HAND-OFF: Critics say Ilham has neither the drive nor the skill to fill his father's shoes
Throughout his career, Heydar Aliyev President of Azerbaijan, KGB general and veteran of spectacular Kremlin intrigues in the waning years of the U.S.S.R. was a consummate in-fighter who prided himself on total control of the state machine. Earlier this month, as the 80-year-old Aliyev lay in a Turkish hospital, reportedly near death, he pulled off his final piece of political gamesmanship: the appointment of his 41-year-old son, Ilham, as Prime Minister, ensuring that should Heydar die or become incapacitated, Ilham can take over as acting President. And as a Russian IL-62 flying hospital rushed Aliyev from Turkey to the...
