azerbaijani, or Iranian Azerbaijani,

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3124-796: Is encountered in many dialects of the Turkmen language and may be observed in such words as: boyun > moyın in Yomut – Gunbatar dialect, büdüremek > müdüremek in Ersari and Stavropol Turkmens' dialects, bol > mol in Karakalpak Turkmens' dialects, buzav > mizov in Kirac dialects. Here are some words from the Swadesh list to compare Azerbaijani with Turkmen: Azerbaijani dialects share paradigms of verbs in some tenses with

3266-722: Is from Turkish Azeri which is used for the people ( azerice being used for the language in Turkish), itself from Persian آذری, Āzarī. The term is also used for Old Azeri , the ancient Iranian language spoken in the region until the 17th century. Azerbaijani evolved from the Eastern branch of Oghuz Turkic ("Western Turkic") which spread to the Caucasus, in Eastern Europe , and northern Iran, in Western Asia , during

3408-508: Is reported that Nagorno-Karabakh and the Lachin Corridor were to be effectively ceded to Armenia while Azerbaijan would regain the seven occupied districts and receive land access to Nakhchivan through Armenian territory. Despite initial reports that the two sides were closer than ever to coming to a final agreement, Aliyev, who is said to have met significant opposition to the conditions from his inner circle, declined to go forward with

3550-501: Is spelled Buş and Schröder becomes Şröder . Hyphenation across lines directly corresponds to spoken syllables, except for geminated consonants which are hyphenated as two separate consonants as morphonology considers them two separate consonants back to back but enunciated in the onset of the latter syllable as a single long consonant, as in other Turkic languages . Some samples include: Secular: Invoking deity: Azerbaijani has informal and formal ways of saying things. This

3692-634: Is still written in Cyrillic script. The Azerbaijani Latin alphabet is based on the Turkish Latin alphabet. In turn, the Turkish Latin alphabet was based on former Azerbaijani Latin alphabet because of their linguistic connections and mutual intelligibility. The letters Әə , Xx , and Qq are available only in Azerbaijani for sounds which do not exist as separate phonemes in Turkish. Northern Azerbaijani, unlike Turkish, respells foreign names to conform with Latin Azerbaijani spelling, e.g. Bush

3834-527: Is the official language of the Republic of Azerbaijan . It is closely related to modern-day Istanbul Turkish, the official language of Turkey. It is also spoken in southern Dagestan , along the Caspian coast in the southern Caucasus Mountains and in scattered regions throughout Central Asia . As of 2011 , there are some 9.23 million speakers of North Azerbaijani including 4 million monolingual speakers (many North Azerbaijani speakers also speak Russian, as

3976-402: Is true for demonstrative pronouns bu , where sound b is replaced with sound m . For example: bunun > munun / mının , muna / mına , munu / munı , munda / mında , mundan / mından . This is observed in the Turkmen literary language as well, where the demonstrative pronoun bu undergoes some changes just as in: munuñ , munı , muña , munda , mundan , munça . b > m replacement

4118-717: Is widely spoken in Iranian Azerbaijan and, to a lesser extent, in neighboring regions of Turkey and Iraq , with smaller communities in Syria . In Iran , the Persian word for Azerbaijani is borrowed as Torki "Turkic". In Iran, it is spoken mainly in East Azerbaijan , West Azerbaijan , Ardabil and Zanjan . It is also spoken in Tehran and across the Tehran Province , as Azerbaijanis form by far

4260-783: The Armia Krajowa and post-war organisations participating e.g. in the Augustów roundup . A separate attachment to GKO decision No. 3222-ss/ov detailed the organisation of SMERSH and its branches in the Army: The Smersh organs are a centralized organization. At the fronts and military districts the Smersh organs (the NKO Smersh directorates at fronts and NKO Smersh departments at the armies, corps, divisions, brigades, military districts, and other units and organizations of

4402-871: The Azerbaijani KGB in 1960 and eventually received the rank of major general . During his time in Soviet secret service, Aliyev was mostly unknown in Azerbaijan. Aliyev was elected First Secretary of the Central Committee of the Azerbaijan Communist Party at its Plenary Session held on 12 July 1969. He was reportedly selected for the job by Brezhnev after his friend Semyon Tsvigun , Brezhnev's brother-in-law, advocated for Aliyev's selection. Aliyev subsequently dominated affairs in Soviet-era Azerbaijan. Described as

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4544-679: The Chuvash language , on which linguists also rely in the study and reconstruction of the Khazar language . Azerbaijani phonotactics is similar to that of other Oghuz Turkic languages, except: Works on Azerbaijani dialectology use the following notations for dialectal consonants: Examples: The vowels of the Azerbaijani are, in alphabetical order, a /ɑ/ , e /e/ , ə /æ/ , ı /ɯ/ , i /i/ , o /o/ , ö /œ/ , u /u/ , ü /y/ . The typical phonetic quality of South Azerbaijani vowels

4686-548: The Constitutional Court of Azerbaijan . Aliyev perceived the military as a threat to his rule. Many of the military commanders from the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict were imprisoned by his government. When war veterans from the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict protested against his government, the government arrested many of them and shut down the veterans rights organization. Aliyev requested the elimination of

4828-544: The Eastern Anatolia Region and all over Iran from the 16th to the early 20th centuries, alongside cultural, administrative, court literature, and most importantly official language (along with Azerbaijani) of all these regions, namely Persian . From the early 16th century up to the course of the 19th century, these regions and territories were all ruled by the Safavids , Afsharids , and Qajars until

4970-639: The European Union and the Republic of Azerbaijan was signed in Luxembourg on 22 April 1996, and went into effect on 22 June 1999. It promises cooperation in the fields of trade, investment, economy, legislation, culture, immigration and the prevention of illicit trade. Azerbaijan received assistance from the EU for economic reforms in the country through the TACIS and TRACECA programmes. The “Restoration of

5112-897: The International Convention for the Suppression of the Financing of Terrorism adopted by UN SC in 1999. The Partnership for Peace (PfP) Framework Document was signed to enhance security and defense cooperation with NATO on 4 May 1994. Aliyev approved the PfP Presentation Document on 19 April 1996. In November 1997, Azerbaijan joined the PfP Planning and Review Process. NATO PA also made Azerbaijan an associate member of NATO in November. The Partnership and Cooperation Agreement between

