Abdurrahman Vazirov Khalil oglu (born May 26, 1930) was the 13th First Secretary

General Secretary

The office of general secretary is staffed by the chief officer of:*The General Secretariat for Macedonia and Thrace, a government agency for the Greek regions of Macedonia and Thrace...

 of the Communist Party of Azerbaijan and the leader of the Azerbaijan SSR

Azerbaijan SSR

The Azerbaijan Soviet Socialist Republic , also known as the Azerbaijan SSR for short, was one of the republics that made up the former Soviet Union....

 from 1988 till January, 1990.

Abdurrahman Vazirov was appointed by Kremlin to lead Soviet Azerbaijan in May, 1988, amidst the heating of the Nagorno-Karabakh

Nagorno-Karabakh

Nagorno-Karabakh is a landlocked region in the South Caucasus, lying between Lower Karabakh and Zangezur and covering the southeastern range of the Lesser Caucasus mountains...

 conflict. Vazirov replaced Kamran Baghirov

Kamran Baghirov

Kamran Baghirov Mammad oglu , was the 12th First Secretary of Azerbaijan Communist Party.From December 3, 1982 through May 21, 1988, Baghirov served as the First Secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Azerbaijan SSR. After start and escalation of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict,...

, whose dismissal came along with similar dismissal of Karen Demirchyan

Karen Demirchyan

Karen Demirchyan was a Soviet Armenian communist, First Secretary of the Armenian Soviet Socialist Republic from 1974 to 1988 and later independent politician...

 and appointment of Suren Harutyunyan as a leader of the Soviet Armenia

Armenian SSR

The Armenian Soviet Socialist Republic The Armenian Soviet Socialist Republic The Armenian Soviet Socialist Republic The Armenian Soviet Socialist Republic The Armenian Soviet Socialist Republic The Armenian Soviet Socialist Republic The Armenian Soviet Socialist Republic The Armenian Soviet...

.

Vazirov was a Soviet diplomat, who served in India, Nepal and Pakistan

Pakistan

Pakistan , officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan is a sovereign state in South Asia. It has a coastline along the Arabian Sea and the Gulf of Oman in the south and is bordered by Afghanistan and Iran in the west, India in the east and China in the far northeast. In the north, Tajikistan...

. He has been out of the Azerbaijan SSR for over a decade and therefore was untainted by the corruption. He was neither a typical political boss nor a local nationalist; he could not even speak fluent Azerbaijani

Azerbaijani language

Azerbaijani or Azeri or Torki is a language belonging to the Turkic language family, spoken in southwestern Asia by the Azerbaijani people, primarily in Azerbaijan and northwestern Iran...

. But at the same time, Vazirov was born in Nagorno-Karabakh

Nagorno-Karabakh

Nagorno-Karabakh is a landlocked region in the South Caucasus, lying between Lower Karabakh and Zangezur and covering the southeastern range of the Lesser Caucasus mountains...

 region of Azerbaijan SSR

Azerbaijan SSR

The Azerbaijan Soviet Socialist Republic , also known as the Azerbaijan SSR for short, was one of the republics that made up the former Soviet Union....

.

Vazirov shared Mikhail Gorbachev

Mikhail Gorbachev

Mikhail Sergeyevich Gorbachev is a former Soviet statesman, having served as General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union from 1985 until 1991, and as the last head of state of the USSR, having served from 1988 until its dissolution in 1991...

's internationalist values and aspirations for political reform but he could not cope effectively with the complex political situation in Azerbaijan. He was also known as a fierce opponent of the former leader of Soviet Azerbaijan and later the 3rd president of independent Azerbaijan

Azerbaijan

Azerbaijan , officially the Republic of Azerbaijan is the largest country in the Caucasus region of Eurasia. Located at the crossroads of Western Asia and Eastern Europe, it is bounded by the Caspian Sea to the east, Russia to the north, Georgia to the northwest, Armenia to the west, and Iran to...

, Heydar Aliyev

Heydar Aliyev

Heydar Alirza oglu Aliyev , also spelled as Heidar Aliev, Geidar Aliev, Haydar Aliyev, Geydar Aliyev was the third President of Azerbaijan for the New Azerbaijan Party from June 1993 to October 2003, when his son Ilham Aliyev succeeded him.From 1969 till 1982, Aliyev was also the leader of Soviet...

.

Vazirov left Azerbaijan SSR amidst the Black January

Black January

Black January , also known as Black Saturday or the January Massacre, was a violent crackdown of the Azerbaijani independence movement in Baku on January 19–20, 1990, pursuant to a state of emergency during the dissolution of the Soviet Union....

 events in Baku

Baku

Baku , sometimes spelled as Baki or Bakou, is the capital and largest city of Azerbaijan, as well as the largest city on the Caspian Sea and of the Caucasus region. It is located on the southern shore of the Absheron Peninsula, which projects into the Caspian Sea. The city consists of two principal...

, for which he was later sought by the Parliament of Azerbaijan as one of the responsible parties. On January 24, 1990, he was replaced in his position by Ayaz Mutallibov

Ayaz Mütallibov

Ayaz Niyazi oğlu Mütallibov was the last leader of Soviet Azerbaijan, and the first President of independent Azerbaijan from October 1991 till May 1992.-Biography:...

.