Aliyev Takes Complete Control over Nakhchivan Government

Paul Goble

            Staunton, Mar. 11 – Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev has approved amendments to the constitution of Nakhchivan that eliminate most of the autonomy that non-contiguous portion of the country had enjoyed and instead give Aliyev himself total control over its political life by imposing his personal representative as the head of the region.

            Under the new rules, the government of Nakhchivan will report to that individual rather than to the region’s parliament (oc-media.org/nakhchivan-loses-autonomy-in-new-constitutional-amendments/). In addition, Aliyev ordered Nakhchivan to “harmonize” the region’s laws with those of the republic as a whole (president.az/az/articles/view/71836).

            Yalchin Imanov, a human rights lawyer, said that these changes “effectively reduces the autonomy of the Nakhchivan Autonomous Republic to zero and contradicts the principles of its sovereignty” and show that “the Azerbaijani authorities are interested in concentrating all power in the hands of one person, the president.”

            Earlier, most observers had focused on the way in which the constitutional changes involved dropping all references to the Kars Treaty of 1921, an agreement which gave Turkey and Russia a voice over future changes in Nakhchivan especially with regard to borders (windowoneurasia2.blogspot.com/2026/02/nakhchivan-to-drop-references-in-its.html).

            But the administrative changes that Aliyev has signed off on now may prove more important. They suggest that Nakhchivan itself will not play any direct role in talks about the development of the TRIPP through the Zengezur/Syunik corridor and that instead Baku will be the only player on the Azerbaijani side.