5254-958: The Kipchak-Turkic language of the same name), the dialect of the Ayrïm (Āyrom) tribe (which, however, resembles Turkish ), and the dialect spoken in the region of the Borchala river ; (3) northern group: Zakataly , Nukha , and Kutkashen ; (4) southern group: Yerevan (Īravān), Nakhichevan (Naḵjavān), and Ordubad (Ordūbād); (5) central group: Ganja (Kirovabad) and Shusha ; (6) North Iraqi dialects ; (7) Northwest Iranian dialects: Tabrīz , Reżāʾīya ( Urmia ), etc., extended east to about Qazvīn ; (8) Southeast Caspian dialect ( Galūgāh ). Optionally, we may adjoin as Azeri (or "Azeroid") dialects: (9) East Anatolian , (10) Qašqāʾī , (11) Aynallū, (12) Sonqorī , (13) dialects south of Qom , (14) Kabul Afšārī . North Azerbaijani, or Northern Azerbaijani,

5396-873: The Lachin District ) and the deployment of international peacekeepers, followed by negotiations on the final status of Nagorno-Karabakh in subsequent phases; the proposal was never realized as Armenian president Levon Ter-Petrosyan failed to win support for it from his own government and was forced to resign in February 1998. Aliyev participated in bilateral talks with the new president of Armenia, Robert Kocharyan, in spring 1999 and again in January 2001. Further, more substantial talks were held in Key West , Florida with American mediation in April 2001. The proposals negotiated at Key West have never been published, although it

5538-766: The USSR State Security Committee . In 1954, as part of a government reform, the NKGB, which was previously named the Ministry of State Security (MGB), was again renamed, this time as the KGB . Sources point to Aliyev working in the Azerbaijani KGB's Eastern Division, which included Iran and the Middle East. During this time, Aliyev was a close associate of Semyon Tvsigun. Aliyev became head of

5680-732: The United Nations . Hubbard abandoned the plan after the Swiss Federal Office of Public Health took notice of the Sea Org's plan. Intelligence and counter-intelligence work always was one of the most interesting topics in Russia. With millions of veterans after the war many of them later became writers and directors. The Committee for State Security had a special "KGB Award in the field of literature and art" honoring depictions of an intelligence work. In modern Russia there

5822-417: The fall of Shusha , the last Azerbaijani-populated town in Nagorno-Karabakh . These events resulted in Mutallibov's resignation and the subsequent rise to power of the Azerbaijan Popular Front led by Abulfaz Elchibey . Elchibey was elected as president in Azerbaijan's first free and fair elections in 1992. During Elchibey's one year in power, Aliyev continued to govern Nakhchivan without any deference to

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5964-432: The operation to retake Kalbajar District was a disastrous failure, with thousands of Azerbaijani soldiers killed or frozen to death in the mountains north of Kalbajar. In May 1994, with Aliyev's approval, a ceasefire agreement was signed by representatives of Azerbaijan, Armenia and the breakaway Nagorno-Karabakh Republic , which successfully put an end to the hostilities in and around Nagorno-Karabakh. While agreeing to

6106-441: The "Monarch of Azerbaijan", Aliyev established an extensive patronage network across Azerbaijan and profited on the black market. According to Harold James Perkin, Aliyev was "surrounded by female ‘volunteers’ whose services were mainly sexual." In his obituary, The Washington Post wrote, "He made a name for himself by smashing local mafia groups, but his personal circle moved in to profit off oil, caviar and other sectors." Aliyev

6248-408: The "patriotism" of those captured, encircled, and those who had returned from foreign countries. SMERSH operatives also controlled partisan operations behind German lines and evaluated the partisans' loyalty to the Soviet Union. SMERSH would then arrest and neutralise anti-Soviet partisans, saboteurs, spies, conspirators, mutineers, deserters , and people designated as traitors and criminal elements at

6390-425: The 16th century, the poet, writer and thinker Fuzûlî wrote mainly in Azerbaijani but also translated his poems into Arabic and Persian . Starting in the 1830s, several newspapers were published in Iran during the reign of the Azerbaijani speaking Qajar dynasty , but it is unknown whether any of these newspapers were written in Azerbaijani. In 1875, Akinchi ( Əkinçi / اکينچی ) ("The Ploughman") became

6532-446: The 1st: foreign intelligence, 2nd: domestic KI, and so on. There is no GUGB within NKVD after its official liquidation in the beginning of February 1941. After the situation on the Russian fronts (known as Eastern front ) became more stable, on 14 April 1943, the State Defense Committee (GKO), chaired by Stalin, ordered another split of the People's Commissariat for Internal Affairs (NKVD USSR) into three organisations: By decision of

6674-435: The Armenian invasion of Nagorno-Karabakh and adjacent regions, and mentioned UN resolutions 822 , 853 , 874 , 884 , which demanded unconditional withdrawal of the Armenian armed forces from the occupied Azerbaijani territories. After 11 September attacks , Azerbaijan joined the anti-terror coalition of UN and cooperated with Office of Counter-Terrorism and Sanctions Committee of the UN SC . In October 2001, Azerbaijan joined

6816-441: The Azerbaijan Republic until the year 2010", and "The common declaration of the President of the Russian Federation, Vladimir Putin and President of the Republic of Azerbaijan, Heydar Aliyev" were signed in the latter meeting. Establishing closer relations and developing cooperation with the US were among the main goals of Aliyev's foreign policy. He stated in one of his speeches regarding this issue: “The relations of Azerbaijan with

6958-497: The Azerbaijan SSR. He also promoted Azerbaijani culture and language. In the early 1980s, Aliyev barred the children of certain legal personnel from attending the republic's law school, in a purported effort to curb a self-perpetuating elite based on corruption. Aliyev was subsequently promoted to the Moscow Politburo in 1976. Aliyev became a candidate (non-voting) member of the Soviet Politburo in 1976. He held this position until December 1982, when Yuri Andropov promoted him to

7100-497: The Azerbaijani macrolanguage with "significant differences in phonology, lexicon, morphology, syntax, and loanwords" between the two. The International Organization for Standardization (ISO) considers Northern and Southern Azerbaijani to be distinct languages. Linguists Mohammad Salehi and Aydin Neysani write that "there is a high degree of mutual intelligibility" between North and South Azerbaijani. Svante Cornell wrote in his 2001 book Small Nations and Great Powers that "it

