Current:Home > InvestAzerbaijan to hold snap presidential election on February 7, shortly before Russia’s vote-InfoLens
Azerbaijan to hold snap presidential election on February 7, shortly before Russia’s vote
View Date:2024-12-23 14:44:22
President Ilham Aliyev has ordered Azerbaijan’s Central Election Commission to prepare for an early presidential election on Feb. 7, shortly ahead of Russia’s presidential election on March 17.
The order was published on the presidential website but did not explain why Aliyev had called an early vote. The next presidential election had been scheduled to be held in 2025.
Aliyev’s popularity in Azerbaijan has recently increased after the government took full control of the Karabakh region following a lightning rout of ethnic Armenian forces.
In November, he presided over a military parade through Khankendi, the capital of the Karabakh region, telling spectators that “we showed the whole world the strength, determination and indomitable spirit of the Azerbaijani people.”
Khankendi, which Armenians called Stepanakert, was the headquarters of the self-declared separatist government of Nagorno-Karabakh. The region and sizable surrounding territory came under control of ethnic Armenians in 1994 at the end of a separatist war.
But Azerbaijan regained parts of Nagorno-Karabakh and most of the surrounding territory in 2020 after a six-week war. That fighting ended with a Russia-brokered truce between Azerbaijan and Armenia that called for Russian peacekeeping forces to be deployed in the Khankendi area and to ensure open transit along a road connecting the city with Armenia.
However, Azerbaijan began blockading that road last winter, leading to severe food and medicine shortages in the Armenian-held area. Then in September it launched a blitz that forced the separatist forces to disband.
More than 100,000 ethnic Armenians fled the region in the following days, leaving the city nearly deserted and under the control of Azerbaijan.
Russian lawmakers on Thursday set the date of their country’s presidential election for March 17.
veryGood! (2)
Related
- Caitlin Clark has one goal for her LPGA pro-am debut: Don't hit anyone with a golf ball
- PG&E bills will go up by more than $32 per month next year in part to pay for wildfire protections
- Climate change is hastening the demise of Pacific Northwest forests
- 2025 Toyota Camry: The car is going hybrid for the first time. What will be different?
- John Krasinski Details Moment He Knew Wife Emily Blunt Was “the One”
- Rory McIlroy has shot land hilariously on woman's lap at World Tour Championship
- Mississippi man had ID in his pocket when he was buried without his family’s knowledge
- Poverty is killing the Amazon rainforest. Treating soil and farmers better can help save what’s left
- 'We suffered great damage': Fierce California wildfire burns homes, businesses
- Thousands of Starbucks workers walk off the job in Red Cup Rebellion, union says
Ranking
- Bodyless head washes ashore on a South Florida beach
- Belarus human rights activist goes on hunger strike in latest protest against Lukashenko government
- Boston pays $2.6M to Black police officers who alleged racial bias in hair tests for drug use
- Lauren Graham Shares Insight into Late Friend Matthew Perry's Final Year
- Digital Finance Research Institute Introduce
- A Georgia trucker survived a wreck, but was killed crossing street to check on the other driver
- Atlanta to host 2025 MLB All-Star Game after losing 2021 game over objections to voting law
- Moderate earthquake shakes eastern Myanmar and is felt in northern Thailand
Recommendation
-
Krispy Kreme is giving free dozens to early customers on World Kindness Day
-
Authorities arrest man in death of Jewish protester in California
-
Backpage founder Michael Lacey convicted of 1 money laundering count
-
China’s Xi is courting Indo-Pacific leaders in a flurry of talks at a summit in San Francisco
-
Today’s Savannah Guthrie, Al Roker and More React to Craig Melvin Replacing Hoda Kotb as Co-Anchor
-
New York will automatically seal old criminal records under law signed by Gov. Kathy Hochul
-
Violent protests break out ahead of Bulgaria-Hungary soccer qualifier
-
Mississippi man had ID in his pocket when he was buried without his family’s knowledge