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Tuesday, 07 December 2004
FORMER BAKU MAYOR CHALLENGES DATE OF AZERBAIJANI PRESIDENT\'S DEATH
By empty (12/7/2004 issue of the CACI Analyst)
In an interview published on 7 December in the opposition daily \"Yeni Musavat,\" former Baku Mayor Rafael Allakhverdiev claimed that he saw the casket containing the body of President Heidar Aliyev being loaded on to a plane at Ankara airport on 6 August 2003. Aliyev was transported to the Turkish military hospital in Gulhane near Ankara in early July 2003; in early August, Azerbaijani officials refuted persistent rumors that he had died. On 6 August 2003, it was announced that Aliyev had been flown from Ankara to the United States for treatment at the Cleveland Clinic in Ohio.
In an interview published on 7 December in the opposition daily \"Yeni Musavat,\" former Baku Mayor Rafael Allakhverdiev claimed that he saw the casket containing the body of President Heidar Aliyev being loaded on to a plane at Ankara airport on 6 August 2003. Aliyev was transported to the Turkish military hospital in Gulhane near Ankara in early July 2003; in early August, Azerbaijani officials refuted persistent rumors that he had died. On 6 August 2003, it was announced that Aliyev had been flown from Ankara to the United States for treatment at the Cleveland Clinic in Ohio. His death was announced on 12 December 2003. Allakhverdiev was a close associate of the late president and one of the co-founders of his Yeni Azerbaycan Party. In recent months, he has been subjected to harsh criticism by members of the present leadership for allegedly betraying the late president and his family. (RFE/RL)