7242-408: The Azerbaijani legislative system so it could fulfill the requirements of European standards and international law. On 28 June 2000, Azerbaijan's full admission to the CoE was recommended at the session of Parliamentary Assembly of the CoE . Azerbaijan became a full member of the CoE on 17 January 2001; the official ceremony was conducted on 25 January 2001. Presidential orders “On the implementation of

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7384-405: The Azerbaijani sector of the Caspian Sea were signed. After the visit, Aliyev issued an order on “Measures to expand partnership relations between the Republic of Azerbaijan and the United States” on 2 September 1997. Azerbaijan joined a US-lead international coalition against terrorism after 11 September attacks, and sent a military contingent to Afghanistan. An amendment to the Freedom Support Act

7526-419: The Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan pipeline in 1998 in Ankara . The ground-breaking ceremony of BTC took place in September 2002 with the participation of Aliyev, Turkish President Ahmet Necdet Sezer , and Georgian President Edward Shevardnadze . The decision to export Azerbaijani crude oil to the Port of Novorossiysk was made through a contract signed in Moscow on 18 February 1996. Oil transportation through this route

7668-593: The Cleveland Clinic. He was given a large state funeral and buried at the Alley of Honor cemetery in Baku. Heydar Aliyev's son Ilham Aliyev won a presidential election on 15 October 2003 widely considered to have been fraudulent. International observers criticized the contest as falling well below expected standards. Azerbaijani language Azerbaijani ( / ˌ æ z ər b aɪ ˈ dʒ æ n i , - ɑː n i / AZ -ər-by- JAN -ee ) or Azeri ( / æ ˈ z ɛər i , ɑː -, ə -/ az- AIR -ee, ah-, ə- ), also referred to as Azeri Turkic or Azeri Turkish ,

7810-403: The Defense Commissariat Soviet Armed Forces (the NKO) becoming its 3rd Directorate or (3 Upravlenie). The 3rd NKO Directorate took over most of the 4th GUGB Department Sections and was headed by division commissar Anatolii Mikheev, the former and last OO GUGB NKVD chief. The third part of former OO (the 10 Section) became the Navy Commissariat (the Red Fleet ) 3rd Directorate. The head of navy KI

7952-400: The Germans began to consider missions where their losses were less than ninety percent "satisfactory". According to German sources, the Soviets rendered approximately 39,500 German agents useless by the end of the war. SMERSH utilized a number of different counterintelligence tactics: informants, security troops, radio games, and the passing of disinformation , ensuring both the reliability of

8094-400: The Historic Silk Road” international conference was organized in Baku on 8 September 1998 by Aliyev and President Eduard Shevardnadze of Georgia with the support of the TACIS and TRACECA programmes. Azerbaijan participated as a specially invited guest at the Council of Europe (CoE) on 28 June 1996. Consequently, a number of resolutions and legal acts were adopted from 1996–2001 to improve

8236-600: The Iranian languages in what is now northwestern Iran, and a variety of languages of the Caucasus and Iranian languages spoken in the Caucasus , particularly Udi and Old Azeri . By the beginning of the 16th century, it had become the dominant language of the region. It was one of the spoken languages in the court of the Safavids , Afsharids and Qajars . The historical development of Azerbaijani can be divided into two major periods: early ( c.  14th to 18th century) and modern (18th century to present). Early Azerbaijani differs from its descendant in that it contained

8378-456: The Komendatura, which guarded and managed SMERSH installations and prisoners; the Troika, which acted as a military court and could administer punishment without defense from the accused; and the Administrative Bureau and Secretariat, which acted as the personal staff of the SMERSH commander. Below is the organization of SMERSH based on German Intelligence. The second chart shows another way SMERSH may have been organized. GUKR SMERSH directed

8520-421: The Latin script and not South Azerbaijani written in the Perso-Arabic script. Modern literature in the Republic of Azerbaijan is primarily based on the Shirvani dialect, while in the Iranian Azerbaijan region (historic Azerbaijan) it is based on the Tabrizi one. An Azerbaijani koine served as a lingua franca throughout most parts of Transcaucasia except the Black Sea coast, in southern Dagestan ,

8662-438: The Ministry of State Security Academy in Leningrad and graduated in 1944. He also took Senior Staff Professional Development courses at the Dzerzhinsky Higher School of the KGB in Moscow in 1966. In 1948, Aliyev married Zarifa Aliyeva . On 12 October 1955, their daughter Sevil Aliyeva was born. On 24 December 1961, their son Ilham was born. Zarifa Aliyeva died of cancer in 1985. During World War II, he served as commander of

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8804-446: The Modern Azeric family, a branch of Central Oghuz. In the northern dialects of the Azerbaijani language, linguists find traces of the influence of the Khazar language . According to Encyclopedia Iranica : We may distinguish the following Azeri dialects: (1) eastern group: Derbent (Darband), Kuba , Shemakha (Šamāḵī), Baku , Salyani (Salyānī), and Lenkoran (Lankarān), (2) western group: Kazakh (not to be confounded with

8946-407: The NKO, and Stalin's deputy. Formally Gladkov was subordinate to his superior People's Commissar Nikolay Gerasimovich Kuznetsov , head of Navy. OKR SMERSH (Counterintelligence Department) of the NKVD USSR was subordinate to Lavrentiy Beria , People's Commissar of Internal Affairs. The NKVD OKR SMERSH was headed by Semion Yukhimovich and later V. Smirnov. The GKO officially created SMERSH to ensure

9088-543: The NKVD's Directorate of Special Departments to be split into three separate military counterintelligence units, within the NKO, Navy Commissariat and NKVD, respectively, as has been done in early 1941. The same order that created GUKR SMERSH within the NKO created a parallel organisation within the Navy Commissariat, the NKVMF . This organization was known as the Navy UKR SMERSH and headed by Peter Gladkov and his two deputies Aleksei Lebedev and Sergei Dukhovich. In reality, Gladkov reported to Abakumov, by then deputy Commissar of

9230-414: The Nagorno-Karabakh conflict and had effectively lost the First Nagorno-Karabakh War . On 3 October 1993, Aliyev organized the 1993 Azerbaijani presidential election where he allowed two unknown candidates to run against him. He was elected President of the Republic of Azerbaijan with 98.8 percent of the vote. On 11 October 1998, he was re-elected, winning 77 percent of the vote. Aliyev was nominated as

