Rahim Gaziyev

Gaziyev graduated from the Azerbaijan Architecture and Construction University and has a Candidate of Sciences degree in Physics and Mathematics. From 1968 to 1990, he worked as an associate professor of mathematics at the same institution.^[3] In 1988, he became one of the founders and first fifteen members of the sovereigntist Popular Front of Azerbaijan. He was known for his radical nationalist viewpoints^[3] and vehement support of Abulfaz Elchibey. Gaziyev was arrested in the summer of 1990 as an organizer of the anti-Soviet riots leading to the Black January massacre and was incarcerated in the Lefortovo prison in Moscow. He was freed upon being elected to the Supreme Soviet of Azerbaijan later that summer, although his criminal case was never closed.^[4] With the escalation of the Armenian-Azerbaijani military conflict in Nagorno-Karabakh and Shusha becoming one of the few remaining Azerbaijani strongholds in the region, Gaziyev took command of the city's defense in January 1992.

After the resignation of President Ayaz Mutallibov on 6 March 1992, no official body regulated Gaziyev's actions, which provoked him to break ceasefire on a number of occasions including artillery bombardment of Nagorno-Karabakh's capital city Stepanakert.^[5] On 17 March 1992, Acting President of Azerbaijan Yagub Mammadov appointed Gaziyev (who had no professional military training) Defence Minister.^[5] Two months later, with various political groups chaotically struggling for power, both Shusha and Lachin (city in Azerbaijan-proper linking Nagorno-Karabakh to Armenia) lacked any serious or unified defence and quickly fell to the Armenians.^[5] In response, Gaziyev ordered troops to move to the north of the province. Mardakert was taken back in June 1992, and by August, Azerbaijani troops were already at Vank, 12 kilometers north of the province capital Stepanakert.^[4][6] Contrary to his radical anti-Russian sentiment in the late 1980s, Gaziyev was now convinced in the necessity of partnership with Russia.^[7] In November, the Azerbaijanis were dislodged from most of Mardakert. After Armenians started advancing into Kalbajar, the Popular Front, which had been in power since June 1992, issued a statement in which it blamed Rahim Gaziyev and Elchibey's official representative in Nagorno-Karabakh Surat Huseynov for treason and intentional surrender of Shusha in an attempt to restore Mutallibov as president and indulge Russia's geopolitical interests. Gaziyev was forced to resign in February 1993.^[4]

After Heydar Aliyev came to power in June 1993, Gaziyev was elected to the National Assembly and was offered the position of Vice Premier for Defence Industry. However knowing that Azerbaijan at the time did not produce any defence materials which made the office of no significance (the industry was only established in 2005; see: Azerbaijan Defense Industry), infuriated Gaziyev verbally attacked Aliyev during a parliament session calling him a liar.^[4] In an early 1996 interview, Gaziyev claimed having had a mutual agreement with Aliyev by which Gaziyev was to be appointed Deputy Prime Minister of Azerbaijan upon Aliyev's rise to power but was wronged for the sake of the latter's regionalist policies favouring natives of Nakhchivan.^[8]