Abulfaz Elchibey §

Abulfaz Elchibey was the Popular Front leader and president of Azerbaijan from 1992 to 1993, elected in the country's only broadly competitive presidential transition before Aliyev consolidation. A historian by training and a committed Turkist, he tried to orient Azerbaijan away from Moscow and toward Turkey while fighting a rapidly deteriorating war over Karabakh. His government lacked a disciplined army, stable administration and control over regional commanders. The loss of Kelbajar, military rebellion and political collapse in 1993 enabled Heydar Aliyev to return from Nakhichevan and take power. Elchibey is important because his failure became the negative myth of Azerbaijani state-building: pluralist nationalist politics was associated with defeat and disorder, while Aliyevism later presented authoritarian consolidation as the price of survival and eventual revenge.