9372-490: The Nakhchivan Pedagogical School, Aliyev attended the Azerbaijan Industrial Institute (now the Azerbaijan State Oil and Industry University ) from 1939 to 1941, where he studied architecture. In 1949 and 1950, he studied at the USSR Ministry of State Security Higher School in Leningrad . Aliyev's official biography also states that he studied at Baku State University , graduating with a degree in history in 1957. According to American journalist Pete Earley , Aliyev first attended

9514-494: The OSCE member states except for Armenia signed a declaration affirming Azerbaijan's territorial integrity and stating that Nagorno-Karabakh's right to self-determination should be realized in the form of "the highest degree of self-rule within Azerbaijan". Aliyev reportedly agreed to a "phased solution" to the conflict proposed by the Minsk Group co-chairs in September 1997, which envisioned the withdrawal of Armenian forces from occupied districts surrounding Nagorno-Karabakh (besides

9656-435: The Politburo of the CPSU [then VKP(b) ] nr. P 40/91People's Commissariat for State Security or (NKGB) was created for the second time. It was based on NKVD's Directorates. The most important of them were: 1st INU (foreign intelligence), 2nd KRU (domestic counterespionage, fighting anti-Soviet organizations, protection of state economy, house searches, and arrests) NKVD 2nd Department (government and party officials protection)

9798-431: The Red Army) are subordinated to the higher organs. (...) The Smersh organs inform Military Councils and commanders of the corresponding units, troops, and organizations of the Red Army on the matters of their work: on the results of their combat with enemy agents, on the penetration of the army units by anti-Soviet elements, and on the results of combat against traitors of the Motherland, deserters, and self mutilators . At

9940-540: The Republic of Azerbaijan and Russia) is based on the Shirvani dialect, while South Azerbaijani uses variety of regional dialects. Since the Republic of Azerbaijan's independence from the Soviet Union in 1991, Northern Azerbaijani has used the Latin script. On the other hand, South Azerbaijani has always used and continues to use the Perso-Arabic script . Azerbaijani is closely related to Turkmen , Turkish , Gagauz , and Qashqai , being mutually intelligible with each of these languages to varying degrees. Historically,

10082-466: The Soviet Union's security from internal political threats and foreign espionage, although it carried out a wide variety of other tasks between 1943 and 1946 as well. SMERSH's counterintelligence operations included seeking and destroying counter revolutionaries, finding and interrogating enemy agents, hunting Soviet agents who had not returned by the appointed date, and evaluating the usefulness of captured enemy documents. SMERSH also took an active role in

10224-644: The Soviet military, the organization quickly expanded its mandate: to find and eliminate any subversive elements—hence Stalin's inclusive name for it. Until 3 February 1941, the 4th Department (Special Section, OO) of the Main Directorate of State Security (GUGB)—the most important security body within the People's Commissariat of Internal Affairs (NKVD)—was responsible for the Soviet Armed Forces' military counter-intelligence. On that date,

10366-744: The Special Section's 12 Sections and one Investigation Unit were separated from GUGB NKVD. The official liquidation of OO GUGB within NKVD was announced on 12 February by a joint order № 00151/003 of NKVD and NKGB USSR. The rest of GUGB was abolished and staff was moved to newly created People's Commissariat for State Security (NKGB). Departments of former GUGB were renamed Directorates. For example, former Foreign Department (INO) became Foreign Directorate (INU); political police represented by Secret Political Department (SPO) became Secret Political Directorate (SPU), and so on. The former GUGB 4th Department (OO)

10508-833: The United Nations. Aliyev attended the 49th session of the UN General Assembly (UN GA) in 1994 and the special session of UN GA dedicated to 50th anniversary of United Nations in October 1995. He received former Secretary General of UN Boutros Boutros-Ghali in October 1994 in Baku. Aliyev met with Secretary General Kofi Annan during his trip to the US in 1997 July. Aliyev addressed the Millennium Summit of UN held in September 2000, where he talked about

10650-535: The United States are important as we need to learn the Western democracy, culture, achievements, to benefit from them, to use and apply them in Azerbaijan. In this regard, the United States is a special country for us." Relations between the two countries strengthened after oil contracts were signed. Aliyev paid his first official visit to the US and met with President Bill Clinton on 1 August 1997. They signed

10792-537: The affairs of the Red Army by ensuring the good quality of Red Army facilities, improving discipline, eliminating poor leaders, and preventing desertion, self-inflicted wounds , panic, sabotage and poor discipline. Other SMERSH activities included: exposing collaborators in areas recently captured by the Red Army; exposing and punishing economic crimes such as black market activity; protecting secret material and headquarters from enemy agents and saboteurs; and determining

10934-613: The agency was either changed to SPECTRE or omitted altogether. However, SMERSH is mentioned in From Russia With Love . Also, an operation 'smiert shpionam' ('death to spies') forms part of the plot of The Living Daylights , but this was organized by a Russian General acting without approval of the Soviet Government. In 1968 L. Ron Hubbard , the founder of the Church of Scientology , began writing that all of

11076-534: The agreement after returning to Azerbaijan. The Key West negotiations were the last major negotiations on the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict during Aliyev's presidency. Aliyev assembled the Constitutional Commission in June 1995 to create a constitution to replace the 1978 Azerbaijan SSR Constitution. The first draft was ready in October for public debate and the final version consisted of 5 chapters, 12 sections and 147 articles. The new constitution

11218-584: The case of SMERSH the system of organization was: Main (or Chief) Directorate or GUKR SMERSH , Directorate of Counterintelligence or UKR SMERSH , and Department of Counterintelligence or OKR SMERSH . GUKR in Moscow consisted of 11 operational and 3 non-operational departments, a total of 646 men. For comparison, GUKR SMERSH's predecessor, UOO NKVD Directorate of Special Departments within the NKVD ( Russian : УОО НКВД ) consisted of 225 men in 1942. Not all departments corresponded to their UOO NKVD predecessors. With

11360-712: The ceasefire, Aliyev rejected Russian proposals to deploy a peacekeeping contingent to Nagorno-Karabakh. Following the ceasefire, Aliyev periodically engaged in negotiations with the Armenian side mediated by the OSCE Minsk Group and its co-chair countries (Russia, France and the United States) for the resolution of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict. At the OSCE Lisbon Summit in December 1996, all of

