Surat Huseynov | |
---|---|
Surət Hüseynov | |
Prime Minister of Azerbaijan | |
In office 30 June 1993 – 7 October 1994 |
|
President | Abulfaz Elchibey |
Preceded by | Panah Huseynov |
Succeeded by | Fuad Guliyev |
Personal details | |
Born |
Ganja, Azerbaijan SSR, Soviet Union |
12 February 1959
Surat Davud oglu Huseynov (Azerbaijani: Surət Davud oğlu Hüseynov; born 12 February 1959 in Ganja) is an Azerbaijani colonel and ex-Prime Minister of Azerbaijan, who rose to prominence during the Nagorno-Karabakh War. His military career led, in 1993, to his rise to Prime Minister and later prison term.
After serving in the army in 1977–1979 and later graduating from the Leninabad Technological Institute, Surat Huseynov worked as a plumber, a warehouse employee and an assistant operator at the Kirovabad Textile Factory. In 1983–1984 he resided in Novopavlovsk, Russia. For the next two years he worked as a wool sorter at a storing department in Shaki, Azerbaijan. In 1986 he became senior inspector of a textile factory in Yevlakh and was promoted to manager just before the war. He was considered one of key figures in Soviet Azerbaijan's black market and was known for having funded the sovereigntist Popular Front of Azerbaijan in the late Soviet era. He is married and has two children.
At the dawn of the conflict in 1990, Huseynov formed an armed group supported by the local Soviet Ground Forces division. He has been reported to have originated the group in Yevlakh. In summer 1992, his detachment took part in the Azerbaijani offensive which led to the capture of Mardakert on 4 July 1992. Two days prior to that President Abulfaz Elchibey appointed Huseynov his official representative in Nagorno-Karabakh and the neighbouring regions. In winter 1992–1993, when at the time Azerbaijani Minister of Defence Rahim Gaziyev ordered troops out of Haterk (a village near Mardakert), Huseynov relocated his detachments to Ganja and refused to disband them. As a result, Mardakert fell to Armenians in February 1993. Elchibey responded by removing Huseynov from the government.