Azerbaijani pro-government media outlets have begun publishing documents they claim are related to former presidential aide Ramiz Mehdiyev’s alleged plans to assassinate Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev. The leaks came amidst what appears to be a campaign to arrest several of Mehdiyev’s associates.
Mehdiyev was arrested on 14 October on charges of committing actions aimed at seizing state power, high treason, and the legalisation of property obtained by criminal means. He was remanded to four months of house arrest as part of the investigation.
Mehdiyev had frequently been described as Azerbaijan’s ‘gray cardinal’ due to his long tenure with former President Heydar Aliyev during the Soviet era as well as during his rise to power in the 1990s.
For around 24 years, Mehdiyev was head of the Presidential Administration until his dismissal in 2019. Since then, he has gradually fallen from grace.
On 14 October, local media reported that Mehdiyev had intended to stage a coup in Azerbaijan, including via an assasination attempt on Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev.
Some of the allegations went as far as to claim that the coup attempt had inadvertently caused the deadly Azerbaijan Airlines plane crash in December 2024, which Russia has since admitted responsibility for.
The pro-government media outlet APA continued such allegations on Monday, writing that Mehdiyev had ‘sent a letter to the heads of several Russian agencies’ on this matter. The specific institutions and recipients of this letter were not disclosed.
Mehdiyev’s purported letter ‘suggested’ the need to reform the government and create a new system which would improve the country’s image.
‘Such changes will transform the country from a presidential republic to a parliamentary republic with an effective mechanism for overseeing power. They will also significantly neutralise the roots and foundations of authoritarianism and autocracy, and strengthen public oversight of government activities’, the alleged letter read.
The document allegedly laid out a plan to establish a new government that would be run by all three branches of state — the legislative, executive, and judicial. All together, this system would be named the State Council, which would be composed of 50 people, including experienced civil servants, economists, lawyers, scientists, and cultural figures.
According to APA, the letter fell into the hands of Azerbaijani intelligence services, after which it was published in local media, despite legislation banning the publication of documents considered part of an ongoing investigation.
‘While some claim such a letter does not exist and do not believe it exists, the facts we have presented demonstrates that Mehdiyev truly dreamed of staging a coup in Azerbaijan with the help of a foreign state’, APA wrote.
APA also cited a fragment of several photos, with Russian writing on them, as evidence. These photographs were sent to all local media outlets via WhatsApp on the same day, Monday.
Citing Telegraf.az, the pro-government media outlet Okhu.az wrote that Mehdiyev had identified the names of those who would be involved in the ‘State Council’, including Ali Karimli, chair of the opposition Popular Front Party (PFP), and Gultakin Hajibayli, a former MP who left the ruling New Azerbaijan Party in 2013 and joined the opposition National Council.
Karimli is currently embroiled in a legal battle with a former member of his party, Aydin Aliyev, who has accused him of defamation.
Okhu.az claimed that Ali Hasanov, a former head of the department on Social Political Issues of the Presidential Administration, facilitated communication between Mehdiyev and Karimli.
Aytan Farhadova
‘Mehdiyev prepared the base of authoritarianism’
Jamil Hasanli, a prominent historian and former MP, told OC Media that despite the letter’s mentions of democracy, Mehdiyev was never known as a proponent of democratic practices during his long tenure in power.
While Hasanli said he believed that Mehdiyev had committed many crimes, he doubted the veracity of the alleged coup attempt.
‘I don’t believe these claims about Mehdiyev. How did they identify that this letter was written by Mehdiyev? He was a member of the Security Council and one of the persons who established this system for more than 30 years, now this system arrests its own’, Hasanli told OC Media.
‘[Azerbaijani] law enforcement can write such letters about everyone. And the question of why Mehdiyev was arrested and what was gained by the Azerbaijan government from this are difficult questions’, Hasanli said, adding that ‘we don’t know what is behind this process’
Hasanli noted that there could be many reasons behind Mehdiyev’s arrest.
‘Mehdiyev was inside the government, saw the West as a potential enemy, and was loyal to Russia […] Mehdiyev helped build the authoritarian structure and practically led it’.
Hasanli added the claims of Mehdiyev’s alleged coup plot are symbolic of a typical illness that often afflicts dictators.
‘This is a disease that was also observed during the time of [former President] Heydar Aliyev, and it is widespread and mostly occurs in countries where dictators are in power. If someone wanted to kill Aliyev, it was someone else, not Mehdiyev’, Hasanli emphasised.
‘Mehdiyev’s letter’ spurs new wave of arrests
Since the alleged letter was published, a new wave of arrests and apparent recriminations have followed.
The pro-government media outlet BakuPost wrote that the office of the Hurriyyet newspaper and online Hurriyyet TV was raided on Wednesday.
Vugar Mammadov, Hurriyyet’s editor-in-chief, was detained, and some of his belongings and documents were seized by the State Security Service (DTX). Mammadov’s house was also raided, but nothing was seized.
On the same day, the office of the Futbol+ newspaper, which was also founded by Mammadov, was raided and their editor-in-chief Mahir Rustamli was detained.
BakuPost wrote that these detentions were related with Mehdiyev’s arrest — however, Hurriyyet later contradicted this, writing that these arrests and raids were not linked to Mehdiyev.
Also on Thursday, Islam Rzayev, the head of Azerbaijan’s Balakan District and several other officials from the same office were detained by the DTX. Aliyev subsequently dismissed Rzayev from his position, which he had held for 14 years.
According to BakuPost, the DTX operation was carried out as part of an investigation related to corruption and abuse of power.
Local pro-government media has also claimed that the Mehdiyev case is linked to another corruption investigation into Elton Mammadov, the brother of former Transport Minister Ziya Mammadova.
Immediately after his dismissal from the Presidential Administration in October 2019, Mehdiyev was appointed President of Azerbaijan’s National Academy of Science — following this, he appointed Elton Mammadov to the position of director of a technological park and the head of the academy’s administration.
The Prosecutor General’s Office shared a statement with new details about the ongoing investigation in the academy, and alleged that Mammadov had embezzled ₼3 million ($1.7 million) in state budget funds, and that the government had confiscated this money from him.
Okhu.az has suggested that Mammadov was handed the academy’s administration due to his loyalty to Mehdiyev. Mehdiyev’s arrest appears to have alarmed other government officials, with some taking to the media to emphasise their loyalty to the government and personally to Aliyev.
Eldar Azizov, head of the Baku City Executive Authority told APA that some ‘ungrateful officials’ could have betrayed the government after ‘succumb[ing] to unhealthy ambitions’.
‘Let everyone remember that thanks to the policy of the President of Azerbaijan, the state is a unified institution, and, as we see in practice, it is capable of cleansing itself of negligent officials’, Azizov said.
‘All public servants must not forget that the main criteria for evaluating their work are responsibility and loyalty’.
Nate Ostiller