11502-482: The cession of Transcaucasia proper and Dagestan by Qajar Iran to the Russian Empire per the 1813 Treaty of Gulistan and the 1828 Treaty of Turkmenchay . Per the 1829 Caucasus School Statute, Azerbaijani was to be taught in all district schools of Ganja , Shusha , Nukha (present-day Shaki ), Shamakhi , Quba , Baku , Derbent , Yerevan , Nakhchivan , Akhaltsikhe , and Lankaran . Beginning in 1834, it

11644-533: The combat front. The strategic directorate focused on counter-espionage wet operations and counter-insurgency pacification operations that answered directly to Stalin. In March 1946, SMERSH Chief Directorate was resubordinated to the People's Commissariat of Military Forces (Наркомат Вооруженных Сил, NKVS). The NKVS was later reorganized into the Ministry of Military Forces (МVS) soon thereafter, and SMERSH

11786-457: The continuing conflict regarding Nagorno-Karabakh . Almost immediately after this public appearance, Aliyev left Moscow for his native Nakhchivan . There, Aliyev reinvented himself as a moderate nationalist. He was elected the Supreme Soviet of Azerbaijan SSR in Baku in October 1990. Under the pressure and criticism from groups connected to his nemesis, the leader of Soviet Azerbaijan Ayaz Mutallibov , Aliyev again returned to Nakhchivan, where he

11928-554: The creation of Cheka . Also on 19 July, by the order of NKVD №00940, the UOO was moved from Moscow to the city of Kuibyshev . Navy 3rd Directorate was still under Navy control, till 11 January 1942 when it was incorporated into Directorate of Special Departments. On 2 July 1941, NKGB USSR was incorporated back into the NKVD structure. NKGB did not return as GUGB , but as separate units. The NKVD structure organisation from 31 July 1941 shows that there are independent Directorates as in

12070-676: The death penalty on 3 February 1998. Milli Majlis approved the draft law on 10 February 1998. As a result, capital punishment was replaced with life imprisonment. Azerbaijan joined the "Second Optional Protocol to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights , aiming at the abolition of the death penalty" on 22 January 1999. Agrarian reforms implemented during the Aliyev administration can be divided into 2 phases: During Aliyev's presidency, Azerbaijan began actively participating within international organizations such as

12212-479: The displacement of around 350,000 people. After taking the office of president, Aliyev disbanded units loyal to the ousted Azerbaijani Popular Front and ordered the creation of a new national army. Tens of thousands of young men with no fighting experience were conscripted to this end. At the same time, Aliyev conducted negotiations with the Armenian side: he had already confidentially met with Karabakh Armenian leader Robert Kocharyan twice in Moscow soon before assuming

12354-537: The effectiveness of these radio games. Between May and June 1943, SMERSH used three German agents to spread disinformation about the Kursk counteroffensive by suggesting the Red Army had begun to dig in rather than prepare for an attack, thus contributing to the success of the Red Army's surprise attack. Before Operation Bagration , the largest Allied operation of the Second World War, SMERSH caught and "doubled"

12496-500: The end of the Second World War , American forces examining captured German intelligence sources determined that SMERSH was composed of six directorates, six departments, and three other branches. Directorates conducted operations involving agents on the "frontline" of the intelligence war whereas departments received and interpreted the information coming in from agents and enemy intercepts. SMERSH also ran three other groups:

12638-520: The first Azerbaijani newspaper to be published in the Russian Empire . It was started by Hasan bey Zardabi , a journalist and education advocate. Mohammad-Hossein Shahriar is an important figure in Azerbaijani poetry. His most important work is Heydar Babaya Salam and it is considered to be a pinnacle of Azerbaijani literature and gained popularity in the Turkic-speaking world. It

12780-475: The following tasks to be performed by the organisation: counter-intelligence, counter-terrorism , preventing any other activity of foreign intelligence in the Red Army; fighting " anti-Soviet elements" in the Red Army; protection of the front lines against penetration by spies and "anti-Soviet elements"; investigating traitors, deserters, and self-inflicted wounds in the Red Army; and checking military and civil personnel returning from captivity. The organisation

12922-400: The founder of Varlıq , Javad Heyat , in 2001 where a document outlining the standard orthography and writing conventions were published for the public. This standard of writing is today canonized by a Persian–Azeri Turkic dictionary in Iran titled Loghatnāme-ye Torki-ye Āzarbāyjāni . Between 1929 and 1938, a Latin alphabet was in use for North Azerbaijani, although it was different from

13064-529: The front, directed the OKRs Counterintelligence Departments ( O tdiel K ontr r azvedki) within the armies and units. There SMERSH officers were attached to each rifle corps. The OKR at the division level consisted of 21 men, including a head, his deputy, a ciphering officer, investigators, commandant, and a platoon of guards. The OKR of each army included 57 men, while the size of the front UKR depended on how many armies composed

13206-698: The front. If the front consisted of five armies, its UKR included 130 officers, if there were fewer armies, the UKR had 112 officers. Military Districts had a different structure. For example, the Moscow Military District, the biggest one at the time, had between 109 and 193 officers; they went through special training for filtering POWs. SMERSH units at the fronts were supported by NKVD internal troops for guarding prisoners, for operational work UKR and OKR SMERSH units were supported by regular Red Army servicemen. SMERSH front directorates were provided with

13348-515: The language was referred to by its native speakers as türk dili or türkcə , meaning either "Turkish" or "Turkic". In the early years following the establishment of the Azerbaijan Soviet Socialist Republic , the language was still referred to as "Turkic" in official documents. However, in the 1930s, its name was officially changed to "Azerbaijani". The language is often still referred to as Turki or Torki in Iranian Azerbaijan . The term "Azeri", generally interchangeable with "Azerbaijani",

13490-464: The largest minority in the city and the wider province, comprising about 1 ⁄ 6 of its total population. The CIA World Factbook reports that in 2010, the percentage of Iranian Azerbaijani speakers was at around 16 percent of the Iranian population, or approximately 13 million people worldwide, and ethnic Azeris form by far the second largest ethnic group of Iran, thus making the language also

13632-579: The loss of many archaic Turkic elements, stilted Iranisms and Ottomanisms, and other words, expressions, and rules that failed to gain popularity among the Azerbaijani masses. The Russian annexation of Iran 's territories in the Caucasus through the Russo-Iranian wars of 1804–1813 and 1826–1828 split the language community across two states. Afterwards, the Tsarist administration encouraged

