Azeri Leader Tied to U.S. Taps Oil Cash to Avoid Assad Fate - Bloomberg

Azeri Leader Tied to U.S. Taps Oil Cash to Avoid Assad Fate - Bloomberg:

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Olivier Hoslet/EPA

Aliyev, 51, is seeking to extend his family’s rule in an Oct. 9 election, his third since succeeding his father in a disputed vote a decade ago.

Less than 500 miles northeast of Syria, another secular Muslim dynasty is clinging to its fifth decade in power amid increasing calls for greater freedom and less corruption.
What Azerbaijan President Ilham Aliyev has that his counterpart Bashar al-Assad doesn’t is strong U.S. relations and a steady stream of oil cash to temper the opposition.
Aliyev, 51, is seeking to extend his family’s rule in an Oct. 9 election, his third since succeeding his father in a disputed vote a decade ago. Bordering Turkey and Iran, the former Soviet province of 9 million mostly Shiite Muslims is what the U.S. ambassador calls a “steadfast” ally, handling about 30 percent of all non-military NATO shipments into Afghanistan and operating the only non-Russian outlet for Caspian oil flows to world markets.
With the opposition united for the first time behind a single challenger, Camil Hasanli, thousands of people rallied in the capital Baku on Sept. 22 to demand Aliyev’s resignation. That was the largest demonstration against the government since 2005, when the opposition tried to replicate Ukraine’s Orange Revolution after disputed parliamentary elections."

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