Isgandar Hamidov

{{Short description|Azerbaijani politician (1948–2020)}}

File:İsgəndər Həmidov mitinqdə (crop).jpg

Isgandar Majid oglu Hamidov ({{langx|az|İsgəndər Məcid oğlu Həmidov}}){{in lang|az}} [http://www.mia.gov.az/miahistory_az.html Daxili İşlər Nazirliyi : DİN-in tarixi] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20061113222628/http://www.mia.gov.az/miahistory_az.html |date=2006-11-13 }} (also transliterated as Iskender Majid oglu Hamidov[http://www.mia.gov.az/miahistory_en.html Historic background of the MIA] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060822173218/http://www.mia.gov.az/miahistory_en.html |date=2006-08-22 }} or Iskander Medjid oglu Hamidov;{{cite news|title=The Case of Iskander Hamidov: A mirror of human rights violations in Azerbaijan |author=Eldar Zeynalov |publisher=Human Rights Center of Azerbaijan (HRCA) |url=http://www.eurasianet.org/resource/azerbaijan/links/hamidov.html |date=December 28, 1996 |access-date=2006-09-16 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060902094459/http://www.eurasianet.org/resource/azerbaijan/links/hamidov.html |archive-date=September 2, 2006 |url-status=dead }} April 10, 1948 in Bağlıpəyə village, Kalbajar rayon – February 26, 2020 in Baku) was an Azerbaijani politician, Minister of Internal Affairs of Azerbaijan who served in the Popular Front government of 1992–1993.{{cite news | title=Iskandar Hamidov is free. What is next for him? | author=Fariz Ismailzade | publisher=Central Asia and Caucasus Analyst | url=http://www.cacianalyst.org/view_article.php?articleid=2019&SMSESSION=NO | date=January 14, 2004 | access-date=2006-09-16 | url-status=dead | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070926234937/http://www.cacianalyst.org/view_article.php?articleid=2019&SMSESSION=NO | archive-date=September 26, 2007 }} He was a nationalist and anti-communist.{{Cite book |last=Altstadt |first=Audrey L. |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/10.7312/alts70456 |title=Frustrated Democracy in Post-Soviet Azerbaijan |date=2017 |publisher=Columbia University Press |isbn=978-0-231-70456-4 |pages=53 |doi=10.7312/alts70456}} He played a key role in preventing Ayaz Mutallibov's 1992 self-coup.

When Ayaz Mutallibov, first president of Azerbaijan, cancelled presidential elections which were set to take place on June 7, 1992, Hamidov marched with an armed force to confront Mutallibov. Mutallibov subsequently fled the country and Isa Gambar was made acting president. Gambar reinstated the upcoming presidential elections which were won by Abulfaz Elchibey.{{Cite book |last=Altstadt |first=Audrey L. |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/10.7312/alts70456 |title=Frustrated Democracy in Post-Soviet Azerbaijan |date=2017 |publisher=Columbia University Press |isbn=978-0-231-70456-4 |pages=20 |doi=10.7312/alts70456}}

As Minister of Internal Affairs, Hamidov sought to clamp down on the black market in Azerbaijan.{{Citation |last=Altstadt |first=Audrey L. |title=Azerbaijan's struggle toward democracy |date=1997 |url=https://www.cambridge.org/core/books/conflict-cleavage-and-change-in-central-asia-and-the-caucasus/azerbaijans-struggle-toward-democracy/4973616DA6867A781E2FE7C3D4DB96B7 |work=Conflict, Cleavage, and Change in Central Asia and the Caucasus |pages=110–155 |editor-last=Parrott |editor-first=Bruce |series=Democratization and Authoritarianism in Post-Communist Societies |publisher=Cambridge University Press |isbn=978-0-521-59731-9 |editor2-last=Dawisha |editor2-first=Karen}} Isgandar Hamidov resigned in April 1993.

As a chairman of Azerbaijan National Democrat Party, informally known as the Grey Wolves, Hamidov pleaded for the creation of a unified Turkic country{{cite journal |author=Martin A. Lee |date=March 1997 |title=Les liaisons dangereuses de la police turque |journal=Le Monde diplomatique |pages=9 |url=http://www.monde-diplomatique.fr/1997/03/LEE/8019.html |quote=Ce dernier choisit comme ministre de l’intérieur M. Iskender Gamidov, un extrémiste incontrôlable affichant son appartenance aux Loups gris et plaidant ouvertement pour la création d’une Grande Turquie qui comprendrait le nord de l’Iran et s’étendrait jusqu’à la Sibérie, l’Inde et la Chine. Il fut forcé de démissionner en avril 1993 après avoir menacé l’Arménie d’une attaque nucléaire.|language=fr}} which would include northern Iran and extend itself to Siberia, India and China. He was known to have threatened Armenia with a nuclear strike.Dawisha, Karen and Bruce Parrott, Conflict, cleavage, and change in Central Asia and the Caucasus, (Cambridge University Press, 1997), 136. He had also supported Chechnya in the First Chechen war as part of the Grey Wolves and played a major role in the First Nagorno-Karabakh war.{{Cite book |last=Goltz |first=Thomas |url=http://archive.org/details/chechnyadiarywar00thom |title=Chechnya diary : a war correspondent's story of surviving the war in Chechnya |date=2003 |publisher=New York : Thomas Dunne Books |others=Internet Archive |isbn=978-0-312-26874-9}}{{Cite web |last=Muhammad Abdel |first=Maguid |date=11 May 2017 |title=Grey Wolves in Syria |url=http://edition.cnn.com/2000/WORLD/europe/09/06/chechnya.istanbul/|agency= |website=CNN}}

Historian Audrey Altstadt writes of Hamidov's military tenure,

Compared with the many men who had given themselves the title of “colonel” after building a private army with the accumulated bribes of theirSoviet-era jobs, Hamidov had earned his living and his rank. He had the paramilitary training of the regular police and through years of service had achieved the rank of colonel. He commanded the personal loyalty of thousands of willing fighters.

In 1995, he was arrested and sentenced to 14 years in prison by the Heydar Aliyev regime for embezzlement of state funds. According to Amnesty International[http://web.amnesty.org/library/Index/ENGEUR040012002?open&of=ENG-ARM Amnesty International. "Political prisoners in Azerbaijan and Armenia", 20 January 2002] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20031003203454/http://web.amnesty.org/library/Index/ENGEUR040012002?open&of=ENG-ARM |date=3 October 2003 }} and the Council of Europe,[http://web.amnesty.org/library/Index/ENGEUR040012004?open&of=ENG-2U4 Amnesty International. "Concerns in Europe and Central Asia", July–December 2003] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060326163442/http://web.amnesty.org/library/Index/ENGEUR040012004?open&of=ENG-2U4 |date=2006-03-26 }} he was a political prisoner. He was pardoned by the decree of President Ilham Aliyev in 2004.{{Citation needed|date=January 2021}}

He died in April 10, 2020, he was 72.