13774-543: The majority of Iranian Azerbaijani people live. Azerbaijani is also spoken to lesser varying degrees in Azerbaijani communities of Georgia and Turkey and by diaspora communities, primarily in Europe and North America. Although there is a high degree of mutual intelligibility between both forms of Azerbaijani, there are significant differences in phonology , lexicon , morphology , syntax , and sources of loanwords . The standardized form of North Azerbaijani (spoken in

13916-502: The measures of the program of cooperation between the Council of Europe and the Republic of Azerbaijan” (8 July 1996), "On the measures of Deepening Cooperation between the Council of Europe and the Republic of Azerbaijan" (20 January 1998), and “On the measures of expanding cooperation between Azerbaijan and CoE for defending interests of the Republic of Azerbaijan in Council of Europe" (14 May 1999) were adopted by Aliyev. Aliyev prioritized establishing warmer relations with Russia more than

14058-435: The medieval Turkic migrations . Persian and Arabic influenced the language, but Arabic words were mainly transmitted through the intermediary of literary Persian. Azerbaijani is, perhaps after Uzbek , the Turkic language upon which Persian and other Iranian languages have exerted the strongest impact—mainly in phonology, syntax, and vocabulary, less in morphology. The Turkic language of Azerbaijan gradually supplanted

14200-522: The military and the civilian population. SMERSH set up a system of informants by sending a SMERSH officer to each battalion composed of between 1,000 and 1,500 men. Each SMERSH officer would enlist a number of "residents" who recruited their own "reserve resident" and between six and eight informants. Informants reported those sympathetic to the Germans, desertion, unpatriotic attitudes, and low morale and were authorized to take "immediate corrective action" if

14342-539: The need arose. SMERSH recruited between 1,540,000 and 3,400,000 informants, or about twelve percent of the entire Red Army . However, SMERSH coerced up to half of all of its informants to work for them. In order to secure the Red Army's rear, SMERSH evacuated civilians and set up checkpoints so as to assert physical control. Next, agents sought and arrested "suspicious persons" who might be German agents. Finally, SMERSH interrogated those arrested. Compared to its predecessor (Directorate of Special Departments – UOO), SMERSH

14484-526: The new focus on the Germans and other enemies, two departments, the 3rd and 4th, transferred from the NKVD/NKGB. The 3rd Department had the task of capturing German spies in the rear and organizing radio games with their help, and the 4th Department headed counter-intelligence measures behind the front line. Five of the departments, the 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th and 6th. were involved directly in investigation. The UKR SMERSH (Counterintelligence Directorate) of

14626-462: The office of First Deputy Chairman of the USSR Council of Ministers and made him a full member of the Politburo. Aliyev also served at the Council of Ministers as the first deputy chairman in 1974–1979. Aliyev supported the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan in 1979. At the 1981 Party Congress, Aliyev praised Brezhnev profusely. On 22 November 1982, Andropov promoted Aliyev from a candidate to

14768-633: The official government in Baku. The attempt by the Popular Front's Minister of Interior Isgandar Hamidov to forcibly overthrow Aliyev in Nakhchivan was thwarted by local militia at the regional airport. During the same period, Aliyev independently negotiated a cease-fire agreement in Nakhchivan with the then-President of Armenia, Levon Ter-Petrosyan . Aliyev was elected as the leader of New Azerbaijan Party at its constituent congress organized in Nakhchivan on 21 November 1992. In 1993, Elchibey

14910-545: The one used now. From 1938 to 1991, the Cyrillic script was used. Lastly, in 1991, the current Latin alphabet was introduced, although the transition to it has been rather slow. For instance, until an Aliyev decree on the matter in 2001, newspapers would routinely write headlines in the Latin script, leaving the stories in Cyrillic. The transition has also resulted in some misrendering of İ as Ì . In Dagestan, Azerbaijani

15052-479: The organization's prominence as one of the common antagonists in Ian Fleming 's early James Bond novels; however, Fleming's portrayal has been generally criticized as quite inaccurate by historians. In later works Fleming abandoned the use of SMERSH as his chosen antagonists, introducing the purely fictional villainous organization SPECTRE . In all Bond films based on Fleming's works that featured SMERSH,

15194-486: The overuse of Persian, Arabic, and European elements in both colloquial and literary language and called for a simpler and more popular style. The Soviet Union promoted the development of the language but set it back considerably with two successive script changes – from the Persian to Latin and then to the Cyrillic script – while Iranian Azerbaijanis continued to use the Persian script as they always had. Despite

15336-465: The presidency, and Armenian and Azerbaijani representatives had agreed to prolong a ceasefire in September 1993. The negotiations bore no results and the ceasefire did not hold, however, and Armenian forces captured additional territories soon after Aliyev's inauguration. In the winter of 1993–1994, Azerbaijani forces attempted to recapture territories on different parts of the frontline. While Azerbaijani forces managed to recapture part of Fuzuli District ,

15478-443: The previous leadership of Azerbaijan did. He stated in his speech at Milli Majlis on 15 June 1993, after being elected as the head of Parliament of Azerbaijan: "Russia, our northern neighbor, is absolutely a vast state. Undoubtedly, the relation based on independent principles between Azerbaijan and Russia must be better, broader and more fruitful." The Agreement on Friendship, Cooperation and Mutual Security between Russia and Azerbaijan

15620-419: The process of standardization of orthography started with the publication of Azerbaijani magazines and newspapers such as Varlıq ( وارلیق — Existence ) from 1979. Azerbaijani-speaking scholars and literarians showed great interest in involvement in such ventures and in working towards the development of a standard writing system. These effort culminated in language seminars being held in Tehran , chaired by

15762-527: The ranks due to his close associations with Leonid Brezhnev and Yuri Andropov . Aliyev was installed as president of Azerbaijan after the 1993 military coup ousted President Abulfaz Elchibey . Elchibey was a prominent Soviet dissident and Azerbaijani nationalist leader who had been elected as president in independent Azerbaijan's first free election in 1992 . Aliyev's installation as president put an end to Azerbaijan's short post-independence democratic interlude. Shortly after taking charge, Aliyev organized

15904-526: The second most spoken language in the nation. Ethnologue reports 10.9 million Iranian Azerbaijani in Iran in 2016 and 13,823,350 worldwide. Dialects of South Azerbaijani include: "Aynallu (often considered a separate language ), Karapapakh (often considered a separate language. The second edition of the Encyclopaedia of Islam mentions that it is close to both "Āzerī and the Turkish of Turkey". The historian George Bournoutian only mentions that it

