Azerbaijan after the Presidential Elections: Internal and Foreign Policy Dynamics

... populism, Ilham Aliyev maintained the image of a respectable politician, although he did not escape the rigid rhetoric about Karabakh. What is the sense of shifting the election’s date then, if the result was quite predictable? Sergey Markedonov: The Nagorno-Karabakh Conflict: At the Crossroads of Foreign Policy Interests Formally, the elections were shifted because of the ceremonies dedicated to the centenary of the Azerbaijan Democratic Republic, the first national state of Azerbaijanis, proclaimed in May 1918. Visits of representative foreign delegations and negotiations about prospects ...