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Azerbaijan Political Instability
The intractable conflict in Nagorno-Karabakh contributed to
the fall of several governments in newly independent Azerbaijan.
After a February 1992 armed attack by Armenians on Azerbaijani
residents in Nagorno-Karabakh caused many civilian casualties,
Mutalibov was forced by opposition parties to resign as
president. The president of Azerbaijan's Supreme Soviet, Yakub
Mamedov, became acting president. Mamedov held this position
until May 1992, when he in turn was forced from power in the face
of continuing military defeats in Nagorno-Karabakh. Mutalibov
loyalists in the Supreme Soviet reinstated him as president, but
two days later he was forced to flee the country when APF-led
crowds stormed the government buildings in Baku. An interim APF
government assumed power until previously scheduled presidential
elections could be held one month later. APF leader and
intellectual Abulfaz Elchibey, who won over 59 percent of the
vote in a five-candidate electoral contest, then formed
Azerbaijan's first postcommunist government. Elchibey served as
president only one year, however, before being forced to flee
Baku in mid-June 1993 in the face of an insurrection led by a
disgruntled military officer. Taking advantage of the chaos,
Aliyev returned to power, and an election in October 1993
confirmed him as president.
Data as of March 1994
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