16046-641: The spread of Azerbaijani in eastern Transcaucasia as a replacement for Persian spoken by the upper classes, and as a measure against Persian influence in the region. Between c.  1900 and 1930, there were several competing approaches to the unification of the national language in what is now the Azerbaijan Republic, popularized by scholars such as Hasan bey Zardabi and Mammad agha Shahtakhtinski . Despite major differences, they all aimed primarily at making it easy for semi-literate masses to read and understand literature . They all criticized

16188-593: The third president of Azerbaijan from October 1993 to October 2003. He was a high-ranking official in the KGB of the Azerbaijan SSR , serving for 28 years in Soviet state security organs (1941–1969). He governed Soviet Azerbaijan from 1969 to 1982 as First Secretary of the Communist Party of Azerbaijan. He held the post of First Deputy Premier of the Soviet Union from 1982 to 1987. He rose through

16330-401: The two had fallen out over Gorbachev's anti-corruption campaign. Aliyev had fallen out with Gorbachev and was one of the gold guard cleared out as part of Gorbachev's Perestroika . After his forced retirement in 1987, Aliyev remained in Moscow until 1990. He suffered a heart attack during this time. Aliyev publicly opposed the January 1990 Soviet military crackdown in Baku , which had followed

16472-618: The war concluded, SMERSH was given the assignment of finding Adolf Hitler and, if possible, capturing him alive or recovering his body. Red Army officers and SMERSH agents reportedly found Hitler's partially burned corpse near the Führerbunker after his suicide and conducted an investigation to confirm his death and identify the remains that were secretly buried at SMERSH headquarters in Magdeburg until April 1970, when they were exhumed, completely cremated, and dumped. SMERSH fought

16614-571: The wide use of Azerbaijani in the Azerbaijan Soviet Socialist Republic , it became the official language of Azerbaijan only in 1956. After independence, the Republic of Azerbaijan decided to switch back to a modified Latin script. The development of Azerbaijani literature is closely associated with Anatolian Turkish, written in Perso-Arabic script . Examples of its detachment date to the 14th century or earlier. Kadi Burhan al-Din , Hasanoghlu , and Imadaddin Nasimi helped to establish Azerbaiijani as

16756-631: The work of field directorates, assigned to the fronts . These field organs were referred to as UKR SMERSH ( U pravlenie K ontr r azvedki) or Counterintelligence Directorates. The naming distinguished them from the GUKR (HQ) SMERSH headquarters. The difference between GUKR and UKR or OKR was in the status hierarchy in the Red Army Military CI (the same structures were applied in February 1941 to NKO, NKMF and NKVD military counterintelligence units). They were ranked according to their authority. In

16898-621: The world's governments had been taken over by SMERSH and that the organization was controlling the world through psychiatry , which the Church opposes . Hubbard proposed to defeat the alleged SMERSH infiltration by smuggling Sea Organization members into Switzerland , taking over the World Federation of Mental Health in Geneva , and then discrediting psychiatry by using the front organization to promote eugenics and mass euthanization to

17040-816: The “Agreement on the Joint Development and Production Sharing for the Azeri and Chirag Fields and the Deep Water Portion of the Gunashli Field in the Azerbaijan Sector of the Caspian Sea ” was signed in Baku on 20 September 1994 by the Government of Azerbaijan and a consortium of 11 oil companies from 6 countries (US, UK, Russia, Norway , Turkey , Saudi Arabia ) in the presence of Aliyev. The State Oil Fund of Azerbaijan

17182-445: Was Andrei Petrov, a state security captain. After the 22 June 1941 German invasion of the USSR , Stalin on 17 July, as Chairman of State Defense Committee , signed special decree №187 / ss, by which military counterintelligence was returned to the NKVD as a Directorate of Special Departments or UOO, with Viktor Abakumov as chief. UOO on every level was given much more power and a freer hand in decision making than at any time since

17324-464: Was actually born 2 years earlier in Comardlı, but that it was later decided that a senior Azerbaijani politician should not have an Armenian place of birth. His father was from Comardlı and his mother was from Vorotan (also in modern-day Syunik Province of Armenia). Aliyev had four brothers: Hasan , Huseyn , Jalal , and Agil, as well as three sisters: Sura, Shafiga and Rafiga. After graduating from

17466-501: Was adopted on 24 October 2002 by the US Senate to allow a US president to temporarily waive Section 907, which used to forbid to export any financial or humanitarian support to Azerbaijan. Aliyev used the oil potential of Azerbaijan to avoid the difficulties his country faced after the collapse of the Soviet Union by attracting foreign investment into Azerbaijan. After a year-long series of negotiations in Baku, Istanbul and Houston ,

17608-485: Was an umbrella organization for three independent counter-intelligence agencies in the Red Army formed in late 1942 or even earlier, but officially announced only on 14 April 1943. The name SMERSH was coined by Joseph Stalin . The formal justification for its creation was to subvert the attempts by Nazi German forces to infiltrate the Red Army on the Eastern Front . The official statute of SMERSH listed

17750-458: Was challenged by others, such as Aghamusa Akhundov  [ az ] , who argued that Damirchizade was taking orthography as the basis of his judgement, rather than its phonetic value. According to Akhundov, Azerbaijani contains two diphthongs, / ou̯ / and / œy̯ / , represented by ov and öv in the alphabet, both of which are phonemic due to their contrast with / o / and / œ / , represented by o and ö . In some cases,

17892-540: Was confirmed by a referendum held on 12 November 1995. To ensure separation of power, the constitution created 3 divisions: legislative ( Milli Majlis ), executive (President) and judicial (courts). Aliyev suggested amendments to the Constitution of Azerbaijan in June 2002. The first amendment to the Constitution of Azerbaijan was approved as the result of the 2002 Azerbaijani constitutional referendum , which

18034-480: Was elected Chairman of the Supreme Soviet of Nakhchivan in 1991. He resigned that same year from the Communist Party of the Soviet Union. By December 1991, when the Soviet Union dissolved and Azerbaijan formally became an independent state, Aliyev independently governed Nakhchivan in spite of Mutallibov's presidency. Early 1992 saw increased violence in the First Nagorno-Karabakh War following

18176-590: Was elected president in a fraudulent election and continues to lead Azerbaijan to this day. According to both his official biography and the Great Soviet Encyclopedia , Aliyev was born on 10 May 1923 in the city of Nakhchivan . His family had moved to Nakhchivan before his birth from the village of Comardlı (modern-day Tanahat in the Syunik Province of Armenia), located only a few miles from Nakhchivan. Some sources claim that Aliyev

18318-521: Was established by Presidential Decree in December 1999 to gather the income gained from oil profit with the aim of financing social and economic projects. As a result of the oil strategy developed by Aliyev, Azerbaijani oil was planned to be carried through different routes as Baku–Supsa , Baku–Tbilisi–Ceyhan pipeline (BTC), etc. In order to export Azerbaijani oil to the European market, the presidents of Azerbaijan, Georgia and Turkey agreed to construct

18460-656: Was introduced as a language of study in Kutaisi instead of Armenian. In 1853, Azerbaijani became a compulsory language for students of all backgrounds in all of Transcaucasia with the exception of the Tiflis Governorate . Azerbaijani is one of the Oghuz languages within the Turkic language family . Ethnologue lists North Azerbaijani (spoken mainly in the Republic of Azerbaijan and Russia) and South Azerbaijani (spoken in Iran, Iraq, and Syria) as two groups within

18602-601: Was married by fraud. Consequently, 39 amendments to 23 articles of the Constitution of Azerbaijan were made. These included the abolition of proportional party-list elections to Parliament, a change in the presidential line of succession to favor the Prime Minister instead of the Chairman of Milli Majlis, the favoring of a simple majority when calculating presidential election results, and the establishment of rights for citizens, courts and ombudsmen to appeal directly to

18744-408: Was mostly focused on enemies spies, although Red Army servicemen were still under suspicion. Abakumov kept Stalin updated on all high-ranking commanders, and on the behavior of a number of leading military officers. To confuse German intelligence with disinformation, SMERSH utilized radio playbacks and played over 183 radio games over the course of the war. Operation "Opyt'" serves as a good example of

18886-626: Was officially discontinued 4 May 1946. SMERSH activities included "filtering" the soldiers and forced labourers recovered from captivity. SMERSH was actively involved in the capture of Soviet citizens who had been active in anti-communist armed groups fighting on the side of Nazi Germany such as the Russian Liberation Army , the Cossack Corps of Pyotr Krasnov , and the Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists . As

19028-574: Was officially in existence until 4 May 1946, when its duties were transferred back to the MGB . The head of the agency throughout its existence was Viktor Abakumov , who rose to become Minister of State Security in the postwar years. Joseph Stalin coined the name СМЕРШ (SMERSH) as a portmanteau of the Russian-language phrase Смерть шпионам ( Smertʹ shpionam , "Death to spies"). Originally focused on combating German spies infiltrating

19170-575: Was ousted from power in a Russia-backed military coup led by Surat Huseynov , a military commander that Elchibey had fired. Aliyev was installed as President, and Aliyev in turn appointed Huseynov as prime minister. According to historian Audrey Altsadt and Thomas de Waal , Aliyev did not appear to have a direct role in the coup. In August 1993, Elchibey was stripped of his presidency by a nationwide referendum . Aliyev disbanded 33 battalions loyal to Elchibey's Popular Front party. Amid this turmoil, Azerbaijan lost enormous swaths of territory to Armenia in

19312-471: Was realized in October 1997. Establishment of the alternative Baku–Supsa route was agreed on 8 March 1996 by Aliyev and Shevardnadze. The Baku–Supsa route began operation in April 1999. Aliyev's health began to fail in 1999 when he had a major heart bypass operation in the United States at the Cleveland Clinic . He later had prostate surgery and a hernia operation. He collapsed while giving

19454-483: Was selective in his anti-corruption campaign, as he targeted those that refused to cooperate with him but rewarding and elevating those that did. Aliyev frequently treated Brezhnev with lavish gifts. The gifts include a ‘Sun-king’ diamond ring worth 226,000 roubles and a jewel-encrusted framed portrait to Brezhnev. Aliyev built a palace for Brezhnev's personal use for his official visit in 1982. He promoted individuals from his native Nakhichevan to leadership positions in

19596-607: Was signed on 3 July 1997. Aliyev paid his first official trip to Russia as a President of the Republic of Azerbaijan in July 1997 with the invitation of Russian President Boris Yeltsin . Relations with Russia further developed through Aliyev-Putin negotiations during their bilateral visits ( Vladimir Putin visited Azerbaijan in 2001 and Aliyev paid a reciprocal visit to Russia in 2002). The agreements on "The Status and Benefiting Principles of Gabala Radio Location Station", "Long term economic cooperation agreement between Russian Federation and

19738-466: Was split into three sections. One section, which handled military counter-intelligence in NKVD troops (former 11th Section of GUGB 4th Department OO) became 3rd NKVD Department or OKR (Otdel KontrRazvedki), the chief of OKR NKVD was Aleksander Belyanov, Commissar State Security 3rd rank. On 25 February 1941, Viktor Abakumov became NKVD deputy Commissar in charge of supervising this and several other departments. The second and most significant part went to

19880-524: Was still a very powerful government apparatus. It was responsible for public order in USSR by using heavily armed police in each corner of the country, running the largest penal labour camps under the Gulag Directorate, POWs camps and NKVD troops with loyal and well-equipped soldiers, that by the end of the war the numbers of NKVD troops were 1½ million strong with their own air force, armored and cavalry units. Resolution No. 414-138 ss ordered

20022-445: Was transferred as NKGB 6th Directorate, NKVD Transportation Directorate was absorbed as NKGB 3rd Directorate and NKVD 4th Directorate was moved to NKGB with the same number. For detailed organization see NKGB . "Regulations of the People's Commissariat of State Security" were approved by SNK in order № 621-191ss from 2 June 1943. After losing most of the operational units to the NKGB, the People's Commissariat for Internal Affairs (NKVD)

20164-687: Was translated into more than 30 languages. In the mid-19th century, Azerbaijani literature was taught at schools in Baku , Ganja , Shaki , Tbilisi , and Yerevan . Since 1845, it has also been taught in the Saint Petersburg State University in Russia . In 2018, Azerbaijani language and literature programs are offered in the United States at several universities, including Indiana University , UCLA , and University of Texas at Austin . The vast majority, if not all Azerbaijani language courses teach North Azerbaijani written in

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